Watercolor Finish and New English Paper Piecing

   My watercolor wall-hanging is finished. 

I wish I had used a different color or finer thread and even a different motif for the quilting, however, I love it and want to do more. Thanks to Debbie of  Stitchin’ Therapy  for teaching me more about color value. 

     I have done minimal English Paper Piecing, however, when I saw this quilt on Facebook I became excited. 

“The New Hexagon Millefiore Quilt-Along” was Katja’s 2015 project offered readers of her book, The New Hexagon.   

I would really love to make this quilt but decided it would be smarter to start smaller. I also probably need to shop for a different selection of fabric. 

 For 2016 Katja offers a more simple project, “Blocks on the Go, for Quilts that Grow”,  where each block can be a finished quilt.   I shopped my stash for fabric and started making the hexagon blocks. 

I have not yet decided on a background fabric or whether I want to follow her directions to finish each unit which can then be joined.  She gives lots of options no matter how many you want to make.

Hope you enjoy at least a few minutes of sewing and quilting today.

Busy Week and a Finish

    The past week my quilting has taken a backseat as I enjoyed some time with family.  Son Will and granddaughter Mattie ran a 5K race last Sunday morning. 

Back at home I spent a couple of mornings working in my flower beds.  I have at least 10 varieties of bearded iris and am enjoying several in bloom. 

     Last night I finished sewing on the binding for the HST part of the “Scrappy Duo” quilts from Fons and Porter designs.  You can see more about the quilts on this post. 

I save Dove unscented soap slivers to mark sections on the border to help guide my FMQ of the swirl motif.  Afterwards a quick wipe with a damp cloth removes the marks. 

      I continue on my mission to finish UFOs.  This week I pulled BOM kits from Hancock Fabrics 2003 BOM.  I bought them the next year on sale.  The blocks are now pieced and I need to decide how I want to set them.  Somewhere I have some fabric I bought years ago for possible sashing and borders. 

Hope you enjoy some time sewing and quilting.

Made-Fabric Finish

    I am know in my guild as one who works with lots of fabric scraps.  I have been inspired by the work of Victoria Findlay Wolfe.  I used a bunch of green scraps to create blocks of "made-fabric".  I used them in this quilt and another.

I decided to quilt it with a wavy grid which is rather uninteresting. I used a light green thread.

I also have pieced a full size bed top like this one except the borders are different fabric.  I hope I can come up with a more interesting way to quilt it when I am ready.

Enjoy sewing and quilting today.

Another Finish

     I have been quilting up a storm recently and feel great about moving projects to the finish.  Today I finished a comfort quilt for guild.  This is the second time I have used this large block design.  It makes a great quick lap quilt. This one will go to a child at the local children’s hospital.

I quilted a variety of free-motion motifs in the bars.  It was good practice. 

     In the afternoon I pulled out another waiting quilt top from the pile and sandwiched it for quilting. I have not decided yet how to quilt it.  

Enjoy some time today sewing and quilting.

Another UFO Finished

    The Friday after Thanksgiving Bonnie Hunter offers a new Mystery Quilt to her blog followers.  I stated her "Grand Illusion Mystery" in late November 2014.  I only made a few of the components and after the final reveal pieced 4 of the large blocks with sashing and border units.  I found the perfect fabric for a wide simple border and completed the top in the spring of 2015.  Now it is quilted and finished.   

I love the spring colors and feel of this quilt.
I quilted it with several free-motion motifs including flowers in the center.  I had some trouble quilting around seams. Here is a close up of quilting.

Hope you enjoy a few minutes of sewing and quilting.

Two UFO Quilt Finishes

     I have been concentrating on UFOs so I won’t feel guilty about starting a new project.  I have been one in my guild who takes UFOs that no one else will.  Probably 20 years ago someone started a   

lap quilt Georgia Bonesteel style by hand quilting individual blocks.  Four blocks were hand quilted with the old timey polyester batting of twelve pieced blocks and then the project was donated to guild.  I brought home the pieces and some fabric scraps. Instead of piecing any more blocks, I created 4  plain blocks, machine quilted a motif using a template and added meandering in the center.  Not very dense quilting so they would better match the rest.

I quilted the other pieced blocks in the ditch similar to those hand quilted and joined them together Georgia Bonesteel style except by machine.  Here I am adding the 2 side columns. 

Here is the finished quilt.

    I LOVE made-fabric and have been inspired by the work of Victoria Findlay Wolfe.  The following project was inspired by a quilt in her first book, 15 Minutes of Play – Improvisational Quilts.  You can see the post for Nov. 2014 where I worked on the border here.  

Here is a close-up of some of the quilting.

    After finishing those 2, I pulled out another UFO of mine and a comfort quilt top and spent a rainy Friday afternoon sandwiching them. I am ready for another week of quilting. 

Have fun sewing and quilting!