TR-4 Bennington Cross

I have been having trouble making blocks lately. After I finish the block, I notice I trimmed it down incorrectly, or I put the color in the wrong place, or I sewed it together incorrectly. In this case my mistake was that I made the cross in white. Good thing I fixed it, it's not much of a "Bennington Cross" without the cross!

This triangle is paper pieced, and I am so happy to see it's not leaning! I bought the fabric from the fat eigth bucket at the Granary.

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A-8 Florence Nightingale

This is my second attempt at this block. And it's so easy too! The first time I accidentally trimmed the block at a 45 degree angle, so the "X" looked more like a cross. In any case, it is a very easy paper pieced pattern, so it was redone quickly. The fabric is one of the first fat quarters I bought, and the information from the selvedge is Windham Fabric presents Feedsack II Circa 1930 Pattern No. 22417.

When I showed the block to Chris last night, he said "It looks like the flowers have a bandage on them." How perfect, since it is the Florence Nightingale block.

46-5-0-867

BR-6 Frank's Rickrack

I have been avoiding this triangle. It was actually easier than I feared, except that I accidentally used white where I should have used red... and I had to go back and fix it. Paper pieced. The fabric is Bows in red from the Building Blocks line by American Jane (Sandy Klop) for Moda. I just realized how hard it is to search for names of out of print fabrics online. That was way harder than it needed to be. I love this fabric though. I also have it in cream, but I can't use it for this quilt because I don't think the contrast is quite enough.

I didn't used to like rickrack, but I think it's growing on me. I think I just didn't know how to use it. I would like to meet a guy named Frank with some rickrack though. How great would that be?

45-5-0-856

M-11 Rickshaw

I love rickshaws! When I was younger, I visited my family in Indonesia and my favorite thing to do was eat watermelon and ride around on becak(rickshaws). I even have a little metal model of a becak. Recently in Vietnam, as part of our tour, we rode around Hanoi in rickshaws, and it was a different experience from what I remember in Indonesia. People were definitely walking faster than we were pedalling, and I remember feeling bad for my poor old driver.

This block is paper pieced. The fabric is from Free Study Glimmer by Kristine Baerlin again, and I love it. The colors are so calming, and then you notice the koi swimming around. It reminds me of Yeh-Shen, a Chinese Cinderella story in which she has a big fish in the backyard...

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LS-9 Kiwi

I tried a new way of hand applique. It's a bit hard to explain, but compared to the way most people applique, I used to separate one step into two steps. I would have to flip back and forth between the front and the back, and while it was more accurate, it took twice as long. Now I only look at the front, and poke my needle down and up in one step. Much faster. This triangle has reverse hand appliqued and then machine pieced across the center.

The fabric is Sandy Gervais' Fresh Squeezed Swirls in Watermelon. I figure the fruit family should stick together! I completed it during a trip down to LA with my high school friends this past weekend. It was a lot of fun, and a TON of eating.

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F-2 Kaleidescope

This block was easy! Paper pieced. It was nice to get away from set in seams. The fabric is Free Study Glimmer by Kristine Baerlin, made by Free Spirit Fabrics. I think this is my favorite print out of the whole line.

I made a little zipper pouch using this fabric to teach myself how to insert a zipper. I am proud to say that the zipper pouch is used ALL the time. It holds the extra sewing machine feet for my Janome Silver. I always forget how handy little pouches are!

44-3-0-794

F-10 Potholder

Hurray for fishies! This is another Heather Ross fabric that I bought right when I started quilting. I think I only got a fat quarter, so I couldn't bear to cut it! I love how it turned out here though. This block was paper pieced. Not too bad.

My family had freshwater fish growing up. We had angelfish, and my sister named them after ice skaters. There were 2 marble angelfish (Kristi Yamaguchi and Brian Boitano), two white angelfish (Nancy Kerrigan and Paul Wylie) and two striped angelfish (Katarina Witt and Dick Button aka Dick Butthead, they were the "alpha" fish of the tank). The names on this fabric remind me of those fish. We've had many fish since then, but those names always stick out for me...

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