Jewel Box mini quilt

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I've been interested in the Jewel Box quilt block, and before I got rid of the scraps I was simply tired of seeing around, I thought I'd just try another mini.

This is what I ended up with.
It's finished at 10 X 14 inches.


While not anywhere near perfect, it was a fun process to try, and I might even be interested enough to make a larger one some day.

Another String Quilt

  Sometimes when you just don't want to work on a current project and want to do something mindless, you need to have something that is just that.  While watching taped shows, or just don't want to concentrate on a specific pattern, String quilts are the way to go.
    No matter how I tried - I couldn't get a sharp picture of this quilt.  Then I realized too that it was actually upside down because that odd block at the top left was supposed to be on the bottom.   

   I've just about tapped out all my scraps by the time I finished this quilt.
I still had a few of the strips of fabric found at the Economy Shop from many years back.  I also had chunks of an old fabric that was frankly - well, ugly!  I cut that fabric up into 11 inch squares, and gathered up a bunch of scrap pieces of batting that I didn't want to throw out.   I patched the batting into pieces large enough to use and started in.   Here is the result.

   I ran out of strips of fabrics and decided that while the results would be plenty long enough - it wasn't wide enough though to not have to pull and tug around to keep cold air from creeping in.  It wouldn't take much more so I looked around and found a few more of the scraps and widened it out by about 3 1/2" on one side.  Then I took some other small chunks and patched them into a 5" strip on the other side.  The finished quilt measures 48 X 70 inches.

     It's all machine pieced and Quilt As You Go constructed by using 1 3/4" strips (folded) on the top and 1 1/8" strips on the back then blanked stitch finished.
   This went together quick, cleaned out a lot of scraps, and made room for other projects.

Virginia Mountains Quilt DONE

This quilt has been over 2 years in the making.  It all started with the fabrics.  

Honestly, it took a very long time for me to just cut into the fabric!  Since I probably couldn't get more of the material, I wanted to be sure to use what we bought on that trip to Virginia.

Then came the progress shown that is shown here, and  here.    Then came the quilting.  I knew I wanted to hand quilt it in the big stitch method and described some of that process here.  What I eventually realized with the right size needle, thimble, rubber finger tip and perle cotton thread, I could finish up the quilting without pliers!


This is how the backing looks - putting leftover pieces, and a large piece of the border fabric from the front.

Here's some close-ups of the quilting.  I shadow quilted the triangle pieces of the mountains, and the sky got a free-hand swirly design in a couple of different colors of perle cotton.  

I wanted to try a baptist fan design on the border, and just did a simple zig-zag on the inner border. 









It's all done.  
Generously sized at 60 X 74 inches.  And as is necessary for all our quilts here - it is pet tested and approved !! 

Doesn't Zeplin look happy!  

Morning Star Flimsy - done

I've finally gotten my Morning Star quilt top done.  
I thought I had enough of the border to go all the way around, but had to piece the bottom row.  I started off like this...


......but immediately realized that it just didn't look right, so I pulled off that bottom row and added some more of the black instead and this is the result.

 I still wish I had more of that red and black print, but I didn't and this seemed to work OK.

You can see a bit more of the progress of this quilt here:   and here:


For now I'm considering it nearly done, and can move on to the next thing I need to finish up.