Rita's Quilt

Here is the finished quilt all ready to offer some comfort I hope to a lovely lady.

In case you don't recognize my odd arrangement of the blocks this is actually the BQ2 pattern!

It was an experimental setting that really didn't impress me but I didn't have the mojo to unpick and re-sew, 'nuff said 'bout that!

An added border makes a generous lap size to wrap up in, about 65"x75".

During the first couple of steps I made a major booboo in block construction and in the interests of transparency, LOL, I will reveal my "misstep" - I made twenty 6.5" blocks instead of twenty 9.5". What to do? Hmmmm, quilts have lots of seams, they have many small bits sewn together to make larger bits and so on, who is to say one cannot join up the smaller blocks to become bigger blocks?

So I did!

If you zoom on the quilt pic. you may be able to find some of those pieced blocks combined with some that were the correct size in the first place! Good luck though, they blend in very well.

Now if I had not told you would you have ever noticed? Probably not.

It's a quilt.

I love the colors and I quilted it with an all-over folk-art sort of flower resembling the flowers in the Valori Wells focus fabric. The binding was left over from a project about 18 months ago when I made way more double fold bias binding than I needed- would you believe about 12 yards more in fact, and there's enough left of it still to bind one more quilt!

The backing is a cheerful beachy print from Bernina Connection, 75% off and I have yet more of it because I purchased the end of the bolt.

Everything came from stash, happy dance!

Oh, I have to make a label yet!

Andee's Christmas Lights is next on the LA- I am playing with baby Matthew most days this week so quilting takes a bit of a back seat!

Quilting Again

The drive from CO. was a bit slow, the first couple of hours it was snowing and the roads were slick. This pic I took soon after we left the house. Once we left Cortez the weather cleared but there was more precipitation around Mt.Humphries, north of Flagstaff when we came by there.

With all the snow and family visiting you might well assume I wasn't even thinking of quilting, but I am always thinking quilting!

At Huggy Bunch Wednesday I bound 4 little blankies for the Humane Society from the small quilt "sandwiches" I keep by the side of the LA for checking tension and trying out new ideas etc. I use up strips of left over batting and fabric and instead of throwing them away I hem or bind them for the stray/lost critters, so much nicer than the floor of the cages they are kept in.

On the drive from CO. today I finished the hand applique on the center circles of the vintage 30's Dresden Plate blocks, all eighteen of them and for someone who avoids handwork that was quite a commitment! Now I can complete the top and add it to my stack of flimsies!

After we got into AZ this evening I began to cut the fabrics for a new project-my dear kind friend Rita has BC; she has completed the first round of chemo and has surgery March 19th. then more chemo and possibly radiation. I want to have a quilt ready for her when we return to CO. in a couple of weeks so I must get busy, no letting the grass grow under my feet,LOL!

These are the three fabrics I chose from my collection for the top........

and I have a really pretty beachy fabric for the backing. It will be a cheerful, spring-like quilt and hopefully a cuddly comfort for her recovery. No decision yet as to borders, I'll see what I have left once the rest is done and what other appropriate fabrics I can find in the stash. It's great to have a collection of fabrics to fall back on, now I rarely run to the QS and buy specifically for a new project, though I am not averse to purchasing additional pieces to complete a quilt if there is no other option!

No idea how I will quilt it, it's my first BQ2. Friend Loretta gave me the pattern a year or more ago and I am finally making use of it. The large floral focus fabric I am using is from one of my favorite designers, Valori Wells. I can see quilting some leafy wreaths in the large [9.5" ] blocks and perhaps leaves in the narrower strips.

The plan is to make this top then get busy on the longarm for the next week or two, I have a pile of tops waiting to be quilted.