A Friday Finish...and Now, Vacation

Well I said I would show you my other quilt finish. I leave tomorrow to go visit children and grand children in NC so now sewing for the next two weeks. I know I won't have time to miss it since I will be very busy while I am there. So here we go:

This is the quilt, started back in North Carolina last winter. I made one block from Amy Gibson's book, The Quilt Block Cookbook. I loved it so much, I decided to make 8 more and make a small quilt of it. And then we moved and it was packed away. I got it out probably a month after we arrived, but it sat folded for a long while.

I finally figured out how I wanted to quilt it. And then, the binding, which was, in my opinion, the perfect choice.

And I did some hand quilting too. This little quilt has a bit of everything.

 Can you see the little bird in the center of the block? I copied it from the fabric and hand stitched one in every center square. There is stitch in the ditch around the star points too.

And swirls in all the in between white areas.

 The blocks are twelve inches square, as are all the blocks in that book. With the border, that makes it about 40 inches square, a nice little size.

 For the backing I sewed together two Cori Dantini panels I have had for a long time. I loved them, but could never figure out how to us them.

 They are perfect for the back of this little quilt, don't you think?

I hope you have a lovely weekend and I will see you in a couple of weeks.

Detour

Have you ever been working on a project, or projects and you suddenly have to take a detour?

 I had finally gotten to the binding point on this quilt that I started a lifetime ago in North Carolina.

               And I had started working on a baby quilt for a friend's first baby.

And I was also working on a project for a baby shower as well. Not a quilt, but something else.

And then it happened. Another friend in need. Someone with an illness in need of comfort and support from as many people as possible. So this was born:

 I dug deep into my stash to find something not to flowery and girly. I found several pieces of Daysail by Bonnie and Camille that I had been sitting on, just waiting for the right quilt. Perfect.

 I pulled lots of coordinating fabrics. I had no idea exactly how big I was going for. I used Melissa's method for making flying geese. I love it because it is a no waste method and it is quick. I chose flying geese because I find the idea of soaring birds inspirational.

 I had it together in 4 days and on to quilting. I decided to do straight line quilting, but as I started, I was unsure of how many lines I would use.

 At my husband's suggestion, I used a navy blue Aurifil thread to quilt the lines. I liked it, as it went with all the fabrics, but something was missing. So I quilted a second line, very close, in teal or red, depending on the placement. That was what it needed. Glad I had so many colors of threads. The teal was 40 weight but the red and navy were 50 weight. I just went with it.

 I added a little flag to my signature tag, using some binding scraps that caught my eye. The binding is also from Daysail.

And now, less than a week and it is done. I will be taking it with me to NC this weekend to hand it off to a friend who will see that it reaches its intended recipient. And now, my heart is at ease for having this done and I can return to the path I was on before my detour.
I will show you the other finished quilt before I leave for the east coast.
Linking up to Let's Bee Social

Pouncer on Quilts

In moving to a new home this year, I have inherited a sweet kitty named Pouncer. She very quickly learned that quilts were a cat's best friend.

 Look at the princess on top of her stack of quilts? Think there is a pea under there?

 This is when all the quilts were stacked on the couch. Pouncer couldn't believe such a wealth of quilts just for her.

                          Yes, please, cover me up.

 She loves nothing so much as a good quilt cave to cuddle up and sleep. When she is restless, it settles her right down.

                          That's enough pictures please.

                      Oh, so tired. I can't keep my eyes open.

                    Also a good place for a bath. Gee I like these quilt things.

And now, maybe just another little nap. Nighty night.
Thanks to Snoodles and Company for another great year of Pets on Quilts. Pouncer says goodnight.

Spoonflower Pillow

I love Spoonflower. I have never designed my own stuff, but there are lots of great designs there from others. I love to go and look occasionally. I follow them on Facebook too. So when they have a design contest, I see the winner. When I saw this one, I just couldn't resist buying a yard of it.

This cat alphabet was just too cute. We love cats and have cats and so I though I should make something with this fabric.

So I went through my orange stash, which is sparse let me say. Then I cut out these letters to spell out Garden House, which is what we call our house. I just pieced the rest in a  made up order to compliment the orange in the cats.

And I used some leftover fabric on the back in an envelope closure. The chevron fabric makes my eyes nuts in large quantities. but this isn't too bad.

And now, the last pillow has a cover. I really love this one. Now I need to figure out what to do with the rest of the alphabet fabric. See you soon.