The weather starts to warm up and my computer time drops drastically.
In April, many projects were touched...and many were finished!
Alphabet Zoo is such a fun finish. This adorable panel from Hoffman Fabrics was in my stash for soooo long. I would look at it often and search online for pattern inspirations. It finally happened...a pattern was found and I was driven to get it finished. My February blog post covers my pattern find if you need that info...it is a Freebie.
My grandkids love Cuddle and Minky backings so this one as a wonderful lime green Cuddle.
I turned to working on two panel kits in my stash that were all cut out and ready to stitch.
The kits both had the same panel, Aurora Borealis by Dawn Gerety from Northcott.
I bought the kit, Midnight Lights, from one of my favorite Alaska quilt shops, The Quilted Raven, in Anchorage. This shop is geared toward tourists and has an amazing supply of Alaska themed fabrics, patterns and kits. I did have trouble cutting out the narrow strips of animals from the fabric in the kit and had to track down more from online shops as the shops in the area were all out of the fabrics.
The pattern was designed by Elise Rose, who works exclusively with the Quilted Raven. It's always frustrating when the kit shorts you on fabric and it is the second time a kit from this shop has been super tight on cutting for the project from the fabric in the kit. I will definitely cut out any kits I buy from them right away so I can buy any extra fabric I need.
Midnight Lights finished at 50 x70-inches, a pretty nice size for a wall hanging or laptop size. I really love it!
The second kit I finished with this Aurora Borealis panel is, Northern Lights, designed by Patti Carey of Patti's Patchwork. I have made one of her patterns before with another panel and I really liked her pattern writting. The kit came from another favorite Alaska quilt shop, The Patchwork Moose, in Talkeetna...my favorite little town to go for lunch when we take a little flight seeing trip.
I just love having these two kits from the same panel that look so different from each other. There was one fabric in the kit that didn't work for me so I made a swap for it...it was in the bargello section.
Northern Lights finished at 62 x 80-inches. It will be fun to come up with a quilting design with such a verticle layout.
The next quilt top I will be starting is part of Scott Flanagan's Summer Quilt-Along that started on Monday, May 5th. It is not a mystery so I have been able to stew on fabric choices for a while. The first step is to make 9-patch blocks. I originally planned to go with a green tonal color scheme just like the sample quilt but now I see bright colors mixed with greens so I have picked a new stash of fabrics. Here is a link to the blog post with the first step: City Square Summer Quilt-Along
There have been a lot of fun colorways to see on Scott's Facebook page.
I always have a Bucilla kit in the works. I realized my grandkids are growing up way too fast so I better tackle kits that might be fun with young kids...like advent calendars. I have at least four different advent kits in my stash, three that have numbered pockets with ornaments for each day. I just picked the oldest kit and got started.
The first part is to get the elaborate top section stitched. With larger areas of satin stitching, I often use and outline stitch first to make it easier to get a smooth finish.
The top section is now done. For the first time, I used quilt batting to stuff most of the appliques on this section. Of course....I have tons of batting scraps so it was nice to use some of those scraps. I used my 80/20 batting scraps.
I never shared a photo of the completed set of standing mantel pieces from the kit, Easter Parade by Merry Stockings. Another fun kit!!! The mantel kit uses one layer of quilt batting and cardboard as the base for the standing pieces.
You know how the internet can get you into sooo much trouble...soooo many wonderful Freebies. I have always loved Tilda fabrics and her website with tons of free quilt and doll patterns. I tackled my first Tilda freebie, a cat. It turned out pretty cute. Three more are traced onto fabrics for me to stitch, two dogs and a hare.
I spent the first week of May working on finishing two pieces I cross stitched in March and April
The major challenge was to make them into stand-up displays.
I bought the patterns from 123stitch.com which included the embellishments plus they had the called for linen to stitch each bunny.
I watched a video from Vonna Pfeiffer on making a stand-up finish.
I watched it several times...step by step...as I made mine.
They are so stinking cute! I missed the Easter deadline but I was determined to finish them so they will be stored with my Easter decorations...ready for 2026!
It always seems like winter will never end...April was a long month...waiting for sunlight and its warming rays to awaken our sleeping landscape.
The animals started moving around.
One morning a bull moose greeted my dogs...
Another morning I got a frantic phone call from my neighbor to get my dogs inside if they were out in the yard...
It's funny to look at these photos from last month because a photo of this grizzly bear was posted last night by one of my neighbors and he looks like he's gained 100 pounds!
I sure hope I only see him from afar this spring, summer and fall.
