A Quickie

I sure hope you didn't expect anything vulgar from that post title.  hehehehe

After Friday's QOV presentation, one of the recipients told me that he was going to give his quilt to his dad, who is a WWII veteran. While we talked, he told me that his did is wheelchair bound and
loves to sit and just enjoy the people around him and life in general. I decided that I could not let the recipient give up his quilt, so I told him that I would make a quick lap quilt in the appropriate size for his dad. He said that I didn't have to do that, but I insisted. I used a one-yard cut of Star & Stripes by Deborah Edwards for Stonehenge and did some quick straight line quilting. It's bound and ready to go. I'll make a proper QOV soon for the dad, but this will work in the mean time.

Friday's presentation depleted my patriotic/QOV stockpile so I started a couple of new ones. I'd already had them kitted up so it was easy to just pick up and sew. It has been a good break from grading papers this weekend.

I'll post pictures tomorrow of what I've completed.

Strippy Quilt is Done!

I've had this top done for quite a while but I finally quilted and bound it. 

While trying to do some organization in my sewing area, I needed to find a way to use up a number of 2 1/2" strips that I had left over from a variety of projects. This is the result.

Jack was never thrilled with the look of this quilt and I have to admit that it isn't my favorite either. But, I used stash and that makes me very happy. Plus I got to practice some more quilting.

I laid it out on the floor so I could get things ready to take it outside to get pictures but I got distracted and it stayed there until the next morning. 

After breakfast, Jack went to the back room before I did, and as he passed the quilt on the floor he said, "Hey, I like how this is quilted and it makes me like the quilt better."  Hahahahaha!

Maybe I'll give this to him as a late anniversary quilt.  :-)

March Recap

March was National Quilting Month.

What did you do to celebrate?

I was fairly productive during the month, but what I am even more excited about was the fact that I had numerous opportunities to share the joy of quilting with new quilters. (I sometimes feel like a "quilt pusher" who gets a kick out of introducing people to MY drug of choice - QUILTING.)

I've shown various projects throughout the month that I've completed, but here are a few tops that are ready for quilting. The bottom four have the backing and binding ready to go and all that needs done is to get them on the frame. I hope to have the backing and bindings ready for the top three by next week. Most of these are donation quilts or class sample quilts and although there are deadlines, they aren't super soon.

Here's the Mondo Bag and Strip Quilt that I made using just one Jelly Roll and 2 yards of fabric. That was fun and I'm making another set, only this time I'm using more modern fabrics - Poems from Pebbles. I got my Jelly Roll from M&E Quilt Shoppe and I know they have more, along with Charm Packs and Layer Cakes. (See I AM a quilt pusher!)

I was very lucky to spend National Quilting Day (and rest of the weekend with a couple of my favorite people.  :-) 

There was a lot of laughter and even some sewing.

Of course there was also some eating! 

Tony, Claire and Ryan worked hard and made a wonderful dinner Saturday night. There was a lot of team work during the cooking process, but don't let the pictures fool you. There was a lot of laughter coming from the kitchen too!

And even though this isn't what I had intended to make, these blocks (plus three more) got sewn and are ready for sashing. These are a version of a Disappearing Nine Patch.

The original plan was for Ann, Jerry, Connie and I to follow the same Disappearing Nine Patch pattern and see how our fabric choices made the blocks look different. We spent quite a bit of time Friday playing with the block construction and none of us liked what what happening so we decided to work on our own projects. I didn't take much else on which to work, so this is what I did. I don't love it, but that's ok. I'll finish it and move on to my next new and exciting project.

But, none of the quilting projects completed during the month of March compare to what Lynn and Ty completed. 

Peyton Louise is simply adorable and a wonderful blessing to us all! 

I see a future quilter here. :-)

Design Wall Monday

I've been playing around with the idea of cleaning and organizing my sewing area (I'm working on it, but not whole-hearted.) and while doing so, realized that I have a number of "orphan" 2.5" batik strips. I'm sure that in the back of my head I thought I would use them for scrappy bindings, but since that hasn't happened yet, I decided to do something with them now. I pulled 27 strips out and sewed them together in this order.

Do you notice how uneven the right side is here. None of these strips have been cut. These are the exact lengths they were in when I opened the original package. Isn't it kid of crazy to see how much difference there is in the lengths? 

And, the difference is not just by manufacturer. Some of the short strips were part of a pack from the same manufacturer as the longest strips. Now, to be fair here, the shortest strip measure 43.25" and the longest strip measures 47.5" so none of them would be an issue for me to run out of fabric since most patterns are written using somewhere between 40" - 44" of usable fabric. I just thought it was interesting. 

Anyway, my "plan" is to cut these strips vertically, insert some coordinating fabric(s) and sew them back together again. Do I have a real plan? No! I'll just make a cut or two and go from there. 

What are you working on today?

Want to see what other quilters have on their design walls today?

Go to Judy L's Patchwork Times

Stop back tomorrow for a new Tip Tuesday!