Alphabet Quilt Top

I like it! Now to quilt it. Don't know what I'm going to do, but I'll figure something out. I want to make another one using prints...and I was thinking white for the background, but that just doesn't make sense for a baby quilt.

It was fun to piece the letters. I didn't really plan, just looked at the shapes and made them up as I went along. I will change a few I think...the O, the P and the R for sure. Maybe A and V.

Fun quilt and didn't take too long, but it did make a mess. Fleece for the backing/batting I believe.

I don't know if I'll get this done it time, but if I do it's off for the new baby on the 23rd.

Two more tops quilted

Two more tops quilted. I've decided that I will work on getting as many tops as I can finished. Both of these have fleece backings. The greek keys top is meant to be a quilt of valor. It is 54 x 69. Not huge, but I think it will be a fine size. My only problem now, it to figure out how to attach a label to it. I didn't think of that before I put the fleece on the back.

The disapperaing 9-patch is much smaller. It is only 36x48, but a nice size for a baby blanket. I don't have a specific recipient in mind, but I'm sure there is someone in my future with a baby. I just gave away the 4-patch posy baby quilt I finished a while ago, so there is always another baby that will need a quilt.

The quilting on both is very simple. I just did concentric "rings" of quilting following the blocks on the greek keys. The baby blanket just has straight lines at varying intervals. Nothing hard...and I used the walking foot on both, so that made it even easier.

All done and washed

Finished up 6 quilts in the past 3 days--well, actually I'm counting that I finished them because they got washed and dried today--though I did finish 4 quilts since Friday.

I had three quilts that were just waiting for binding from at least 8 months ago--those are the tetrad-bargello, Irish chain, and curved log cabin. The tetrad and the log cabin I quilted. I rented some time on a handi-quilter 16 and used one free pattern I found online, and another (the dragonflies) that I bought as a stencil. I think I like my quilting better on my home machine. I feel like I have more control--and I know that if I need to stop, I won't have to pay for that time.

I feel great knowing that these are all done. I'll send the three baby quilts off to California tomorrow. The bargello is for me. I used a wool blanket I bought at a surplus store for the batting, I hope it will be warm. The back of the house (where I sit to read) is quite cool in the winter time. We have a wood burning stove to keep it warm, and a two-story wall of south facing windows with a curtain that goes up and down automatically depending on the temperature difference between inside and outside. Sometimes when I am sitting working on the computer or reading it's in the mid 50's, and that's cold when you're sitting still; so, the wool batting.

The log-cabin is only a year late for a birthday present--but then that's what Julie has come to expect over the years!

Started quilting

Well,I got the back together for this quilt, (I used John Flynn's diagonal piecing method to save fabric found here toward the bottom of the page.) I just forgot that I had to start with the measurements I wanted the back to be, not the measurements of the quilt top (so it was a little close). I played around some and came up the the pattern you see quilted. I watched the pajama quilter DVD again, and got some more ideas.

Since I've started looking at quilting as doodling with thread I'm good. I can doodle--no problem. It's when I try to make something exactly "this way" or "that way" that I go insane.

Each of the flowers I've done (there are 3 finished so far) probably took about 5-7 minutes. I only have 20 to do, so I should have this one quilted by Wednesday (she says with great confidence.)

I still haven't bought any fabric. I'm going to do my best to keep it that way. I have lots and lots of fabric, and I really want to use it up.

Border is on

I have the border on the next baby quilt. I have to figure out how I am going to quilt it now. I think I want to quilt each block, but I need to figure out what I am going to do. The quilt itself is pretty squarish, so maybe something roundish.

I may piece the back from the fabrics I used on the quilt. They were 1/2 yard cuts, and I had some left over from each fabric I used.

Done...and DONE!!

Both quilts are done, binding is on, now they just need to be laundered and then sent. The county roads quilt is late, but the slice the deck quilt is early, so on average they are on time.

The babies aren't born yet, but I did miss the deadline for the shower. Now I have 3 more quilts to bind and still many more to quilt.

I still haven't bought any fabric this year--yippee!

Mary

Another One Partly Done!

I have partially quilted the next quilt--it has to be done and sent by tomorrow--probably not till the evening. I'm afraid it's going to be a little bit late for the party. I started by sewing around the quilt top after pinning to keep the top, batting and backing together at the edges. Then I sewed along the border--this is what I just did with the orange and green quilt and it worked just fine. BUT....on that quilt I started in the middle and sort of worked in all directions, and it was fine.

This time I started at one short edge and am working toward the other short edge. It's the only way I could figure to do the fan quilting. I'm a little more than half-way through and I looked at the back and noticed I was pushing the backing fabric toward the unquilted area, and then, with this last set of fans, I noticed that I had some pleats. Well, I'm not going to unquilt the pleats, but I did remove the sewing along the edge of the quilt, and around the border in the unquilted section of the quilt. I'll have to repin, and be careful to not pleat again, but this will just have to do--I just don't think it's necessary for me, and I think the quilt will be appreciated anyway!

Mary

Top Finished

I got the slash a stash quilt top finished. I think it might need borders still. I have extra fabric from the blocks I made, so I will do something with it--maybe a piano keys border. Whatever it is, it will be something relatively simple. I like the way the blocks came out, the center squares almost look like they are transparent and the colors have changed.