Stir Crazy!

When we moved to our new home I decided to make bedspreads for our guest room.  I don't remember the last time I made something especially for our home.  Like a lot of quilters I give away almost everything I make!  I decided to use the "Stir Crazy" pattern from the booklet "Strip Therapy 2,"  and I bought some batik strips and background fabric so I could get started.   Just as a side note here -- whenever you purchase pre-cut quilt pieces make sure you measure them.  I learned the hard way, they are hardly precise.







The fabric I chose for the background actually ended up being in the package of strips.....

....so I had to replace it with something else.  That wasn't too difficult.  There are zillions of beautiful batiks out there from which to choose!

I began working on this project at a retreat I went to in November, where I only ended up making four blocks!  I guess I needed to visit with friends more than I needed to get something done!

Sewing strip sets together is one of the most boring parts of sewing.

After getting the strip sets finished and sub-cutting them I finally got to sew actual blocks together!

I am an "iron the seams open" kind of girl.

Blocks!!!

The bedspreads were finished and mailed off to my friend Angela for quilting less than 2 months after I started.  I must be feeling motivated.  

I am so happy with the way these spreads are turning out that I am thinking about making something else just for us.  Maybe a throw for the living room or a king-size spread for our room.  The question is........stash?? or shopping??

Broken Dishes for Baby

I really have no idea why I decided on the "Broken Dishes" block for my great-nephew Blake's quilt in 2001.  I do know I wanted a traditional look and I wanted to use my stash.  I remember that his mommy cried when she opened the gift.  That's the kind of response we quilters like.  We really want our hard work to be appreciated!  

Now Blake is about to become a big brother.  His mommy is having the first girl great-grand-baby in our family after a string of eight (yes 8) boy cousins!   I thought about all kinds of cute and definitely PINK ideas for this quilt, but in the end I went with "Broken Dishes" again, and I used a soft floral print from my stash with "just enough" pink in it. 

Even though it's more work and can be time consuming, I like to iron my seams open.  I think the blocks are more finished looking and the piecing is more precise.  Choosing the right color for a small border was challenging since I was working from my stash.  I really wanted to go with a yellow or pink, and I even thought about red since there is a tiny red dot in the background of the print.

I ended up liking  the light purple the best, though, and after adding just a 1" inner border of that, I finished it off with a small outer border of the print.  This one needs to be hand quilted for sure, so it looks like I will have something to work on in the hotel at the AQS Show in Paducah later this month.  

Now to get the backing pieced so I can baste it and get started quilting.  Doesn't this look like just the perfect quilt for a very special little long-awaited girl baby??