Charmaine's Six Pack of Tumbler Baby Quilts

Charmaine is always bringing me multiple baby quilts to stitch up for her and this time when I looked in the bag, there were six of them.

All six of the quilts are made with tumbler blocks and she used 3 different border colors.  This trio includes 2 with Orange borders and 1 Red border. 

She provided this flannel stripe and Yellow duckie fabric for the backing on this group.

The quilting provides just enough texture.

Charmaine requested her favorite panto, Shooting Stars, for all these quilts.

The other trio included 2 quilts with Purple borders and 1 with an Orange border.

For this group she sent this adorable pale Gray giraffe flannel backing.

All 6 baby quilts were quick to stitch and were ready for her to pick up.

When she stopped by we were able to enjoy a nice little social distancing catch up on my patio.  I know she's piecing together even more baby quilt tops so it will be fun to see how many and what design she brings to me next.

Moda's Summer in the Country Quilt Along - Blocks 5 & 6

It's been so much fun seeing everyone's blocks so far for the Moda Summer in the Country Quilt Along.  I'm already anxious to see the finished quilts.....but I'll have to wait for that.  The reveals in September will be terrific I'm sure.

The next two blocks have been posted on the Moda Bake Shop.

Lemonade is the name of this block by Jessica Dayon.

 Goose Pond is by Susan Vaughan.

Just click on the block name to be whisked to the instructions for both blocks.

I've preordered a bit of Back Porch and I've got a fun project planned for it.  Hopefully it will arrive soon so I can get to work.

Moda's Summer in the Country Quilt Along - Blocks 3 & 4

The next 2 blocks for Moda's Summer in the Country Quilt along have been revealed.

This is Hay Baler by Anne Weins of Sweetgrass Designs.  Detailed instructions can be found here.

And this is Evening Star by Jen Van Orman.  Instructions are here.

It's been exciting to see all the versions of my Moonlight block and the Pinwheel Parade block from last week and I can't wait to see the fabulous versions of these blocks that are created.

If you aren't a member of the Moda Bake Shop Bakers Facebook group yet, you should definitely join so that you can see all the wonderful sharing that happens there.

Joanne's Christmas Quilt

My customer Joanne brought me another wonderful top to quilt for her.  She actually made this one for her hubby so he chose the quilting design and threads used.

I've been good about remembering to take a "before" photo so you can see the difference the quilting makes .  What starts out as a pretty quilt top....

...turns into a fabulous almost completed quilt.  Binding is the only thing needed now.

Her hubby chose the design Hubby Hubby, So Fine Ivy for the top thread and So Fine Toast was used in the bobbin.

Joanne made a great off set pieced backing with leftover fabrics from the top and a really pale Tan, almost Cream, tone on tone print that really shows off the quilting beautifully.

Her hubby was thrilled when he picked it up and I know he'll enjoy snuggling under it when the cold weather returns to the Northeast.

I look forward to seeing what fun quilt top Joanne brings me next to quilt for her.

Moda's Summer in the Country Quilt Along - Blocks 1 & 2

The first 2 blocks for Moda's summer quilt along this year, Summer in the Country, are live today.

The Pinwheel Parade block was designed by Susan Vaughn and the instructions are here.

 The Moonlight block is the one I designed and the instructions are here.

 If you haven't yet seen the setting suggestions, you should check them out.  I love the Grandstand setting by Anne Wiens.  All the details can be found here.

 The other setting option, Country Picnic by Lisa Jo Girodat is just as wonderful.  You can get the details for it here.

Part of me wishes I was making the whole quilt but I knew that I didn't have the time for it then.  Instead I've ordered a layer cake of the line when it comes out next month and I'll be sewing up my own summer picnic quilt with this adorable fabric line.  

I can't wait to see the blocks as everyone starts to make their own versions.

Teller's Firetrucks Quilt

Sometimes making a quilt just to use up leftovers turns out to be a good thing.

Last year, after I made the Courage Under Fire quilt for our friend Pete, I didn't want to put the scraps back in my stash or scrap bins yet again so I hunted down an idea to use them up.  I came across The Long and Short of It by Barbara Esposito on the Moda Bake Shop and decided to use that pattern, though I opted for the optional layout.  FYI...Moda recently moved the Bake Shop off that platform so the instructions for the pattern are still available via the link but the pictures are gone.  You can  find pictures of both the original and the optional layouts on Pinterest.

