Wounded Warrior Quilt

At a quilt guild meeting in February, a friend gave me a stack of old quilt blocks, all of them churn dash but not all the blocks were the same size.  She asked me to put them into a quilt for our Wounded Warrior Quilt project. My first task was to trim the blocks to usable sizes as most of them had frayed edges due to age, storage and probably lots of handling. Next was to add borders to the smaller blocks to make them the same as the larger ones. My quilt block presentation at guild last month was Job's Troubles. I decided to make these as my alternate block and I decided to use a mariner's compass block in the center of the quilt.  Some of this is perhaps old info for anyone who follows my blog because I wrote about it on February 6 and 7. 

The above photo is the completed quilt which I finished this week. The darker blocks at the bottom of the photo are not dark but show that way due to being in a shadow. This quilt measures 60" x 84". 

My husband and I both like this quilt really well. If I hadn't been given so many of the blocks for a specific purpose and planned this as a donation quilt from the very beginning, I'd probably keep it. Maybe there's an opportunity here to recreate it. Probably not as I have several quilts awaiting quilting and / or finishing. So I'll be happy with a photo and the knowledge that this quilt is going to a good cause and probably to someone who will be encouraged by it and be thankful to have it. I will make it a donation at my next quilt guild meeting. 

Orphan Block Quilt

This baby/lap quilt is made from orphan blocks that were in with a box of fabric that was given to me. To the blocks I added borders and filled in with some squares of fabric, backed the completed top with pink fleece and completed it with quilting. The quilt is approx 36" x 46". I'm taking this and the doll quilt I posted yesterday to quilt guild this eve where I'll donate them for use by a local charity. 

Baskets & Hearts Quilt

This little quilt started with preprinted block fabric that I had in the cabinet. I cut the blocks out and added sashing and borders. I backed it with a piece of fleece which was turned to the front after the quilting was finished. It is approx 36" x 45".  This baby or lap size quilt with be donated to my quilt guild and given to a local charity. 

Last year my goal was to make 12 quilts this size to donate to charity. That goal didn't get completed due to my husband's illness. I've set that as a goal again this year. I've now completed 2. I'm a little behind but have a couple in the works so should be on schedule soon. 

Charity Quilt

This little quilt was made from precut squares that were in a box of fabric, ufo's and orphan blocks that had been given to me. The squares were cut 6" squares  I set them 6 x 8 and added a border all around. This will be donated to my quilt guild for charity. It'll make a great child's quilt or lap quilt. It is backed with fleece. 

Doll Quilt

This little quilt was made from a set of assembled flying geese blocks that had been given to me to use for charity quilts. I added a border to each side, quilted it with fleece backing, turned the backing to the front to bind and had a completed  doll quilt. This quilt finished at 18 x 23". I was thinking that a good size might be 18 x 24" and this is close enough. I wanted all four borders to be the same width. This will be donated to Toys for Tots. 

Block 19

I have completed block 19 of the Benjamin Biggs quilt (the current Just Takes 2 block of the month). This block is now ready for trimming and stitch to other quilt blocks. 

This is the July block so I still have one block to do to be current on this project. I do have 1/4 of the appliqué border done. I figure if I complete 1 section of border every 2 months, the border will be finished before the last block is completed. That's a great plan but with travel plans and holidays in that period of time it will certainly be a challenge. We'll see. 

Light centers challenge

I've posted this quilt previously but now that it is finished, I'm posting again to show the finished piece. This is what I did for the light center challenge on the Heartstrings Yahoo Group. The centers are a light peach. After choosing the center fabric, I then separated my strings into 2 groups: aquas/teals and others. The quilt is set 4 x 6 blocks. With 9" finished blocks, that made the quilt 36" x 54" so I added side borders to give it a bit more width. The borders added another 6" so the quilt is now 42 x 54, a not so long and narrow size. The quilt is backed with blue fleece the edges of which are turned to the front for binding. 

Bandana Quilt

I made one of these quilts before and still had a set of bandanas for another quilt. So this past week I got the quilt top put together and this week I quilted and finished it.

