National Quilting Day

Today is National Quilting Day.  I came down with a nasty virus yesterday, courtesy of students at school I'm sure, but I persevered and did some sewing.   
I finally finished the top of my QM Bitty Blocks.  It's still longer and skinnier than I wanted, but it's okay.  It now measures 56 X 89.  I struggled with border ideas and finally just used the same black mini dot fabric that is used in the sashing.  I will bind it with a scrappy multi color binding.

Quiltmaker Bitty Blocks Row Quilt

I also pieced a backing for Fair and Square I posted last week.  I had LOTS of strips left over and they were all sewn end to end as that is how the quilt was made.  I started sewing them together like the jelly roll race quilt (aka 1600) and then decided I should really have a plan and see how much I needed.  I have only scraps leftover!  The blue was in my stash but needed to be bigger.

backing for Fair and Square

Now I need to make the backing for my Fire Island Hosta.

A Bright Finish and Quiltmaker Scrap Squad

Last week I showed the start of a very bright quilt top.  I was able to finish the piecing this weekend and I'm happy to share a photo!  I love how this turned out and seem to have drastically overcut the strips so I can play with more of them.  I was making a throw size pattern called Fair and Square into a queen size and kept cutting without planning ahead! My sister will be the recipient of this quilt eventually.  Sorry for the crooked photo.  

My year with the Quiltmaker Scrap Squad has come to a close.  This past year has been such a rewarding experience, using a provided pattern and making it scrappy.  For the last quilt we were allowed to choose any quilt Quiltmaker had published.  That was a hard decision, but one kept calling me, Vintage Sunburst.  This was the original photo:

Here is my version that I named Pie in the Night Sky.

Pie in the NIght Sky

In front of our old barn

I will be doing a complete Scrap Squad recap of my quilts later in the week so be sure and check back!

I am working on finishing the top of the Quiltmaker Bitty Blocks that were a year long monthly row quilt on their blog last year.  I decided to take my quilt apart and make the sashing a bit narrower.  I still have to get the last two rows down.  Here is the photo before I started taking it apart.  I have shown it before.  It was going to be too long and skinny.

Linking up with Main Crush Monday and Patchwork Times.

Quilt Camp Progress

I had a wonderful quilt camp (aka retreat) at Palouse Divide Lodge.  I didn't get any pictures taken this time, it was pretty rainy and there was a lot of slushy snow to walk to the top of the mountain.  It was a great group of women and the food was wonderful.  I was pretty intent on piecing my Fire Island Hosta and it turned out very well I think!  I think my colors are more intense than this but it was hard to get them adjusted correctly.  It is 100 X 100, bigger than my design wall, hence the bend at the bottom!

queen size Fire Island Hosta

I took my Pfaff Grand Quilter with me to machine quilt the top mentioned in my last post, but didn't have the urge to do that after wrestling this huge top while finishing the piecing.

My sisters went to quilt shops for me last summer and neither of them quilt.  It was pretty funny when they came to visit and brought all the goodies they accumulated for me!  One sister bought a quilt pattern she loved at Quilt Expressions in Boise called Fair and Square.  She told me when I made the quilt, entered it in the fair and won ribbons and couldn't find room in my closet for it, she would take it off my hands.  I took that as a challenge to make her a new quilt!  It seems a bit wild but it really grabbed a lot of attention at quilt camp!  Black sashing will go between the blocks and there will be 20 blocks altogether for a queen size quilt.

Fair and Square, first six blocks

Linking up with Patchwork Times and Main Crush Monday.