March One Monthly Goal finish

My One Monthly Goal was get my abbreviated version of Smith Mountain Morning (pattern by Bonnie Hunter) quilted and bound. 

I found this large blue and brown floral fabric I used on the back at Grubers' Super Bowl tail gate sale. I was thinking a plaid would have made a better backing, but when the floral fabric is $4 a yard it becomes the  perfect fit!

I already had this blue buffalo check in my stash and decided it would make a fun binding. 

I also have a second finish this month--Smith Mountain Morning's baby sister.
I'm calling it Breezy Point Afternoon--lol!
It was made using SMM leftovers.

I used up a lot of brown fabric from the stash for the back. 

The binding was a newer purchase from Hobby Lobby. It was forty percent off on the day I was there shopping. I bought a half yard thinking it would come in handy and it did!
I'll be stitching on my labels later today. 

Linking with One Monthly Goal HERE

Sweet William: My New Project

I own several historical quilt books and have always admired this basket quilt from the 1800's.
In 2014, I was browsing the internet and came across Ingrid's Supergoof Quilts blog HERE . She was making some of these blocks. 

Oh my, I was completely smitten and I loved the yellow she was using for the alternate block. Then I found out that Ingrid was working from a pattern called Sweet William by Susan Smith. 

At that time, I was still working at the quilt shop when this Riley Black yellow check came in. I bought a ton of it along with some quilter's linen by Kaufman that I thought would make a nice background for the baskets. 

Like I said, that all happened six years ago. Late last year, I decided it was about time to get started on Sweet William. I found those fabrics I had purchased right away but after searching my sewing room high and low I just could not find the pattern. I started to wonder if I had actually purchased one!

Thankfully, my dear friend Karen (logcabinquilter) rescued me by kindly sending me her pattern and I thank her from the bottom of my heart for that!

If you have ever used a Susan Smith pattern, you know they are not for the beginner. Instructions are minimal. This is the pattern for the basket which (per the pattern) is hand pieced using templates you draw up yourself from this diagram.
Not happening here--lol!

I did some figuring and worked out the measurements to rotary cut and machine piece the baskets to speed things up--I was so excited to start the applique!  

It ended up being very easy once I figured out that adding a flippy corner to the large half square triangle would make the basket bottom. 

My first basket filled! The pattern says to make the block and then do the applique. I was very worried about raveling and shrinking, so did this test block. It all worked out fine, so I'm going ahead with piecing before applique. 

I re-figured my calculations so I could make 2 blocks at a time--that way I do not end up with extra triangles. 

Here's where I am so far.
There will be 36 basket blocks in the quilt. They are all cut out and half of them have been sewn--and half of those have been filled--so fun! 

 I haven't deviated from the Susan Smith applique patterns--yet. If you take a close look at the original quilt from the 1800's, some baskets have pine trees, a rooster, deer and even giraffes! Thankfully Susan didn't include those blocks in her pattern--lol! 

So far, my favorite is the strawberry block but there's a cute tiny bird coming up soon! 

Keeping up

March is an easy month for the Cheddarback blocks.
This is the twelve inch block. 
The rest are the five inch blocks:

We've done this star earlier in an earlier grouping as well as this month.

I did this one using the Magic Eight method X 2. 

A tiny bit of applique on this one.

I used ticking instead of a shirting for this simple block. 

I've been distracted by another new project I started (!), but finally got around to prepping the March Afternoon Delight blocks. I'll be stitching these while I binge some things I have been hoarding on my DVR. I recently discovered Lark Rise to Candleford (not sure how I have never watched this series before) on the BYU channel and have to start clearing off episodes before I run out of room for new stuff!  

March One Monthly Goal

It only makes sense that I am going to make Smith Mountain Morning my One Monthly Goal for March--it's already loaded on my HQ16! I'm pretty excited to have this one finished, so as soon as I can make up my mind on a thread color, I will start quilting.
Linking with other One Monthly "Goal-ers" HERE