Day Trip to Quilt Con East

    I was lucky to spend Saturday at Quilt Con in Savannah, GA. It was a wonderful show of modern quilts and beautiful weather.  I am so glad the show was close enough for friends and me to make a day trip.  The grand prize winner was Katherine Jones with her quilt “Bling” inspired by a princess cut diamond and foundation pieced.  

 Here are some other winners or ones that I liked.  The photo files are large so if you click on them, you should be able to view a larger detailed image. 

  I was inspired.  Hope you enjoy some time sewing or quilting.

A Little Scrap Play Time

     I have 2 quilt sandwiches waiting to be quilted; however, instead of quilting I have been playing with scraps.  The color for February in the Scrap Quilt Challenge is teal (also aqua or sea green).  I searched my scraps for this mix of blue/green and pulled what I thought would fit.  I have 2 ½” strips, 3 ½” and 4 ½”.  I sorted a little and so far have sewn one large star block which you can see to the right in the photo. I hoped to have all 15 squares of different fabric, but I did not have enough variety in my stash.   

For more inspiration check out this SoScrappy post.

I plan to make a variety of blocks with this color group.  Hope you have some time to play with scraps.  

Lego Quilt Top and a Finish

       In 2012 I made a twin size Lego quilt for our VA’s new Hospice Unit. (You can see it here.)   I recently decided to make a smaller Lego comfort top for my church quilt group.  I raided our stash of 2 ½” squares, bars and strips with an analogous color theme ( same as the first). I wish I had done a little more planning for ease. 

      I started by piecing rows that would measure 12 ½”. I arranged the rows so that very few seams would match. 

 I pieced 20 blocks that should have measured 12 ½” unfinished and usually I don’t have a problem with my seam allowance; however, this time I did. I know the stash of pieces were cut by many different people and they were not all equally accurate.  I ended up having to square blocks to 12 ¼”.     The first time I used this pattern, I joined blocks with sashing of similar colors.  This time I joined the blocks without sashing.  Because I trimmed blocks, some seams don’t match.  I hope the recipient will not care about unmatched seams. Right now the top measures 49.5” by 59”.  I may add a border so it will finish a little larger.

   Here is the final picture of the chopped fans quilt. I turned it in at church quilt group today. 

Enjoy some time sewing and quilting!

Fun and Quilt Progress

       I have returned home from a week with family and granddaughters.  When my granddaughters play with their 18” dolls, they love to play “Halloween” so of course they need costumes.  This bee costume is the newest.  It started with 2 layers of pillowcase style dress with a little stuffing in between and elastic around the bottom. I adapted the wing pattern from a Simplicity Tinkerbelle pattern.

       My older granddaughter celebrated her 9^th birthday.  Here she is holding her new cousin.

       Back home I worked on more quilting on this comfort quilt for my church group. 

I practiced FM swirls in the center,

free-formed feathers on the inner border,

and a leaf motif in the outer border.

Enjoy some time sewing or quilting!