A little patriotic quilt

I rediscovered this partially-finished quilt top when I was looking through fabric this week. I've been needing to make some baby quilts for some friends, and this was just the start and inspiration I needed.

I'm putting together border and backing fabric for the kaleidoscope-style quilt top.

So far, just sneak peeks of this one, since it'll probably end up to be a gift. 

I'll try to post finished pictures soon.

It's fun to get some UFOs (UnFinished Objects!) ready to be used and loved! I'll be linking this post to this week's UFO Challenge at Jo's Country Junction, one of my favorite quilt blogs.

The Summer Weather is in the Quilt!

The Weather Quilt is still happening!

I recently updated the quilt-in-progress, and it's been a while since I showed any pictures!

Full disclosure: It's been a while since I sewed any weeks-of-weather onto the quilt either ... the little labeled/pinned stacks below each represent a week! 

I try to update a week or two at a time, but somehow, it had been 8 weeks since I did anything! But playing with cute fabrics (closeups below) is always fun!

I've been surprised and amused that I haven't gotten to use any of my bright red fabrics in my quilt. I had them planned for the 100°+ days - of which there are usually several during the summer around here. (Last year, there were 17 days that the weather service recorded temps above 100°. This year: none!)

So, the quilt is coming along. It's getting big. Queen-sized when it's through ... and the quilt top is nearly 75% done!

So, now, I shall have to plan how to do the back of the quilt ... I want to make a little "key" with which colors represent which temperature ranges. And since I've got a variety of fabrics in each color,  (and plenty of leftovers, as always!) I might do some cute "string blocks" to incorporate some of the extra fabric.

And, speaking of leftovers, I've got lots of ideas in my head for using up the scraps that I'd set aside for this project ... I'll have plenty of extras, so those pieces I cut will be a great jumping-off point for whatever quilts I start next year.

I just need to plan some quilting time into my January, so that I actually get this quilted while it's still winter!!!

Weekend stitching

Every now and then, the weekend provides extra time for creativity!

Here's the latest ...

Sunday sewing ...

This quilt has been my Sunday afternoon project for the past couple of weeks. I'm just finishing up the quilting on this beauty. It's been in progress for a long, long time. I wasn't the one who started this quilt, but I'm pretty happy that I get to be the one that finishes it! More details later!

Another crumb quilt color

I've been working on another color of crumb-quilt piecing on adding machine tape. As it turns out, I've got lots of blue scraps!

I'm thinking about using yellow, blue, and red to make a primary-colors version of Jo and Kelli's Rainbow Connection quilt. It's in their book Country Girl Modern, that I got in a giveaway from their blog, which is, hands down, one of my favorite quilt blogs.

This long strip of crumb-piecing would also be great as a border around almost any sort of quilt ...

There are so many possibilities!

Another week of weather!

I've added another week to the temperature quilt!

Lots of 80° high temps (yellow), and 90° high temps (orange).

Crumb quilt beginnings

Not long ago, one of my favorite quilt blogs mentioned a scrap-quilting technique that intrigued me: using adding-machine paper tape as foundation paper for long strips of crumb quilting. The middle of the post in the above link talks about it, and references this post from QuiltedTwins which explains the process simply and well.

So I've been trying it! Fun! So far, I've got 155 inches of yellow crumb quilt roll, and it's about two-and-a-quarter inches wide.

In some ways, I'm on a quest to use up more fabric. (In other ways, using fabric seems to convince me that I should definitely buy all fabric that's bargain-priced ... so that's kind of a problem.) :-)

Anyhoo, this is a fun way to use up a bunch of random scraps. While I suppose this sort of "border" is more time-consuming than some, it's also lots of fun.

The paper gives a nice stability to a piece of "made fabric" that would otherwise be impossibly skinny. (Like other blocks that are "foundation-pieced" on paper, the paper will get taken off in the process of completing a quilt, but for now, the paper is great.

In between seams on the paper-piecing, I used my Christmas trees as Leaders and Enders (see Bonnie Hunter's awesome explanation here), and so now, I've got another 50 trees almost done.

 

So, check back in a few days for more on what I'm doing with this crazy adding-machine tape foundation pieced crumb quilting. (Can you tell I don't know what to call it?! Haha!)