Cherry Blossom Quilt is Finished!

Thanks for all the nice emails and comments on yesterday's 100th post! And now I continue with the first of the next 100 posts!

Cherry Blossom Quilt is now finished! I just love it! Hope you do too and that you are looking forward to the pattern!

It is such a summery quilt and it was made with nine patches from my stash.

I don't like wasting thread or fabric. I cut up my scraps to make nine patches and I keep the sets beside my machine ready to be sewn. When I sew, rather than cutting lengths of thread I sew onto my nine patch pieces and then continue sewing what ever it is I am working on. When I get to the end of the seam rather than draw out a length of thread and cut it I sew off onto another part of my nine patch. You can read about my process here. This means I have a big stash of nine patches! I didn't have to make any extra nine patches for this quilt. I pulled out 100 mainly pink nine patches (that is nine patches that had pink in the corners and in the centre) and also some orange, some gold and some with a touch of yellow to add some sparkle. I also pulled 12 red nine patches. All of the nine patches finished at 3" (with seam allowances they were 3  1/2").

I am working on a free pattern for this quilt. I'll get it up as soon as I can. If you want to make your own version you can get a head start on the half square triangles. You are going to need 240 of them. Use your scraps, that's what I did! They should measure 1 1/2" with the seam allowance - they will finish at 1". I wrote about making small half square triangles here.

I made do with what I had when making Cherry Blossom. The first thing I did was make the nine patch blocks of nine patches. The white is actually a white tone on tone. I made 20 of these blocks and set them on point. My original plan was to alternate these blocks with a solid fabric or a large soft print but both looked boring.

I popped a red nine patch in the centre of the alternating blocks and it popped! I decided to border the red nine patch with a white border so that there was continuity between the two blocks.

My next decision was to add a border of half square triangles that used print scraps and the same white fabric but I didn't have any left so I substituted another tone on tone print that I thought was white but it was a little creamier. In the end I like the subtle change!

I thought I would have enough of that fabric for the half square triangles and one more border but I was wrong! I didn't even have enough for the half square triangles so I added similar fabrics for the half square triangles. This meant I needed yet a third fabric for the last border around this block so I added a third fabric, a very creamy fabric with a small black dot. And I had yardage of that fabric so I knew I would have enough. I used this same fabric for the setting triangles on the sides and corners and also for the border.

I've told you I learn something with every quilt I make and the lesson learned here? Plan to run out of a fabric - introducing another similar fabric can add depth and complexity.

And now for a few pix from the garden! Zebra girls showed up and wanted their picture taken on the bench with Cherry Blossom! Like me, they love this quilt!

All of a sudden someone showed up in the garden. Never saw HIM before! He's one snappy dresser!

Hello, hello Zebra Fellow! Want to have your picture taken by herself?

What a happy bunch! I feel a story line developing. We'll have to wait to see what happens. Maybe tomorrow there will be an update!

Borage pretty and delicious to eat!

Very little brown bug

Bergamot (bee balm)

Black-eyed susans

Until I post again, happy sewing!