Design Wall Monday - April 27, 2026

Good Morning Quilters!

May Day is coming on May 1st,  and it is one of my favorite holidays.  Years ago, as a little girl, I would take flowers to my neighbors and hang a little bunch of flowers in a small basket on their doorknob, ring the doorbell, and run away to make it a surprise.  I cannot run at 83, but I plan on delivering little bouquets of flowers to my neighbors this Friday.

Here is a picture of a May Day basket doll quilt that I made.  I embroidered the blocks and made it as a smaller version of a bed sized May Day Basket quilt.

It measures 20” x 29” and I bought the embroidery patterns on the internet.

The larger quilt is shown here, on the couch:

The larger quilt measures 80” by 94” and is from a very old quilt pattern.  There is a lot more history on this quilt pattern in one of my previous blog posts  (Here)

And here is a closeup of the basket of lilacs block, as lilacs are one of my favorites.

What are you planning on doing to celebrate May’s arrival?  After all the snow and winter weather in Michigan this year, I am welcoming May with open arms…..and welcoming flowers everywhere.  You have my permission to treat yourself to a little bouquet of flowers this Friday.  

Please join our Design Wall Monday Linky Party and show us your quilts and other sewing projects.  Link back to my blog from somewhere within your blog post and I will be happy.  Happy May Day!

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Design Wall Monday - April 20, 2026

Good Morning Quilters!

Well, I tea-dyed the ocean waves quilt, but I don’t think it made much difference.  So after I did it, I read up on how to do it……..my usual plan of attack, I’m afraid.  So now I think I’ll try it again with improvements in method.  

What did I do wrong?  I didn’t use enough tea bags.  I didn’t let the tea seep for 15 minutes before using it.  I didn’t wet the quilt with a solution of water and vinegar before soaking it in the tea.  I didn’t leave the quilt in the tea for at least an hour..  So there is more to this process than just making tea and soaking the quilt in it.  I will do the process over again this week and try it again..

Here is a picture of my quilt in the tea:

 

And the wet quilt out on the porch on the clothes line:

Also this week, I gave the Winnie the Pooh baby quilt away at my friend Cierra’s baby shower.  The quilt turned out well, but I forgot to take a picture of the quilt to show you. ( It is aggravating to be old and forgetful.  But it is my truth.)  I will ask Cierra to take a picture of the baby on the quilt when the baby is born.

What success or failure have you had this week?  One success I had was I had a birthday on Thursday, and had lots of good wishes and beautiful flower gifts from friends.  It was a great birthday and made me feel so blessed.  I’m now 83.

Please add your blog and picture to our Design Wall Monday Linky Party below.  It seems like there are fewer linkups lately, but I know everyone is busy and time seems to be going faster.  I enjoy all of your posts and am looking forward to reading about you and your quilts this week.  Thanks to all who participate.

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Design Wall Monday - April 13, 2026

Good Morning Quilters!

I’m just back from a quilting retreat and it made me so happy to see these talented ladies again.  I see them year after year at retreat and they’re such a wonderful group of quilters.  The time together goes so fast.

And to double my pleasure, our daughter joined me for the retreat.  She is not a quilter, but she sews and she made two purses and a large tote bag while at the retreat.  We had a lot of fun, and made lots of good memories,

I worked on an old UFO, and finished it into a quilt top.  It was started when I first was interested in quilting, and is made of a block called ocean waves.  Here is a picture:

 

The background color is white on some blocks and light tan on others, so I am going to tea dye the whole thing to make the background color on the blocks more cohesive.  I will post another picture of it after the tea dyeing and we shall see if it makes a difference.  

Today I will unpack my quilting supplies, and get some laundry done.  And tomorrow I will be back to quilting at home all alone, but with my head full of good memories of a week spent with my friends and dear daughter.

What has your week been like?  I am looking forward to seeing your pictures and reading your blogs.  Thanks for participating in our Design Wall Monday Linky Party.

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Design Wall Monday - April 6, 2026

Good Morning Quilters!

This week I starched and ironed some of the fabrics in the Jane Austen Quilt kit.  There are several fabrics that the instructions said to fussy cut.  Here is one fabric that I have penciled out the diamond shapes on:

And here are the diamonds I cut from this fabric for the quilt:

Sorry about the coloring difference between the two pictures, but pictures were taken in different lighting.  Cut blocks reflect truer colors of the fabric.  

My take on the two starches I bought:  I liked them both, but prefer the spray nozzle on the Best Press a little better.  They both stiffened the fabric the same way, but I would buy the Best Press again.  Why? The bottle had 1/2 ounce more in it than the other brand, and both were the same price at the store.  I don’t plan on spraying fabric for future quilts though, unless there are a lot of biased edges involved, as it adds another step…….that is not usually necessary.

This Jane Austen quilt is very interesting, and I am eager to get started on it, but I am also pulled toward finishing my Indigo and shirting Jane Stickle quilt.  It is so close to being finished.  So I am busy with both Jane’s right now.  What are you busy with this week?  I am sure some of you were busy with family gatherings for Easter.   It is such a joyful holiday of celebration, with greetings of “He is risen”……and replies of “He is risen indeed.”

Please join our Design Wall Monday Linky Party below and show us a picture with a link to your blog post.  I appreciate your participation.  Thank you. 

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