Late for This Year, Early for Next Year!

Valentine's Day may be long past, but I only just took the last stitches on my Valentine's Day quilt this weekend.  Late for this year - early for next year!

I took this picture on an angle to show the quilting.  The finished size of this wall hanging is 45.5" x 53".  The quilting design is Swirls.  

This is a table runner made from St. Patrick's Day fabric sent to me from my FAB pal, Pam.  Pam sent the fabric to me back in 2008.  I made the flimsy right away, I only did the quilting this weekend.  I took the last stitches in the binding tonight.  There seems to be a theme here--late for this year, early for next year.

Fall Rail Fence - Quilted

The strategy of loading the Fall Rail Fence quilt last weekend so that I could make passes on the long arm as I had a few minutes during the week seems to have worked.  I finished the quilting on this one Friday night.  

The quilting pattern is called, Swirls.

This is the backing.  I love the trees and bright background on this one.

I now need a strategy to get the binding attached!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

This is a picture of my Mom, taken last Wednesday on her birthday.  I can't tell you how old she is, but I can tell you it was a milestone birthday and she doesn't look her age!  The flowers were from my brother and his family.  I wanted to get both the flowers and my Mom in the same picture so Mom crouched down behind the kitchen counter for the picture.



Our weather has not been very spring-like.  The only flowers that will survive right now are flowers inside the house.  I made my Mom this daffodil table runner and matching hot pad.  On my Mom's birthday, she got to see the table runner as a flimsy.  I finished the quilting today and delivered it to her today as a finished table runner. 

The table runner finishes at 17" x 43.5".  The pattern is,  "#144 - It's Fast, It's Easy" by Canadian designer Ursula Riegel of Designs to Share With You.  http://www.designstoshare.com/patterns/index.php5

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Fall Rail Fence - Finished Flimsy

This quilt was inspired by a quilt in the January 1999 issue of Traditional Quilter called, Christmas Village.  I started making my quilt just after the magazine was issued so I can easily date this UFO! 

The quilt in the magazine had the same 3" rail fence blocks as the center of my quilt.  The differences in the two quilts are in the border treatments.  Christmas Village had a border comprised of paper-pieced house and tree blocks that were supposed to look like streets in a village.  By the time I had the center of this quilt put together I was starting to second guess whether or not I wanted to paper piece the village blocks for my quilt.  I decided that a quilt top that has aged on the shelf for 13 years needs to be finished--paper pieced border or not!  I added a simple gold inner border and a wide sunflower outer border to finish off my version. 

This quilt is now 69.5" x 87" and was loaded on the long arm Sunday night.  I made a pass Sunday night and will take a pass now and then as I have time.  Before I know it, this one will be quilted and ready for binding.



Bryce - Finished Flimsy

In September 2011, my husband and I took a holiday that involved visiting many of the National Parks in Utah.  Our favorite park was Bryce Canyon. 

This is my Bryce Canyon inspired quilt.  The pattern is Fire Escape by Terry Atkinson of Atkinson Designs. This quilt top is lap size--approximately 60" x 72"

I picked out the batiks a week ago at my LQS and last Friday I spent the morning washing and drying the fabrics.  I started to cut the strips later in the day--only intending to do the cutting--kit the quilt so that when I was ready later to sew, everything would be ready.  Once I started working with the fabrics, I couldn't stop.  I finally called it a night just after midnight Friday night with about 2/3 of the sewing done.  I was able to do a bit of stitching Saturday between errands and a family potluck dinner with the last seam stitched Sunday night.  This was a true weekend quilt project. 

I am now in search for the perfect backing fabric.  My husband got pretty good at spotting lizards and geckos in the parks we visited on this vacation so I would like to find a backing fabric that features these sorts of creatures.

These are some of the pictures I took during our visit to Bryce:

Few places are as spectacular as the natural beauty of Bryce!