A few UFOs finished!

Today is a warm, sunny, not very humid day.  Perfect, I thought, for picture taking.  I found it is a little too sunny, so please excuse the glare and the wrinkles that last week's humidity caused.  

This year, Aby Dolinger posted a block of the month project called "Favorites."  I always like her patterns because of the very clear directions.  I put my blocks together a little differently, though, combining Aby's blocks with my guild's blocks of the month.  Of course, that meant I had a few too many blocks, so some made a nice back.

I love the background fabric which is from a line called "Pressed Flowers," and has flecks of burgundy, gold, and greenish blue.  I used quite a few scraps and added a few fabrics, too.  The binding is a floral gold with burgundy accents.

This measures 47" x 47" and I quilted it fairly simply in a grid, with a smaller grid in the plain areas.  It will be a nice wall quilt, table topper, or even a quilt for a modern baby.

Those fold lines worry me, so I now have the quilt spread out over the back of our sofa and hope they go away.  If not, I'll use a little steam and then let it hang some more.

Yesterday I finished a quilt I'm calling "Scrappy Town," made of variously sized house blocks.  I found a free pattern on the Fat Quarter Shop's website called "Brick House" and thought I'd use it for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  After making the block a few times, I wasn't totally happy with it, so I decided to add some other sized house blocks here and there.   I think they add variety, and I enjoyed paperpiecing some of the blocks.

The resulting 45" x 45" quilt also uses scraps of muslin and 2" scrappy squares from my vast collection.  I quilted with my walking foot, mostly outlining and  crisscrossing the squares.  I loved making those tiny 3" houses, but I don't think I could endure making a whole quilt out of them.  This is a good solution.

The back of the quilt is a yellow blender and the binding is a yellow print that I've had for ages.  I had just enough to go around, thank goodness.  I ended up with three 2.5" squares for my 2.5" square scrap box.

Now I'm pondering what to do with all the multicolored 6" blocks of the month I've made in my online quilt group.   I had them lined up row-by-row fashion, but that seems too dull somehow.  Now I have 9 wonky star blocks auditioning for the center of a medallion quilt.  I could also make a haphazard sort of layout with fillers, again using my trusty 2" or 2.5" squares.  I'll keep shuffling them around for a while before deciding.

Two weeks of heat

 I have been busy trying to stay cool for the last couple of weeks - sewing with the air conditioning on, reading in front of the fan, and running to the library to do various things to help the Friends book sale  this coming weekend.

On the sewing front, I took two quilts to Marie to long arm, and I'll pick them back up on Thursday morning.  Don't know when I'll get them bound as I have plenty of other things in the pipeline.  I made a couple of mug rugs and a table runner.  One of the rugs is for a raffle basket and the other will go with us to Wisconsin along with various table runners for my brother to use as gifts for people who have helped him this past year.  

I turned my attention to a bunch of blocks of the month from Aby Dolinger's "Favorites" along with some Heart of Vermont guild blocks of the month, all done with the same background fabric.  They went together nicely in a 48" x 48" quilt which I quilted on a grid with a smaller grid for the plain pieces.

Next, the multi-sized house blocks I've been making for the rainbow scrap challenge all year called to me, and I set them together with sashing made of scrappy 2" squares.  I'm calling this quilt "Scrappy Town," and I've been quilting it for a day or so.  It is about 45" x 45".  I don't know if I'll give these two little quilts to Bags of Love (for foster kids) or change out some of the quilts I've had on my etsy shop for a while.  I may also change out the quilts at the florist's downtown.

In between, I was busy gobbling up Lessons in Chemistry because the e-book came up on my library waiting list.  It was one of my favorite books so far this year.  Very witty and quirky.  I wanted to finish that before the next book, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, comes up.  My niece Evelyn liked it very much, as did her mother, so I am assured of a good read.  In between, I'm into the next Ruth Galloway mystery, The Locked Room, by Ellie Griffiths.  All good reading for hot afternoons.

I have a pile of quilted things to take outside to photograph, but it's been too hot and humid to go outdoors much.  We keep waiting for the contractor to install our heat pump - guess it will come in the fall in time for heating season.  I had hoped it would come sooner.  Meanwhile, Paul is busy picking blueberries, so I will be in the kitchen later today making my annual pie.  Luckily, I have some salads waiting in the fridge for dinner, so I won't be in the kitchen long.  Hope you're having a great weekend!

Friendship Wreath

 

I've always wanted to make a block like this and was pleased to find it's the first block in Aby Dolinger's Favorites block of the month this year.  Her instructions are always so clear, and I've enjoyed the last two years' projects.  I wasn't going to participate this year, opting to work on my local guild's blocks instead.  But I wasn't wild about this month's choice so this will be a substitute.  It measures 18" square (finished) and will be a nice center for a medallion layout.  But I'll wait and see as usual.