Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Peggy's Quilt


Back at the beginning of November, when I was telling the ladies in That Stash Bee what I wanted them to make for my month, I said that there was a chance I would be using those blocks to make a quilt for my mother-in-law. Well, after seeing a few of the blocks they made I knew that I wouldn't be giving that quilt away. So instead she'll be getting this one.


I was very much inspired by this quilt by Allison of Cluck, Cluck, Sew. I feel like I say that a lot. She really does make some beautiful quilts! To make the blocks, I just used four 3.5" squares of Kona White, two 3.5" squares of my print, and one 3.5"x9.5" rectangle of my print. After laying out the blocks how I wanted them, I added a 3.5"x9.5" rectangle of Kona White between the blocks where it was needed to offset the rows. The finished quilt is roughly 63" square. My MIL is fairly short so I figure that's a good lap size quilt for her.


I wanted to make this quilt with a flannel backing so this grey herringbone sheet from Target was perfect. This is another one that I took to my mom's to quilt and as you can see I didn't do the most perfect job on the quilting, especially as I got close to the edge. But, it's good enough for me. I used a stripey Denise Schmidt binding that I've had in my stash for a couple of years and was seriously doubting that I would ever find a use for it. Glad I finally did!




Monday, December 16, 2013

Pineapple Blossom

Pineapple Blossom, front

October was my month again as quilter for the Imagine Circle of do.Good Stitches. I was inspired to choose the Pineapple Blossom block after seeing my friend Catherine's beautiful quilt that she made with the help of her Brit Bee ladies.

We used this tutorial from Quiltville to make the blocks, using the requirements for a 12" block and colors in a range of pinks, corals, salmon, golds, and apricots along with some low-volume prints. I have to say that I really love how this quilt turned out!


Sorry for the bad picture of the backing, but Rog and I ran outside really quickly yesterday when we got home from church to snap a couple pics. The wind was blowing and I was too cold to worry about waiting for the perfect shot!  The blocks we used yielded a few scrap HSTs so some of the ladies sent them along with their blocks. I had just enough to make this strip down the back, which in turn was just wide enough to allow me to not have to piece any more of the backing. Serendipity.

Untitled

I took this with me to Iowa over Thanksgiving break so I could quilt it on my mom's long arm. So much quicker than trying to do it on my machine. I'm still not that great at it, but these loopy swirls are pretty easy and generally look good even when they're a little sloppy! I was also really glad to finally use that Meadowsweet print for something. I've had it forever but just never seem to find the right project for it, until I used it for the binding. And look, someone even used it in their block, too. I hadn't noticed that until I saw this picture.

Now I just need to sit down and stitch our label on, then send this beauty off to Threading Hope, the charity of choice for our circle.