It's a Finish! Cattywampus

 It's a finish! 

Cattywampus

42 x 56

 I started with a variety of cat themed 6.5 inch pieces with black backgrounds...

 Then I added bright strings all around until I reached roughly a fifteen inch block. 

 Blocks were trimmed to 14.5 inches. 

For the backing I pieced together several different green pieces that were trimmings from previously used quilt backings. 

I then quilted it with some spirals on my DSM and bound it with a lime green plaid. I was going to make a scrappy binding from leftover bindings in the leftover binding box but there weren't many leftover pieces in there. 

This was my goal #11

for

Q3 Finish--Along

and it will probably be donated to

Wrap-A-Smile

It's a Finish! Cats in Neutral Territory

 It's a finish! 

Cats in Neutral Territory

(Puss in the Corner)

60 x 80

 It has passed close inspection and has been approved for giving to one of my fav charities or for gifting to family or friends who need a quilty hug. 

 It consists of ten inch Puss in the Corner (or uneven Nine Patch) blocks. I had a bout of Cat Scrap Fever last year and ended up with lots of cat themed quilts to quilt this year.  I used up a lot of cat themed scraps and small pieces of neutral scrap chunks in this one.  That left me with some neutral scraps that went into the 2.5 inch scrap bin.  I've probably already used those in blocks I've made from the 2.5 inch scrap bin. 

 September has been a really busy month for me with both planned and unplanned activities so I've kept a quilt under the needle for quilting during the small snippets of time I've been able to make it into the sewing room.  This one was quilted simply with unevenly spaced vertical lines. 

A quilty friend sent me a gently used sheet I used on the back. It was the perfect size after I picked out the stitching on the sides to leave me a little tiny bit of extra width. 

This was my goal #15

for

Q3 Finish-Along

It's a Finish! Scared Shirtless

It's a finish! 

Scared Shirtless

65 x 82.5

It seems we have had a lot of family and friends diagnosed with catastrophic illnesses this year so my little stack of comfort quilts has pretty much been depleted. This will be put away for the next comfort quilt need. I really hope I don't have to give it if it means someone needs to get sick. 

 The actual quilt name is "For the Boys" from the book Quilt Lovely by Jen Kingwell.  The pattern made a square quilt so I modified it and made mine longer. 

There's lots of reasons to make a quilt.  I made this one to use some men's shirts scraps. 

 I had to do some piecing of itty bitty bits in order to have enough brown and blue solids to complete the quilt. I don't have any other blue solid in that color so I thought I might have to substitute a tone on tone or other blue solid but I scraped by. 

 As you can see I just did some easy peasy straight line quilting both vertically and horizontally. 

I didn't have enough blue or brown for the binding and I thought of using some shirts for a scrappy binding but ended up using the backing fabric for binding instead. I thought it might be kind of light but there's a lot of lighter shirts used in the quilt so I think it worked out okay. 

I used a wide backing that had blue, brown and yellow in it called Scratch Marks.  

This was my goal #7 

for

2019 Q3 Finish-Along

It's a Finish! HISSS

 It's a finish! 

66.5 x 88.5

I've only had small snippets of time to sew the last several weeks so I just kept a quilt under the needle and did some free motion quilting when I could sneak away to the sewing room for a few minutes.  A few minutes here and there add up because I have several quilt finishes to share next week after all are bound and washed. 

My husband accidentally changed the settings on my Pentax camera. I've had them set perfectly for my picture taking for so long that I could not remember what the settings were so I've been playing around trying to make things right again, darn it.  So excuse the pics that might seem a little blurry, dark or too light.  

 I used the templates from Denyse Schmidt's book Modern Quilts Traditional Inspiration.  She calls her quilt Snake Trail. 

I call my quilt HISSS. That's the name of color matching game that used to be one of my grandson's favorite games to play when he was younger. (He's now a grown up ten year old). 

 I started making the blocks way back in 2014 as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge project to use 2.5 inch scraps for the snakes and a variety of brown pieces for the background that looked like dirt. 

