Sunshine-April Mini of the Month

This is my version of  the Sew Can She blog's Mini Quilt of the month.  This one was designed by Jennifer Heynen and is available as a free pattern on Craftsy.  This is the first one that has been an applique quilt instead of pieced which presented some problems.  I don't have a working printer so I traced the templates from my computer screen.  This method worked well for some of the Splendid Sampler blocks as they had the inch scale printed on the pattern and I could enlarge as needed.  There was no scale on this pattern so mine is slightly larger.  It measures 15 x 13 with the binding instead of the 11 inch square of the pattern.  Part of this was intentional on my part as I wanted more of the sun's rays to show.   Overall, I'm happy with it except for the binding.  My skills seem to deteriorate with each quilt!  I'll probably take it off later and resew hoping for better results on the corners.  I did add triangles for hanging and with the heatbond, layers of fabric and batting that was a lot of layers to sew through.

For the fusible, I used Heat n Bond in the red package.  It was after I had the whole thing laid out and ready to sew did I read the section that said not to sew!  Since it didn't bond very well at all, I don't know how they expect a finished project to last.  I used some scraps and tested using a topstitch needle.  My machine sewed it very well and I had no problems.  I quilted with freehand arcs using a gold thread after sewing down all the shapes.

I used a grey fabric for the background so I'm calling this "Sunset".  I'm out of blue sky fabrics.In fact, I'm now out of a lot of basics.  My stash that I thought would last so long now consists of mostly smaller scraps.  Do you buy fabrics for the current project only or do you have a stash?  How do you choose prints to add to your stash?

Linking up with Em's Scrapbag for Moving it Forward Monday  andLove Laugh Quilt

Progress

Some progress has been made on my Splendid Sampler blocks.

The string block is my version of the selvedge block. None of my saved selvedges were attractive or in the right color families for this quilt. The Dresden plate block isn't sewn down as yet. I'm saving that for when I sew down my Quilty 365 circles. I really hate threading my machine with the invisible thread! I took yesterday off from sewing....new book release made it to my Kindle and I spent the day reading it. This is what I woke up to Monday morning...

So pretty...so glad I'm retired and no longer have to deal with getting to work! The remainder is still with us and very slippery. Good day to stay in and sew.

Splendid Sampler Catch Up

or 2 down....about 60 to go!! I've gotten way behind in my blocks and am now realizing that there is only one more week to go. Downloading the blocks first thing on Thursday and Sunday mornings has become a habit that I will miss. Last month I went through my list of blocks still to be done tried to pick out the blocks that I will do from the ones that are beyond my capabilities. I've discovered that foundation piecing is not for me! I have no spatial ability at all and trying to figure out which way to flip the fabric (even though it's numbered) is extremely difficult. That, coupled with no printer, is taking some of blocks off of my to do list. I have been able to trace some of the blocks from my computer screen. This is my second attempt at Whim...block number 48.

My second block is the "measure twice...cut once". Since it's block #19, it will give you an idea of how long I've been looking for that Moda tape!

All of the blocks can be seen on the Splendid Sampler block page. I'll try to do 30 blocks this months and will be linking up with the Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal February Linkup.