Quilting Marathon

I had a long weekend at home by myself and finished two quilting projects that have been in the works for more years than I care to admit. 

 The blocks for the red, gray and black quilt came from a block swap on the internet that I participated in.  The only requirements were that each person in the swap supply a focus fabric for the other people to use in blocks (I chose a red marble) and that the blocks finish 12" square.  There are a total of 12 blocks and eight of them were included in this throw.  I did stitch in the ditch on each block and then finished with quilted straight bands in the black outside area. I bound it in the red focus fabric.  Yeah!  First finish of 2012!

 My second finish of the year is a child's quilt - mile a minute squares from my scrap bag.  If you look closely you'll see that the border/sashing fabric is from 2000. Ooops this is a bit old!  I machine quilted this and I think I'm getting better at the curly q's.  The quilt was donated to Loaves and Fishes to raise money for their program.

On another front, I finished knitting a pair of socks that have been traveling with me for over a year.  Finally done!  They fit perfectly and this reduces my knitting UFO's too.

I'm working on a row by row quilt that my mother originally pieced.  I have reconstructed it a bit and fused some embellishments on it as well as added a different border print that I think balances the project a bit better.  I'm also working on a set of pillowcases and will post photos later this week. 

Small projects

As I keep plugging away at machine quilting a long abandoned UFO, I have taken some time out to finish a couple of small projects.

This is a quilters gadget keeper with pockets that zips completely closed so nothing can fall out. It has been in a nearly finished state at the bottom of a pile in my sewing room for years. I've donated this to our guilds silent auction. I'm sure someone will find a million uses for this!

These are pillow cases number 1 and 2 for 2012 that I will be making for CanKer which collects pillowcases for children having cancer treatment in local hospitals.  I have a full shelf of fabrics that I pick up for this project whenever these prints are on sale. They have french seams and are easy to whip up once the fabric is coordinated. I will have quite a variety of prints turning magically into pillowcases each week. These two turned out really nice and I hope they will brighten a child's day.

Happy Dance!!!

I'm doing the happy dance because I have finished two ufo's this week!  

This string quilt has been sandwiched for quite a while, but now it is finished!  My first finish for 2012 is done and will be donated this month to the guild for comforting quilts.(37x54) It has a lot of fun children prints.

The red white and blue album quilt is a top that came my way from my mom's stash.  I finished the borders, backed it and machine quilted it. (44x56)  The person who pieced the top did an outstanding job and the layout is so interesting to look at. It turned out great!

On New Year's Day I participated in  Patchwork Planet's one day mystery called Chips N Strips.

Here is my top so far - I need to put the final borders on and then it's ready to be quilted. The borders will be the same color as the zigzag and there will be 9 patch blocks in the corners when it's done. All the fabric, except the zigzag, final border and backing, is from my stash.

I'm still working on the smaller elements of my Orca Bay quilt in order to start assembling it. I should have my first layout done in a few days -