Moving a quilt forward into 2024

 

This last weekend of 2023 I have spent getting my sew day quilt ready. This project I only work on at my guild's monthly sew days - unless I have a big part to do! I am trying to be ready to just sit and sew when we meet again. I have been working on this quilt since 2020 - I bring other things to work on too, but this one has been only pieced then. For instance, I know from my notes that I didn't work on it from July 2022 until July 2023.

This project was a weekly challenge from Darlene D'eon in 2020. I absolutely love these scrappy bear paw blocks which are the center of the quilt. I put them up on my design wall and cut out my setting corners and triangles. I sewed the rows together as I went. You'll see this part assembled at the bottom of the post!

I have also cut the fabrics for each part at home so I only sew at sew day - mostly to avoid cutting errors! Lots of chatting happens at sew day ;) Here you can see I have units for the border star blocks partnered up. 

According to the notes I leave myself on the pattern each time I get it out, I needed fabrics for 4 more stars. I went through my scrap bins and found some that I think will work.

I also cut the remaining background squares needed and drew lines on the larger squares for the half square triangle units. I realized as I'm writing this that half of each blocks smaller squares also need lines! If memory serves, I think I just used the 1/4 inch guide line on my machine last time so I will try that again.

Here are the newly prepped pieces laid out in a lid inside of the project container. You can see beneath it part of one of the star block borders. I shared a photo of one in this post recently.

Here is the top half of the quilt center sewn together. The bottom half is almost ready to join - I had difficulty on the second half sewing the side triangles on in the right direction! That will be fixed today and sewn to this to complete the center.

After the star borders are done I will be adding a fabric border and then deciding if it's done. Darlene added a piano key border but I might be ready for this one to be quilted and enjoyed. We'll see what the year brings!

Wishing you time with fabric and patterns you love this year!

With Joy,

Sarah V.