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      Another done quilt, this time the pieces and fabric from Quiltdiva Julie. This was part of a boxed set of goodies/quilt pieces from Julie to put together. My husband's high school colors were green and gold, so he really liked to see this one finished. It is a comfort quilt waiting for a referral to recipient who needs the comfort contained within.

Choosing Borders

Quilted and trimmed

With binding provided by Julie

Quilted details

Back, love that Blueberry Park fabric!

Back Detail

On many days Stevens will declare right after lunch that he's ready to go out.   A good habit for both of us.  

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In the studio:  the I Spy ...

      Two more tops were finished. I shopped at Joann's for the border fabric for the flannel batik squares quilt. I could not find batik flannel anywhere, so I bought a mottled lighter blue and a dark blue solid for the borders. After washing it, I cut and sewed the borders on and it is a big size about 70 x 76 now. I have to just accept it as it is instead of what it could be with the right fabric. It is soft and cuddly. When I was at Joann's, I was able to buy 5 yards ...

      I played around with the HSTs for a while, and finally decided to put the greenish, lightish squares in the center and the darker oranges around it. Sort of. I like the unpredictable quality of it. This layout is instead of the long skinny symmetrical one I showed in an earlier post. The fabrics are wonderful. I have it clipped together to web it soon.

      The second gifted HST quilt is a green/golds one. I tried arranging the groupings of 4 in different directions, but I kept coming back to all of them in the same position. Somehow, that appeals to me. The varied tones of greens and golds seem to pull together this way. The quilt was a little small, so I added a 2" finished green border and now am picking a wider yellow one (4" Finished). I don't know why, but it reminds me of picnic tables in the park when I was a kid. They were always dark green.

      Ninety five percent of my quilts are comfort quilts. They are made to be given, by referral, to those in need of comforting due to illness, treatment, bereavement, or serious setback. Most of them tend to go to those undergoing cancer treatment because that is the most common referral. I received a message from a friend whose cousin had just found out she had stage 4 lung cancer and has a short time to live. Fortunately, I had a done quilt that only needed washing and bag preparation. I was able to get it to my friend so she could ...

       In looking over past posts and lack of, I realized that although I posted the bars and leaves quilt I sewed and quilted that was given me by Quiltdiva Julie, I never posted the extent of the gifted top kits. There were 4 quilt kits contained plus backings, bindings. Two were the strips/bars and two were precut triangles for HST quilts. I have been chipping away at the two HSTs ones. The orange HST arrangement is tall and skinny, but I like the diamond center. If I use wide side borders, it may work. I have a gray print ...

 I have these drawers of hsts 2 1/2 inch- finish at 2 inch. Some times, I cut more than I need, or make more than I need. These drawers have been collecting for a long time. I really liked a recent Bonnie Hunter pattern called sugar grove, and, I thought that would be a great pattern to use these little treasures. I had fun digging through the hsts and making plans. 

 Underneath my sewing machine, I keep a basket of triangle cut offs and bits. While I was cleaning the floor of my sewing room, I needed to handle a bit of a mess they created. They play while I am not looking, and walk about the room at night.  Corralling them was easy, but not playing with them was impossible. Mostly they are smaller than a 2 1/2 inch hst. Some are very tiny.

      In the fall retreat, I webbed the Batik HSTs into this Diamond quilt. I was able to quilt it this week and I used lots of leaves inspired by the batik prints and nature feel to the colors. I used Glide Celery top and bottom to quilt. I used my chalks to draw it all out. I am grateful that I found refils on Etsy for the chalk holders.
     I will show detail shots after I get the binding on. The backing is a wonderful green Moda fabric that someone gave me.

I should have titled this post "Throwback Thursday"  because it's about a quilt I made last year and didn't blog about.  I'd found a box of HSTs I wanted to do something with, so I put them up on the design wall and had a play day.  You know I like those!

The first thing I did was rearrange them into a more random looking design.  Next I pulled out a length of fabric I had bought for something and then decided I didn't like it. 

Any fabric you don't like almost always looks better ...

      This is not a fashion statement, rest easy. I am trying to make another Blue Bargello to replace the one given away. I am using the Island batik packs, you need two.

     At the retreat, I was able to get this HST top tubed, webbed, and later at home, corrected:

Rennes is the most recent great-nephew to get a quilt from Aunt Sandy.  (These little ones just keep coming!)   

I bought a few blues and grays when I was in Shipshewana this past summer so I would have enough to make a scrappy version of "Child's Play", a free download from sewcanshe.com.  

More HSTs, but I'm getting used to them, so I've stopped complaining!  

I'll probably use this pattern again.  I really love it.

Don't you hate it when you have a really vague idea in your head of the fabric you want when you go into your LQS (local quilt shop), and they don't have it?  Then, don't you love it when they have the perfect thing, and it isn't what you had in mind at all?  Funny, but that happens to me all the time.  I found this perfect gorgeous batik to use for the background in my "All Stacked Up" blocks.

Even though there are some HSTs in this pattern, it's a nice change from the ...

Island Batik's September Challenge and Blog Hop focuses on the Studio 180 Design tool we received in our second Ambassador box. I received the Tucker Trimmer Tool.

I also received the Honeycomb fabric collection, designed by Kathy Engle for Jackie Kunkle of Canton Village Quiltworks, shipping to shops in September. 

     I have been gifted parts for a top for another wonderful comfort quilt from Quiltdiva Julie complete with backing and binding. This one is called Flaneur, you can read about it here. It is chock full of happy HSTs with Tula Pink's Fairy Dust as the background fabric.
    Julie's original layout was sent to me and when I put it on my wall, it made my eyes ping pong and I could not appreciate the colors, fabrics and designs. Some patterns just do that to me.

     Oh boy, is this is an oldie WIP. I pulled it out of the bag to web and remembered that recently I found leftover HSTs from this layout and it wasn't enough to make another decent sized quilt. I dug those out and added them to the webbed, sewn top. I was able to add a top row, two bottom rows and two side columns. This made it a large sized comfort quilt (72" x 84"). I used to make comfort quilts under 70"  long. Yes, it takes less fabric and time, but really, a comfort quilt to really ...