Hamilton Gardens Workshop!
All machines stitching away. All quilters digging in and making Hamilton Gardens blocks in our retreat workshop with Nola and the Bonniacs on retreat at Quiltville Inn this week!
I’m so excited to be teaching this quilt over the next few days with a willing group of gals who don’t mind going small!
These blocks may have some mighty small pieces and parts, but they go BIG on impact!
It all starts with strips – though ordinally my center four-patches came together as Leaders & Enders.
But who has time for THAT on retreat? We are pedal to the metal and getting blocks put together – not just going home with a pile of random units. right?
Twosies quickly became foursies and yes – we were spinning seams like pros!
No neutrals in these – just color, color, and more color!
And it’s about consistency – being consistent.
Subcut your four=patches into already matched pairs ready to sew through the machine by placing your strip sets right sides together and nesting that center seam BEFORE cutting.
You’ll get the cutting done in half the time – and there is zero time spent matching anything as they are already right sides together. Do all of the matching of what will end up next to what during the cutting process so then all you have to do is sew sew sew.
Did you know? if you send ALL of the four-patch pairs through the machine with the top seam facing up toward the needle your feed dogs will not flip the bottom seam allowance and shift those nested seams apart?
If you send them all with the top seam toward the needle, all of the seams will spin clockwise on the back of the four-patch. No matter how you turn the four-patches they will nest with each other.
It doesn’t come to play in this quilt because they are the center of the block and don’t nest with anything, but let’s say you are making a four-patch border and need to turn these around to get the best color placement – you want all of the seam allowances to spin in the same direction so they don’t fight each other.
Sewing sets of 3 for the outer round of squares.
And yes, the bottomless box of scrap squares comes in to play as cornerstones!
Laying out pieces and parts to check for placement.
It’s crazy how much things shrink up when seam allowances are taken in, isn’t it?
Pressing and more pressing!
Prepping for outer sashing round!
And what if we did it in all batiks with BLACK?!
One down and many more to sew –
Two on the design wall – cute neutrals!
Two more – so bright and happy!
The other side of the room hard at fun work.
How about skipping the center four patch all together and putting in some fun fussy-cuts?
I also love the Laurel Birch cats peeking out of the bottom row….cute!
If you’ve started one, but not finished it – perhaps this weekend you can pull it out and work on it wherever you are while we continue to work on it here!
The view from the top of Grassy Creek –
Yesterday I mentioned that we were taking the Subie to the fix it place to have some maintenance done. I followed Hubster Dave in the van while he drove – and I had to stop – okay “pause” at the top of Grassy creel to get a photo to show how things are greening up with trees getting their leaves.
It was an off and on rainy day – but the gentle drenchin “April Showers Bring May Flowers” kind of rain.
A great day to be inside quilting!
Today is our “intermediate” day and most of the quilters are taking off this morning for a round of quilt shop hopping and likely lunch out.
The few that remain will continue to work on their blocks.
Workshop will resume tomorrow with two kinds of setting triangles and corner triangles so they’ll be able to see how things get set on-point.
Thank you for the great response to our Dogwood Daze PDF pattern release!
I am so thrilled with the response, and so happy that the dogwoods are blooming at the same time. It’s Kismet!
And yes – there is introductory pricing AND a Gift-Away!
I have placed a 25% automatic discount on Dogwood Daze through 4/30/25 – no coupon code needed.
I will be drawing for two winners who will each receive a Dogwood Daze
They also have pulled gorgeous fabrics in colors inspired by Dogwood Daze to enhance your stash. Check them out!
Each fabric roll includes 20 different fabrics approximately 8” X 22” – a great variety!
We will draw for our winners this coming Monday 4/28/25.
Quiltville Quote of the Day –
Just pondering the things they’ll say at my funeral once I cross the Rainbow Bridge many years from now.
Oh, the stories they’ll tell!
And no, I never kept my mouth shut!
