God's Green Earth: Number Two From the Finished Pile

Second in the lineup of recent finishes is God's Green Earth. This one just checks so many of the boxes for me - lots of variety, just a little bit of everything - and I loved seeing it come together. To me, this is a shining example of how you can take a simple block like the Bowtie and create a rich and sophisticated quilt.

Despite it's name, there are a variety of other colours in it - red, black, purple, brown - and they all play well together.

The neutrals in it are equally varied.

These little mice are a fave. I picked this fabric up on a getaway to the States a few years ago and am wishing that I had bought more so I use it sparingly to help round out as many quilts as possible.

A little bit of the 'anything goes' approach carried over into the binding, which consists of two different prints - a deep plum and a rich coral. LUV.

And I used two different prints for the backing too, more by necessity than by design as I didn't have enough of either one to make it work.

To me, that 'make do' approach to quilting is where the real magic happen....M

Two and Counting

The binding gods are on my side - Snippets is bound and God's Green Earth is well on it's way to being bound as well. Woohoo!

My Wonder Clips are still AWOL (guess I'm better at Hide and Seek than I had imagined) but while searching for them in the sewing room I found an unopened pack that I quickly pressed into service. A few years ago a bought several packs for gifts and had miscounted so I had one to the good - they have certainly come in handy.

That two-colour binding for God's Green Earth is fast becoming a fave...

especially when combined with the two-colour backing. Lots to keep the eye interested. I'll share more pics when I finish binding the third, Huddle, but for now I'm pinching myself that I've been able to move these two along as quickly as I have.....M

Mellow Yellow

The binding for Snippets is made and sewn on so I'm happily hand stitching it down. In my wisdom, I've put my Wonder Clips somewhere for 'safe keeping' but now cannot, for the life of me, find them so I've resorted to straight pins. I'll have to do another deep dive for the clips as they really make a difference, especially with keeping the corners properly turned. If I only had a brain...

All three of the bias bindings that I need are cut and each is sewn to their respective quilts so I'm looking at several happy hours of stitching. 

I was sorely tempted to start with God's Green Earth because I absolutely love the binding.

The combination of purple...

and coral/fuchsia picks up on a few of the Bowties in the quilt and I'm keen to see it all together, but Snippets is a house-warming gift and the largest of the three so I thought it best to start there.

It's a dull and rainy day today and I've got half of my first binding on so odds are that it will be completed by the end of the day. Then two more to go.....M

It's Time To Bind

It seems that my quilts very seldom go from start to finish in a big rush. Instead, they simmer at various stages. Eventually the spirit moves me and it's on to the next stage, so now this bundle is ready for bindings. As a reminder, from top to bottom they are Snippets, God's Green Earth and Huddle.

All three have been quilted for a few months now but it has taken this long to trim them up and start prepping the bindings. That's okay. I've enjoyed seeing them and knew that once the spirit moved me I'd get at them.

It's amazing how much smaller the pile is now that they are trimmed of the excess batting and binding and how you really see the quilt without all of the extra bits.

And I get to enjoy another good look at Roberta's beautiful quilting...

I've taken a tally of how much I need to cut for each one to take the guesswork out of it.

These are the options I'm looking at: yellow for Snippets, purple and a bit of red for God's Green Earth and the red and cream for Huddle. Now to decide on which one to tackle first!....M

It's Spring!

Here's to the first day of spring! It hasn't really been an exceptionally hard winter for us, but after months of snow on the ground and lots of lockdown it is such a treat to see the grass and buds start peeking through. We're in for an absolutely gorgeous run of weather so I expect that things will be much greener by next weekend.

And look at what's popped up in my mud room - a lovely pair of freshly quilted treats! They are like the first blossoms of the season.

This is just a teaser, but God's Green Earth...

and Snippets are ready for bindings. I'm anxious to see them both on the beds for the spring but want to make a bit more headway on Minnie before I switch gears. Suffice it to say that my sneak peek at them has made me very happy. What would I do without the lovely and talented Roberta?....M

p.s. Happy International Quilting Day!

Backing Up

I've whined before about how making backings is just not my favourite part of quilting, but there comes a time that you just have to buckle down and get them made. So, when a recent sudden spurt of initiative struck I didn't feel inclined to argue with it, at least for the first little bit.

God's Green Earth was the first one on the block. I love this quilt and have had the backing fabrics for ages so to the front of the line it went. If there were a few more meters of this blue I would have loved for the entire backing to be made solely of it, however, I only had about half of what I needed so at least one other print had to join it; a mauve won out. 

BTW, I love the way ThousandsOfBolts ships their fabric labelled - no need to unfurl, measure and refold the entire thing to figure out if the piece will do.

Roberta always chuckles at my backing grumpiness saying, 'It's one big seam!' But I realized as I moved on to Snippets why this was seldom the case for me. My quilts tend to be BIG, so they are quite often a little shy of being able to just use two widths of fabric. I also try and avoid having a seam directly down the middle. It all means that there's some figuring and math involved. So much for one big seam.

I was very close with having enough width on this one but it was just too tight and I didn't feel good about making Roberta make it work when she put it up on the frame to quilt. Sooooo, down to the sewing room I went to see if there were any remnant blocks. Eureka! I found a few and a few others that could be sewn into HSTs and added to the mix.

So they became a strip...

and added just under three inches to the width. 

I'm happy with it, but what started out as 'two quick seams' quickly moved to a couple of hours of work. I shouldn't complain - they are now both ready to go. Maybe I need to start working to a smaller size so that I can avoid some of this grief.

Now to figure out how to quilt them....M

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

What better way to celebrate the 'wearin' o' the green' than with my finished God's Green Earth? It's enough to make me want to kick up my heels and look for leprechauns and four-leaf clovers!

The combination of all those greens just makes my heart sing, and then to have a few reds, plums, teals and even a little black tossed in, well, it really is something.

I think all of the hits of chartreuse make it for me.

I started out trying not to repeat any of the fabrics but in the end I doubled up on a few favourites.

If I have one regret it would be that it could be larger (you know me and how I love a large quilt) but I'm happy to leave it as it is. Only for an instant did I toy with adding borders but that is not the look that I had in mind.

It is going to be backed with these three lovelies and then it's time to call Roberta to see when she can fit it into her schedule.

Happy St. Paddy's Day everyone!....M

My Design Wall

A good part of God's Green Earth has been lounging on my design wall for who knows how long now and I've enjoyed having it to look at while I worked on other things. About two thirds of the blocks were up on the wall and I had a pile of what I thought were the remaining bowtie blocks ready to go, but I was procrastinating. I really liked the colour layout that I had and was afraid that if I started messing with it I would ruin things.

Eventually sanity returned and I just went ahead and started laying down the rest of the blocks, and it came together surprisingly well (imagine that!). What I did realize was that instead of having to rearrange everything I was going to need to make more bowties - it just wasn't wide enough. Things got a little interesting as laid out the full length of it too - my ceiling is very low so there were two rows that ended up on the 'design floor'.

Anyway, I cut another two columns worth (28 blocks) and got  to work. I wasn't so keen on having to make more blocks - you know how it is when you think that you are finished - but it really didn't take that long to cut them out and I was able to integrate more of my favourite fabrics into the mix.

I finished the last of them at our girls weekend and have now started sewing it together. There was the inevitable final tweaking of block placements but I have to say that I am smitten! I am so anxious to see the end result....M

More Greenery

Summer's flying by and as it does my pile of bowties for God's Green Earth continues to build.

As more colours are added it's becoming more sophisticated, which I love.

Sweet bunnies...

Everything that I have cut is now in blocks so I need to clear away the Christmas Crumbs from the design wall to start laying things out for real, but this is what is currently there.

I've cut several extra blocks so we'll see how that translates into size for the quilt top.

Still having lots of fun with this block.....M

Some Days You Cut, Some Days You Sew

I've been one with my rotary cutter lately, cutting for God's Green Earth, and having lots of fun with it.

When I started this project I wanted to do the bulk of it with my stash, but the more I looked at Maryse's fabric selection the more I realized that my fabrics didn't have the same graphic depth. I did find this little pile, which I think will work nicely with the greens.

Then I went to a couple of shops to see if I could enhance what I had with a few more complex prints and a few new neutrals.

All in all, I'm close to having much of what I need cut, and I like the mix. It's been a huge help to have Maryse's quilt to refer to and give me a good sense of the mix that worked so beautifully in her quilt.....M

Never Say Never

I can't say that the Bowtie block has ever been one of my favourites. That was until I saw this gorgeous creation by Maryse; she's called it God's Green Earth and has kindly agreed to let me share a few pics with you here, but do take a look at her post as well for more details.

It leaves me speechless. It's graphic, wonderfully scrappy and perfectly quilted. It's 'green' but not totally; the addition of other colours adds wonderful depth. I also like the way that the bowties create a circular pattern; often they are laid out in a linear/diagonal pattern, which doesn't do much for me. I could go on...

I love everything about it, to the point that I've started playing around with one of my own.

The blocks couldn't be simpler - two sized blocks cut 3.5" and 2.5" make a 6" Bowtie block. She found the pattern in Kaffe Fassett's Simple Shapes, Spectacular Quilts but I just found a tutorial for the block and worked through it. So here it is, in case you are smitten too:

Cut four 3.5" squares, two green and two neutral, as well as two 2.5" green squares.

Lay the smaller green squares atop the larger neutral squares ...

and sew on the diagonal; trim.

Sew a 3.5" dark square to each of the pieced squares.

Flip the bottom one around so that the green block is on the right side and sew the two strips together.

Voilá - a Bowtie.

Lay out four of them and a second voilá - a circle of Bowties. Make 120 Bowties and you have a quilt.

All seams are pressed to the dark side with the exception of the final one down the centre of the block as I think it will make joining them easier and reduce bulk.

I suspect that this will be one that gets sewn between other projects, and that's okay - I just wanted to get it started. You know how it is - my fingers got itchy. My stash isn't as diverse as hers (she has such a great collection of fabrics in hers!) but, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Thanks again Maryse for the inspiration and for letting me share your beautiful work...M