A Finished Quilt!

A few months ago, this quilt got finished!

I really enjoyed putting this quilt together. It was mostly pieced a couple of years ago. (I blogged about it a few times ... including here, here, and here. It seems like I started blogging about this one in 2016 - including posts like this one.)

It's my version of "Hopscotch Butterscotch" from Bonnie Hunter's book Adventures With Leaders and Enders.

This quilt has the look that I like to call the "organized scrappy" look ... lots of scraps come together to make a great design. It's a scrappy quilt, and even the fabrics that "shouldn't" go together can look good together. They just work. 

To me, this is one of the reasons why quilts sometimes seem like life: a lot of little parts come together to make the whole, and a lot of surprises may come our way. In life, we can't always see what God's up to, but He has a plan, and He works out all things together for good for those who love Him. 

I love pieced backings on quilts! 

A little extra patchwork gives the back of the quilt its own special look.

The quilting was an all-over stippled design ... it's my favorite.

Straight-line quilting in the border adds a little more definition.

This quilt was a gift for a dear friend. 

A Custom Baby Name Quilt!

I love making personalized gifts.

Quilts are my favorite baby gift, baby shower gift, welcome-baby gift!

I love being able to give a gift that has a personal touch. Something custom. A little bit unique.

So, I loved making this quilt, and personalizing it for a friend's new baby.

Quilting the name in this style was a fun technique. Is it thread-painting? Maybe. I like it. I love how the letters stand out, even without any extra batting, just because of the dense quilting.

This was a fun gift to make, and I've got a few little quilts similar to this for sale in my Etsy shop, all ready to customize.

 

In between quilt-y things

Sometimes, my sewing is not very blog-able, but it's helpful and necessary.

Things like hemming shorts & jeans are (relatively) quick and easy, but don't make a very pretty blog post. Adding elastic to a kid's garment's waistline makes for a better fit, but a rather dull blog-mention.

Pocket-mending is not very photogenic, but it's pretty handy. Recently, I bought my teenager a great pair of pants in a hard-to-find size -- brand new, for just a dollar! (I love deals like that!)  But the pockets were only 2" deep. For those pants, good pockets were a must, so I un-sewed and re-sewed the pockets into a more useful size.

 

I love being able to stitch useful (even if "boring") things.

That Batik Modern Double Wedding Ring Quilt

A really long time ago, I posted about a modern Double Wedding Ring quilt I started.

I first posted about it in this blog post in 2013. More recently, there was progress -- but that was in 2015. So, it's been a while.

In my original post from 2013, I mentioned that I was definitely inspired by this quilt from Jo's Country Junction. I loved the dark blue background, and I'd never seen a DWR quilt with anything other than a light background, and I LOVED the look of dark blue.

Not being sure I had the endurance for all those hundreds of tiny pieces, I decided on a "modern" look: rings made from larger pieces, and done in batiks.

I've loved the fabrics, and the colors, and I've enjoyed working on it, but I've been busy. So, it's been sitting.

Yesterday, Jo's Country Junction announced a Double Wedding Ring Quilt-Along ... Mine's not quite the same, but the Quilt-Along sounds pretty user-friendly and uncomplicated ... So, I think this is my opportunity to get motivated to finish mine!

I dug the project out of its zipper-bag-in-a-box. As often happens, I got a lot of the "hard part" finished, and then the project stalled for lack of time. Looks like I've got 5 of my 7 rows mostly-assembled. There are pieces to add to the edges, possibly in conjunction with the borders. And I'm undecided how I want to do the borders, but I've got some ideas.

So, before next week, I want to double-check my layout and figure out the plan for the border. (See all those options laid out on paper? I need to figure out which layout I chose and started, and whether all my pieces and parts are accounted for.)

I'm linking this post to Jo's Quilt-Along blog post for this week.

25-Patch Quilt Top!

The quilt top is done!

25-Patch blocks alternated with Mosaic neutral blocks.

Those white-and-cream blocks ... Are they "made fabric" blocks? Yes! Are they "scrap vortex" blocks? Yes! Not sure what to call them. But I love them!

This quilt top even looks cool from the BACK! 

From the back, it reminds me of a stained-glass window. (Which reminds me ... I have a couple kinds of stained-glass window quilts that I'd love to make!)

Whatever Wednesday

Here's my Wednesday report on random projects:

This crumb quilt is nearly ready for quilting. It's a baby quilt for a friend. It needs a border, and the backing needs a patchwork insert to bring it up to size. I'm planning on black-and-white striped binding.

 

All 32 of my 25-patch blocks are ready, and all 31 of my neutral "made fabric" (a.k.a. "scrap vortex") blocks are ready. I'm starting to assemble them! It should make a twin-size quilt.

  

 

The Pumpkins quilt top is done -- I love the look of it with the borders on! Next up, I need to tweak the backing so it's the right size, and then ... quilting!

  

In knitting news, I realized I haven't yet posted a picture of the finished purple socks.

 And, since early May, I've been working on a new pair of socks.

And, in the "whatever" category, I've been trying to add some color to my flowerbeds, so these clearance items from Lowe's should help!

  

I'm linking this post to this week's Whatever Wednesday at Jo's Country Junction.

25-patch quilt in progress

This has been one of my recent projects ...

Beautiful coordinating fabrics cut into little squares ...

Lots of assembling of 25-patches ...

Did I mention lots of assembling? I've got 30 blocks; need 32.

Here's a look at my layout: 25-patches, with scrap-vortex-style neutral blocks in between.

And the paper version of the layout ...

More pictures soon!