Though it doesn't show much in this photo, the black border fabric had lots of colorful lines on it so it goes well with the colors in this quilt. With the colorful backing (see below) this turned out to be cute. It will be donated to my quilt guild for our charity project.  We make small quilts which go to babies and children but also work well as lap quilts when given to nursing homes. 

Biggs Quilt Border

I've finished a border for 1 side of the Benjamin Biiggs quilt. (Photo shows only 1/2 of it as it's folded in half.)  I deviated from the pattern by using blue rather than green bunting. I also used a red flower bud centered between 2 leaves rather than 3 green leaves. The original quilt had more green in the border than I wanted. I kept the flower bud units a purple bud with green leaf and stem as used in all the block corners of my quilt. 

Now I need to start this month's block. I'm hoping to keep up with the blocks posted monthly on one of 2 web sites: Sentimental  Stitches or Dear Jane plus get a border finished every 2 months. If I can do that, all the pieces for this quilt top will be finished in Feb 2016 when the last block is posted. 

Baby Quilt

This little baby quilt was finished a couple weeks ago but I didn't get it photographed. For this quilt I used 5" squares and 2 1/2 " strips around them which made 8" finished blocks. This made a quilt just a little smaller than my standard 36" x 45" so I added a 2" finished border all around to make it close to my standard size. The quilt is backed with yellow fleece and finished at 36" x 44".  This will be donated to my quilt guild's charity project when I go to the meeting Wednesday. 

Grand Illusion Mystery

Grand Illusion Miniature

Stars Around Grand Illusion

Last Decmeber and January, I was doing Bonnie Hunter's Grand Illusion Mystery. Having done several mysteries previously, I know that, though most of the time I'm pleased with the results, sometimes I don't care for the finished product. So before I began working on this one, I decided to make it smaller by cutting the pieces 1/2 scale and then I cut only 1/4 of the total piece count.

It all worked out fine until I got to the sashing and after putting the sashing around 4 blocks, it was too busy for my taste and preference. So a UFO (unfinished object) it became. 

This week, I tackled that UFO by finishing the 4 block piece I had done and then I had one more Grand Illusion block and 4 star blocks I must have made from partial blocks when I got frustrated with the project. Now what do I do?

I put sashing around the one block and decided to use the star blocks as corners. I then made some more star blocks from the fabrics I had left. (The star blocks went quickly by my using the no waste flying geese method.) Using these with the 4 corner blocks, I soon had stars all around the Grand Illusion block. This little quilt I named "Stars Around Grand Illusion". I added a border and got this little quilt finished.

 Now I have 2 completed, matching quilts which finished at approximately 20" square. They are labeled and have rod casings on the back so they are ready for hanging. IM pleased with both of the little quilts. It's nice to have them done. 

Biggs Quilt Block 17

I finished block 17 of the Biggs Quilt today. There are 8 more blocks to do for this 25 block quilt. I have started assembling the blocks and also got a piece of fabric for one border cut and marked with the pattern but haven't yet put any appliqué on it.  It feels good to have this block finished so that I'm ready for the new block when it comes out the first of the month. 

2015 Spring Mystery

I just finished the top for a baby quilt, using the instructions I'd saved from the 2015 Spring Mystery by Cindy Carter.  There are directions for several sizes on the website as well as photos of completed quilts.
http://carterquilter.wordpress.com/

The pattern had an outside border but I chose not to use one. This top measures approx 36" x 43", just the size appropriate for donation to our guild's baby quilt project. I usually make the quilts 36 x 45 so this one is close enough without a border. 

Now to decide what color fleece to back it with. The fleece will make a self binding which will add a narrow band of color around the edge of the quilt. 

Biggs Quilt Block 16

No tiny leaves this month!  A pretty simple block compared to some we've done lately.  This is block 16 of the Benjamin Biggs quilt,mother blockof the month being done currently at Just Takes 2. 

