Quilt Bingo Confetti

Here is a quilt that I have donated to our guild's quilt bingo to be held in
October. It is called confetti and the small squares are all thirties
reproduction fabrics. This is the third one of these I have made. They are
really fun. The other two have beige backgrounds with scrap squares.
They use 1.5" by 5" scraps so can use up small pieces. See below for
the scrappy one. It is one of my favorites. The other I made using a
grayish beige background and gave it to my friend who lives in Paducah.
I took it to her when two of my friends and I stayed with her during
the Paducah quilt show. It is the kind of quilt gift that doesn't matter
about color or style. It can go in any decor. Her family loves it. I love the back of the blue one. It is a thirties cheater.
Here is a close up of the quilting. I did it all on my Bernina 153. I
experimented with freehand vines in the borders and the flower centers
are from a stencil. I have alot of thirties FQs left, mostly with pieces
cut out of them. So looks like there is another scrappy thirties quilt in
my future.

If you are interested in the Quilt Bingo e-mail me. It will be held in
Bowie, MD, October 14

Until next time...
Susie

Blink and you miss it

This is the fastest quilt I have ever made. I received the invitation to my
cousin's daughter's wedding shower on June 22. The shower was July 29. I
knew I wanted to make her a quilt for her wedding but decided that I wanted
to give it to her at her shower. Could I do this? Could I make her a
twin/large-lap size quilt in 5 weeks (one of which we were at the beach)?
I hadn't even decided what pattern to use. I did know from her mother that her
house was earth tones (Not quite my style)

So, our guild was having a trash to treasure sale on June 27 and I bought
a pack of 200-5" squares in earth tones for--ta da--$1!!!! That made my
decision for me. I am the guild librarian and have over 200 books in a corner
of my sewing room so I got out both Nickel quilts books by Pat Speth and
Charlene Thode and Open a Can of Worms by Debbie Caffrey. I decided
on this pattern from Open a Can of Worms.

I needed, I think, 360 5" squares so to my stash I went. Now when I say
that a certain color scheme is not my style, that doesn't mean that I don't
have those colors in my stash! I got the top done in two weeks. I even took
it to the beach to start the machine quilting (in case it rained--it didn't)
but didn't touch it. I had one week left to quilt it and went on a marathon
that whole week. I quilted when I got home from work every night
(except Wednesday of course -- that's guild/bee night) I finished the
quilting on Friday night and it took me all day Saturday to bind it.
It is 68" by 84". I sewed the label on on Sunday morning then left at noon
for the shower.

Whew!!
Done!!

Until next time...
Susie

Birthday blocks

The top pic is a birthday block for Debi. She wanted pastel flowers.
The next one is for Linda. (shhh don't tell them).
She wanted patriotic and this pattern is called Spinky's (cute name huh?)
and came from Quilterscache.com

Until next time...
Susie

So, here's the photo I mentioned in my previous post. I am a graphic artist and use a computer for my job. So you'd think I could get the hang of this blog program huh?!!!

Anyway, this quilt started my love of scraps quilts. I make other kinds of quilts too but the style I am usually drawn to is of the scrappy persuasion. This quilt took four years to make and I started it when I was a new quilter in 1999. All the nine patches have red centers and the vine is scrappy too. I machine quilted it myself in two pieces (It is a king size) That was quite complicated because I didn't want to cut the border. It was easier to wrestle with while quilting but harder to sew it together afterwards.

I belong to Southern Comforters Quilt Guild in Bowie, MD and you'll hear more about them as I continue to post. One of our activities is a birthday block exchange. it is new this year so there are only about 8 of us. We list our preferences and on our birthday we receive blocks from the other members. I worked on one last night that was to be 12" pastels (hard for me) with flowers. Well, I just bought a new-to-me Bernina 180 and got it into my head that I wanted to do an embroidered center. Duh, I should have taken a picture of it but I will do that tonight. I like it and now have to do some piecing around it to make it 12".

Until next time...
Susie

Beginnings

I love to read quilt blogs!!! So I thought I would TRY to do one of my own. I have set some goals for myself to blog at least once a week. Since I am not a very self-disciplined person, we'll see. I love scrap quilts and try to sew everyday. I started quilting in 1999 and become quite obsessed.

Right now I am working on finishing a king-size trip around the world and piecing a black, white and red quilt. I will publish my UFO list later.

Now I will try to post a photo of a quilt that won first place as well as members choice at my guild's quilt show in March 2004. One of the reasons I like reading quilt blogs is to look at the pictures. So I will publish lots of pictures here.
Until next time...
Susie