Berry Patch Pattern Planning

Photo by Quilt Mod

Recently I was looking for inspiration on how to quilt up to my Terracotta Greenhouse quilt and I found a blog Swatch and Stitch talking about Robert Kaufman's Spring 2018 Quilt Market setup. It had a pattern in the Berry Patch fabric line called Berry Patch. It's a cute strawberry quilt. The pattern is a free download from Robert Kaufman's website.

Photo by Robert Kaufman Fabrics

I immediately wanted to do this quilt. I decided to shop my stash and see if I can find some great fabrics for this quilt. The quilt uses a background fabric, fabric for the stems and two charm packs. I have several charm packs I've not done anything with and really wanted to use one of them but picking one was the hard part.

I decided to pick my background first then figure out what I wanted my strawberries made out of. I chose this cream-colored textured fabric for my background. It's got some pattern but it's light enough to let the strawberry fabrics stick out. For my charm packs, I found a Pineapple Fabrics pack and a Robert Kaufman Blueprint Basics pack. I still have to pick a fabric for my stems. I'm thinking I had a green that would work but I've changed my mind. I'm going to look at more of my fabrics and see what else I want to add to it.

Even though I'm planning this quilt, I am still quilting my Greenhouse quilt, so I can't start anything with this yet. I'm already excited to start the next project.

Tea today was the Mango Dragonfruit drink from Starbucks. I know it's not really a tea but it's so tasty. This photo is actually from when I was running around downtown Knoxville to visit the farmers market. I know I go to looks like I go to Starbucks a lot but most of these photos are from the bookstore I love to visit.

WIP Terracotta Greenhouse.

I'll have better photos when I finished.

I pretty much decided to pick up another project the day after I finished my Fruit Salad throw. It is actually a UFO I had hanging around. I've actually got several of Elizabeth Hartman's patterns. Last year in June I purchased Greenhouse and a few pretty fabrics that I wanted to use in it. I got two charm packs of Violet Craft's Palm Canyon, a few yards of Apricot Ice and Terracotta solids. I'm calling this my Terracotta Greenhouse because of using that color for the pots which terracotta is a typical color associated with plant pots.

I used these fabrics to create a modified version of Elizabeth's Greenhouse pattern. I shortened mine by a few plants which were taken from the side and bottom making it a bit smaller than a twin size. If my quilt doesn't shrink too much it will be an extra-large throw or close to the twin size for a small bed. 

Palm Canyon Scraps for the back

I've gotten to where I hate quilting a large quilt even a full size can be difficult. But I do enjoy piecing them. I have 12 (soon to be 11) quilt tops that can attest to this. I could pay someone to do my larger pieces but I figure I spend enough on this hobby as is. I'm not getting anything back from these but a great sense of accomplishment.

When I last put this top down I had run out of the Apricot Ice fabric and needed to order some more. Since I had ordered it from Missouri Star and couldn't find it locally I had to wait for this to come in. Alas, that is a dangerous thing to ask me to wait. I had started a new task in that time period and everything got set aside in hopes I would pick it up soon. Well, at least a full year hasn't passed.

I try to use all the scraps on the back

Thread choices

I finished my top, which only needed borders on the top and bottom, and put together a backing this weekend. I have started the quilting process but this is taking a bit of thought as to what I want to do since the mostly solid background. I'm using two different thread colors but to be honest they both blend in with the apricot background that they look the same. I have Gutermann 502 Sahara on my bobbins and 370 Tea Rose for the topstitching. 

Since I can't tell you how much time I've already spent on the top because I can't remember, I am hoping that the quilting gets done almost as fast as Fruit Salad.

Tea today was Jasmine Green Tea by Ito En. I don't remember if I've put this one up yet. This is only available as unsweetened but it's got a smooth taste that isn't bitter at all. If you're not use to unsweetened teas then you will not like it, but this is one of my favorites of their teas.

A Million Hexies

I didn't do many things in April. I had a trip to Washington DC and didn't get much done. I did get a chance to go through and sort my scraps. That's when I got the idea of making a million hexies. Well probably not actually a million but I know it will feel like it when I'm done.

I read a while back where one quilter would go ahead and cut hexies out of her scraps after a project before going on. I thought this would be a good way to control the size of my scrap pieces. If they are smaller then my hexie template I will toss them unless I'm starting something immediately with them. If they are the size of a fat quarter I'm putting them in the stash for later. Anything between the two sizes will but cut up.

This controls the number of tiny pieces I keep and I'll have a lot of hexies for an EPP or well whatever I end up doing with them. For now, they're in a basket nearby. I figure one day I'll find a cute scrappy idea I can do with them. I may even get ambitious enough to make a grandma's flower garden with them.

Fruit Salad Throw finished

I surprised myself and finished this quilt quickly. It's not that big, it's about 45 by 47 inches. It's big enough to be used as a picnic quilt or a lap quilt. I had started the quilting on Sunday after my last post. I got most of the work done in that one day. That's what surprised me the most. Saturday I had finished the borders and the only thing I left the house for Sunday was to buy more thread. I used a Gutermann 807 Lemon Peel yellow. I was looking for a larger spool but Joann's only had the 110 yards size. It took about 3 and a half spools. 

I did an easy zig-zag pattern using a Dresden ruler to mark my angles. By Monday I had just one row and the border left to go. I had used the light yellow fabric as the binding. The backing was pieced with the leftover fabrics from the front. I Used up all the green and the darker yellow I tried to use as much of the fruit fabrics as I could. I am happy to say I have minimal scraps left to go into a pile for my million hexies projects.

The sun shows off the stitches on the back

I figured I worked a total of 40 hours on this quilt. That's a positively light speed for me on something like this. I'm going to take it by the quilt shop where I bought the fabric to show off the finished product.  

Tea for today is actually the Harney & Sons Blood Orange herbal tea. I know I had already featured it once but I made my self a nice lunch with it Sunday and that's what I drank while quilting.

Fruit Salad

I started calling this quilt Fruit Salad from the moment I picked up my Wild & Fruity fabrics from my local quilt shop. I didn't quite know what I was going to do but I had wanted the fabrics. When I got home I was putting away some old magazines and a pattern card had fallen out. The pattern was one I got with the purchase of other fabrics a few years prior. It had gotten shoved in a magazine that I loaned out and forgot about.

It's a simple pattern and those are the best kind. About Face by Villa Rosa Designs can be used with a charm pack or yardage. I had some solids I got as remnants from JoAnn's and the colors paired will with my fruit fabrics. I had dragon fruit, guava and two of the citrus colorways. When I finished the center I made a pieced together border of the fruit fabrics. I plan to piece together a backing out of my scraps and use yellow as a border. I'm hoping to use all of the fabrics but if I don't I've got a million hexies project going on that they can go to. I'm going to explain that in a future post.

Today's tea is Petro's Hint of Orange Tea. It's a simple tea and the orange is very light but I love this stuff. Every time I go to the mall I buy a large when I first walk in the door and make sure I get a refill before I leave. 90% of the time this is the only thing I buy at the mall. So time well spent. I exercised by walking and exercised control by only spending 2 bucks and change.