Other People's UFOs

I have a file on my computer called "Other People's UFOs" where I save the photos of quilts that started off as someone else's projects.  Many of them come to me at the top stage, some as blocks.  I love the variety that these projects bring to Covered in Love and I love that they get finished and go to forever homes!

This pretty and very large top was pieced by Priscilla and quilted by Kathy.  It's got a great scrappy, vintage look and the 8-patch rectangles are so different and neat.

This bright flannel top was pieced by Suzanne and quilted by Kathy as well. Kathy and I agreed that quilting a flannel quilt feels like wresting a dragon.  This one had a flannel backing as well, pieced from donated fabrics, so it's extra snuggly. 

This quilt is obviously for a child with all the bright, fun fabrics. CiL doesn't give out too many quilts to children but rarely it does happen.  This cozy, cuddly quilt will be perfect for a child who needs it.

If you'd like to join in with Covered in Love's mission you can learn more on the main page or check out the block drive.  The current Covered in Love block drive is a fun string block and there's a GIVEAWAY going on, too!  More info here!

Linking to  Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Crazy Mom Quilts and Finished or Not Friday

A Perfect Bee Block

Not that my block is perfect, it definitely isn't, but I think this block design is an ideal bee block!

Jenny chose this for our January block for my do. Good Stitches group; you can find the tutorial here.  We made the 16" blocks, which use a 2" square as their base.  With 104 pieces per block making one of these by myself would take a few years and cost sanity and possibly lives. Making just one block is fun, making a dozen poses a danger to myself and others. You get the point :)

And check out the beautiful trimmings I made from the HSTs!  Speaking of do. Good Stitches, I am still working on quilting the top from the square stars blocks we made in October.  For some reason I am a glutton for punishment with these Good Stitches tops and always try to do something complicated.

The snow took out our power for a few hours last week; one of my electricity-free sewing tasks was to arrange blocks from the Nov/Dec drive on the wall.  Now to start sewing these together.  I always need something to do with my hands while I'm listening to class lectures. Mechanically sewing together blocks is the perfect task!

Linking to Oh Scrap.

More Scrappy Susanah Quilts

Brrrr! This week Texas got snow and ice and the whole state pretty much shut down. It sure is pretty, but it sure is cold.

I have been spending my time in the nice warm house getting started on school work and finishing quilts.  Today I have 4 more Scrappy Susannah quilts from the Fall block drive.  This brings us up to 8 quilts so far from that drive for Covered in Love!

All 4 of these were assembled and quilted by me.  Toward the end of piecing the tops I decided to try some with sashing for something different.

I really like how the light colored sashing with cornerstones looks from a distance.  It's amazing how the sashing fabric can make one quilt look so minimalist and the other look so busy!

Hope you are staying warm this winter and enjoying some time in front of the sewing machine!

Professional Quilt-Holder-Downer hard at work

If you'd like to join in with Covered in Love's mission you can learn more on the main page or check out the block drive.  The current Covered in Love block drive is a fun string block and there's a GIVEAWAY going on, too!  More info here!

Linking to  Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Crazy Mom Quilts and Finished or Not Friday

What are Cats Even For?

Moo is such a good sport.  I'm sure he doesn't understand why boyfriend and I found this so hilarious, but he tolerated it for a couple minutes anyway. (Don't worry, he was rewarded liberally with pets and treats).

Meanwhile Rory is earning her keep as a quilt-weight, holding down a stack of Scrappy Susannah quilts I've quilted but not bound.  She's like a paper-weight, but for holding down quilts.  Mostly just decorative, but if you ever need to justify why you have one you can say, "Well, she's holding down my quilts, see?"

On the sewing front, October's do. Good Stitches blocks have finally become a top and I'm planning to quilt it this afternoon.  Hope you're sewing this Sunday :)

Linking to Design Wall Monday.

