One Finished UFO!

Right after dinner tonight I hurry-scurried into my quilt studio and managed to finish hand sewing the binding of this baby quilt I've been working on for . . . forever? Nah, I think it just feels that way.

The lavender/lilac/purple fabrics in the quilt have proven very difficult to photograph. These shots were the best I could do so you'll just have to believe me that it's much prettier in person. Honest.

I started the quilt by choosing this pretty little flower on the yellow background. I ended up using this fabric as the backing also. I knew I wanted to use some lavender and I immediately found two fabrics in my stash that filled the bill. If you look closely you'll see that the flowers have a pink center.

I struggled and struggled to find a pink fabric that looked good with the lavenders but as I neared the point of going cross-eyed and drooling, I finally gave up and decided to go with only the two lavenders.

The block pattern I chose is an old one. It's called Grandmother's Pride and I used a size of 7-1/2". I made twelve blocks, laid them out in rows of three across and four down, added some sashing and I had the center of the quilt. Then I repeated the yellow print for the borders. I was going to use one of the lavender fabrics for the binding but saw that it detracted from the center of the quilt so went with a repeat of the yellow.

Finished size of this baby quilt is 33" x 41". The fabric and batting are 100% cotton. It's most likely going to be sent to a girl baby due to be born this spring.

Now on to another UFO I've had hidden away for too long. (This is fun!)

Hard to Believe But I'm Posting on My Quilting Blog!

I've had real qualms about getting a new post up on this blog. It's been so long since I've done so and I'm afraid I won't be able to keep at it with the regularity I want. Giving it my best shot is what I will do, so please be kind and understanding with this gal who wants to find more time for quilting but is having a hard time doing so.

Where to start? How about with some UFOs? I love to begin new projects as much as anyone else, but upon doing some serious cleaning and sorting in my quilt studio, I find I have way more projects in various states of completion than I would have ever guessed. (Ooops.)

I spent Thursday of this past week locked (not literally although that would not have bothered me) in my wonderful quilting room and worked on a couple/three works in progress.

Seems I'm always making pot holders. And that's okay 'cause I love making them and they make great little gifts.

Plus, I'm so hard on the ones I use in my own kitchen that I can always use replacements.

The above were made with a spring/summer motif in mind.

I got this great cow fabric a while back and now wish I had purchased a lot more of it. Mooooo! Ish! The color on this picture is AWFUL! I'll try to get a truer depiction when I photograph it finished.

I think I have been working on the quilting on this baby quilt (10 minutes here, 15 minutes there) for months. Well, I KNOW it has been months! Because it's taken me so long, I found myself shying away from it even when I had the time to work on it. On Thursday I spent about two hours straight quilting, quilting, quilting on it and, lo and behold, finally finished the job. Then it was lickity split to get the binding sewn on. All I have now is do the hand sewing part of the binding and it will be done!

I'm actually saving the hand work on both the pot holders and the baby quilt for a get together with some good gal friends this coming Monday morning. We visit for a couple of hours while everyone works on hand work of their choice.

I also got the top, batting and backing of another baby quilt sandwiched together and started machine quilting on that. I'll show it to you next post.