After I got the pieces laid out, I knew that it was a jumble visually and needed help.

I wanted to use only what I had available so I added Yellow sashing between the blocks.

This is the "before" quilting picture. You can just make out that I also pieced the backing.  I truly kept this to a Zero cost project and was happy to have the fabric put to good use.  I still have a small amount of the fabrics left but they've been cut up into charms and smaller pieced and will get used in future scrap quilts.

Here it is after it was quilted. While I was finishing up the 100 Good Wishes Quilt for Ellis, I got to feeling sad that her younger brother Teller wouldn't have a quilt of his own.  When he was adopted, collecting fabrics for 100 Good Wishes Quilts weren't all the rage anymore.  Then the idea hatched in my brain to send this one to him. 

I picked the Steam design for the quilting.  The thread on the front was Glide Cardinal and So Fine Hot Chilis was used in the bobbin.

I totally forgot to take the glamor shots before I shipped it off to Kris (oh well), so this draped over the frame shot will have to do.

I know from Kris that Teller was thrilled to receive his own quilt and based on her description of him, I'm sure that it is getting plenty of quality of snuggle time.  I'm happy that this "use it up" quilt now has a home and is bringing a little boy so much joy.

American Beauty table runner fnish

I finally made time to quilt and bind my American Beauty table runner and now it's gracing my dining room table for the summer.

This is an old UFO that started with these patriotic Blackford's Beauty blocks for the Celebrate Red, White and Blue blog hop way back in July 2012.

Almost 8 years ago to the day I put the blocks together and added the borders for the blog hop photo shoot.  Sadly, this wasn't my oldest UFO.

I even got my little helpers to hold it for a pic.  They were soooooo little then.  Jammer was 5 and Sunshine was 3 in this photo.

At that time I had no idea how I wanted to finish it so I put it away to marinate for a while.  Who knew that it would wait for so long.  But in all honesty, it ended up on my "To Be Quilted" pile and then forgotten about until recently.

I auditioned a few different quilting designs but in the end, decided to keep it simple with the Shooting Stars panto.  Glide Cardinal thread on the top and So Fine It's a Boy in the bobbin.

Even the backing fabric marinated for a long time.  I purchased this piece from who knows where many years ago and I'm still love it for this table runner.

It could even serve as a double sided piece if I so chose.

I'm thrilled to have it completed and even more happy to cross it off my UFO list.

Now I'm motivated to get more older projects finished and crossed off the UFO list.  This summer just might prove to be productive at least on that front.

Today the 2nd post showing the other setting options for the Moda Summer in the Country Quilt Along will be available. Check it out. 

Then every Monday through the rest of the summer 2 new blocks will be posted.  My block will be one of them featured next Monday, July 13th.

On September 7th, the bonus blocks and the completed quilts by 4 of the designers will be revealed.  I can't wait to see them all. 

A 100 Good Wishes Quilt for Ellis

My longtime blog readers know that I started quilting because of the ancient Chinese 100 Good Wishes Quilt tradition and because of that, I've been able to make a number of 100 Good Wishes Quilts for the daughters of friends.

This one was for Kris' daughter Ellis and it was a birthday gift this year.

It's always the layout for these quilts that takes me the longest to do in order to have the colors spread nicely across the entire top.

Once the sashing was sewn between the blocks, the blocks sewn together and the outer border added, it was ready to go on the frame.  This is the "Before" photo.

The "After" photo.  To this day I'm still in awe of the difference the quilting makes.

Kris found onlinethis absolutely gorgeous Plum Blossom fabric for the backing that she purchased and had shipped to me.

I love this backing fabric so much that I'm strongly considering buying some of it for myself.  For this quilt it truly was the perfect choice. Her Chinese name means Plum Blossom. 

Kris left the binding fabric choice up to me and once I had the backing in hand I was able to take it to one of my local quilt stores to find something that worked.  I fell in love with the Green print which matched so well with the Green Plum blossom branches.

This is Ellis when she received the quilt.  I think she's happy.

These 100 Good Wishes Quilts are truly an honor for me to make.  I so understand all the pent up hopes and dreams that they meant as we all waited to bring our children home. 

I'm thrilled that Kris finally sent me her squares so this quilt could be created.  None of the squares we all collected during that time should sit in a box waiting.  At least these squares aren't waiting any longer.