Thrilled to be Finished!

Posted in Uncategorized by Simple Bird Applique

I’m so excited to have finished this quilt! I wish you could see my face…I am beaming with pride:) To say I am thrilled with the results would be an understatement….a major understatement! I’m also very excited to announce that I am offering this quilt once again as a Block-of-the-Month. If you didn’t get in on the first go-around, this is your lucky day. The blocks are nine of my favourite blocks from Sue Garman’s “Friends of Baltimore”. I used the setting from Sue Garman’s “Baltimore Squared” pattern.

Here is how it works, once a month for the first 9 months you will receive the pattern and fabrics to do all 9 blocks. The fabrics will be exactly as shown below. Then the following 3 months you will receive the fabric and pattern for the paper-pieced stars, sashings, borders, swags and bindings.

You have until November 1, 2017 to sign up. (Don’t fool yourself…November 1 is not that far away). Details are on the website.

Very often people ask me which thread I use. I have always used Mettler 60 weight and probably always will. It’s the one with the green writing on the label. From time to time I do purchase a spool of something similar, but I always come back to Mettler. It is a little hard to find in shops, so I carry it on my website, along with other hard-to-find applique notions and tools.

Til next time….

Kerry

7Jul2017

Bed of Roses – Block 1 Re-posted

Posted in Uncategorized by Simple Bird Applique

For those that signed up for the Bed of Roses Block of the Month, I shipped Block 1 today. It should be arriving in your mailbox very shortly:) To make your life easier I am re-posting the blog post I wrote way back in May 2015 when I first started this quilt….my how time flies. If you have any question, please feel free to contact me. Also, for those that have expressed an interest in making this stunning quilt with their own fabrics, the full set of patterns are on the website.

So here is the link for Block 1. https://simplebirdapplique.com/2015/05/25/bed-of-roses-bom/

And here is the link for Block 2 – Part 2. https://simplebirdapplique.com/2015/05/27/bed-of-roses-part-2/

Just think…in 11 more months you will have accomplished this!

Til next time…..

Kerry

3Jul2017

Two Borders On…Looking Good!

Posted in Friends of Baltimore/Baltimore Squared by Simple Bird Applique

This past weekend was crazy busy while we celebrated Canada’s 150th birthday. It was wonderful to be part of the excitement. Paul and I took the Go-Train to Toronto and we handed out 250 Canadian flags to anyone who wanted one. He is the one in the Canadian flag shirt, carrying a Canadian flag, with a bag full of Canadian flags. I wish we had more! Also, we saw the big duck. Yes, it was really big!

So much fun! So today I decided to sew the 2 borders on my Friends of Baltimore/Baltimore Squared quilt. I must confess, I am loving how this quilt is looking:) Measuring borders can be daunting at the best of times. It is twice as daunting when you have spent a good amount of time appliqueing swags on the border. Here is what I did to make the process as stress free as possible…

First, I folded the quilt in half and measured it…a few times. Sometimes I get different measurements, so I just keep measuring until I get the same measurement twice. There it is….30 1/2″ which means my quilt measures 61″.

Next, I pressed the borders nice and flat. Bruin seems to be able to predict when I need the ironing board.

So I always iron my blocks and borders on the wrong side, that way I can get the background nice and crisp.

Next I folded the border in half lengthwise and measured 30 1/2″ (the same as the quilt). And I marked it with a pencil.

I took a second glance just to make sure everything was lined up evenly. Yes, it was.

Then I took a deep breath and I trimmed of the excess. Easy Peasy!

The borders are cut a little wide, so I trimmed them down according to the paper pattern. I just measured 3/4″ from the top of the pink circle and trimmed the extra bit off. I didn’t trim the bottom of the border because I like to trim the entire quilt up after it is quilted. A little extra is always handy. Deep breath……