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I'm working on a quilt right now that is way outside my comfort zone. When a lot of quilters say that they mean they're working on something bright, and artsy, and fun. When I say it I mean pastel, and simple, and sweet.
A group of online quilty friends had a challenge quilt-along in July. We were to make a quilt using the Two-Step pattern by Missouri Star Company's Jenny Doan. You can see her video tutorial here. I thought this would be a good opportunity to make a "put back for the great-grands" quilt, and I had a fat-quarter tower I had bought just for that purpose. It's the Love & Friendship line by Verna Mosquera for Free Spirit Fabrics.
See what I mean? Not the sort of fabrics I normally work with.
The Two-Step block is simple and goes together fast .....
..... but, you do need to pay attention when you put them together. All the blocks were supposed to look like the one on the left. Thankfully only two of them had to be ripped out and remade because they were like the block on the right. Whew!
Not too much arranging and rearranging before it was a flimsy .....
..... and now it's basted and ready to hand quilt.
The final step will be setting it aside for some special someone to love and treasure some day. I know I've fallen in love with it. Who would've thought?
Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Even though I bought the "Finding Dory" charm pack two years ago I'm calling this quilt a fast finish. After all, I just started working on it a few weeks ago. I told you last week in this post that I had the blocks put together. What I didn't admit was that I had measured the sashing pieces wrong. For some reason, knowing full well that charm packs have 5" squares, I cut the strips 5 1/2" long.
That made for extra work because I had to trim twice for every single block.
After the top was put together I noticed that one of the pieces was upside down. Either that, or these are some very directionally challenged jellyfish!
I did not take the whole thing apart, but I did feel like this -
I wanted to use blue for the border and backing, but I don't have a great selection of blues in my stash. As I fell asleep one night, trying to figure out what to do, I suddenly remembered --- Gavin's curtains! Okay, let me explain. When my grandson was about six years old, I made blue curtains for his bedroom. Of course all the photos I could find of the curtains have him in them, and in most of them he's jumping on this bed. I'm okay with that!
The point is, when his room was redecorated a few years ago I deconstructed those curtains and saved the fabric, even the lining.
Basting came next (of course) and then the quilting. I used yellow thread this time, and I really like it.
Every once in a while I had to leave my sewing room and do something boring -- like making dinner. That's when I felt like this -
Did I say, "something boring?" I meant, "something else." (Yes, I'm being silly. I'm having fun with this. Can you tell I like this fabric?)
It's done and ready to donate to Choose Life of North Alabama.
I thought you would like to see what Denise made. It's so cute! The snowball blocks set with the polka dots - love it!
This is my 11th finish for the year and the 6th for Choose Life. I'm on a roll. Just imagine what I could get done if I never had to stop and cook!
I'm linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict for another Whoop! Whoop!
Recently my online quilt group had a weekend challenge to "Make a Project From What You Have on Hand." You may not believe this, but I have plenty on hand (aka my stash). So, I figured I could make a great project. And I did.
The first thing I did was pull a couple of "Summersault" charm packs by Erin McMorris which I had bought from Missouri Star Quilt Company.
These are really fun fabrics so I decided to make a quick baby quilt to either put back for a little girl or donate to charity. (There I go with the baby quilts again!)
After I got the top together I looked through my stash and found a great dark pink batik that worked perfectly for the borders .....
..... and the binding.
I went digging through my stash again and found this beautiful pink and orange and yellow fabric I had bought sometime, somewhere on clearance, and there was enough for the backing.
I did some straight line quilting (I'm getting better at it!) and finished it pretty quickly. Then I put the binding on and finished up stitching that down by hand, a nice relaxing way to finish a weekend of sewing.
It turned out really cute, and it was a fun weekend project.
Wouldn't it be nice if I could get that much done every weekend?
Our Clara's Quilting Cottage Retreat was in June and this year the theme was a 1950's sock hop.
Retreat with these ladies is something I look forward to all year long and this year was no disappointment.
One night we played a version of "Name that Tune". We had to listen to a snippet of a 50's, 60's or 70's song and see who could name the song and the recording artist before someone else. I'm not any good at games like that because, well, the memory isn't at all what it used to be, but I do listen to 60's music all the time in my car so I finally identified a Herman and the Hermits' song. Yay, me!! The surprise of the night was Jan. She was naming off songs and artists right and left, and she was rewarded with a pair of fuzzy dice.
She told me that the secret to her success is all the ukelele music she has been playing since she learned how to play down in The Villages this past winter!
Our challenge this year was "Neutrals with a Kick." My two favorites were Mary's ...
... and Jan's.
Jan's was already pin basted and ready to quilt. She has this crazy idea that one it supposed to completely finish one quilt before starting another one. And she calls herself a quilter! Sheesh!!
Some of the gals had a lot of fun dressing up .
We had a hula hoop contest, bubble gum blowing contest, drank root beer floats, and really enjoyed the "yearbooks" Gayle made for us using the photos we had sent to her from our high school years.
One of my favorite quilts was Rita's version of the popular "Eat. Play. Sleep. Repeat." Baby Quilt you may have seen on Pinterest recently. Of course, Rita always has to put her own spin on things......
A major highlight for me was the huge pile of pillowcases we made for Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital in St. Louis. We had 172 pillowcases turned in this year.
I know how much these pillowcases mean to the young patients there. A huge thank you to everyone who participated!!
