A Bird House for Let's Book It

After completing the binding on the Stash Buster quilt this morning I began a new project.  I noticed that this is the Let's Book It week at Vroomans Quilts, and since I had pulled out my Thimbleberries' book to make this wall hanging, I got to it.  

I have everything cut out and the house put together.

It's going really fast and hopefully my next post will have the finished project decorating a wall.

God Bless.

Another UFO Hits the Dust

I finished this quilt top, Stash Buster by Linda of Linda's Quiltmania, in January 2014.  I began quilting it shortly after and accomplished quite a bit, then stopped.  When I quilt a sampler quilt, I like to quilt each block differently.  That makes it a slower process, so when my creativity dried up, I put it aside. 

Last week I resumed and got it finished.  

Some blocks look great with some heavy thread work, like these:

I like the way the prints are raised when the quilting is thick like this.

 And some blocks have a spare amount of quilting, like these:

On a few of the blocks I tried the long stitch hand quilting technique, using embroidery thread, and I enjoyed that, but this is a big quilt and holding it, even in the large hoop I use, was clumsy.

I was uncertain about doing something in the sashing, but decided to back away and let it be.  

The backing has almost as many pieces as one of the blocks:)

I have a few more tops that need quilting, and of course, there are new projects to begin, so I think I'll go and find something work on today.

Enjoy your week ahead.

God Bless You.

My Eight Kats

Seven black PatchKats bring me up to date on that project.  

And of course the real thing who responds to bad weather by curling up and sleeping.

I finished my table cover/lap quilt, the four-patch and checkerboard quilt.  And I had a "duh" moment when I put it on the sofa for the picture and realized that I had made pillows a few years ago for the summer with the same fabric.

Would you care to see the backing?  

Brown roses on green; I must have liked it when I bought it.  

A couple of Thank You's are due.  The first to Quiltmaker magazine and Karen of Easypatchwork.  Karen has a block in Vol. 11 of 100 Blocks, and I won an issue and a group of her designs during a recent promo.  Her block is Gristmill Star.

Thank you, Karen.  I hope to put together Autumn at the Peaks next season.

The second Thank You goes to Sarah of Confessions of a Fabric Addict, who hosts the Hands2Help Charity Quilt Challenge each year.  I won a copy of Rebecca Bryan's book, Modern Rainbow.  

There are some beautiful designs in this book, even for someone who is a non-modern,  traditional quilt lover.  Could that be me? ;-)  I do love the use of the rainbow colors against white or black.  That has a nice look.

Happy Father's Day to those who deserve it.

God Bless and have a wonderful week.

Postcard from Australia

Sheila of Sheila's Quilt World has been organizing her postcard swaps for a while now, and I want to thank her for taking on this very fun and rewarding exercise.  When I participate, it's always a challenge to come up with a design that I hope won't disappoint my swap partner.  I'm sure they go through the same thinking, but what a wonderful way for us to be creative and share what we can do.  Thanks, Sheila.  

Fiona, who blogs at BubzRugs, was my partner this last time and since the theme was the beach or summer, she made for me this postcard which is her interpretation in quilt block terms of the swirling sand and water on a beach.  

It is cool or what?

A beachy version of a Snail's Trail or Monkey Wrench block.

I love it because with just one small mini block it shows the many levels of thought, design, possibility and history behind a quilt block.  Thanks, Fiona.

I'm attaching a link to a bit of history about this block, if you are interested.  I like the "kissing dinosaurs" image.

My block for Fiona is much more straight forward.  

A simple Broderie Perse design.

To me, both of these cards show how fascinating the craft of quilting can be to some of us.  

Putting away the soapbox now ;-)

I completed another house.

Have a wonderful weekend.

God Bless You.

Kats, Houses, and Patches

I've been making Kats, the Patchkat type.  I've completed the April segment of the PatchKats QAL with JustQuiltin with Denise Russart.  All 21 Kats are cut and the heads sewn together.  The May segment is to make the big hearts, so hopefully I'll complete that before the June segment comes out in 2 weeks.

 21 Kats ready for anything.

This is roughly how the Kats will look; very rough.  They will have shaping and tails.

Lesley of The Cuddle Quilter shared this pattern with me, A Cottage Year by Kathy Schmitz. There are embroidered houses making up the blocks.  I am playing with those I have completed and using a beautiful layer cake that I won from Quilting Daze a few years ago to frame them.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this but since I have 6 and 1/2 houses yet to stitch I have time to play.

I wanted a new table cover so put this together.  Yes, I'm still loving the 4-patch.  The border needs to be fudged a bit and sewn on, and I will get creative with the corners.  But this is easy sewing that is a great stress reliever.

 

Have a happy week.

God Bless.