Beautiful Quilt Received!

I found a wonderful SFRR quilt in my mailbox this morning - what a great Christmas eve gift! The back is just as fun as the front, and the workmanship is beautiful. Margaret hosted a wonderful swap and I really appreciate all her hard work, as well as the work of Susan, Valerie, Margaret and Jeanne who created my beautiful quilt. I have it on a small table right by my front door now, but it may be destined for my daughter's yellow room.


I've been working with my Gwen Marston - style borders and blocks to add to my center, and I decided these 16-patch blocks didn't add anything great. However, when I laid them out all by themselves, they look pretty good. I may now have a new center and work on 2 quilts at once. It seems one or the other or both might need a bright zig-zag border.



The Christmas jammies were finished in plenty of time ... photos of the completed project soon. I love the rocket on the front of my son's - I hope he does as well!

Instant Gratification

Even though I have some bigger projects in mind, I always come back to the instant gratification of comfort quilts. I was playing with my 2.5" strips and whipped up this Chinese coins top and a bordered box quilt. Fun colors that I hope will give a child something fun to look at.
















I recently purchased Gwen Marston's Collaborative Quilts book and am very inspired by her whimsical style. I pulled out a small friendship start quilt (30 x 40) that I had made from some leftover half square triangles. I started adding borders and lots of brights and black and whites ... I really like how it's coming along! However, I have some Christmas eve jammies I need to finish (a tradition in our house), so I'm putting it aside while I finish those.

SFRR completed

I am pleased to have finished the quilting and binding on my spring fling round robin. All the pieces I have received to work on have been beautifully crafted, and this was no exception. I'll only post a peek of a photo until it is received by its new owner. I was glad to find some fabric in my stash that was just the perfect color for the binding ... I knew buying that fabric on impulse would serve some good purpose!

I just saw that Margaret is hosting another of her wonderful swaps - four seasons quilt swap number 5. Now that this little quilt is checked off my list, I'm signing up for another fun swap!

Where did November go?

As I enjoy reading other quilter's blogs tonight, I realized I haven't posted in weeks. Where did November go? I have finished up several tops and quilts for my Linus group as we give a 75 Christmas quilts to a group that has a special Christmas party for sick kids.

I have also been teaching a kids after school sewing class, so every Sunday night I dash around madly getting things together for Monday's class. It's a great group of 7 girls, one of whom has taken every after school class I've taught. She always finishes quickly, so I need a spare project to keep her going and inspired, although she likes "free sew" as well.

I need to finish the quilting and binding on my SFRR quilt ... I started with some folk-style hand quilting, but I've pulled that out since I think some machine quilting might suit it (and my time frame) better. After I finish up Thanksgiving dinner for 16, I need to get back to that project! To add a little photo interest to this post, here's a picture of my variation of Bonnie's Tobacco Road. It's a cozy couch quilt, and a fun way to use some of my browns and reds. I finished up the binding last month.

Finally, some photos!

I finally finished the binding and snapped a photo of my crayon box quilt. I love the bright colors and memories that a lot of the fabrics hold. Although my mother is not a quilter, she always saved all the edges from clothes she sewed for me or others. I can look at this quilt and remember dresses from my childhood or those my mother wore. Thanks, Bonnie, for another great pattern!


I also finished the binding on a bento box quilt I finished for a friend who recently got married. I just have to figure out how to send it to her in the Bahamas, and it's only 2 months past the wedding! This is a fun pattern I may do for one of my Linus quilts soon.

sewing but not blogging

I've actually been getting things done in my sewing room, but don't have many photos to show for it. We got out the Halloween placemats at our house, and I love the freestyle letters inspired by Tonya that I added to this one. Our guild is having a song quilt challenge, and I hope to make something with freestyle letters for that. Speaking of Halloween, I have a fuzzy black dog costume and a shiny red robot costume on the top of my to-do list. I have the dog almost complete, but the flying fuzz makes me sew with the vacuum by my side.


Here's a photo of my finished quilt from our guild's Throw Me A Curve mystery workshop with Mark Lipinski. We all made the same blocks, and then saw many different quilts created with the varied arrangements. A fun idea! He suggested I over-dye it with tan, add fluffy batting, tie it and embellish with buttons. Since I was not wedded to any ideas, I decided to do it a-la-Mark just as he suggested. It's a nice snuggly quilt, but not my favorite. But it's done, so I can share it with the other workshop participants at our next meeting.

Playing with strips

Not that I needed another project, of course, but I had been wanting to try the Crayon Box pattern from quiltville for awhile. I've been making some placemats for a town harvest festival, but was a little bored with the repetition, so I dipped into my strip bin and played. It's so bright and unmatched, but it makes me happy!


There are lots of little bits of fabrics with great memories. Even a bit from a dress my mother made for me in high school. I think I'll add a dark pink border, and quilt it on my friend's gammill with simple swirls and such. It will be a nice cuddle quilt for the sofa.

Lots of Irons in the Fire

I always seem to have so many more ideas swimming around in my head than time to actually create these ideas. But, I keep squeezing in some stiches whenever I can!


