February 26, 2021
Laurence is turning 75 this year and I felt that deserved one of my cards. And by card I mean a set of coasters (all in good fun!).
I remember a time, not so long ago, when I thought 75 was old – not anymore! I don’t understand where the years have gone.
February 24, 2021
Every year when I look for a card for Kristin I particularly look for something with butterflies. This Splendid Sampler bonus block should have been good for three years but after I made one of these butterflies I couldn’t stop. I added sashing and borders and before I knew it I had a wall hanging rather than a card.
Each of those butterflies is individually name – not by me but by the pattern designer. Say hello to Gidget (on the top), Cricket (on the left) and Pepper (on the right). Doesn’t that make them even cuter?
I used the first of my quilting rulers for some of the quilting and pulled out the second ruler (from the instruction book) for some orange peel shapes.
February 14, 2021
There were two heart-themed bonus blocks remaining in my Splendid Sampler series and this was the year to get them done.
These small hearts were meant to be pin cushions but I didn’t think my girls had much use for one. I enlarged the hearts slightly and made them into cards. The heart outline is made of French knots – a lot of French knots. Once the cards were put together I decided they would be too hard to machine quilt so I hand quilted them. I don’t hand quilt very often but on a small project I rather enjoyed it.
This was a larger pattern but there was something about the pattern I didn’t like so I changed it up and added a border. I had no problem making all those little blocks and it hardly made a dent in my string bucket. I struggled with the quilting but after ripping the stitches out three times I wasn’t changing it again. When I took a short break I thought maybe when I got back to it I’d be luckier – and then this thought came through my head – it isn’t luck, it’s skill.
February 10, 2021
Many of the blocks in both the Splendid Sampler series and on my calendar are red, white and blue because both are published in the United States. Normally I would change the colours to something (almost anything) else. I worked on this card on January 20th, while I watched and listened to the inauguration of President Biden so red, white and blue didn’t seem so odd.
There are 53 pieces in this block; I was very glad that it was paper pieced. I tried to do some ruler quilting on the block but there were just too many seams. After two attempts I went back to my tried-and-true star.
I clearly remember standing in the hallway of our Fort Smith apartment when I got the news of Kevin’s birth.