You're Just Too Good To Be True. Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You.

Love at First Sight

A Flimsy

74  x 82

It was inspired by a vintage quilt. 

The vintage quilt is on the left and my version is on the right. 

Back in October of last year Sally who blogs at The Objects of Design posted a partial photo of a log cabin quilt made in 1890 that was displayed at the Pacific International Quilt Festival. My comment on that post was "I can't take my eyes off that log cabin."  It was definitely love at first sight. 

Sally posted that the quilt was part of a collection held by the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles. Recently I did a search at the Museum website to see if I could track down a larger picture of the log cabin quilt and further info on size.  My search revealed the size is 71 x 82 and it contains 72 blocks. 

I studied and studied the photos of the vintage quilt and set about making my own version. I found there were two slightly different blocks used by the original maker. I wasn't sure if it would make much difference to the overall look but I made blocks like the original maker. I used my scraps and scraps from a couple of kind and generous quilty friends cut at one inch width.  The center nine patches finished at 3 inches. 

 You're just too good to be true...

 ...Can't take my eyes off of you...

You'd be like heaven to touch. 

I want to hold you so much. 

Plaid-ish, the Flimsy

 Plaid-ish

It's a flimsy!

64 x 82

Free Plaid-ish tutorial is from Kitchen Table Quilting

I like how this turned out.  It was a perfect use of some five inch red, white and blue scraps I had left over from making Foothills as I blogged a few days ago.  I rarely make the same pattern more than once (except Happy Blocks) but I may have to try this one again.

Good thing I took the photo a couple of days ago. There is snow on the ground this morning!

Starz See The Light of Day

 Starz is now a flimsy (or a top if you prefer). 

60 x 72

 These are blocks that were swapped back in 2012. We used a free online pattern called Starz. 

All I had to do was make some 6 inch HSTs for top and bottom borders and add sashing and the borders. 

I had one Starz block left over and I think I know what I'm going to do with it. 

And, yeah, in case you are wondering...I still have more swapped blocks around here that need to be made into tops. 

More Rainbow Scrap Challenge Projects - Two Flimsies and a Finish

Strings  - A flimsy

40 x 60

These are 10 inch finished blocks. I started them a long time ago as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge Project - strings in the color of the month plus a 2 inch strip of a black polka dot.  I haven't worked on them for awhile because I ran out of strings that were long enough. Well, long strings have magically appeared again so I dug through them to make more blocks. I think I had to just make six of them and now I have a small donation quilt top. 

 And the good thing is that I have enough of that black polka dot print for backing and binding. 

 Arrowhead Puzzle (or as Bonnie Hunter calls them - Garlic Knots)

It's a flimsy!

64 x 88

 This will be another donation quilt. 

 I sure like how this top turned out. 

 Cats in the Cradle

Baby Quilt

It's a finish!

44 x 44

Its a finish! And a pretty busy one at that. I tried to tone down the busy-ness with some gray sashing but it is still pretty darned busy. 

Getting this to the finish line was my October One Monthly Goal (OMG)    at   Elm Street Quilts. 

It was also my goal #7   for   Q4 Finish-Along

 These blocks started with a bunch of 3 inch nine patches I wanted to use somehow. Sally (Objects of Design) had made some micro kittens I thought were cute so I asked her if she would share the instructions.  She did. By the way, she has a tutorial for a larger kitty on her tutorial page as well as many other cute critters. 

 Anyway, while the kitties alone were cute I think they didn't combine all that well with those nine patches and I probably should have alternated them with plain squares instead (which I may do in the future).   

 Maybe baby and parents can get a game of I Spy out of it.   I spy a kitty, basil and lettuce...

 ...a chicken...

 ...a flower, snowflakes, elephant...

 ...a fish.  

 If baby thinks the front too loud the back could always become the front. 

The back also has a rainbow clowder of cats. 

Batting was pieced (with wide zig zag stitch) and I quilted it with some spirals. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

It's a Finish! Sunflowers

 Sunflowers

74 x 98

Hand quilted

This one is for me.

 Pattern is from 19th Century Patchwork Divas' Treasury of Quilts by Betsy Chutchian and Carol Staehle. This is the second quilt from this book I have made and I have another in the works (aka UFO). 

 A long time ago I saw a Sunflower quilt. I can't remember where now. I loved it. I really really loved it. It was one of those quilts I thought I would never be able to make. Never. Ever. Never ever in a million years. 

 

 But here we are today.  I do like a challenge. The instructions for making this quilt were excellent and very easy to follow. The blocks were machine pieced and not paper pieced. And that's a good thing because I'm not so much a fan of paper piecing. 

And speaking of challenges...I hand quilted it too. Lots of curves with the tiniest stitches I could take. It is so very difficult to take photos of texture but it is there. And it's a funny thing about hand quilting...you can feel the fabrics soften with each stitch you take.  Well, maybe not with each stitch but you get my drift- you can actually feel the "comfy" getting quilted into the quilt as you go. You can feel the transformation of fabrics into quilt. 

