{Post #979} 5/6ths of Scrappy Bargello Center

This quilt center is 5/6ths finished!  I am still cutting up the shirts (laboriously).  I am generating as many strings and chunks as I am using, it seems.  But that's OK.  I may push through and cut enough strips to finish the center of this one.


Here it is shown on my 2 design walls, the one on the right being shorter than the one on the left.

~Joan

{Post #978} Grad Quilt Back & Bargello

So the last few days my sewing has been devoted to finishing the quilt top and back for Susie's graduation quilt.  The idea is to put names of party-comers on the quilt front in the light yellow strips.  The back is for the party-comers (or would that be go-ers?) to write their well wishes.  We contemplated having individual blocks.  She decided she wanted the whole back pieced ahead of time.  I'll frame it with more of the golden grass print.  A little odd, but I like it!!  Close up and then the whole thing:

Here is another panel finished for my Scrappy Bargello.  Need two more uphill sections for this:

It measures 80-1/2" tall and 48" wide right now.  There are two downhill panels on the right.  That will be rectified later!

Off to watch a movie with Susie!

~Joan

{Post #977} Susie Graduation Quilt

Here is my Susie's graduation quilt (wall hanging).  She just has a couple week of high school left.  We went fabric shopping last week.  She picked out all the colors.  Why do I think that does not come as a surprise?


This is a simple Rail Fence block.  The blocks are 6" unfinished, set on the diagonal.  She is going to write the names of well-wishers that come to her graduation party on the light yellow rails.  I am piecing the back with 4" x 6" snowball blocks for people to sign.

More pictures after I get the last couple rows sewn on and borders added.  


The idea we have is to have the quilt top on display on my design wall at the party with a table in front of it for signing blocks for the back.  I think it will work.


~Joan

{Post #976} Vintage Block Baby Quilt

I had a post about this quilt over on my secret projects blog, but I don't think the mother of the baby reads my blog.  So I am going to update it here.


About 6 weeks ago I bought a set of these pinwheel blocks.  There were 42 of them.  None of them were the same sizes.  So I took one apart and made correct seam allowances, etc.  Took too much time.  I just cut them all down to 6-1/2" square, regardless of lost points.  My sewing-est daughter saw them on my design wall and did not notice the chopped off points until I pointed it out.  


Here are the pics.  I had to add some "muslin" to this block because the seam allowance was ripping:

I don't think it will be noticeable after quilting and washing.

Here are some other pictures showing the "lovely" fabrics used and my choice of border fabric:

{Post #975} High Point, NC Quilt Show

My 14-year-old daughter, Rachel, and I went to a quilt show in High Point, NC yesterday.  I am not going to comment on the pictures much.  It was about 2-1/2 hours from our house.  We had such a good time.  


I bought a book that had patterns for using the Twister ruler. I have had both sizes of the rulers for some time but no special patterns for which to use them.


So, without much more ado, here are some pictures.  Most of the quilts were elaborately machine quilted and the fabrics all matched.  My own quilts are simply quilted and mostly scrappy.  But there were many I enjoyed seeing.


Rachel enjoyed balancing birds and being Lady Liberty:

These were two of my favorites.  Scrappy and small pieces.  The postage stamp quilt had 11,000 pieces.  Rachel found a duplicate.

Here were some with magnificent quilting.  One hardly noticed the colors or pattern...the quilting was so attention-getting!

I have one of these Granny Squares quilts in progress.  It will be years before it's finished, but isn't this neat?

This Lone Star was hand quilted beautifully:

Besides the book, I bought a bag of selvages at their "yard sale" for 10 cents.  I threw half of it away because it was unusable to me but still have a hefty amount...especially for 10 cents!

One other fundraiser that they had which I thought was a neat idea is this:  they had at least 20 baskets made up with a variety of things in each one.  Some had rulers or spools of hand or machine quilting thread.  All had fabric collections.  Some had a pattern tucked in.  Some were all one line of fabric or one style (novelty, 30's, patriotic, etc.) or one color (I put all mine in for a basket of neutrals).  There was a letter to label the basket and a matching deli-type plastic container with a slit in the top beside it with the same letter.  One could purchase tickets for $1 each (or 6 for $5) to put in the container to be drawn at the close of the show Sunday.  Since it was a fundraiser, I got 6 tickets and gave Rachel three.

We took our time getting home, stopping for a delicious lunch, a stop at Ikea, and one undisclosed stop.

Hope you enjoyed my little tour.

~Joan

{Post #974} Black and White

This is a color catcher sheet next to a white sheet.  Even though I prewashed all the shirts I bought (and they all had been likely washed many times before I got them), the color catcher still was a lovely grey when it come out of the washer after a spin with my tan and blue spiderweb.  How can that be?  I even prewashed my backing fabric!

Off to a quilt show in Greensboro, NC with my Rachel tomorrow AM.  It's about 2-1/2 hours away, so a lot of our time will be spent in travel.  I'm looking forward to it anyway!


~Joan

{Post #973} For My B-Friend, Julie

I O-fish-a-lee LOVE this quilt!  Here it is in all its post-dried quiltiness.  The back is brushed cotton, just ready to snuggle a new baby boy!


These pics are for Julie, my B-friend (that's blog-friend for those not in the know).  I hold her and Bonnie H. co-responsible for my new addiction to plaid/shirt quilts.  

Why aren't there more quilting hours in a day?  


So I can cross off one baby quilt from my list of five I need before the end of August.  Then today I added 4 more names.  Two church ladies and two of my daughter's sisters-in-law.  Yippee!!


~Joan