Finally, another finish

The end of January became very busy with my daughter and her husband and the twins arriving for several days.  The twins are 2 1/2 months are just beginning to smile and are up over 11 lbs. now!  Remy is on the left and Finn is on the right.

I did manage to finish one quilt yesterday.  I posted a picture of the blocks in an earlier post.  They were sent to me when my son Brad passed away 4 1/2 years ago at the age of 22.  It was a very difficult time as who would have thought his heart would stop in his sleep for no known reason.  This blue/purple batik won the audition contest.  It's quilted and bound although I don't have a label yet.  I wrote on the back who made each block, but I missed six of them so they are unknown.  It was the right time to finish this.

This quilt top was made from the Quiltmaker blog a few years ago, from a monthly segment called Bitty blocks.  I am ready to quilt it!  Moving another UFO to the finished pile this week I hope!  You can barely see the border, but I will be doing a colorful binding.

pin basted and ready for quilting

Linking up with Design Wall Monday. (on Tuesday)

Another Quilt Top!

I know I SHOULD be working on UFO's, but a couple months ago when the May/June Quiltmaker magazine came out I found a quilt in there that hit me hard, very hard!  So much so that I ordered the fabrics used in the sample quilt.  That is not something I do very often, but I loved the Composition backgrounds and the Grunge fabrics.  I cut out the quilt immediately, and it was still kitted up and I threw in my retreat bag.  I manged to get all the pinwheels made at retreat and now I have a finished top.  I LOVE this top.  It's so not me!  I will bind it with one of the bright Grunge fabrics after quilting.  I bought 1/2 yard cuts and cut 4 3" squares out of each one, so they will be showing up in more quilts!  I am basiclaly out of the backgrounds though since it was just a FQ pack.

Grunge and Conposotion fabrics - Tutti Frutti quilt from Quiltmaker

closeup

The quilt finishes at 60 X 72 and will go into my never ending collection of tops to be quilted!  

Design Wall Monday and Quiltmaker

My design wall hasn't changed one bit.  It's been a crazy April so far with spring break and my daughter and two grandkids here for over a week.  I definitely couldn't sew when I had those two adorable kids here.  Nicole is 11 months and Jared is 3 1/2.  My other daughter and husband were here for a few days also, and add in a family burial and dinner and Easter...  Yes, busy!

However I did machine quilt a large quilt, starting in March and finishing this past weekend.  I have shown it on my blog before but now it's to the binding stage!  I have pre-entered it in the Palouse Patchers quilt show in Moscow this coming weekend so it needs to be finished!

Finger Lakes Log Cabin from a pattern by Judy Martin

The big news is my two blog posts for Quiltmaker Scrap Squad.  I can now show them and the quilts I made!  The first I call Gemstones and go to the post to see the original pattern I was asked to do on Quiltmaker Quilt Pleasures blog.

The next quilt I have now named Charming Chopsticks based on comments I received on this blog post!  Check out the link to Quiltmaker Quilt Pleasures blog!

I have my third assignment and I'm looking forward to getting started on the next quilt.  I have yet to make a dent in my scraps as a member of the Scrap Squad!

Linking to Patchwork Times.  Check it out for other Design Wall Mondays!

Design Wall Monday

A couple weeks ago I posted a picture of some of my 2" squares sewn together into strips.  I put up some purple with the pieces and although it's strong and some of the color washes out I am going to go with it.  This is a charity quilt and the darker colors won't show dirt as easily.  We don't know how the quilts will be taken care of when they are gifted and somebody will love the bright colors with purple.

I made a few more Quiltmaker Itty Bitty Blocks and the new block for February was posted last week.  I need to get going on some baskets, this month's free pattern.

I am working on binding this queen size quilt for my late son's roommates.  They are a great couple with two young kids.

I'm linking up with Patchwork Times.

I am on the new Quiltmaker Scrap Squad!

I am so excited to be selected for the 2015 Quiltmaker Scrap Squad.  Here is the blog posting announcing the new team.
http://www.quiltmaker.com/blogs/quiltypleasures/2015/02/qms-2015-scrap-squad-announced/
I will say having my picture taken was difficult, and we took a lot of shots!

I have my first assignment and I'm excited about it.  My first thought in any quilt is always batiks.  They are my favorite fabrics as I love the colors and designs of batiks.  I dumped out my bin of batiks and soon discarded them and I'm going a different direction.  You will find that out eventually!

mountain of batik scraps

scraps contained back in their bin

Design Wall Monday - New Projects

I have been saving this pattern since June 2001.  It was in McCall's magazine.  My late friend Deb loved it and we each planned on making it for the other one we found out later, although neither of us started it.  She came closer, buying the pink fabric which she gave to me.  I am in the process of making some quilt tops to give as gifts, letting the recipients pick from a selection.  I am altering the pattern somewhat and making it queen size so we will see what it looks like in the end.

image from the magazine

It's hard to tell, but there are 15 strips hanging there.  They aren't pressed yet.  I am making 5 more to make the center.

This is another new project!  Quiltmaker started Itty Bitty Blocks this month.  Each bow-tie finishes at 3".  The idea at the end of the year is to have a row quilt.  I made 8 blocks very quickly out of bright and black and white scraps.

I'm linking up to Patchwork Times, a fun place to find more blogs to read!