A Couple of Quilts

Hey Everyone!

These aren't recent finishes but ones I realized that I'd never photographed.

First up, we have a scrappy Log Cabin quilt.  The measurements are all approximate because it's been washed quite a few times. :-)

Set 6 blocks x 7 blocks.  Finished block size:  7½".  Red border is 3" and blue border is 5½".  This was machine pieced and hand quilted.

The hand-quilting was done in vertical rows using a stencil.  I don't know what the name of the stencil is as I lent it to my sister and she still has it.  It's a floral-vine type design.

The second quilt is a happy block.  That's not an official name, it's just what the group I was in called it.  I did this one as an exchange* with an online group I used to belong to.  My theme was blue & white, so the centers are all blue fabrics and the borders are all white fabrics.  Looking at the quilt that might not seem to hold true - when I washed it, one of the blues bled and some of the whites soaked it up.  :-)

There are 2 different sized blocks in this quilt.  It is laid out with a 5 block x 6 block center then bordered with the larger blocks.  I used sashing and cornerstones to make the overall dimensions of the smaller blocks fit inside the larger border blocks.

My sister and I both quilted this on a Handi-quilter longarm that I had rented time on at a now-closed shop in Olympia, WA.  I'd do one block, then she'd do one, and so on.  It was great because it meant neither one of us was standing for too long and we finished this top and another within 6 hours.  It was the first quilt either of us longarmed, so I didn't care what it looked like, I just wanted us to get comfortable with the machine.  We went old-school on it - as in grade school.  Like those random drawings we used to do and then fill in the spaces with different colors.

I decided to keep the binding scrappy as well.

 * Here's how the exchange worked:

For the quilt's center blocks, I sent (6) 3½" squares (blue) to the people in my group.  Usually 5 other people.  They kept one of the squares for themselves.  They put 2½" borders (white) on my squares and mailed them back to me.  The color choices were only for my quilt.  The other members sent random colored squares to me that I put borders on and mailed them back.

For the bigger, border blocks, the centers (blue) were 6" and also got 2½" borders added.

Happy Stitching!

Stacy

Finish It Up Challenge

I know I haven't been "on time" about posting updates.  I get that way.  The odd thing is if I'm going somewhere, I'm never late.

I do have an update for my FIU Challenge!  I finished the Crumb Quilt top!  Whew!  Here's a photo of the top:

The crumb blocks are 3½" and are separated by squares of black.  The top measures 67" x 81" (170cm x 206cm).  I'll quilt it eventually but it will probably be awhile before I get around to it.  Maybe I'll put that on my FIU list for next year.

Here's my current FIU list:

Put all my loose floss on bobbins finished January 27th with new purchases done February 3rd

Stitch a design for the candlescreen that I have

Assemble my Happy Blocks quilt top finished 12 August

Assemble my Crumbs quilt top  finished 10 September

Finish hand-quilting the Bullseye Quilt

Finish the Log Cabin Star wallhanging

Hand-quilt at least 10 blocks on my Christmas Strings quilt

Finish my Through the Storm cross stitch as a free-standing block  finished 30 July

Finish my green Temari ball

Finish 1 of my Santa kits (not cross stitch)

Make bookcases for my sewing room

Decorate wooden "S" for my sewing room

I also (finally) received the Grace EZ3 hand-quilting frame that I ordered.  The first one got lost in shipping.  I will say that Amazon was great to deal with.  I was lazy and contacted them by email.  They emailed me back promptly and refunded my money immediately.  They suggested that I reorder it and offered me free shipping if it wasn't already offered (it was).  I ended up saving $5 because the seller had dropped the price since my first order.

I assembled the frame for a crib size quilt because that's how big my Bullseye Quilt is.  Silly me didn't allow for the extra material dimensions of the backing fabric, so I have to extend the frame to queen size.  I also have to unpick the bit of stitching that I had already done.  The backing and front get rolled up separately on the frame and need to be apart.  

I'm fine with that because I wasn't thrilled with the pattern I'd chosen anyway.   It will be at least a few days before I get the quilt onto the frame but I'm really looking forward to it!  In the meantime, I am working on another scrap quilt top and doing some online swaps.

Happy Stitching!

Stacy

Quilting: String Blocks

I forgot to post this a few days ago.  I made up some string blocks for a swap on StashBuilders.

I love making these blocks 'cause they're easy and use up scraps!

These are just a few of the 15 I made for the swap.  These were trimmed to 8" to tidy them up but the finished size will be 7.5".

I also have a bunch more that I'll add to the "new" ones I get from the swap so that I can make a full size quilt.

Here's a quilt that I've made using string blocks:

This one is a wall hanging.  It's hanging along the stairs to my sewing room.

I have a couple of others.  One is in my living room (no photo...yet), the other isn't quilted yet.  The un-quilted one is a Christmas string quilt.

Happy Stitching!

Stacy