What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

One of the nice things about binding is that you can work on it a-few-minutes-here-and-a-few-minutes-there, and, before you know it–You’re Done!

Unpredictable winter-spring weather means indoor pictures. Not the best, but the best I could do. I really love the color mix in this quilt. Inspired by Harry Potter, the colors are green, blue, red and yellow. But, so MANY of each color. That’s the thing I LOVE about scrappy quilts.

And the Brightly pattern is a sure winner. I have made several now and the receivers all love them.

No fabric in this week.

I made two potholders for a little fabric out.

Next I replaced the binding on a blanket. The old binding exceeded its useful life. There is a definite trick to working with the packaged blanket binding. I have one more blanket to re-bind before I move on to other sewing.

Fabric In: 0

Fabric Out: 16.75 yards

Net Fabric Out: 16.75 yards

How did you do this week?

Again, a small piece of fun fabric wanted to have purpose.

I dug through my tin of 2-1/2″ squares looking for matches, and the leftover bindings bin, too.

Small projects are nice from time to time, coming together quickly and making something useful to go live with Daughter and family soon.

This is a great pattern to use up jelly roll leftovers. In fact, a bunch of those (already conveniently sewn into sets) is what inspired this pattern.

The strip sets are 6 strips high and 12-1/2″ wide. The stars are also 12 inches (finished). I used a plan similar to THIS TUTORIAL: https://www.createwithclaudia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/CWC-Mystery-Quilt-Along-2020-November-Block.pdf

I matched the star centers and the binding. I would like to do this again and highlight a focal fabric in the star centers.

This quilt will be donated to the local childrens hospital.

Baby Henry should receive his quilt today.

While I usually work with small pieces, the simple, bold look of this quilt pleases me. And it allows larger prints to shine. And I love the unexpected-but-perfect binding.

The print squares started at 6″. The HST as squares of 6-1/2″. The quilt finishes at +-39″.

ps–I am not sure why these pictures are poor, but the quilt is in the mail, and I cannot retake them. I hope you can get the idea anyway. These things sometimes happen.

Seaside Patchwork

I quilted this with a wave pattern in the patchwork and then a loop-the-loop in variegated blue in the seaside print sections. I had a little bit of striped binding left from a previous project and I used it a long the top because it was the perfect colors for this quilt. 

Overall I like this design, but ...

Horse panel quilt top

The next top I am putting together will use lots of scrap strips to frame some western-themed panels. I will be using the same design I used for ...

It doesn’t take much: 16 4-1/2″ squares of the feature fabric, and 2-1/2″ strips for the outer border. The squares are surrounded by 2 2-1/2x 4-1/4″ strips and 2 2-1/2″ x 8-1/2″ strips. Finishes at 36″ square.

And just plain cute!

This one goes to the new baby of a neighbor. She is the younger sister of the Georgia Quick Quilt baby.

Yay for babies! Hope and promise of the future wrapped in love today.

Mom's been gone for over two months now. The new normal has settled around me. I miss her daily phone calls; she would always lead off our chats with "what are you working on?" I find myself talking to her sometimes, reporting on my latest projects. After her eyesight failed through advancing macular degeneration she couldn't sew anymore and, I believe, that she enjoyed just thinking about, and

Mom's been gone for over two months now. The new normal has settled around me. I miss her daily phone calls; she would always lead off our chats with "what are you working on?" I find myself talking to her sometimes, reporting on my latest projects. After her eyesight failed through advancing macular degeneration she couldn't sew anymore and, I believe, that she enjoyed just thinking about, and

      I don't look to make anything other than quilts, but sometimes little projects just sneak up and grab me. I had been rummaging through a box of Kaffe scraps given to me (super!) and a lot of the strips were under 1 1/2". I had tried some Jack's Chain blocks and was using the strips for the nine patches, but I balked on it. More on that another time.
     So, in my internet searches for scraps usage, I found tutorials for twine and rope bowls. I tried both and they are both fun. The Rope bowl Youtube ...

      Exciting title, right? The Fading Charms quilt has been done for, er, a long time. I finally quilted it and I just love the eye spy squares and colors. It was fun to quilt. It is ready to be a comfort quilt. It would be perfect for a child. I have plenty more scrap 2 1/2" kid squares, so I could make another one. I hate square quilts as people are not square, so I would modify the shape somehow.

I finished this so long ago, my buddy, Tugger, was alive and inspected the unquilted top.

Detail on longarm ...

9-patches cut for blocks

I am really liking this pattern. I can see it working really well as a formula for charity quilts. If you have squares of any consistent size (3.5", nickels, etc.) in 2 contrasting colors you sew up nine-patch blocks with the colors placed consistently (in my current one all the corners and centers are black and the other patches are white). 

It doesn ...

…a project that’s not the Tattoo Quilt!

The quilt on the design wall in the Bottoms Up! studio in 2013

I’ve gone as far as I can on getting ready to quilt the Tattoo Quilt. The top, backing, binding and threads are in a bag. The trip to Katrina’s has been rescheduled thanks to a bout with the flu—yes, I always get a flu shot, but I had a reaction to the last one and wonder if that’s why I caught the flu. I haven’t had the flu in decades and was completely caught ...

It was a great sewing weekend, the best I have had in a long time. Two tops are assembled:

The first is for Baby Henry, who recently joined us on this planet. He is the younger brother of the Star Wars baby some of you might remember. This time Mom and Dad asked for “Animals. And green.”

Then the Brightly Quilt–Harry Potter Style. Intended for a fellow teacher and Harry Potter fan (You should see her classroom.)

That makes four tops ready for quilting. Ah…a stretch and a sigh for a productive weekend.

One project finished this weekend–quilted potholders for the music teacher at school.

These are 8″x9″, because that is the size the orphan blocks were when they came to me in a hand-me-down box. I make potholders with a layer of cotton batting, a layer of insulbright, and another layer of cotton batting. Nice and thick and no burnt hands. It is a good way to use up those too-big-to-throw-away-but-what-am-I-going-to-do-with-them scraps.

I hope she likes them.

Last week, the Arkansas Crossroads assembly DIDN’T happen.

There was no stretch of time for layout (without people who are not used to watching out for quilts on the floor, and the dog who likes to dance on the quilts while they are on the floor, being in the area).

But, other things DID happen: Blocks for a Harry Potter themed Brightly Quilt, potholders from leftover string pieced blocks (ready to bind), and some wild potato chip blocks for donation quilts.

Not what I wanted, but not bad. We’ll see what this coming week brings. Meanwhile, stitch on!