Cornucopia of Thanks done!

At around 98" square, this will be for our bed. I have two matching pillowcases made so far, need to make another two. Love this quilt!

Cornucopia of Thanks quilt progress

I have been steadily quilting away on the Cornucopia of Thanks quilt, and now am stitching on the binding. There is still a bit of quilting to do, the 2" border. Got thread today at PIQF to blend with the rusty red color, the peach and the green thread were just too much of a contrast for what I wanted to do. I was inspired by Leah Day's Lacy Lattice for the 2" fill, will make them 2" high and 1" wide.

Shown from the back side: Stylized "waves" in outer border (bottom & right), leaves (on peach border), empty 2" border, grid on sashing

Shown from back side: block quilting, grid in sashing, empty 2" border, leaves

Front of quilt showing quilting on two blocks, grid in sashing, small design in peach square in sashing.

Busy Saturday

After making the BOW, I got back to my Album blocks. There were still a few more signatures I wanted on this quilt, so I made another 6 blocks on Saturday. Still need them signed, but will start stitching this together between bouts of quilting on Cornucopia of Thanks. That got a bit of stitching yesterday, and another block today, so far. Hope to get three more done today, but we will see. Have the next quilt design basted to the top, ready to go.

Quilting Cornucopia of Thanks

Looking at the pile of fabric I had left, and no desire to make another quilt with it, I decided to piece the backing. Originally it was to be 36 squares 16.6" each, but that got modified. The outer border (not shown) is rectangles, to make it 4" bigger all around. The pile of leftover fabric is now very small.

Decided to quilt it myself, the design shown will be on all 16 squares, still deciding on the sashing and border quilting.

Cornucopia of Thanks quilt top done

It is a top. After much angst, I put my big girl panties on and just did it. The borders are all pieced, just didn't have enough fabric (this was from my stash), or the design of the fabric made me piece it, the stripes and directional print. I wanted to do mitered corners, but would have had to piece even more than I did, so I revised the plan. First and third borders are not mitered at all. The middle striped border has corner blocks that were mitered and then pieced onto the stripe. They just were not long enough with two widths of fabric to miter without the corner blocks. Now I can move on to the next thing on my UFO list, not sure what that is yet, there are several contenders. This will probably go to my long-arm quilter since I already have a couple of tops to quilt once I get them basted. Maybe that should be next.

Cornucopia of Thanks center done

Well, the center is done, now on to borders. I just wish I had more of the dark rust fabric. The first border is that, and it will be pieced, and I really like to use the lengthwise grain for borders since it stretches less. The final sashing was cut widthwise, and it is stretchy. Bah. Perhaps I will cut the next border just a bit small to compensate for the stretchiness.

Loyal daughter block

Loyal Daughter was designed by Jennifer Chiaverini and published in the latest 100 blocks magazine by Quiltmaker. I used Inklingo to print most of the shapes needed for this block and then hand pieced it. Hand piecing a block when the stitching lines are printed on the fabric for you is fabulous! This will be one of the extra blocks for my Cornucopia of Thanks quilt.

Ashland and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival

The last week has been a whirlwind of activity, and most of it not quilting. Although I did get one more block done for the CoT quilt, along with some pieced sashing bits. And I started another pair of socks, Lattice pattern from Dyed Jems Yarn Company, using a scrumptious yarn that varies between sage and periwinklie. Unfortunately, the label got lost so I have no idea what it is. The whirlwind was going to Ashland and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, seeing eight plays in four days, in three theatres. Such is the stuff dreams are made of. Yes, we saw Shakespeare (Troilus and Cressida, Henry V, As You Like It, and Romeo and Juliet), and sort of Shakespeare, an adaptation of the Merry Wives of Windsor, set in Iowa and re-imagined, very silly, and a mash-up that included Medea (Euripedes), MacBeth, and Cinderella (Rogers and Hammerstein). We also saw Seagull (Chekhov) and Animal Crackers (originally starring the Marx Brothers). We stayed in a lovely B&B, McCall House, within walking distance of OSF and several nice restaurants. We plan on staying there again next year. The breakfasts were fabulous (they are publishing a cookbook!), the bed divine, lots of pillows, a fluffy duvet that kept us warm when the nights turned downright cold, and Wi-fi so I could keep in touch reading my e-mail. We also checked out a new to us restaurant, Amuse, delicious but pricey, and a local hamburger/Mexican food establishment, Big Al’s, also good, not elegant, but yummy and a lot easier on the wallet. Then we went to our old standby, Standing Stone Brewery, great beer, bar (I had a yummy Mojito), and food ranging from seafood to pizza, with steaks in between and vegetarian options as well. We also had food at a variety of other places, Greenleaf, Grilla Bites, Munchies, and the Yogurt Hut. Ashland is a Mecca for foodies, we haven’t scratched the surface. We try new places each time we visit, along with visiting old favorites. We also got to visit with our DD who is attending Southern Oregon University. All in all, a lovely vacation.

Cornucopia of Thanks - sashing in progress

I still have two more blocks to make, but they will be hand pieced and are waiting for "hand work time". Meanwhile I have been stitching sashing. I have it broken into about 6 types, cornerstones done, horizontal inner sashing done, vertical inner sashing done, still left the blended sashings (horizontal and vertical) and the final outer sashing that is only half the width. The inner sashing is directional fabric, just to make things fun . This is a stash quilt, and I didn't have enough fabric to make all the sashing the same, so it is two different greens. They are the third and fourth fabrics from the left in the picture in the last post. The first two will be borders, along with one other fabric, not sure what yet. here is the whole design wall - and here is a look at how it looks when sashed. Blocks are 12", sashing is 6".

Cornucopia of Thanks BOM

This month I started leading the Cornucopia of Thanks BOM on the SBS and other Elm Creek quilts Yahoo group. The BOM is using the pattern from Jennifer Chiaverini's "Traditions from Elm Creek Quilts". I picked out some fabrics from stash. Our first block was Augusta And I also made cornerstones then I decided to make more blocks. And decided that the gold fabric did not play well with the cornerstone peach fabric. So made another Providence block. Then I made a bunch more blocks, having too much fun! These are the reject blocks that didn't play well with the rest, they will be a table runner. I like them together. Two more blocks to make, and a lot of sashing!