Moving on

I've been making very good progress in the quilting arena these past couple of days.  In my last post, I'd finished the Mabel Quilt and was ready to move on to Dan's quilt which I would like to have finished by the time we go to visit him on the 9th.  This is the quilt laid out on a spare bed with the center quilted up in a cross hatch design--very simple. 

And this is a close up of the central fabric.

The center is surrounded by 16" Bear's Paws blocks and I have all of them finished except for the white sashing within the blocks.  Just a simple free hand loopy design and curves in the "claws" of the Bear's Paw.

I was also able to get the quilting done in the gray sashing between the Paws and in the quilt center as well.  Again, a simple free hand leaf and vine design although it looks a lot like a heart design. Whatever you want it to be, I guess.  

I put this quilt aside when I got the next quilt pinned up on Monday and I've been working on that. Again, I want to get this finished by the 9th as it's a gift for our friends that we're seeing that weekend.

This is called the "Past President's Project" (PPP) and it was a guild project a couple of years ago. In my guild, the vice chairperson automatically becomes chairperson after serving a year as vice.  I had an excellent mentor and I tried to follow her example as much as I could. One of the things she did during the year following her chairmanship was the first PPP and I thought this was a great idea--another way of giving back to the members. So when my year as chair was finished, I designed this row quilt and offered it as the second PPP.  All the blocks came from Quilter's Cache but I chose them and decided on the layout. The applique in the center is my design.  

I made up my sample quilt using my (way too) large collection of Civil War fabrics, but some of the members used brights, 1930s and modern fabrics and they all look really spectacular. In  this project we did machine piecing for most of the blocks, applique--either hand or machine--in the center, and the four blocks in the corners of the border were paper pieced--a good learning experience for everyone.

This is the backing I pieced together for this quilt--a couple of pieces of yardage that I'd had for years and now had a chance to move them out of the stash.

So far I have the ditch stitching done and have quilted the designs in all but 2 of the 12" blocks in the rows.  I'm using the same stencil in each of the blocks, and by the end of the day, I should have them done as well as the two rows of sashing and the center applique row.  If all goes well, the border will be finished tomorrow and I'll get the binding finished up by the end of the weekend.  Hurrah!  (Wish me luck. Have you ever noticed that the best laid plans . . . etc?  )