 I quilted it on my DSM with a variegated thread on top and a dark brown thread in the bobbin.  I didn't quilt in the snakes so they would stand out. I did a squiggly line either side of the snake since I'm not good at stitching in the ditch. 

 I quilted leaves...

 ...and a variety of flowers... 

 ...in the "dirt". 

 The binding is the same as...

...the backing. 

 The game and the quilt and some pictures of my grandson Jacob playing the game (when I find them) will go into the hope chest. I'll give it to Jacob at some later date when he sets up his own household. 

This was my goal #4

for

Q3 Finish-Along

Peacock Party at Wendy's Quilts and More

Finished or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

It's a Finish! Crumby Yummy Candy

From Cathy's Confectionery Company: Crumby Yummy Candy

56 x 64

 Ready for giving or gifting! 

 This was another Rainbow Scrap Challenge project from last year. I picked through my crumb boxes for scraps in the color of the month and made these eight inch Crumby Yummy Candy blocks.  For the background fabric I used mostly white on whites but did also use a few pieces with what looked like sprinkles. A couple of backgrounds have jelly beans. 

I quilted it on my DSM with lots of squiggles in the candies and some streamers in between them. 

I figured I had used so much white on the front that I had better use a lighter colored backing. 

And on to the next!! 

This was my goal #8

for

Q3 Finish--Along

It's a Finish! Heartfelt

 Heartfelt

48 x 60

Ready for gifting for any number of reasons - heartfelt gratitude, heartfelt sympathy, heartfelt congratulations, heartfelt thanks, heartfelt wishes...

 Last year as one of my many Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) projects my goal was to make quilts from my many boxes of crumbs.  Each month I dug through the boxes for crumbs in the RSC color of the month and the biggest bits and pieces with straight sides got made into these slab blocks. 

 Each twelve inch block also contained a red heart...

 ...and lots of fun scraps. I quilted it on my DSM with what we shall call streamers. 

 I thought I had a piece of red fabric with little white hearts on it to use for the binding but couldn't find it so went with some red with white polka dots instead. 

I pieced the backing. The heart fabric was leftover from making the granddaughters pillowcases many years ago and the pink was a leftover piece of sheet I used as another quilt back. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

This was my goal #9

for

Q3 Finish-Along

It's a Finish! Happy Cats

 Happy Cats

40 x 60

Ready for giving or gifting! 

 This is one of several tops I made last year when I had an attack of cat scrap fever.  Most cat scraps were used up; however, I still have lots of cat themed fabrics. This one consists of 10 inch Happy Blocks - 6.5 inch centers and 2.5 inch sides.  The sides are cut from scrap chunks or yardage. And now you know how I accumulate a lot of 2.5 inch scraps -- I've made lots of Happy Blocks over the years. 

 This one was quilted with spirals on my DSM. 

The backing is flannel with some happy cats. I've had this on hand since the grandkids were younger.  I don't normally wash fabrics before I use them; however, I do wash flannels since they seem to shrink a lot more than other fabrics.  I prefer to sew bindings down by hand but sew it down by machine now on most donation quilts. 

This was my goal #14 

for

Q3 Finish-Along

Q3 Finish-Along Goals

It's time to decide what I want to get finished this quarter. I usually do more piecing this time of year than finishing because it's too darned hot here without air conditioning to quilt a large quilt on my DSM.  Nevertheless I'm making goals and if they don't get completed they can always flip over to fourth quarter goals.

1. Spider Web

2. The Patriot

3. Streak of Lightning

4. HISS

5. Black, White and Red (Read) All Over

6. Text Me

7. Scared Shirtless

8. Crumby Yummy Candy

9. In a Heartbeat

10. Sunshine Round Robin

11. Cattywampus II

12. Puss in the Corner I

13. Puss in the Corner II

14. Happy Cats


15. Cats in Neutral Territory

2019 Q3 Finish Along