Red and White Scrap Quilt

Just finished this Red and White Flying Geese and String block quilt!
The red fabrics are all swaps from QuiltvilleSwap.  In the quiltville swap yahoo group we swap strips and sometimes, pieced blocks.  For this particular swap, it was around the time Bonnie was giving instructions for her "Orca Bay" mystery quilt.  So we decided to swap a set amount of string blocks, and also 4" strips!   I have SO MAnY leftover even after making this whole quilt!!!
I just love it.  I'm going to hopefully be able to hang this at my Mom's house, because she has red and black accents in her house.  And also I stole all of my quilts back when i moved into my own house ;c)

This is what I started with.   I had  the finished red scrappy string blocks that were 5.5" unfinished.   And I used the Fons and Porter Flying Geese ruler to cut triangles from the remaining red strips and white fabric to use as the sashing.  

I only had 2" and 1.5" red strips remaining, and I didn't want to cut into my red yardage, so I decided to cut the 1.5" strips into squares and make 4-patches for the cornerstones.   I used the 4 patches and white in alternating cornerstones.  

After I finished the quilt top, I felt like it neededddddd. . . SOMETHING. . .
So  went round and round with it and decided to add a wide red border and do scalloped edges.   I really wanted to soften up the sharp edges and I think the curvs does the trick perfectly!

I stitched together the 2" strips in 5.5" sections, and as luck would have it. . . I had exactly FOUR string blocks remaining. . so I used those 4 blocks in the 4 corners of my borders!   (love when things work out so perfectly like that!) 

I couldn't decide whether to use black or white binding. . . so I went to facebook for suggestions ;c)

Here we are before binding and after.  

For the back I used the remaining 5.5" strips of 2" sections sewn together, and put them in between two 4" white bands.  

The red that I used for this quilt's backing, is what was leftover from a T-shirt quilt.  So I didn't have quite enough for the whole back of the quilt. But that's okay because this forced me to make a cute pieced backing!  

I just used a plate from the kitchen to do the scallops, and I attached the binding totally by machine.  

Love the way this turned out and love the photos in the snow ;c)

Quilt made from baby clothes from the 1980s

Just finished a quilt made from my friend's baby clothes.  

These baby clothes were given to a quilter who was going to make a quilt out of them, but she got sick or got busy or something, and never was able to finish it.   This previous quilter had cut up all the clothing into (rough) rectangles that measured 2.25" x 2.5"  Some of these rectangles had been sewn into 9-patches.  Everything was cut with a template and regular hand scissors (=c0

 I thought it was odd that they were cut this size.   Typically 9-patches are cut into squares, not rectangles.   Also, if the squares were 2.5", as you probably can imagine, the possibilities for the blocks would have been MUCH greater.   The blocks and therefore the QUILT could have been much bigger and there would have been many more block options, etc., 

BUT, I love a challenge, and so what I did was cut most of them down to 2" and treated them as strips to use with the EZ angle ruler.  This way I could do flying geese and HSTs for blocks.   I also cut a few of them into 2" squares and made NEW (even) 9-patches:c)   

 Here you can see the previous quilter's 9 patch block on the left, ,and my flying geese block on the right.

And here are an assortment of the 9-patch blocks on the top, and an assortment of my NEW blocks on the bottom.  All of my new blocks measured 4.5" UNfinished.   The HSTs of those sawtooth stars measured 1" FINISHED ! LOL ;c)   Yes, very teeny tiny!

The finished quilt top:   All of the fabric for the blocks (including the white) was made out of baby clothing.  The striped rose print for the sashing and binding was picked out by the quilt's recipient.  My friend, Beth, was nicknamed "Rose" when she was a little girl, so the rose has special significant to Jackie, her mom (for whom I made this quilt)

I found the inner border floral fabric and outer border pink fabric at Phylis's Quilt shop in Hurricane  (Thank you for your help picking out fabrics Phyllis!!).   The floral-y fabric had such a beautiful, vintage 80s-feel to it I think.   AND, it included all the colors from Beth's baby clothes.  It also helped make that transition from the stark white of the baby clothes used in the blocks. . to the creamy beige used in the striped rose print.   I never thought I could make white and beige work together, but I really think it works in this quilt!

