HGTV's STROLLING THE BLOCK QUILT

STROLLING THE BLOCK QUILT

In 2002, HGTV had an applique quilt block a month project which featured houses for each month of the year decorated to reflect the month's general happenings.  I just now finished it! It was a lot of fun choosing fabrics from my stash. The applique was ironed on, then blanket stitched around each piece. The first two months I had done the blanket stitching by hand in 2002, but when I picked it back up again a couple of years ago, I just used my machine blanket stitching. 

You may be able to download the pattern at the website in bold below (which I got to from here - http://groupbox.com/ViewTopic.aspx?&iTopicID=ds1+MZIzqmI-&iGroupID=6lcZL19AC9o-). When I downloaded it, not all pictures would download, so I just followed the written instructions and guessed on how some things should look.

http://web.archive.org/web/20031204163301/http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/pac_ctnt_lnb_gutter/text/0,1783,HGTV_3938_4907,00.html#

This is only the third quilt I have ever done, and I tried my hand at free motion quilting, which was not as hard as I anticipated. The outside border is where I did most of that making a flower and leaves quilting. The instructions suggested using a variegated thread which I did.

Using the walking foot and monofilament thread, I quilted in the ditch and around the appliques.

I only did other quilting where there was more than 2" spacing between seams, so in the skies mainly.

 

HOW TO HANG A QUILT

HOW TO HANG A QUILT

My quilt measures 55" across and was made to display as a wall hanging. Before attaching the binding, I made a pocket for a rod to be inserted into. I cut a 9" X 56" piece of fabric, hemmed the two ends, ironed in half, then sewed the raw ends into the binding seam as it was applied. I had about 1" space on each end of the quilt. The bottom of the pocket was blind stitched down to the back of the quilt. I was going to put a 1/2" dowel rod inside it, but they don't make them that long, then I read about the Hang It Dang It, but did not want to spend that much money. My husband suggested conduit, but that would make it stick out too far, I thought, plus it may sag.  I opted for a thick wood molding that will not sag, which I found at Home Depot, and they cut it to size for free.

I spent less than $4.00 for it. It can be hung by resting on a nail on either end, or by drilling small holes about 3/8" in from each end and putting the nails through those, and since I made the pocket shorter on each end than the quilt top, the molding does not show.

Happy Birthday Banner for Cake

Since decorative writing on a cake sometimes is not practical, I made a banner tied to skewers to poke into the top of any type of cake.  I used printed paper goods cut into two-sided triangles that were glued onto a string or yarn.  These particular triangles are a finished size of 1.25" wide by 1.5" long.  A strip of paper 3" wide when folded makes the final 1.5" long measurement.   The backside also has lettering, so I wrote H-A-P-P-Y B-I-R-T-H-D-A-Y on a scrap of paper, turned it around and wrote the same letters under it, so I was assured to get the correct letter behind each one when writing on the triangles.

Merida outfit

With two unused scarfs, a cast-off blouse, a scrap of faux suede, and Simplicity Pattern 1219, I made an American Girl sized outfit. It is Merida's dress from the Disney movie "Brave".  Just love repurposing materials.  Instead of buying lace for the skirt, I used a decorative stitch on my machine.