Less Than Splendid Start to Thursday

This week's block is Flowering Tree by Amy Friend. It is paper pieced. Paper piecing is fine in theory. But if you haven't done it in years like me it can be a rocky start. I have a few hints for you. First, shorten the stitch length on your machine. If you are using regular copy paper, sew on all the stitch lines without thread in your machine before you start. This will perforate the lines and help in removing the papers from your finished block. 

Before you sew each piece of fabric, line it up and stick a pin in the stitch line. Then hold it up to the light and flip it back to make certain that it will cover the area it is supposed to before you stitch it down. It is very frustrating to sew a section on only to find that the piece doesn't quite cover the area it is supposed to . I guess you can figure out how I know this.

When choosing my colors for this block I laid all the finished blocks out to see what was missing. I knew right away that this block would need a light background to balance things out. Also I noticed that the green and gold colors were the least used so those were the colors I needed for this block. I think it was a great choice. I am pretty happy with the way things are coming together. Only 91 more blocks to go! Ha! You can get your block at www.thesplendidsampler.com .

Switching gears. Last week I went to Kalona, Iowa for a quilt study group that was held at the Kalona Quilt and Textile Museum. I would definitely recommend Kalona for a weekend trip. The town is super cute with lots of little boutique shops, a couple of quilt shops, the museum and historical village as well as a great restaurant- The Kalona Brewing Co. Our topic for the study group was Cheddar quilts. The museum also has two galleries with displays that they change out regularly. One is devoted to Amish quilts and the other to English. 

This was my favorite of the Amish quilts. 

Love, love, love this quilt from Carol Butzke's collection.

This indigo and cheddar will keep your eyes racing round the quilt!

How about some cheddar, madder and Pennsylvania blue?

And of course red and green applique always makes my heart beat a little faster. It was hard to get a true to color photo of this one. The background fabric is cheddar. It is a tiny little tone on tone orange print. Very different. So until next time....

Happy Quilting,

Dawn