Shoo Fly quilt

Good news on the quilting front--I've completed quilting and binding this Shoo Fly quilt. I hope to be sending it off for donation this weekend. I free-motion quilted it on my sewing machine. And today I did sew the border on that Hodge Podge quilt. I sewed on 4 inches of a mottled gold fabric. Now I have to dig through my stash (it's in a big storage box at the bottom of my closet) to try to find a backing for it. I've been enjoying my sewing lately. And oh yes, my daughter liked her shortie PJ pants that I sewed for her. The fabric was printed with helicopters and I managed to not have any of them flying upside down.
It seems to me that I ought to be counting my blessings lately--I'm grateful for my wonderful family and friends. I have to be grateful that I live in a nice place and go to bed each night in comfort. And I have to stop complaining so much!
By the way, a message to the East Coast from the folks in California--welcome to earthquake country!

Bloggers Quilt Festival 5-2010

It's time for the Bloggers Quilt Festival.  Here's the link http://www.amyscreativeside.com/  I made this quilt for my daughter who lives far away from me in Florida.  I was inspired to make this pattern which is a Liberated Shoo Fly by reading the book Liberated Quiltmaking by Gwen Marston.  That book is now out of print, but Gwen Marston has recently published another book called Liberated Quiltmaking II and it has similar directions.  I used an assortment of solid colors for the background of the blocks, and then I added scraps galore.  I try to use my scraps whenever I can, as you can see.  I included scraps in the borders.  But my scraps seem to multiply nevertheless.  This quilt was so much fun to sew.  I like to just throw colors together--I'm not the interior decorator type, I guess.  I free-motion quilted on my sewing machine.

Nine Patch Quilt

Da--da! Finished. I made this quilt for a donation. It's rather cuddly, actually. If you squint your eyes a little, you'll be able to note that the light squares make a diagonal line across the quilt. That's what I like about this pattern the most. It requires the choosing of light and dark fabrics to achieve the effect. I still have another PhD to work on. (I learned this on the Internet the other day--instead of saying UFO, you say PhD (Project half done)). What am I getting my PhD in? textiles.

Nine Patch Quilt

Happy New Year to all the nice people that stop by my blog. May you have a good year. Here's an old fashioned nine patch that I'm making for a donation quilt. I won't have time to pin it to the backing and batting until next week. I thought that it was time to "get back to my roots" in quilting. I cut 4 inch wide strips, and join them up in threes. Then I cut those up into 4 inch sections, and I join into blocks. After that, I square the blocks up, and only then do I cut out the plain blocks, when I know what exact size to cut them. This quilt is not a regular size bed quilt, it only has 15 pieced and 15 plain blocks, finishing approximately 50 x 60 inches.