A Couple More Tops and a Random Block!

This top and the next one are made from more blocks I found from summer.  Of course I wanted a different set and think this one really shows off the blocks to full advantage.  I haven't yet decided whether I will do them individually or combine them into a queen sized quilt as I still have a few leftover blocks.  I am leaning to the queen sized quilt (but doing each half separately and then sewing the together after machine quilting).

The start of another baby quilt!

This is a block I made a  long time ago in a Paula Nadelstern class.  It was very wonky and has been sitting on my design wall for years.  Yesterday, I decided it was really an 8 sided shape if I trimmed some of the edges which I did.  I also tightened up the middle so it's not quite symmetrical anymore.  It will be a pillow cover.  It's about 13 inches square and made up of many fussy cut fabrics! 

Two More Done!

I found a plastic bag full of these four patches as well as the makings for more.  Couldn't remember what kind of quilt I made before so looked at my Pinterest page with all of my quilts!

I didn't do exactly the same set as I rarely do!  I went through my bag of blue 2 1/2 inch strips and found enough of these to surround the four patches.

I thought I had given away all my 1 1/2 inch strips but found quite a few and just sewed them randomly together.  With my Juki 2010, it was super fast and they don't stretch like they do on my Bernina.  I basically made the whole baby quilt  top in a few hours..

I found another bag of blocks I did this summer and it contained several more plastic bags filled with blocks!  These were pretty flower blocks.

I needed to decide on background and fillers betwee the blocks.  This was my first thought.

This is what I thought I was going to do when I stopped for the day.

I ended up doing this, however as I wanted the flower blocks to be shown at their best and the other sets were too distracting for my eyes.  I do like radial symmetry. This was also done in just a few hours.

Next are some large posie blocks -- 71 of them which will be made into 2 good size quilts for Sweet Charity.  The fabric for these is a bit boring.  

I am a compulsive finisher and want to get all these blocks made up into tops at least.  I really know now that I really have to like the fabric to do stack an whacks justice and not bore myself to death.

 

Three Baby Quilts and one Sweet Charity Quilt

I am trying to finish all the UFOs that I have accumulated over the summer and last spring.  I have made a couple of quilts already from this fruit fabric and found enough blocks to make one more.  As usual, I try to do different sets and also sets that use as many of the blocks as I can.  Here is a new beginning!

I tried to find a variety of fabrics to surround the blocks, all from my various scrap bags.  I found enough so that I didn't have to cut any more strips.

Here it is laid out before sewing together.  Had to decide what to do for the outside triangles and finally decided to use one of my darker had dyes.

This is the fabric that was used.

It's done and a pretty good size as the blocks were fairly large for posie blocks.

I made a couple of quilts from this fabric last summer but had enough posie blocks left over to do a baby quilt.  I used some of my hand dyed green to make the four patches.  Using a scrappy four patch took too much attention from the posies.

Laid out and ready to go!

Finished it with more of the green hand dyed fabric.

I had a ton of this rose fabric which has a pretty small repeat.  I had made a bunch of posie blocks when recovering from my surgery and decided they would make good baby quilts.  I made two quilts (shown below) and cut fabric for the backing of both of those (40 x 40 inches) and still have enough left over to make kaleidoscope blocks!  Won't be doing that any time soon!

I did a controlled scrappy set for this one and used some of the above fabric for the border.

This is even more scrappy!

 

Autumn Fabric Stack and Whacks

For some reason, I decided to cut up this autumn fabric into three different sizes of squares so determining sets was a little tricky as I like to use all of them and also like at least a lap quilt out of them.  These were the largest with a finished size of 6 1/2 inches.  The biggest challenge was the next size was 6 inches so had to be careful which ones I was using and even then had at least one mistake!

Looking pretty good for this fabric which I am completely sick of!

Done!!

This is the second set which are 6 inches finished.  I thought I would use this arrangement but it would have necessitated too many borders (which is my least favorite part of  making tops).

I finally decided on this set but didn't have enough of the green (which is one of my hand dyes) to use for the main part of the sashing.

Didn't have enough of the green to surround those outside "posies" and actually had to do one partial seam to finish this one up.  Luckily I have lots of this black which I would like to use as I just don't use black anymore.  I have used so much white in these quilts that usage is measured in bolts not yards!!  Luckily I had quite a bit of white that was not suitable for dyeing!  We won't talk about how much I still have for dyeing!!

