Long Overdue, the Ultimate Collaboration

At long last the January NURTURE circle do. Good Stitches quilt is done!  Back in January I asked the talented members of the my do. Good Stitches circle to sew up paper pieced blocks from Shape Moth's Forest Quilt Along.  The ladies and I made 10 paper pieced blocks from the Forest QAL (plus a stray orphan block of a bird one member sent in).

Now normally when it's my turn to be a quilter for do. Good Stitches I get the quilt done within a few weeks. Not this time, obviously. I really wanted to do justice to the time consuming, detailed, and truly beautiful blocks my group members had made. Finally in March these blocks came together on the design wall along with the leftover split 9 patch blocks from February's block drive.

Woodpecker by Dhia

Then, the quilt top sat for a while longer...  I wanted to quilting to be worthy of the quilt.  Fate intervened again in April when Judy from Quilt Paradigm wrote to me offering to do some quilting for Covered in Love.  After seeing the spectacular job she did on a couple of our tops I asked if she would consider doing the Forest QAL top and she said yes!

Red Panda by Jackie

As you can see, Judy outdid herself with the quilting on our quilt!  Beautiful wavy lines sprinkled with paw-prints, bubbles, and feathers.

The NURTURE circle makes quilts for Covered in Love. 

Flowers and snail by Lisa

Maple fox by Louise

Covered in Love provides comfort quilts for the families of patients who pass away in the hospital.  Thank you Judy, NURTURE circle, and block drive contributors for all your roles in this quilt and for patience with me to finally get it done!

Feathers by Briawna

Fern and flower by Gabby

Pine Marten by Gayle

Roaring deer by me

Squirrel by Libby

Trillium by Carla

The June quilt drive is still going on if you would like to contribute!

Linking to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it Friday.

Arranging and Rearranging

I worked 4 days this past week, but before and inbetween I've gotten some sewing done.  The second Feb Split 9s quilt top was arranged and sewn together.

I had 7 split 9s blocks left and after staring at them for a while on the wall next to the Forest QAL blocks my do. Good Stitches bee mates made I decided the two belonged together.

I got into my scraps and made up enough neutral 9 patches to finish the top.  My initial scrap sort-and-cut was only 3 patches short of the total amount I needed! I began playing with all three types of blocks on the design wall.

This one has gone through a lot of iterations. I like to put it on the wall and stare at it for a while.  I actually don't have pictures of the first couple arrangements.

I made an extra split 9 block.

And finally I think I've settled on this arrangement with the double bend.  But I haven't sewn it all together yet, so it may change again. We'll see.

Finally, with the Tyler Quilt Guild show coming up next weekend I finally got the crumb quilt done! Full finish post coming on this one next Friday.

Also, could someone please explain to me how this little peanut grew into a big cat overnight?  I swear it was just yesterday she was palm sized!

Linking to Oh Scrap! and Design Wall Monday.

Design Wall and Chain Sewing

Happy Monday! Check out these gorgeous paper pieced blocks on my design wall! The ladies of the Nurture circle at do. Good Stitches made these in January and the blocks just keep coming in!  Waiting on one more block, in the meanwhile I need to start working on my layout for these.

Unfortunately, instead of quilting I've been spending a lot of time on this: studying.  These are my books for just one class! The sticky notes on the front tell me which chapters I'm *supposed* to have already read in them.

While listening to lectures for school I've been chain-piecing on an old project. Back around Sept of 2014 I started on this crumb project, sewing 1.5"x2.5" scraps of white and colored fabrics together.  I was planning to make a quilt like one I saw with a zig zagging design (similar to this one).  It reminded me of the old gum wrapper chains people used to make.  Anyway, I made close to 1000 little 2.5" square units and then lost interest.

Then, on last Friday's Finishes at Crazy Mom Quilts I came across the "Bonnie Lass" pattern, which uses the exact same units!  With my enthusiasm back, I have begun chain piecing the many, many, 2.5" squares into four patches that will measure 4.5" sq.  One of these days this might be a quilt, yet ;)

Linking up, a bit late, to Judy's Design Wall Monday.

I'm being stalked...

Little Miss always seems to know when I'm sewing and come to check it out.   When I'm piecing she likes to lay on the ironing board in the sunshine and the warm spot from the iron.

I'm watching you...

When I'm quilting she gets under the desk and watches, hoping a corner of the quilt will slip over the back of my desk where she can attack it.

Needless to say, if she succeeds at her goal it causes a nasty yank on the quilt sandwich under my needle. Then I hose her down with the squirt bottle and she runs away to lick herself. Of course she sneaks back as soon as I am distracted.

The other night I quilted until 10, then turned off the machine to work on school stuff.  Around midnight I kicked something furry under the desk.  Yes, she was still on guard, waiting, hours later for a sliver of that quilt to reappear. Silly cat.

In other news, you may remember that this month I asked the members of my do. Good Stitches circle to make paper pieced blocks from the Forest Quilt Along.  The ladies from the Nurture circle have been troopers with such a difficult block and here are the first 3 all together on the design wall.  You can see some more of the blocks, which have been made but haven't made it to me in the mail yet here.   Thank you, Nurture circle! You guys are rockstars and this is going to be such a cool quilt!

Linking to Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday.