Lily will get her new quilt today.

It's finished.  I started working on Lily's new quilt last September and it's finally done.  I used mostly fabrics from my stash that Lily's mom, Tessa, had bought to make a quilt, which she never did, and a yard or two that I had to buy to get the variety of colors.  The quilt measures 67 by 90 inches and is a generous twin sized piece or a little-bit-skimpy full sized cover.

I did a Disappearing 4 Patch block, one that I've always liked but had never tried. I really like how it turned out but it's a labor intensive block so I may not use that block again for a bed-sized quilt.  I like all the bright colors in this quilt and I think it will brighten up Lily's bedroom for many years to come. 

Today is very sunny and "relatively" warm outside but there's way too much snow on the ground and everywhere to take it outside.  The 3 season porch is flooded with sunshine today so that's where I took the pix.



 The is the top of the quilt. I used the same floral-with-white-background fabric for each block and used the various colors in the flowers for the contrasting fabric in the blocks. 

I appliqued flowers, leaves and vines around two opposite corners of the quilt. Stitching these appliques is what gave me such a hard time with thread breakage, but yesterday, I took my time and managed to finish that part.  Then I simply did a meander in the white part of the borders. Binding was pieced together from scraps.

This is the quilting design in the blocks of the quilt. I used Golden Threads papers and a varigated thread. I like the heart design. I found it here:  http://www.patchpieces.com/2001quiltingbom.html.  Thank you Patti R. Anderson for posting these quilting designs.  I just did a simple vine and leaf free hand design in the sashings.

Finally, this is the back of the quilt. I thought I had enough of the multi-colored flower squares fabric but as you can see, I did not and a little piecing was called for.  I like it and Lily can use either side of the quilt on her bed, as she chooses.

Tonight is my quild night and I'll take it for show and tell, then pop over to Lily's house and give it to her.

This quilt was more laborious than I'd expected. I had hoped to have it on Lily's bed before Christmas!  But when she's seen the quilt in it's various steps along the way, she has seemed to like it a lot. That makes all the work worthwhile--a happy smile on the face of a child.  I know she will snuggle warmly in it for a long, long time, and I hope she thinks of her Nana when she does.

Fifteen Minute Challenge with Kate

A couple of weeks ago, I decided that I needed Kate's 15 minute challenge to keep me motivated to work in my quilting room.  She explains it here: http://kate-life-in-pieces.blogspot.com/2012/02/15-minute-challenge-february-28th.html.  Well, I didn't realize that I would actually have to keep track of the time I spent!  LOL Of course, that's what it's all about--the idea is that when I look at what I've done, I'll be  motivated to keep at it.

Since I decided to do this, I''ve spent some time in the sewing room every day except on the weekends--and in the evenings after work.  That leaves only 3 days in the week when I've quilted.  Not a very good start.  The good thing is that when I go to the sewing room, I'm there for HOURS, not minutes!  On the days when I've quilted, it's been for 4 or more hours at a time, so I'm making very good progress on Lily's quilt.

Here's my progress report:  Mon--several hours; Tues--several hours; Wed and Thurs (work days)--nothing; Fri-several hours; Saturday and Sunday (weekend visitors) -not a stitch.

That's what I'm working on now, a Disappearing 4 Patch twin-sized quilt for my 8 year old granddaughter.



I started this last fall and the poor child has gone all winter with her old blankets while I've farted fooled around with it.  Now I'm doing the actual quilting and have nearly finished the center part--with luck I'll get that done today and be ready to move on to the borders.  I'm doing a "fancy" design in each block and am using Golden Threads paper. That means I have to stop and tear off the paper after I've stitched each block--so time consuming!  But the borders and the sashings will be done FMQ so it should go a bit faster.

That's my week's report on Kate's Fifteen Minute Challen ge.

I'm full to the brim with quilting!

I can't believe the last 3 days of my life!  An amazing journey in quilting, unlike anything I've experienced before.  Three days on retreat with about 20 members of my guild--Ah, life is good.

We stayed at a northwoods resort on Lake Holcombe an hour's drive east of where I live. We were all in one room with our machines whirring away, irons steaming, Ipod playing great tunes, and a "special" table spilling over with delicious snacks. A quilter's heaven!  We all worked on projects that we had brought from home as well as a charity project. We each sewed a dress for "Little Dresses for Africa" http://www.littledressesforafrica.org/blog/ and we'll send them to Nancy's Notions http://www.nancysnotions.com/ to be shipped to the organization.  I hope the girl who receives my dress enjoys wearing it as much as I enjoyed making it. 

We played a few games, had drawings for door prizes--I won a book of seasonal quilts and a little table to keep near my sewing machine for pressing little blocks or to hold quilting supplies as I sew--and talked/laughed/sewed/ate until the wee hours. 

I finished the applique on Lily's D 4 Patch quilt.

I also did most of the flannel owl baby quilt for my friend's expected new granddaughter.  (Thank you to whoever put this fabric in the Traveling Stash!) I created this quilt as I went along and decided I needed a bit of green flannel for a narrow inner border or flange before putting on the main border. When I packed up to leave on Sunday, I headed for the shop where I'd purchased the rest of the flannel to get the green.  I also decided to make prairie points instead of flange. 

Other than the tremendous amount of camaraderie, stitching, and sometimes reverse stitching that occurred, there were 2 highlights for me.

1) We took a trip to a new-to-me LQS about 20 miles away and they had some very cute things. I couldn't pass up this fat quarter bundle of Xmas prints (Can you believe 8 FQ for $12.50???) and I also bought this bag pattern which I'm wanting to make up RIGHT NOW!  and 2) On Saturday, I took a 2 mile walk in the afternoon (which I normally don't do because of knee pain when I walk) and NO KNEE PAIN afterwards! Hurray!

All in all, it was a wonderful retreat for a first timer and I'll definitely return next year. As Lily would say, "Aww--Do I have to wait an entire year for the next one? Not fair!"