Here is the remainder which is enough for a baby quilt.  I have used a neutral beige for the alternating squares.  It will require a 2 inch border to make it 40 inches square so will use some green to pull it together.  Orange is just too much!!  I will be very glad to get these squares used up!  These squares finished to 4 1/2 inches!
 

Oh Yes, More!!

This may look familiar for long time readers.  I bought all the rest of the bolt of fabric at Joann's last year as it was only $1.80/yd and I knew it would make good stack and whacks.  This is probably the fourth quilt I have made with this fabric and there is one more below!!

I actually had enough fabric left over that I was able to add a border with it.

I still have a bunch of blocks made with an even prettier color palette of this same fabric.  I am getting really bored with it however.  I try to do different sets to alleviate said boredom but there are only so many ways to use these blocks that don't require a ton of work.  As they are all charity quilts, I am only willing to put in so much effort!

These are the "posies" from the same fabric and then the challenge of a different set.

I wanted to get rid of the remainder of this navy blue sateen which is annoying to work with.  I wanted to liven it up a bit so decided to alternate the yellow and the blue as borders on the blocks.  I put one inch sashing between the blocks and 1 1/2 inch between the rows.  I wanted to make a cot sized quilt which now measures about 40 x 70.  It's hardly noticeable that I used the two different sizes but did allow the quilt to be about four inches longer!

Now it's on to the next batch!  I still have bags of completed blocks.  I really want to get back to something a bit more artsy!

It was fun to participate in a Zoom meeting of our QBTS guild yesterday.

 

Huntington Beach State Park and Three More Tops Finished

This is one of two quilts I made from what I considered some pretty ugly fabric.  I almost prefer this type of fabric for stack and whacks as it can't get worse and usually is better.  I am not sure this was true for this one!  It is okay but not my favorite for sure!  As usual, I did two different sets!

This is the second one.

This is the ugly fabric.  It had a 24 inch repeat though!  Still have a bit left which I will incorporate into the backs.  I obviously bought it to do hexagons but didn't think it was worth the extra work of hexagons these last few days.

I have bags and bags of finished squares that I made during my time with leg in cast and before I left for Rochester in the spring.  This was one of those bags which didn't have that many squares.  These were probably leftovers from a previous project but I found an arrangement that used all of them and some hand dyed pale yellow fabric for the set.

I gave 15 tops to a friend who has a long arm and is the leader of the charity quilt group.  I managed to find backings for all of them as well so she will be kept busy quilting for awhile!  I feel guilty giving her three more this soon after giving her all the others!

My daughter and I took our annual pilgrimage to Huntington Beach State Park last week shortly after I got down here.  It was high tide so we mostly saw egrets and more egrets with an occasional siting of others.  Before we left we spotted our Wood Storks in their arboreal retreat and Lisa ran back and got some good pictures of them and the one Roseate Spoonbill that had joined them.  This is the one Anhinga we saw which surprised me as it is a salt water marsh and I usually see them in fresh water areas.  He posed for us though!

This was one pudgy great egret!!  He was chasing everyone away and my daughter got a great picture of him in flight!  I thought he was a swan when I first spotted him (or her).

This was a Little Blue Heron that I spotted off in the distance and was amazed that I got a decent picture of him.

This is a very handsome Osprey!
 

One Block is Not Like the Others!

I found these blue strips and I had a few triangles left from the quilt top shown in the last post so I combined them into another quilt top which is like one I did probably 20 years ago.  The strips were left over from that! and I uncovered them when cleaning out a bookcase of dvds of all things!  It measures 42 x 64.  I called this one "One Block is Not Like the Others:"as there  is one triangle that is horizontal instead of vertical!

I couldn't help myself but had to start putting together some of the kaleidoscope blocks that I cut from the same fabric from which the posie quilt was made (last blog entry).  I am amazed at how different these all look.  I am thinking I may make a large quilt from these.  I find them so pretty, I probably won't combine them with the posie blocks but will choose a different set and will use white instead of black surrounding them.

I am getting my boxes ready to head to warmer climes for the winter so probably won't blog for awhile