Collection Quilt Finished

I started a new baby quilt, piecing the easy string blocks on my treadle. I love to treadle, but frankly I am not that accomplished on the treadle and string piecing is about all I can manage with any degree of skill. I borrowed a recent idea from Bonnie Hunter and cut the clocks diagonally to insert a contrasting strip. Had I been thinking ahead on this, I would not have used the white prints within the string pieced blocks so as to afford better contrast with the blocks when the white strips were added. Other colors didn't look quite right, so white it is! It will make a satisfactory little quilt for a boy.

I finished the Collection quilt by Carolyn Friedlander. It is hand appliqued and machine quilted. I love that she is doing patterns for applique in a modern style. So much of what I used to do in applique now looks Victorian to me or cutesy whimsical. Neither is a style I like very much. Or at least not enough to stick with finishing a project that has so much handwork in it. One of the small lozenge shapes in the orange section near the bottom of the quilt is way too small. Not sure what happened there, but I can easily remove the offending piece and applique another on that is the correct size.

I seem to be in a bit of a Carolyn Friedlander "rut" these days. I am working on her paper-pieced "Local" quilt which features houses. There are also two projects from her book, "Savor Every Stitch", that are in process. I also can't seem to stop myself from buying her fabrics at the LQS. Not a bad rut to be in, methinks.