I’m trying to reduce the number of quilts I’m working on at the moment, having finished one fairly recently I still have six at various stages of construction!! Some just need quilting (hand or machine!) others need piecing and some are longer term projects such as QAL’s, waiting for the pattern to be released each month.

I was just about to start another QAL which had taken my fancy, when for once I had my sensible head on, just wait til there’s a few more finished!

I’ve two quilts waiting to be quilted, but as I’m having shoulder problems at the moment, they are just on hold at the moment, I don’t want to push it too far!

Two QAL’s are within sight of the end, so I’m concentrating on these whilst trying to keep up with my two Sarah Fielke quilts, one being pieced and one hand quilted. I’ve just two more sections to work on with my Spring Wreath quilt and my Splendid Sampler quilt also just needs a bit of a kick to get to the finish. This is where I was last time I showed you my SS quilt…

Over the lat week I decided to work on my Splendid Sampler 2 quilt. This is a QAL organised by Pat Sloan and Jane Davidson, about 80 designers have each contributed one block, so there’s all sorts of styles. This time (as opposed to the first SS) a book was released for the last 80 blocks. It has meant I’m tending to do the ones I like (and don’t look too tricky!) rather than tackling them all. This time I’m aiming for a smaller quilt, maybe 49 blocks, to make a throw, rather than a king size quilt. I’m trying to mainly make blocks which mean something to me, this time I’ve chosen music, gardening, architecture and birds.

The first block I tackled looked easier than it was, it’s called Twice as Much, by Shruti Dandekar, it’s all about scale, I presumed when I first looked at it that it would be made from ever decreasing triangles, whereas the triangles are made from a square and two triangles. I made it slightly more difficult for my self by using different fabrics for the triangles, I liked the idea of having the same plant design in different scales on each fabric! In the end it came out OK, though it could have done with a bit more contrast.

The second block was called My Little Corner by Shannon Gilman Orr, it supposed to be a little quilting cabin or studio, as I’d just got some rather pretty bird fabric I turned mine into a bird box. This was paper pieced, it went together fairly well. I was originally thinking of missing off the hexagons, but as my bottom line didn’t come out too straight I thought it could hide a multitude of sins…this only works if you don’t cover it with more sins! My hexagons leave much to be desired but in the great scheme of things it doesn’t matter!

I cut out two blocks to be embroidered, thinking I could stitch them when visiting my mum. This afternoon however I just thought I’d do a little bit whilst I had a cup of coffee…and ended up stitching both of them. The musical note one is called Quilting Music by Jane Davidson, it’s bondawebbed and then blanket-stitched by hand. The stave is just a simple running stitch. The gardening block called Snail and Pail by Wendy Shepperd, it’s bondawebbed and then machine appliqued, I then hand stitched the ground and the flowers and of course the antenna on the snail.

This evening I stitched another block, Precious Things by Patrina Jahnke, this one is foundation paper pieced. As it had so many pieces I decided to try and use all my fabrics in it. I arranged them all in colours and tones and then worked my way out. I didn’t want too may light ones in the middle so I left them til the end and used them for the corners. The heart was bondawebbed and blanket stitched on by hand.

I’m pretty pleased with these blocks, I just need to finish sashing them and quilt them as I’m doing Quilt-as-you-go. I think I’ve made thirty blocks now.

I’ll be linking up with Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday, so follow the link to see more inspiring hand-stitching.