My Quilting Marathon

This has been the best quilting marathon I've ever participated in. I should do this more often. The pile is 7 quilts deep. I thought I only had 2 or 3 more comfort quilts here but I forgot about the half dozen of my own tops I decided to contribute. I am sincerely hoping  this trend will continue for the next few months. Perhaps as long as I have everything I need then it will. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.  I'm glad the church basement ladies will do the bindings even though I don't mind that step.

I musta made this blue one over 20 years ago. It is next in line to get quilted, then I will donate it too. I will do a casual custom quilting job it. That means it will be simply and lightly custom/freehand quilted as opposed to the overall meander I might for some of the other comfort quilts.

And this one I just finished. All of the blocks except two I made to go together. Want to guess which two?  I framed them each with a different fabric cause we don't have the yardage to make sashing  all the same. And really I don't like sashing anyway. I made them all so they all came in the same size. But if you are working with blocks from different sources like a block lottery or exchange through a guild it would work to add wider sashing to the smaller blocks then trim them all down to the same size. It would also be an opportunity to repeat or introduce some new colors to make the colors  work together better.  I've had just about enough of the sampler quilts for a while After demonstrating twice a week for over a year I still have a mountain of blocks left. In fact, the blocks I arranged on the wall a few weeks ago are still there though I did make a few additions.

I was feeling a bit overwhelmed with the donation of fabric left for us at church last week. I haven't gone through it all but feel better about it now. Especially since I found backs for several of my tops. Perhaps when the roads clear after this storm I will go back and go through the remaining 6 boxes. It was fun even though it feels a bit overwhelming. Sure hope there are no orphan blocks in the mix.

Linking up to Judy's Design Wall Monday. 

Quilting Cause Its Dark

I pushed the blocks around a little  on the flannel wall.  Wasn't I clever to add corners to those boring nine-patch blocks to make blocks like in the last quilt I made. They started with 3" cut squares. I wish I'd done my quilt in that size. They made 10 1/2" blocks where I made 12" blocks in my quilt.  What am I going to do with a king size quilt. I don't even want a king size bed. Comparing this weeks and last weeks photo you would notice I found some more triangle units laying around. I may end up incorporating them as well.

I haven't put lots of thought into the quilt on the wall cause it has been so nice here for Dec. We've been cutting and stacking brush in the woods to burn later when we get some snow. It's cleaning up so nice. And once again I can't wait to enjoy the woods next year. And since it's been so nice we made this pair from a birch tree we cut down a few months ago.

 

It does get dark early. It's the only reason I can think as to how I actually quilted a comfort quilt this week. Tonight I will get another one loaded and begin quilting.

Sample, Reject and Surplus Blocks

It's been a quilty couple of days. Tuesday we met at church to start the next raffle quilt. It went well. Some more fabric was donated. A few nice big pieces for backs and I think Nancy donated a handful of orphan blocks.  We like that. Thank you. Some of the blocks went well with one of the piles that didn't have enough to go with them when I sorted 2 days earlier.  I'd say now they do, wouldn't you agree? Especially since I was rummaging in another box here the other day and came across another assorted dozen blocks I overlooked last weekend.

After planning so many more sampler quilts over the weekend I thought I better plan to work on one next. I will need to use spacers with all the odd sizes in this collection of blocks. I think the upper four 9-patch blocks will need to be separated, enlarged or trimmed or something else; can't leave them like that. Also not sure I will leave the group of same pattern blocks together. Maybe some but not all. Any suggestions???

Yesterday at Studio 3 I worked some more on my blue and taupe quilt. I'd misplaced one of the fabrics, but finally found it. I was there this morning too but didn't have a chance to work on it except to square up some Square-in-a-square units. Mark went out tonight and I spent an hour putting out a few Christmas decorations.  Rudy got pretty excited when he heard the BIG jingle bells. His favorite toy has a little ribbon and jingle bell tied on the end of a string on the end of a stick.

Tomorrow after Studio 3 I WILL start quilting the Pine Tree tabletopper. Unless something better comes up. Happy December everyone.