After all the piecing was complete - it was time for Katies' fun playtime. LOL

For each of the blocks, I quilted a circle/feather type of deal.  I made a circle template with cardstock and marked just the outer circle, and did the feathers and inner circle by hand.  (which is why they're not perfect and I WILL mark them NEXT time!)

 For the inner borders, I quilted a feather with an echo, but as you can see in the next photo, I was not satisfied with just a normal feather.

 I thought the feathers were too fat, so I added a vein in each one to fill it out a bit.  This was the first time trying this technique and I really like the way it looks!

 For the sashing and outer borders I tried another new quilting motif. . a free-hand leaf pattern.   It definitely would have looked better if I would have marked it first.. . I started to mark it, and then got really confused on the math, and gave up ;c)

 For the pink and rose striped areas, I used Mettler cotton pink thread.  For the white/block areas and the feathers, I used #Aurifil poly variegated quilting thread.   When Jackie saw the quilt in person, she said she really liked the variegated colors.   Since they are a fine pastel, with a bit of shimmer, I thought it was perfect for this quilt too!

 And right now I'm working on a photo memory quilt - with the colors sage, brown and white.  I picked out these fabrics for the quilt and will have a blog post on it soon! ;c)

Orca Bay

So lately I've been working on LOTS of Crown Royal Quilts.   Typically I can calculate to the exact centimeter how much fabric will be needed for a quilt, and I buy accordingly.   But... On this last series of Crown quilts, I shorted myself just a hair on the gold fabric.  When I went back to the store for a refill, they were OUT AND...  it has been discontinued.  This is kind of a bummer because the particular fabric is a "manly" gold.   I have looked high and low for a replacement for this "manly gold" fabric, with no luck.   Unfortunately, most yellows and golds are very "girly."  They are usually filled with flowers or other pretty, girly prints.   Thankfully, one little shop "Material Girlz" out of Florida had 6 yards left of my "manly gold."  That was enough to completely my current 3 Crown quilts plus 3 or 4 more additional crown quilts, if needed.  

But, since I had to wait on my gold fabric to come in the mail, I decided to work on my Orca Bay project a little.  I didn't think I would get it done in a week, but I worked really hard. . and I DID!  I'm going to be meeting Bonnie the first week of November in Hawk's Nest, so I wanted to be sure to finish it before then, and also before her next mystery quilt comes out.   I still am thinking about borders, but I still got quite a bit done in less than 1 week!

I didn't get a picture of my HSTs and QSTs because I have been working on those as leader-enders since last year!

The first thing I did was my strings.  Red strings were first.   Aren't strings SO addictive?!?!

 Next I worked on my blue strings. . and even though there are a few more blues than reds, I got these finished much faster!   Also, I would like to add that I used a muslin foundation, for lack of time to pull out the paper. . .but. . I don't like how thick my seams are. . and I know it's going to be THAT much more difficult when I go to machine quilt. ;c)

 It was really difficult to cut all my beautiful strings in half! But I did it. .  maybe through a shed tear or two. LOL

 Here are all of my Ohio Star blocks finished!  I used dark browns instead of blacks.

Triangles for my flying geese units:

Also I wanted to show you what I do for each and very quilt I make, that has a block format -   - I started labeling my sewn blocks (rows) with numbers, and arrows a long time ago.  I used to throw the away, but I soon realized that since I use them so often, I could REuse them for each quilt.   They are quickly scribbled on paper, the number and then the direction in which to press my seams.   All odd numbers go one direction, and even numbers go in the OTHER direction.  I attach them in the LEFT/CENTER of the block (away from seams) and pin with a small metal pin.  The tiny metal pins don't get in the way when yo'ure pressing your seams.  BUT, since it's paper, they do have quite a few holes in them at this point, and it's probably time to throw them away and start over.  LOL. .  Maybe I could use fabric this time around, so I won't EVER have to throw them away ;c) 

If you're sewing from a pattern, then often times they will tell you exactly which direction to press your seams.  I sew mostly my own creations now-a-days, so these little numbered/arrowed squares are necessary so I'll have nice butted seams.  Not only that, but when I'm pinning my blocks on the wall, I'm not only looking for block placement, but also color.  In scrap quilts, you don't want a big dark area, or a bunch of similar fabric close together.   If your rows are labeled, you won't have to worry about getting mixed up.  

  Here are all my rows stitched together and hanging on the wall

 I hope to get some borders on this quilt, and have it quilted very soon!