Disclaimer:   hmmm.. it looks as though my attached pictures aren't placed in their proper (uploaded) order.  Ah well ... such is life.  I'm sure y'all will figure out which picture goes with which description.  :-)

What have I been working on?  (besides my on-going and forever in perpetuity scrapbook albums!)    Well, I have TWO English Paper Piecing projects.

One I've talked (and whined!) about extensively ... Inner Cube.  I'm pleased to say that every single, stinkin' piece has been prepped.  Interestingly, the top is assembled in *columns*.  I have painstakingly assembled each column, with all of its pieces, stacked appropriately in the order in which they are to be stitched.  Each column (of pieces) is then placed in a ziplock back and labeled.  This is my mega-Forever Project, earmarked to be worked on when we take a major road trip this September.  I will have hours and hours and hours of passenger time in the car.  Having each column already organized is crucial.  I fully intend on making substantial progress on this project during the road trip.  (so she says!)

The other EPP project is one that I got hooked into because I was in one of my several stages of frustration and intimidation during the Inner Cube project.  And this project was NEW!  BRIGHT!  SHINEY!  and .... **easy**.  It's called Dillyflower and was created by Elise Baek (she has FB groups for EPP).  She didn't plan any project with it; she just showed you how to make ONE Dillyflower and then it was up to you to do something with it.   Essentially, it is a *short* Dresden Fan with a rounded top, stitched around a central hexagon.  I knew it looked familiar and, sure enough, when I looked back in my reference files, I found the exact same design, only it was called a HexDen (hexagon Dresden).

Elise did have paper templates for stitching and acrylic templates for cutting but I didn't want to go to that expense .... I just had my Scan-n-Cut cut out all of my paper templates for me and cut squares of fabric (instead of shapes).  I also made my paper templates larger than Elise had available ... which would make my project larger, which is good because I wanted a bed quilt.

Below are photos of the Dillyflower project.  

First is a drawing of the finished quilt.  It is alternating columns of 1) colored flowers on a neutral b/g and 2) neutral flowers on a colored b/g.

Second is a picture of the prepped EPP pieces ... and one completed Dillyflower.  The central hexagon is being stitched to one of the Dresden Fan pieces.

Third is a picture of the completed block ... the Dillyflower is appliqued onto the background fabric.  Elise's direction have you cut the background piece with a *curve* at the narrow edge to match the Dillyflower curve.  I did ONE block like that ... and never again.  Waaaay too tedious.  All the rest of my background pieces are cut as trapezoids ... so much easier and less wasting of fabric.  Once the Dillyflower is appliqued on top, you can't tell the difference between the background pieces that have a curve and the ones that are trapezoids.

Fourth is a picture of the stacks of colored Dillyflowers that have been basted to their backgrounds ... all ready and waiting to be appliqued.  

I still need to stitch all of the green and orange Dillyflower blocks.

THEN ... repeat the entire process with neutral Dillyflowers on colored backgrounds!   Since all of the colored fabrics are different (i.e. scrappy), I'm not concerned about matching a colored background to a colored flower ... or even if a colored flower has a corresponding background somewhere.  It just doesn't matter.  As long as I can get the appropriate number of backgrounds in the right colored fabrics, it'll be good.   Ditto for the neutral fabrics used for the Dillyflowers ... I'm using what I have in my stash.  What is there is what I'll use.  And if I run out of neutral (which could happen, as I don't typically stockpile beige/neutral), then I'll go shopping.  :-)

heck.. If I make DillyFlowers (tempted!) I would just cut big hexies for the background...no faffing about with cutting more pieces and applique the whole flower on..

yours are looking devine...

Suze (casuzenn) said:

I would just cut big hexies for the background..

I did that for my first experimental block.  What I found out was that it took a HUGE amount of fabric for the 1-block background.  It was more economical of fabric to cut all the trapezoids cuz you can cut them all nested up against each other.   Also, the seam lines on the background (which I did by machine) serve as a guide for centering the Dillyflower.  :-)

still think I would do the big background hexie, even if it IS more economical to cut the trapizoids! I am too lazy!

heh ... and I was concerned about running out of background fabric!   Even though I had a "ton" of a specific beige neutral, I absolutely DID run out of it!  

So, i went with Plan B .... *yes*!  intentional scrappy beige neutral backgrounds!  ::cough::

I've been working all summer on crazy quilt blocks.  Do some of you remember the swap that Kathy Shun hosted many years ago?  I started the blocks way back then.  Then I took a series of on-line classes from Kathy Shaw in an effort to learn more techniques, get ideas, and make progress on them.  I finally have all 20 blocks started and 7 completely finished (I'll try to post some pictures when the baby is napping or else tomorrow).  There's still a ways to go though. 

Progress has been slow on everything quilt related because I'm still watching Great Grandson, Zahn, and 18-month old great granddaughter, Kingsley, while their mothers work full-time. 

Kingsley is not feeling well right now.  Her mom (Lindzey) took her to the emergency room this past week with really bad stomach and intestinal flu.  Then within a day she also seemed to have a cold.  Poor little thing - she's still not doing well.  To top it off, her mom called last night at bed time and told me she (Lindzey) tested positive for Covid.  I was distressed to hear that.  She had a scratchy throat on Friday, I've had one since yesterday.  I tested negative this morning, thankfully.  I guess I'll test again in a day or two.  So, I've been watching a sick baby.  This is hard.

On with the saga.  I was getting frustrated that not much other quilting besides the crazy quilting was getting done so I decided to work on my Civil War Bride quilt starting last week, before all of this happened. 

I got all of the Civil War Bride blocks sewn together.  Next is working on the borders.  I have a plan for them, and have ordered a 3/4" bias tape maker for the stems, so I'll soon be set for that step.  In the meantime, I'll work on selecting fabric, etc. for the leaves that go on those stems. 

I looked back at old pictures I had saved and my Civil War Bride quilt has been in process since 2009.  It's about time to get it finished, right!  I'm going to try and include a picture.  It's 16 blocks, is all needle turn applique, and embellished with various pretties.  The bride is wearing a white dress, which some may not think is authentic for the civil war era, but before I chose the white I did some research.  Queen Victoria introduced wearing a white dress and it was all the rage for many in that era.

Here it is, although after many attempts, I still can't get it to post right side up.  Ugh.  I think I'll delete it try it again in a separate post.

Here's a closeup of the bride and the groom (I designed him and that block).

those are splendid blocks! Whole quilt is beautiful.

Hope you don't have Covid..and hope all your sickees are back to right as rain soon.

Oh. My. Goodness.

Linda, that is *spectacular*!  I'm not surprised that it has taken this long, since 2009, to get it completed.  Each block is an enormous amount of work, as there is *so* much applique in each block.  And if you're also working on other projects, or just get bored with working on it for such a long time, it adds up.

Is there another border that goes around it?

Have you given any thought to how to quilt it?