It's a Finish! Puss in the Corner

 Puss in the Corner

60 x 75

It's a finish!

Ready for donation.

 Last year I had a bunch of cat themed scraps I wanted to use up. I think I had enough scraps for five quilts. In this one I used some larger print pieces for the block centers. 

 The blocks are 15 inch (finished) Puss in the Corner blocks with a puss in the center. 

 I quilted it on my DSM with large swirls. 

The back is a tan gently used 100% cotton sheet from the thrift store. 

This was my goal #6

for

Q4 Finish-Along

It's a Finish! Text Me!

 Its a finish!

Text Me

62 x 84

Sorry for the fuzzy picture. It was cloudy and dreary outside. 

Here is a little better picture of it before it was quilted. 

Getting this to the finish line was my goal #4

for

Q4 Finish-Along

This is a donation quilt that will probably go to Humility Homes and Services. When I get a pile of 12 twin sized donation quilts I will let the grandkids pick 6 for donation. Then I will keep some for other occasions and continue to add to that pile. Each time the pile reaches 12 then six will be donated. 

 I used a free pattern called 2 Hour Couch Quilt.  I thought it would be a good way to use that center fabric without cutting it up. I bought a lot of it deeply discounted when Hancock Fabrics went out of business. I've made the granddaughters several things with the fabric like pillowcases and tote bags but they are no longer in the pink phase so thought some other little girl would like a pink quilt. 

 I also thought it would be a good way to use selvages with text. And it's not like I don't have anything better to do but I kind of had a theme going for each of the selvage squares like animals...

 ...and Summer fun. 

 Some of the other fabrics echoed things like hearts, butterflies and flowers found in the center fabric.  I had a couple of different fabrics with letters on a black background I used for the border.  It was an easy make but it took awhile to get it quilted. 

I quilted it with four petaled flowers on my DSM. 

The backing was pieced. The fabric with letters in squares was gifted by a quilty friend. The hearts below that was a leftover piece from another quilt back. The fabric on the right that I also used for binding was a thrift store purchase from long ago when I could actually find yardage at the thrift stores. 

Its a Finish! Gallimaufry

 Gallimaufry

56 x 80

It's a finish!

 This was inspired by a c. 1890 quilt top found at Rocky Mountain Quilts described as follows:

"This is a whimsical original rendition of an Irish Chain, which to follow the pattern needs to be viewed from a distance. How amazing would this be in a great room over a fireplace? this quilt was obviously pieced by someone who loved calicoes. No solid colors here. The fabrics date from 1860 to 1890, giving us the creation date of this piece. This is a quilt top for a fabric junkie. There are many patterns pieced on this top. Variation of diamond in a square, old maids puzzle, bow tie, broken dishes, four patch, all combined together creating the most unusual Irish Chain I have ever seen. All pieced by hand, and ready to quilt."

 I made four inch finished blocks from scraps.  In order for the chain to show when finished I used muslin and some white scraps for one half of the HSTs. 

 I just love all the secondary patterns that show up. 

 In a quilt like this with lots of small pieces I think all scraps play nicely together...Halloween, Patriotic, florals, geometrics, 30s, men's shirts...

 ...and its always fun to see what shows up in itty bitty pieces of fabric. 

 I also used muslin for the binding hoping it would help accentuate the muslin chains in the quilt. 

 I quilted it on my DSM with some clam shells that look a little wonky. It's the first time I've tried them.  I started at the bottom of the quilt and made the clam shell arcs sideways across the width of the quilt. I used each 2 inch space as my guide. Those squares got either half an arc or whole depending upon row.  So all completed rows were always at the right of the needle. 

 When I got to the middle of the quilt I turned it around and quilted the arcs sideways in a different direction with the rows of finished arcs to the left of the needle. 

 The clam shells are little wonky but I'm okay with that. 

After the quilt is washed they will crinkle up and disappear into the fabric a little more. I only have a wringer washer so didn't feel like getting it washed up yet since washing and drying a larger quilt around here is a lot of work. 

The backing is one of those Tim Holtz Eclectic Elements collage fabrics I just love. Its called Cigar Box Labels. I happened to make a quick stop at Hobby Lobby for thread a couple of months ago. While there I always check the sale bin It was my lucky day because Cigar Box Labels was in the sale bin for $4 a yard so I bought all that was left on the bolt which was about five yards. 

The reason I like this particular fabric is because I used to collect tobacco related ephemera like these cigarette silks and cards. We've been doing a bit of remodeling lately and I think this quilt and all the tobacco related items that includes a couple of ash tray tables, art deco cigar ash trays and cigar trade cards and magazine advertising would look good in a spare bedroom we are turning into a sort of office/computer room/library/ genealogy and scrapbook storage area. 

This was my goal #9 

for

Q4 Finish-Along

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