Pretty Enough for a Man (in Brown)

Hello all! I'm making the most of the last days of my Christmas break, gotta face reality and go back to school next week ;(

This brown manly quilt top was sent in by Sandra for Covered in Love. This lovely top was HAND PIECED! I wish I had gotten better pictures of the fabrics.  It's just a simple rectangle setting, but some of the fabrics are beautiful.

This large quilt will be perfect for a man.  Since it's hand pieced I quilted it quite densely.  I bound it in blue to bring out the blues in some of the fabrics.

I have also gotten several finished quilts in recently. This pretty yellow zig-zag came from my do. Good Stitches group, the NURTURE circle. It was assembled by Jackie and quilted by Gayle, they both did a great job! Normally I contribute blocks to this circle, but this quilt is one of the ones from this summer when I was in New Mexico so Louise was a Block Angel for me and made two blocks for this quilt.

Speaking of Louise, I sent her a box of fabrics a while back to make quilts from for CiL and she just sent me this ribbon quilt made from the cat fabrics donated from Henry Glass.  You can find her post about this quilt (and more pictures) here.

Louise outlined all the cat and did different FMQ motifs in each ribbon. Perfect for a cat lover!  Special thanks this week to Sandra, Louise, Jackie, Gayle, and the do. Good Stitches ladies :)

If you'd like to join in with Covered in Love's mission you can learn more on the main page or check out the block drive.  The current Covered in Love block drive is a fun string block and there's a GIVEAWAY going on, too!  More info here!

Linking to  Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Crazy Mom Quilts and Finished or Not Friday

Ringing in 2018

Happy New Year! I got the new year organizing bug and decided to take control of my overflowing strings box.

All the strings in this box are less than 2.5" wide.  I have been trimming any strings larger than that into scrappy binding strips for a couple of years now, and I pretty much stay caught up with that.   It took me a long time to decide to buy an AccuQuilt Go, but I have to say it is completely worth it for this sort of thing.

All the strips have been pressed and cut to 1.5" widths.  The first thing I'm going to sew with these is more of the string herringbone blocks you can see here.

Inspector Rey confirmed the box was empty.  My next New Year project was the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  Every December I look jealously at the beautiful rainbow quilts being finished, so I finally decided to take the plunge.

I'm sewing Buckeye Beauty blocks, 6 per month at 8" each, on a grey background.  Inspired (well, copied) from this beauty at Treadlestitches.  We'll see how it goes... I have a problem with these kind of slow quilt alongs, the same problem I have with leader-enders. I'm bad at waiting.  At some point, usually before very long, I get excited and just make the rest of the blocks and finish!

Linking to Oh Scrap!

Warm Summer Days

Warm summer days? Not here! Like most of the rest of you I've been freezing my buns off the last few weeks. I spent a week in Illinois just to get my fill of real cold, but even Texas has been stubbornly below freezing.

These two pretty blue and yellow quilts are bringing the summer sunshine, though.  Don't you think? Two more of Theresa's tops that I quilted. They are two versions of an irish chain.

The bigger one got an all-over stipple, the smaller one with the yellow pinwheels got stipple intermixed with stars.  Both will be going up to the hospital for Covered in Love soon.

I hope you all had a good holiday season.  I was able to travel a bit and see many of my friends and families. I saw five babies (15 months and younger) in 8 days!

I found the perfect backing Sandra had sent in to go with the summertime, beach-y color scheme.

Nancy K. sent in this lovely finished quilt for Covered in Love.  The blocks look like the faded quarter cabins we did for a CiL block drive last year.  I love this color combination and the color fade looks so good! Wish I'd though to try that with some of the block drive tops.

The quilting is a beautiful celtic-looking wave pattern. Beautiful! Thanks so much Nancy!

If you'd like to join in with Covered in Love's mission you can learn more on the main page or check out the block drive.  The current Covered in Love block drive is a fun string block and there's a GIVEAWAY going on, too!  More info here!

Linking to  Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Crazy Mom Quilts and Finished or Not Friday