Going, going. . .

For the last week or so, my front yard has been 'under construction.' I blame it entirely on the folks over at The Taunton Press. Their book, The Front Yard Idea Book, gave my husband the crazy/inspired idea to install a stone patio in the front of our house! After a few visits to the Phoenix Flower Farm, Dave contracted with Delos and his crew to do the deed. From my sewing room in the front of the house, I've watched as equipment and supplies arrived, lawn disappeared, holes were dug, and stone was laid.  . .

 . . . It's not done yet, but it's getting close. Some of the plants are staged around the new patio, in their pots, ready for planting. I'll have to show you more pictures when it's all done. Right now, it's in that awkward stage of bland. It's quite a bold move, and such a mess while work is underway. I'm sure our neighbors will be happy when the task is done (stone saws are very noisy and dusty beasts!)

Speaking of messes. I made this tumbling blocks quilt several years ago using Marti Michell's instructions and templates. The quilt is in very good shape considering that is has been passed on to a few different caretakers. Most recently, my brother acquired it while clearing out some of my aunt's things when she was moved to a senior residence. Somewhere along the line this small section of the quilt top interacted with some bleach. A bad combination.

I decided to follow my own advice, and used some suggestions from When Bad Things Happen To Good Quilters. Couldn't find the acrylic templates, but fortunately for me, Marti's book has traceable shapes. I got very lucky and found some purple and blue fabrics, cut the shapes I needed from traced templates, and pieced a very strange-shaped arrangement of four tumbling block shapes to cover the stain.

Forgot to take a picture of the shape before I pinned it to the quilt, below. As I pinned, I turned under the seam allowance. See the red outline of the shape?

I used some 60 weight Presencia thread in colors to match to applique the shape exactly over the existing seam lines.

The colors blended so well that I could hardly find the patch for the next step. . .

 . . .So I placed a pin nearby to find it again.

Then I found a perfect match for the thread I used for the original quilting. And retraced my quilting lines.

Poof! No more stain.

The full quilt. I circled the pin so you could see where the fix is. Can't see it? . . .

. . . How about a closer look? Yeah, me neither!

When my brother dropped off the quilt to see if it could be fixed, I suspect he really wasn't counting on much.

Showed him! When bad things happen to good quilters . . . good quilters take the challenge!


Happy Stitching!
Joan