Here is a picture of my freshly finished wall hanging Bird Song from the book Mini Wonderful Curves by Jenny Pedigo and Helen Robinson for Sew Kind of Wonderful with Sherilyn Martensen.

I follow both Sew Kind of Wonderful and Sherilyn Martensen on Instagram and I have been inspired by Sherilyn's quilting on many beautiful projects. I wanted to try quilting similar to hers on my wall hanging. I need more practice but I am pleased with this result. 
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I used Quilters Dream Dream Puff batting which is a nice thick polyester batting. I like the 'puff' that results when this batting is densely quilted. I also like a faced binding. However when I steamed the binding heavily to get it nice and flat on the back of the hanging, it really flattened the batting. So I machine washed and dried the hanging and the batting flatness was corrected but the edges do not lay nice and flat against the wall. I probably should wash it again and block the hanging while drying to see if that helps. 

I like to wash and dry my quilts after making them. I like the look that results. Also, I like to write the label details directly onto the back of the quilt with an acid-free fine tip marker. To keep the text straight, I draw lines with an air-erasable marker that conveniently disappear.

The arrival of a new grandson has been a welcome distraction from my business recently. It was very nice to spend time with my family helping out. For my grandchildren, I knit a Sky blanket for them. As soon as I hear of the pregnancy, I begin a list (bulleted circles beside the date and sky colour that I can tap to fill with a checkmark when the row is completed) on my phone to record the sky colour each day. I use a palette of about 6-7 yarns to represent the sky colours. I knit a row of the sky colour for each day until they are born. When they arrive the blanket is finished! You can see the blanket in the photo. To keep the yarn additions easy at the end of each row I begin and end with a 6 inch length and after 5 rows I gather these together into a knot. This creates a knotted fringe on two edges of the blanket. I have observed that there are mostly days with blue skies-something positive to keep in mind.

I have recently added some books to my library. I love books of all kinds and quilting books are no exception. I look forward to being inspired by these talented authors in the days to come.

I have some customer quilts to work on over the next while - I am looking forward to this. I always love to see what quilt tops my customers have created.

Here are some pictures of my flower block in different colours with a plain white background. I have identical twin nieces who are celebrating their birthday today. These two blocks make me think of them - both are beautiful!

For all of these blocks I treated the bow-tie inset square like a cathedral window block and inset yet another fabric before hand-stitching down the curves. I do like this look!

These six blocks are 6 1/2 X 6 1/2 inches unfinished. I used the Wonder Curve Ruler by Sew Kind of Wonderful to make the smallest size of Shimmer Block from their pattern book Text Me. .

This is my first attempt using the smallest size of shimmer block Each square finishes to 1 1/2 in. There are too many leaves in this attempt and I don't care for the inset stem that requires inset background pieces to the left and right of the flower. I do like the center of the flower which is done by using the easy bow-tie block method. 

This is my second attempt but making a bigger sized shimmer block. This shimmer block finishes to 2 1/2 inches. I tried using background 'rectangles' instead of squares to each side of the flower to do away with a tiny strip of background fabric however ​I am not liking how the inset stem in the bottom half results in misaligned seam lines to the flower top half. 

Here is the next attempt at the same 2 1/2 inch sized shimmer block. I like the leaves closer to the flower and without the upward tip piece. For the stem on this one I inset a folded strip of 1 inch stem fabric into the seam that joined both leaves. Then I pressed it flat and applique stitched it in place. This results in upper and lower seam lines lining up which I like but it created more bulk in the stem due to the method.

Now I'm back to the smallest sized shimmer block that finishes at 1 1/2 inches. I am happy with this layout. I used a bigger sized flower insert (bowtie method) and I pieced the 1 inch stem fabric after I trimmed the stem side of the leaves by 1/4 inch. This resulted in a less bulky stem and the seam lines in the upper and lower halves line up nicely. I quickly quilted it on my domestic machine using Peltex (bag making stiff stuff) and finishing it easily with a satin stitch.


Here is the back of the 6 1/2 inch square block. 
I am happy with this size and layout. Now I will make one in brighter fabrics with a white background. I'll post pics when it is done.