One of these days I need to start the borders. I did trim and stitch together the first 10 blocks. I plan to quilt this quilt in sections and then put the quilted sections together. Blocks 1-10 will be my first section. I don't want to get to the end of the piecing and be overwhelmed with quilting this big quilt. 

Biggs Quilt Block 15

Having taken about 2 months to complete block 13 with all of its small leaves, I was discouraged with this project. Block 14 went much quicker but I was still dreading this block. One day I took out the pattern, saw that the leaves were bigger than those on block 13 and then wrote down the sizes if fabric needed for the appliqué pieces. I decided to do the corners first. So many of them have been done, they're comfortable. Next was the flowers and flower stems of the block center. They were similar to the corners. Now I had this block underway and by doing a few pieces at a time, I soon had it completed. It's a pretty block. 

There are 10 more blocks for this quilt. That makes me think that it's time to get started on the borders and have a plan for the quilting process. It would be so nice for this to get finished and not become a UFO. I'll be starting on those borders soon. 

From Discards to Quiltlets

When piecing a quilt or sewing a garment, there are pieces we discard. Some pieces are too little to use. From person to person, the determining of what is trash and what is useful differs. Some people prefer not to keep and use any of the scraps so they discard or give them away.

For a quilter, scraps must be greater than 1/2" wide as seam allowances are 1/4". Some may keep 1" strips or squares. Others may think those are too little to use. Personally, I will keep a 1" strip for string quilts but I determine 1" squares to be too small to keep.

Sometimes pieces are larger and they can be cut into whatever sizes the quilter frequently uses. I use leftover blocks and pieces up to 18" square for preemie quilts which are 18" square. 

Here are 3 preemie quilts I finished this morning. They were made from discarded fabric that I brought home from quilt guild. The bottom one was made from squares that someone had cut. Chances are these were leftover from other projects but there were enough for a cute little preemie quilt. 

On My Design Wall

Having seen a quilt made with this block, I thought it looked interesting and so I started it last fall. I had the majority of the 6" (finished size) string squares done but had only added the light  triangles to 4 squares, enough for 1 block. I was discouraged because the triangles weren't working. I hadn't adequately thought through the cutting process. Thankfully I'd only cut a few pieces because 1/2 of what I cut were backwards and wouldn't work. 

Over the weekend, I pulled out this project and gave it another try. For the triangle shapes I cut rectangles and then, before cutting the rectangles in half, I checked to see that all them were right side up then cut them on a diagonal, corner to corner. That worked!

I have now stitched together a few more string squares and have added the triangles to all the squares.  I'm ready to stitch everything together and will soon have a finished quilt top (baby size). 

Bitty Blocks Quilt

After seeing the layouts for the Bitty Blocks quilt, I decided to make enough for the 66 x 85" size. This size quilt needs for each row either 15 4" finished blocks or 20 3" finished blocks. I had made enough of the basket blocks but had only 16 each for the bow tie and house blocks. So today I made 4 more of each one. At least the bow tie and house blocks are both quick to make. They're all colorful and cute. Though the photo doesn't show it well, these houses all have different colors for the rooftops. 

Black, White, Brights Challenge

 in December on the Heartstrings group, there was a challenge to make a black, white and brights string quilt. I finished the top in Dec. and this morning I finished the quilting and binding. So this quilt is ready for donation to charity. 

That's the last of the charity quilt tops ready for quilting. So now, I'll concentrate on getting another UFO (unfinished object) completed. 

On My Design Wall

Bitty Blocks

These are little 3" (finished size) house blocks that I made today. The pattern is posted on Quiltmaker.com. These were easy, quick and fun to make. All the pieces can be cut from 2" strips. So I gathered fabric from my bin of 2" strips and also used a few strips that were in with my dotted fabric. 

I also found on Quiltmaker.com the layout instructions for several sizes of quilts to use the blocks in. All are row quilts. Now I need to decide what size quilt to make so that I make the correct number if blocks each month. That way, when the end if the year comes and all the blocks have been posted, all I'll have to do is put the quilt together.