Finished Turkey

Yesterday I put on the final border of the Talkin' Turkey quilt that I've been working on, a Bonnie Hunter design.  And here it is, laid out on my sewing room floor.

I've been wanting a red and white quilt for quite awhile and now I have the top done!  It will probably join the growing pile of finished tops that need to be quilted up and will have to wait it's turn to go under the needle.  I have made a vow that before I allow myself to begin another quilt, I have to finish up one of these unquilted tops that have been waiting, in some cases, for up to 10 years for me to get them done.

So, today, I'll finish piecing the back of a throw sized quilt that I began about 2 years ago--it's a stack and whack quilt. All it needs is a small piece stitched on the pieced backing and to cut the batting the correct size and then laid out and pinned.  I also have a pieced quilt that I'm using as a tablecloth in the family room that also needs to be sandwiched and pinned.  Those two will be finished before I take up work again on one of the 3--no, 4 quilts in progress that are whispering to me that they want attention--especially the embroidered Farmhouse Windows quilt.  But I will be strong!  I will resist the whispers!  I have to--I'm running out of space to store all the finished but unquilted tops!  (Actually, it's 5 quilts in progress--I just remembered another one that needs to be quilted up this summer in preparation to be donated for a fundraiser in November! Yikes!  Way too many quilts hanging around my neck!)

Speaking of fundraisers, my friend Lois, in Bemidji, messaged me that the yellow Chunky Churndash quilt has arrived and she likes it a lot. It will be auctioned off at a fundraiser in early June for a local organization that provides housing for homeless families in the area.  I wasn't sure what the cause was so when she told me, I was so happy to be able to help.  Too often, homeless families are overlooked in the need to provide for homeless individuals.  I hope this quilt brings in more than a few dollars to help the cause.

And this is the other charity quilt that my friend Bonnie and I worked on last January. Here's the write up I posted about the fun three days we had making this top, Quilt of Laughs,  if you want to read about it.  I found a stencil that's perfect for the green sashing--a vine-y flower and leaf design that will go all around the sashing. On the geese, I'm going to do a curve on each of the three sides of each goose, very simple.  I plan on doing the machine quilting on this piece and sewing on the binding.  Then it will go to Bonnie who will hand stitch the binding so that she will be the official maker of the quilt.  Years ago, I learned that the last person to stitch on a quilt is officially the maker of the quilt, so we'll apply that in this case.  I think this is going to be very nice when it's finished--and it will be out of my stack of unfinished quilt tops--Yea!

Today, I plan on doing some gardening if it doesn't rain--I have onions and spinach to plant. Saturday, Don and I planted peas and potatoes and then it began raining!  I also plan to enlist his help in hanging my pictures of naked quilters in my sewing room.  I'll post pix of them after they're up on the wall and explain how I came to have them.  A little bit of housework in preparation for my son and future DIL coming for the weekend and finally, in to the sewing room to finish the backing for that throw quilt that's next on the list of things to be quilted up.  I hope you have a busy and fruitful day as well!