Florabunda Finished!!

Florabunda

72 x 90

It's finally finished. 

Inspired by an antique quilt and Bonnie Hunter

These are actually nine inch Jacob's Ladder blocks with yellow backgrounds and florals. 

Bonnie Hunter  (Quiltville) first showed the vintage quilt that inspired her in June 2011 and then shared how she made the nine inch blocks she nicknamed Florabunda.      I started sewing along on a Florabunda quilt that same year - 2011.  By "sewing along" I mean I made about 15 blocks.  The problem was that I had hardly any yellow tone on tone fabrics and even fewer floral fabrics and even less disposable income to purchase any additional fabric to finish the quilt blocks.    That's why this quilt remained a UFO for so long. 

I quilted it on my DSM.  (I could probably win a wrestling tournament now).  I tried a three-petaled flower motif and basically tried for consistency of size and placement since I have problems in those areas when I machine quilt.  I guess I'm getting better. 

I'm not in love with it and could definitely part with it.  From now on I'm going to try to make those quilts I can part with a twin size like this one.  That's the size most often desired if there is a disaster and a call for quilts. That's also the size the local Family Resources and Humility of Mary homeless shelters would like to receive.  It's also the size I like to give if I donate a quilt for a charitable benefit.   I'll keep it around awhile for just the right occasion. 

This was my goal #3 

for Q4 Finish-Along

Today linking up with Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework.

A Really Old UFO Is Now a Top!

Florabunda (aka Jacob's Ladder in floral fabrics)

Inspired by a vintage quilt.

72 x90

It's a top! 

Bonnie Hunter  (Quiltville) first showed the vintage quilt that inspired her in June 2011 and then shared how she made the nine inch blocks she nicknamed Florabunda. 

 I started making blocks around the same time - June 2011.   But I soon ran out of floral fabrics and yellow tone-on-tones.  

I decided to move forward on this old UFO since I've accumulated a few more  (most of these ugly and cheap remnants) floral fabrics over the years. 

I'm out of love with it now but that's no excuse not to finish it.  There's always a need for twin sized quilts and the blocks were not meant to be wasted.  (And I'm tired of all these boxes with unfinished quilts in them that take up space). 

If you look at the vintage version and Bonnie Hunter's version of Jacob's Ladder you will see that they are just a little bit different than mine; however,  both versions are made up of the same pieces - four patches and HSTs.    Orientation matters!

Red 3.5 Scrap Edition

Red is the color of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. This week I decided to work with my 3.5 inch scraps.   I did have quite a few red scraps; however, I've also been trying to move forward my old Florabunda UFO, a Bonnie Hunter quilt along from 2011, I think!  

These are actually 9 inch Jacob's Ladder blocks in floral fabrics on a yellow background inspired by a 1940s quilt. 

So the first thing I did was pick out a few red floral fabrics I haven't already used in my Florabunda blocks and make more blocks. 

And then I was left with some 3.5 inch red scraps to add to the pile so I can use the scraps up right away in my other scrap only blocks and not let those scraps linger!  (The 2 inch scraps are used later in some other blocks). 

Then I made some Glitter blocks (cut from 3.5 inch scraps some of which you may recognize from the Florabunda blocks I just made). The instructions for these blocks can be found in the book Quilt Lovely by Jen Kingwell. 

Then if there was enough of a scrap left for six inch Bow Tie blocks I made some of those.  And I remembered this time to use 2 inch pieces for the flippy corners instead of 1.5 pieces like I did on last month's Bow Ties.  I put a note in the project bag with them so I won't forget . 

The reason I get confused by the flippy corner pieces is because I always remember to use 1.5 flippy corners on my 3 inch snowballs because they might get combined with 3 inch Nine Patches which are made from 1.5 inch pieces.    I cut scraps for Bow Ties and then for Snowballs (if there's enough) at the same time and it seems in my mind they should use the same size flippy corners. But they don't (although I have seen instructions for six inch bow ties that use 1.5 inch pieces and others that use 2 inches. I guess I'll be using both.)

But I never forget about ScrapHappy Saturday!