Heartstrings Quilt

I finished this baby quilt (36 x 45") on Sat. I'm just now posting it because Sunday and yesterday were busy days as well as cloudy and rainy so it would have been harder to get a photo. This quilt will be donated to charity through my local quilt guild. It is backed with fleece. 

Bandana Quilt

I saw a quilt similar to this online and thought it looked like it'd be a cute baby quilt. This consists of 4 bandanas, 2 border pieces and fleece backing. It will be given to my quilt guild for local distribution to one of the several charities we donate to. 

This quilt had many challenges due to the use of bandanas. They are not printed straight nor are they cut straight and square. I trimmed a little, fudged a little and then decided there was nothing that could be done about the cockeyed print. So put the whole thing together as is. I have enough bandanas to make 1 more and probably will at some point -  but on it, I'll know to expect bandanas that aren't square and also are badly printed. 

The pattern itself is cute and makes an interesting, colorful quilt but my advice is to forget the bandanas and use squares cut from yardage. Use squares that are 18-20".  One square is the center. The next border is made from cutting a square into 4 quarters by cutting diagonally through the corners, making 4 triangles. . The last border consists of triangles formed from cutting 2 squares in half diagonally (from corner to corner).

Quick, Easy and Cute

1 piece of fabric + 1 piece of fleece =

1 cute baby quilt. 

This playful kitten quilt will be donated to my quilt guild's baby project. The quilts go to various local charities. On this quilt, I used straight stitching between the windows the kittens are peeking through. Turn the fleece to the front, stitch down, trim and it's done. Here's a close-up showing the fleece used as self binding. The scallop is a decorative stitch on my machine. 

SNOW and COLD

What do you do.when there's a snowstorm that lasts a day followed by bitter cold temperatures? I like to sew or quilt. Since there were no church services Sunday and we were staying in, I had plenty of time. I'd recently put together a baby quilt top made from shaded 4 patch blocks that I had sitting in a basket in the cabinet ....So I decided that Sunday was the day to get it quilted.  I backed it with fleece and used alternating rows of diagonal stitching (straight and serpentine). This little quilt is 36 x 42", a nice cuddle quilt for a  little one.

Today, I started the 2014 Just Takes 2 quilt - the Benjamin Biggs Quilt. I'll be using the colors of the original quilt. I checked to see what fabrics I had.  I have most of the reds I'll need and several greens but I will need to buy some more green as well as some more background fabric.  I had plenty to get started and have started sewing my 1st block  I'll post a photo when it's done.  This year the clues for the JT2 quilt only come out the 1st of each month so I've made a plan.  During the last 1/2 of the month, after I've completed the current block, I'll work on the 2012 JT2 quilt which I've not yet finished.  So I'll be posting photos of my progress on both quilts as I finish blocks and/or sections.

I'm giving thought to doing the Biggs quilt ' quilt as you go' so that by the end of the clues, I'll not only have the top done - I'll have most of the quilt finished.  DH and I have some travel scheduled for this year but not as much as we did last year so perhaps I can make this work.  The Biggs blocks will make nice home or travel projects, whether I'm doing appliqué or quilting the block.

Old UFO Finished

In cleaning and putting away in my sewing area last week, I came across a set of quilt blocks I'd never done anything with so pulled them out to reassess what to do with them. These were 10" finished blocks - 20 of them. I made these when I had few fabrics at home to choose from and I didn't particularly like the finished blocks but it could at least be a charity quilt or a baby quilt. 

So the blocks were arranged in a pleasing manner and I chose to use fleece for the backing. Now on to quilting, first stabilizing by stitching in the ditch around the blocks. There were 4 different kinds of blocks so I chose one  and quilted all of those then moved on to a different kind of block, and so on.  With each block done I found myself not only enjoying the process but liking the quilt. This was a great quilt on which to try new things and  get in much machine quilting practice. Most of the quilting on this quilt was done with a walking foot and some of it I did free motion.  I took the photo with the quilt on the floor so it isn't a straight on view (I'm not tall enough for that). 

Here are some photos of the quilting on the blocks. 

I turned the backing to the front of the quilt, stitched it down and the quilt is finished. Size of quilt: 40" x 50".