Still piecing away, almost down to the last block.  Here are blocks 7 & 8, on the design wall in pieces, waiting to get assembled.  Again, where you see a solid color, it is really just a print of very small dots.

I should have the blocks done by tomorrow, then there’s the sashing (easy) and decision on the borders.  I would like to make it fit for a king size, something like 100×100.  I’ll need to add about a 10-12 inch border around the quilt for that.  Still thinking about utilizing the remaining fat quarters from my bundle of Happy Go Lucky that I didn’t use in the blocks to add in some flying geese units in the opposing corners.  Add a little more interest and personal touch.

Another personal touch I want to add is some embroidery in the center square of the center block.  Since I’m giving this as a wedding present, I thought putting their names and wedding date would be nice.  I was inspired from this post by Pretty by hand blogger, Kristyne Czepuryk, to download a font I like and use that as my template.  Take a peak at her post here, where she offers an Embroidered Signature Block tutorial.

My personal handwriting is, and has always been, terrible.  My hand actually starts to cramp now if I write more than a few paragraphs in long hand.  That’s how little I write anymore.  I learned how to type in high school, even won a couple of awards at UIL for speed – so there was never any struggle to transition to a computer world for me.  Every person in high school should learn how to type properly.  Invaluable.

I digress.  I am shamelessly stealing the same font idea from Kristyne and using Stalemate for the wedding block.  I’m not crazy about the “B” letter – I might play with it a bit before I commit to the ink.  The fonts are available as free downloads through this website – 1001 Fonts.  I had also downloaded Tangerine, Sacramento and Adine.  But Kristyne had the right selection already – Stalemate.

I went through my limited stash of embroidery thread.  Most of which I picked up in a clearance opportunity at my local quilt shop, but I also had ordered a range of colors by COSMOS floss.  None of which matched my fabric.  None of it.

Guess that means I have to go shopping.  I have to go.   I am forced to go shopping. Plus – I have a coupon for Joann Fabrics!  Love that!

Selected a variety of colors, in case I wanted to embellish a little in the block.  I’m likely to use the darkest navy color for the lettering.

While at Joann’s, I also found this book that I couldn’t pass up.

Not only did I have a coupon for 10% off everything … the quilt books were 40% off also!  I love looking at English Paper Piecing (EPP) projects and there was this one in the book that caught my eye in particular.  I still have near the top of my list to make a little tablecloth for my daughters kid-size table.  Something she could use for her tea parties.  I already have the perfect fabric, and I have some patterns that I have considered – but I might have to add in some EPP to make it even more special.   Those are little hexagon diamonds in between the butterflies.

So – that leaves me with one complete block to go, with embroidery.  Sashing, borders and piecing a quilt back.  I have asked Linh of Elvy Crafts blog and LiMa Sews to do my longarm quilting.  I have her on reserve for next week!  I can’t wait to see how it all comes together!  No more updates on this quilt until the BIG REVEAL!

Thanks for stopping by this weekend – I hope you are enjoying it wherever you are!

Jennifer