Happy Monday!

It's a new week and there's lots of good stuff happening and fun stuff to show.

The black and red Mapleton Avenue quilt that I showed the other day is now complete and I'm thrilled with how it turned out. 

I love the black and white binding!  

And yes, just like my label says, I really do believe that everyone deserves a quilt.  :-)

When I showed the red and black quilt the other day, I also shared a glimpse of another version of the Mapleton Avenue quilt. 

I love these fabrics, but I wasn't thrilled with how it looked in the original layout. One of the participants in the Sew Along laid her blocks out following a diagonal pattern and I loved it. I decided to turn a few blocks and see if I liked it. 

I loved the new look and got out my seam ripper yesterday morning. Some times you use a seam ripper because you WANT to, not because you HAVE to. Because of that, it didn't take long to un-sew the rows, rearrange them, and then sew the top together again. (Truthfully, I didn't have the top all sewn together, but I did have just under half of it done.) 

Here's the new layout. I love it and was so excited that I went ahead and quilted it too. 

I will get to the binding later today and post another (and better!) picture tomorrow.

So, what am I going to do with these quilts or the next couple that I'll be making? The red and black quilt has a dedicated recipient and I have a thought about the second one. But, if that changes I'm going to donate it to a couple of the 2021 Hands2Help Challenge. 

I've participated in this Challenge for a number of years and think it's great. The challenge is organized by Sarah over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and she does a great job with it. There are always options of to where to send your quilts and this year includes a special challenge. Please take a few minutes to read about this and consider joining me for the 2021 Hands2Help Challenge. 

What are you working on this week? 

For inspiration, check out Judy's Design Wall Monday post or Beth's Monday Making.

Black and Red Quilt

Yesterday, I shared a few pictures of my "in progress" Atlantic Avenue quilt. I also mentioned that I had just completed a red and black quilt, and that I would share a picture of that today. 

I am hosting an on-line Sew Along on the Friends of Chestnut Ridge Sewing Facebook group and we are using the Mapleton Avenue pattern. 

Just because I feel like I have to, I am making two versions of quilt. I changed the black and red version a little by adding an additional column of blocks so it measures 56" x 64". (The pattern offers four size options, but none of them were quite the size I wanted so I made my own changes.) This two-color version was made totally out of scraps, and in the school colors of my oldest grandchild. (She is running track this year and I know from experience that she will most likely need this to keep warm during the early part of the season.)

My other quilt will be the lap size (48" x 64") and that is being made from an old 2 1/2" pre-cut package that I had in my stash. I chose to use a single background fabric, which is making the construction very simple and fast. This is the pre-cut and a grunge that I had considered using. I decided against it and went with a grey dot fabric instead.

Here are a few of my blocks just randomly laid out. I'm very pleased with the background fabric choice!

I have a few sub-teaching days coming, so my sewing time with be limited; but I hope to have this top pieced by the weekend. I'd also like to get the black and red one quilted and bound. I'll keep my fingers crossed, but I won't be overly disappointed if I don't get everything done that I want to. W

What are you working on today?