In a huge box of quilting fabrics and unfinished project donated to my Linus group there were 10 sunbonnet sue blocks all prepared for applique. My 8-yr-old daughter loved them and I told her to pick her 4 favorite. The other six of them I machine appliqued and made into a Linus donation quilt. The 4 I kept I hand appliqued, and now I'm adding this and that to make it into a throw size quilt for my daughter. When I had all my 30's scraps pulled out for the spring fling round robin and my 30's crumb blocks, I found a bunch of 2.5" squares and triangles that would be perfect for small flying geese. I added them to the sue blocks, and now it's mellowing on my hanging quilt rack. I'm thinking of adding 4 basket blocks to the corners and then something else along the edges. My daughter keeps stopping by my sewing room to see how it is progressing!



I finished up a simple rail fence variation quilt at my guild's comfort quilt workshop this week. Glad to have a top ready to be loved by someone in need.

I attended my guild's Mark Lipinski workshop last week, and I'm finishing up the "throw me a curve" mystery quilt. He was very entertaining and I think everyone had a great time at the lecture and the workshop. I'm also sewing together some bricks and 4-patches to create my own variation of the Quiltville Tobacco Road mystery quilt. I'm just not inspired right now to make all the pinwheels in her design, although they do look really terrific!

Round Robin and Playing with Scraps

I've finally made some decisions about my additions to the lovely center square I received for the SFRR swap. I must have pulled out dozens of fabrics to give them a try, but I've come up with something I like and I hope the recipient does as well!


While sifting through my fabrics in my sewing room, I found a bag of 30's scraps from a quilt I made several years ago. I decided to make a few maverick stars with the triangles and crumb blocks with the other pieces and I like what I ended up with. I might just keep it this size for a small runner, or perhaps I'll add some more if I have another inspiration.

Finishes are Great!

I returned from a beautiful trip to Nova Scotia itching to finish a few projects. I had made some wonky rail fence blocks using Mary's techniques and put them together for a donation quilt to American Hero Quilts. I just have to find some dark backing fabric and I can bundle up top, binding and backing and send it off to give a returning soldier some comfort and support.



I also, at long last, finished my free-hand baptist fan quilting on this small shoo fly quilt. I followed Tonya's wonderful instructions and used size 12 pearl cotton. It is a relaxing method, I didn't stress about making them perfect, and it gave wonderful character and texture to the quilt. I must have worked on this quilt dozens of places ... waiting for karate and piano lessons, on airplanes, at my small quilting circle, on the sofa at home ... I'll have to start another one soon.

Many Years in the Making

At least 11 years ago, before I moved to Connecticut I'm sure, I created a stack of 9-patches for a quilt I saw in a book. They all had green centers, and I looked for awhile for the perfect green fabric for some of the alternate blocks. However, even after I found a great textured green, I could never really decide if that was what I wanted to do with those nine patches. I agonized over it much more than necessary and they sat in a box. Being a big fan of many of Bonnie's designs at quiltville, I got the urge recently to make her sister's choice quilt, and decided to use up all those 9-patches, both in the squares and around the border. My 9-patches were 7.5" instead of 6", but only minor tweaking was required to adjust the pattern. I'm pleased that I used every single one, plus had to make 3 more to finish up the border. Just finished adding the binding. I just machine quilted it simply with wavy lines. I'm looking forward to enjoying this after it gets a bit cooler.


I found some great dot fabric in the Project Linus stash attic that inspired a few more bright tops - we'll tie them on Wednesday and they'll be on their way soon to cheer up a sick child!

Round Robin Done

After thinking about many ideas and trying out several, I finally finished a spring fling round robin center that I like. It seems both easier and more difficult to have a recipient with very few preferences - I hope she likes what I came up with and I hope my center inspires the next 3 quilters! The photo just shows a peek of the whole center block.

I have also been finishing up some tops for Project Linus quits. I get together on Wednesdays with a great group of ladies, and we add fleece backings and then tie the quilts for local children in need. They have a wonderful stash of donated fabrics, so when I want to try out a new pattern I can whip up a top and bring it in to finish it there. It's so fun to be inspired by fabrics I find there and then know the quilt will go to a good cause.

Comfort Quilts

Our guild is collecting some twin-size quilts to donate to a local homeless shelter and I just finished up these two quilts for the cause. I got to try my hand at long-arming for the first time on these comfort quilts - a guild friend let me try out her gammill. It was so fast and great fun to try all sorts of different swirls and motifs without inhibition and need to make it "perfect." I hope to try again sometime soon with some of my unfinished tops that have been aging for far too long.


Now that I look at this quilt, I'm not crazy about the purple squares, but I doubt the homeless person who uses it will complain.


I also started pulling fabrics for the center block of the spring fling round robin. I have lots of ideas, and it may take a few tries before I decide which to use!

Jumping In

I'm jumping into the blogging world. I've seen so many wonderful creations on other blogs, and I want to share some of my quilting and fabric creativity. I'm excited to join the Spring Fling Round Robin 2.


I haven't had many finished projects lately, but I hung a wonderful new quilt rack in my sewing room / guest room this afternoon. My father and I came up with the design, he did the woodworking, and the first quilt I'm trying out on the rack is a string-x I made a while back from quiltville. It is such a wonderful scrappy pattern!