Less is more?

I've been thinking about all the blank spaces with hearts and maybe that's too much.  If I hadn't already done two rows with 5 hearts I would probably do every other one instead.  Now, I'd have to take off 4 of them and since they are glued, heat set, and sewn on, it might damage the quilt to take them off.

The glue is just Elmer's School Glue so it washes out but the tiny zig-zag stitch might be a problem.  Should I chance it and take them off?

All 48 blocks are done!

Whew!!  Big sigh of relief that they are all done!  I think this might be the longest I have worked on a quilt other than hand piecing.  The first post about this quilt was on April 10th and there is still a lot of work to do on it.  There are 25 more hearts to applique after getting the rows sewn together and then the vines and hearts on the borders.

Maybe the body will all be sewn together this weekend. :-)

Did some work this evening

I'm really trying to push through and get the latest quilt done.  Today I got the last 96 HSTs sewn and pressed, this is enough for the remaining 12 blocks.  I will need to cut MORE of the ivory Kona Cotton and get it washed.  I also got the additional 10 hearts cut out and decided on placement.  Rows 5 and 6 are done and the sashing strip between them is sewn to one row.  I just couldn't do any more at the time.

The 4 Bali Handpaint sets were delivered today.  They are beautiful!  Just beautiful.  I won't need much at all of each color for the French Braid quilt so I've got ideas swirling around my head about using them in something spectacular.  I really prefer to create my own designs so it's going to take some thinking and playing around in EQ7.  Not that this is a chore, it's one of my favorite parts of quilting.  I don't want to just use them for any old thing, if you know what I mean.  These are expensive fabrics and I don't want to waste them in something that doesn't do them justice.

They look even better in person.

Quilt appraisal

I received the appraisal for the quilt that was in the Knoxville show.  It has an appraised value of $4500.  When I picked up the mail and saw the letter, before getting home and opening it I thought... maybe $1000?  At the most?  I really can't see someone paying $4500 for a quilt, but then, I've really never looked at the cost of quilts other than simple little ones for a few hundred and the major award winning ones for tens of thousands. 

The appraisal also says that this isn't a lifetime value since that can increase with the quilter's reputation and show wins.

12 more blocks done

I worked hard today and got the next 12 blocks done!! Woo Hoo!!  Only 12 more to go. Last night I got the second 5 hearts sewn on and the first two sections sewn together.  The 5 hearts for the space between the two sections are picked out and need to be turned under and sewn still.

Don't know why I thought I only needed 25 of those hearts, there needs to be 35 of them.  *sigh*  I got the pieces of fabric out that I cut the hearts from to do 10 more of them.

Remember this design?

Some time ago I got a book on French Braids and when looking at this pattern I wondered what could be used for the squares in the braids instead of a solid?  I did this in EQ6 and imported the actual fabrics.

I started looking around for fabric and I found a collection called Botanica by Robert Kaufman.  One fabric print has the large framed flowers and another has small ones with strips of flowers. There is also a coordinating print that I got for the borders. Absolutely perfect for what I was thinking of!!

I ordered Fusions jelly roll strips but when they arrived it wasn't what I believed it to be from the web site description.  There were duplicates of almost all of the fabrics and I could only get 6 braid strips out of each colorway.  That had to be scrapped... no pun intended.

It's been in the back of my mind and every time I see a set of gradations I find out if I can use it in this quilt.  Well, yesterday when browsing fabric (a favorite activity) I saw these sets and ordered them.  There are 20 fabrics in each set so that gives me choices in what 12 to use for the braids.  It's WAY more fabric than I need for the quilt but these could be used in so many ways.  Already thinking about how the framed flowers could be used as the center block in countless patterns along with these fabrics.

My IRR round 4

This is MY quilt!!  The 4th round is done and on it's way to the last person in the group and then back to me!  It's so bright and colorful, I love it.

One row of hearts done

It was pretty quick to get the hearts sewn on using monofilament and a tiny zig-zag stitch.  It's not perfect but it's done.

Ready to do the next section of two block rows, sew the four together, and do the hearts between them.  This is half of the quilt.

Making the hearts

This morning I got 5 of the hearts done and glued to the quilt.  They will be machine appliqued.  The plastic template material is working out really good and gets quicker with each one I do.  That's a good thing since after the 25 large hearts there will be 28 smalls ones and 4 large ones for the corners.

When I did the first heart I decided on the placement and put a dot where the 4 lines meet the template.  To keep all the hearts even I draw diagonal lines on the space and line up the template with the dots/lines.

Outline the top and bottom of the heart template.

Put a line of Elmer's School Glue on the heart.

Place the heart in the outline and iron to set.

One row is ready to sew.

Still working on the Never Ending quilt

Just a little update on the latest quilt.  Still only 4 rows done but they're sewn together with sashing and I'm ready to sew the next 12 blocks together.  Only 12 more sets of HSTs to go!!

I got the 25 large hearts for the spaces between the blocks cut out tonight, all out of different fabrics.  I tried the template material and turned under the seam on one of the hearts.  It's not a totally simple thing to do but it worked pretty good.

Two rows are done!

Finally got the first 24 blocks done and then started on the sashing.  It's looking so pretty and it's coming together good.  I cut 10 more strips of ivory that I will need to complete the side sections on the next 24 blocks and the rest of the sashing, need to figure up how much more to cut off the bolt and get it washed.

The plastic template material has arrive but I haven't tried it yet.  Now that some of the blocks are sewn together I can make sure of the size I want to make the hearts.  I have a little niggling doubt about the hearts.  Is it too cutesy?  Maybe do a 4-petal flower shape instead that is like the four circular-looking corners in the space between the blocks.

Getting bored yet??

This quilt just goes on and on.  I haven't felt like working on it at all the last couple of weeks, just don't seem to make much progress even when I spend all day on it.  I have next week off work and I am going to try and get a majority of it done.  I sewed a few blocks together tonight, a total of 15 are done, which is about a 3rd of them.

I have been looking at pre-cut bias binding and wondering about using that for the border.  It's a little wider than I need but I guess I could cut the pieces to length (I figure on 33" for each loop) and then cut them in half the long way.  The problem is finding the binding in a color that will go with the other greens.  They're a yellowish green.

My cat, that follows me all over the house, went upstairs with me when I did the above photo, then watched me walk back downstairs.  I'm just waiting for the day when she jumps on me from there.