It Comes From Within

"It Comes From Within " is a quilt which was offerered in 2008 as a no mail round robin on the quiltsbykos yahoo group. I was quick to get the top finished but then it sat on a shelf in my sewing room. I decided to get it finished so that it would no longer be a UFO (unfinished object). Having a day off work this week due to a snowstorm (we got nearly 13 inches of snow!) gave me some extra time to work on it. I was able to finish it today. This wallhanging is 34" square and will be one of several that I can alternately put above my fireplace. The center square was a block that I had, made by my paternal grandmother. She was a quilter and probably the reason I'm a quilter today. Quilting is part of my heritage. That makes the title of this little quilt especially meaningful.

9 patch hearts

I've signed up for a 9 patch heart swap. I have made two sets of hearts. Here are two heart blocks. This will be the piecing project I complete next as the blocks are due in February. They are 7.5" (7"finished) blocks and go together quickly.

The top edges of the blocks don't show up as they are white on white and are against white flannel on the wall in my sewing room. Still, you get the idea of the heart.

9 patch mini quilt completed

Well! I did it. I finished this little quilt before the end of the month! It is all machine done. I used the backing as self-binding by turning it over to the front of the quilt. It is labeled and has a rod pocket attached so it is ready for hanging.

mini blocks mini quilt

Today I went to my box of mini 9 patches collected from previous swaps and pulled out some reds. I then took some half square triangles from my leader/ender basket and the result is this cute little mini quilt that measures approx. 15 x 18 with the added border. I plan to get this quilted by the end of the month. If the quilting goes as quickly as the piecing of this little quilt did, it won't be a problem.

Mini 9 patches

These are some of the mini 9 patch blocks I've been working on for a swap. These little cuties are 3.5 inches and finish as 3" blocks in a quilt. I really like these and enjoy making them. They're really easy when one starts with 1.5" strips. This swap is scheduled for March so I'm finished with my blocks early.

My focus so far this year (2009) has been to complete items for swaps I've signed up for. I've completed all my brown and pink blocks, the mini 9 patches and the F alphabet blocks. I still have about 20 B alphabet blocks to complete.

Another brown and pink block set

This is a sample of my second set of pink and brown 6" blocks. This block is called thrifty. This swap doesn't occur until June so I have lots of time to think about how I will use the blocks. I'll have 24 as the result of this swap.

Brown and Pink Swap

I just signed up for a 12 person swap. This swap will be 6" blocks made with brown and pink. Each person will be doing a different block pattern. My block is a 9 patch variation. I've made only one of these so far. I wanted to see what it would look like. I tried a pale pink but changed to this pink so that there would be contrast between the pink and white. This pink reminds me of cherry ice cream.

Quilt Block Swaps

I've been working on B and F blocks for the alphabet block swap I'm in. These are paper pieced. Though the color may not show it the B has butterfly fabric with a soft print behind it. The F's have frogs or flowers. I'll be making 28 of each letter and then will receive in return one block for each letter of the alphabet. What a fun alphabet quilt these will make. It'll be fun just seeing all the blocks together, made by different quilters. I'll be using several different fabric combinations as I'm using fabric that I already have and I don't have large amounts of my novelty fabrics. I'm finding that I can get 5 or 6 out of 2 fat quarters. The F is very easy to do, the B more challenging as it requires the pattern to be cut into 2 pieces and then the pieces are stitched together to make the B.

Christmas Tree Skirt

This is the tree skirt that I made for Scott and Millie. It is reversible, patchwork on one side and snowmen on the other. The snowmen side was a printed panel - actually each panel was only 1/2 of the tree skirt so this is a nice size. There are pockets on the snowmen side, a place to hide a special little gift or a fun place to put any small gift. They had been wanting a tree skirt and were very pleased with this gift.