I didn't meant to disappear for a month - but just haven't been very inspired to post. I have been sewing though! This first quilt has a long story. About seven or eight years ago, my grandma Mimi gave me a walmart bag with these pieced blocks inside. The fabrics are vintage. I don't know if she had made the blocks or if she had somehow inherited them from someone else. They sat in my project closet for a year or so until we started to pack up to move from Indiana to Alabama. I decided life was too short for these "ugly" blocks - so I passed them on to Nina.
Nina has an amazing sense of color. She put this top together and packed it away in her box of tops to be quilted. A couple of years later, I am visiting and we are having a little show and tell. She shows me the top and I fall in love, but she won't give it up. A couple of more years pass - I visit again - and we have another show and tell - and the top is still sitting there. This time I managed to talk her out of it. We even managed to go out and find a backing and she quilted it up for me. Check out the amazing free-hand quilting. Now the quilt has been sitting in my project closet for a couple of years waiting for me to finish the binding. Yesterday I had a friend come over to practice on using my quilting machine - so while she did that, I put the binding on this quilt. I love that it is finally finished!
My neighbor hired me to make a quilt for another set of neighbors who were expecting their first baby. The quilt turned out to be bigger than your normal baby quilt - but that way she can use it longer! The middle squares are the fabrics the mommy-to-be chose for her nursery. I hope the baby likes bright colors!
I am working on a Christmas quilt right now - all shades of reds and greens. The pattern is from American Patchwork & Quilting and is made completely out of churn dash blocks. The blocks range in size from 16 inches down to 4.5 inches. I am loving it!
While surfing through my bloglines the other day, I fell in love with another Christmas quilt. Go ahead and click on the link - but be prepared to fall in love! I ordered 7 of the main prints from a couple of shops on Etsy - My Heart & Sew and Spiceberry Cottage . I gotten the fabrics and I love them even more than I did in the pictures! They are silky smooth! I am hoping to visit a couple of local (45 miles) quilt stores very soon and get the rest of the fabrics - so I can get this done before Christmas. This year we get to be at our home for Thanksgiving and Christmas - so I am looking forward to decorating!