 With the hand quilting the Sunflowers look three dimensional. 

 Sometimes the hand quilting doesn't show up in the corners of the Sunflower blocks but I know it's there and I'm glad I went ahead and did that quilting in the corners of each block. I had decided to do it, then decided it would be too much work, then decided I had to do it so I did it. That was the right decision and I would have regretted it if I hadn't done all that quilting in the corner of each block. That was a lot of curves and twisting and turning of the hoop but...it was the right thing for me to do!

 I used stencils and a pounce pad for marking some of the quilt. 

 But I just eyeballed the quilting and tried to stay 1/4 inside the seams in the Sunflower diamonds, sashing squares and Flying Geese. 

 Have I mentioned that I made this?? 

I made this quilt. 

And now that it is getting colder I will probably be wearing it around the house; dancing around the house in it.   Isn't that what quilts are for? 

Have I mentioned I made this?? Never say never ever!! 

This was my goal #10

for

Q4 Finish-Along

And now on to the next "never say never" quilt...

But first let's visit: 

Finished or Not Finished Friday at Alycia's Quilts

Peacock Party at Wendy's Quilts and More

I Spy A Couple More Finishes!

 I Spy Quilts x 2

40 x 48

 When the first grandkids were born about 15 years ago I joined an I Spy swap group. I always made sure to participate in the ABC  I Spy swaps and over the years I've received several sets of ABC...6.5 inch squares.  And over the years I've made several I Spy quilts with them for grandkids, grandparents and grand nieces and nephews.  

I like to give them as shower gifts along with hardback ABC, color, number and shape books. 

I try to include all colors as borders so colors can be included in any I Spy games. 

 I iron on fuzzy letters of the alphabet next to the square with the item that starts with that letter and make sure each letter is firmly attached before gift giving. 

 Since 30 blocks make up a quilt and there are only 26 letters of the alphabet I fill in at beginning and end with letter and number fabrics. 

And here's the backs. 

I made these tops last year to use up the last of the ABC sets I have. I no longer participate in those swaps. I kept forgetting to buy those iron on letters so they have been in the UFO pile for awhile. A couple of nephews and wives are due to deliver before year end so I'm glad these are now finished. 

These were goals #12 and #13

for

Q4 Finish-Along

And the Quilting Marathon Goes On!

 Another finish!

40 x 60

This one was a round robin I participated in last year with members of the Sunshine Online Quilt Guild.    It will be donated to Wrap-A-Smile. 

I started the ball rolling with this row of kaleidoscope blocks. 

 I did something I've never done before - quilt each row differently.  The elephants got some stippling and the background was loops and stars. 

 This section got some circuit board type quilting. 

 This section with sailboats and an octopus and fish got some waves and bubbles. 

We aren't supposed to use holiday fabrics in these donation quilts but, shhhhh, I hid some Easter Eggs in the binding - some fabric sent to me by a quilty friend. Since no one will be going on an Easter Egg hunt I'll bet no one notices what is in that binding. 

The backing??  Some giant polka dots. 

This was my goal #5

for

Q4 Finish-Along

Do you feel like you have an addiction to charity quilting??  If so, then Sunshine Online Quilt Guild might just be able to offer the support you need so you don't kick the habit! 

Left Holding the Bag

 Left Holding the Bag

58 x 58

This is quilt #3 of 3 I recently finished for the Quilts Beyond Borders latest initiative to deliver quilts to teens and elders of the Navajo Nation in time for the cold winter weather. 

This is another real oldie that's been around as a top since 2011. It started as one of those gallon bag challenges where you exchange a bag of scraps with a partner and have a few months to add in some of your own scraps and make a lap sized quilt top. This was an online challenge with a block exchange group and I was assigned a partner that was new to the group.   She sent me a bag with mostly that blue and orange plaid, some small pieces of some stiff old lady florals and a piece of blue John Deere fabric.  My first thought was ewwww...this is definitely a challenge. 

 I had a bunch of 2.5 inch square scraps so picked through them for mostly blues and reds (because I didn't have many oranges ) to coordinate with that ewwwww plaid fabric. That plaid fabric also had a thin yellow line through it so I also added in a few yellow squares.   I also tried to add in a little love.   And then when it came time to send quilt tops back to the original bag lady I found she had left the group and disappeared and did not answer any emails.  So I was left holding (the quilt top that came out of ) the bag.  And so it goes...

I decided it was time to finish it and move it out where it can give someone a little lovin' and warmth.   

I quilted horizontal and vertical lines in serpentine stitch around the squares. The backing was a gently used and very soft sheet, And the binding was a blue that pretty closely matched the blue in that ewwwww plaid. 

This was goal #15

for

Q4 Finish-Along