Carolina Crossroads - finished

Finally put the binding on this oldie. I used Thimbleberries reds, greens and neutrals to make it, and while I used Christmas colours, I don't think it really reads as a specifically Christmas quilt. 

I pieced it as it was published Nov/07 - Jan/08 in a quilt-along mystery in installments by Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville.  Popular rumor has it that she is preparing another quilt-along mystery due to start this November.  I have no way of knowing if this is true or if it's just wishful thinking on the part of her many devoted fans (including me).

The  Carolina Crossroads pattern is no longer offered free on her website, but it is available in Bonnie's second book - Scraps and Shirttails (which can be purchased at her website and in many quilt shops).  There are three of Bonnie's five mystery projects still available in step-by-step installments online: Orange Crush, Old Tobacco Road, and Double Delight.

I always thought I'd like to make this quilt pattern again sometime - different colourway of course. It used up most of my 1.5" strips the last time and that strip box is seriously over-filled right now.

Finished at last - five year old swap blocks

Another finish to report.

This is a group of blocks I swapped with online quilters five years ago...  I'm over blushing about how old my UFOs are and just celebrate the finishes when they happen.  I put the last stitches into the binding around 1:00 am this morning and will be sleeping under this quilt when I finally get around to going to bed. Hooray! The colours on this quilt make me happy and lift my spirits - though the quilt seems better suited for spring or summer rather than fall/winter decor. It brightened up my bedroom like a sunny day and that was good enough for me. The pattern we chose for our swap was taken from the book Nine Patch Reunion by Terry Atkinson.  It seemed a good choice for the different skill levels of the participating swappers.

I flipped the quilt up to show you a pic of the backing.  My green plaid wasn't quite long enough so I sliced through the fabric and added in a row of 8.5" orphan star blocks.

I started making 8.5" sawtooth stars some years ago and like my box full of scrappy four patches, didn't notice how many I had made until I got into the triple digits.  I don't know why, but I can hyper-focus on the details of a task to the point that I don't notice the bigger picture.  In the case of the star blocks, it started innocently enough as an exercise in perfecting my seam allowance and getting perfect crisp star points.  I resolved to make stars until I felt proficient and got in the habit of making them.  That habit landed me with a stack of star blocks for which I had no specific plan.  I finished a quilt for my mother using up some of the stars, blogged about in early September.  Here's the pic again.  I named this one My Mom's Garden Sparkles.

I still have a stack of red and blue stars in my orphan block box.  I think I've mentioned before that I seem to go about things the long-way around.  While others pick a pattern and sew components for it, I seem to be quite happy sewing components and then finding a way to use them up at a later date.

Toddler's Cuddle Quilt Finished

The only sewing I managed to get done on my five day Thanksgiving weekend, was to sew down the binding on this toddler's cuddle quilt.  This was fortuitous, as I was able to give it to the toddler for whom I made it.  He is still small enough to enjoy the use of this smaller size as a cuddle quilt while watching television or traveling in the car.

 The fabrics were taken from my small stash of fun bright Me and My Sister fabrics and used all the non-floral fabrics I had in that stash.  I pieced the backing too.

I got back home last night seriously weighted down with produce from my Dad's garden, and eager to get back to my sewing machine.  I'm behind on my weekly blocks and will be immediately getting to my Modern Monday and Traditional Tuesday sampler blocks, then the Crumb-Along Log Cabin blocks posted in Jo's tutorial this week, and a few more string blocks for my Donna's String Quilt w/ 9 Patches.

Two Sweet-as-Pie Lap Quilt Finishes

Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

My longarm quilter used yellow thread on the top and red on the bottom to quilt an allover design that is suggestive of heat waves and flames.

And, Saskatoon Berry Pie

(a berry similar to a blueberry but sweeter and less juicy)

I love the quilting detail my longarm quilter stitched into this top, extending the yellow thread into the blue border.

And the blue stitching on the back.

You can really see the swirls she quilted into the border from the pic of the back of the quilt.

I lived in Saskatoon for a couple of years in the 1990s.  There was a small bakery I would pass on my walk home from the office and every Friday, I would stop and buy a small pie (a tartlet really), big enough for two servings of pie, my weekend indulgence.  More than a dozen years have passed and I still miss that pie.  The blue in my quilt isn't quite right.  A saskatoon berry is blue with a blush of pinkish purple.  But I was feeling nostalgic when I named these quilts.

What was lost.... is found (and 2 finishes)

I knew I was missing some stuff.  I knew it as surely as a mother knows one of her kids is awol.  And as my stash reorganization came to it's satisfying conclusion, I knew these missing items were lost forever.  Perhaps thrown out in the garbage by accident.

Maybe I grabbed up one of my stash boxes when I was pulling together my last donation for our local Women in Need Charity.  If so, I wonder what they thought of it when they got it.

The small list of missing items:
a Bonnie Hunter book (the first shirt tail one);
a cone of thread (easily replaceable);
prepared quilt bindings for some gift quilts waiting for label and binding.

Oh!  Did I forget to count quilts waiting for labels and binding in my UFO numbers?  I don't know how that could happen....  <long silence, crickets chirping>  (sheepish grin...biting lower lip...)  Alright, already, so my suspiciously short UFO list is ten short!  There!  I've confessed.

Anyway - back to what I was writing about..... I was most upset about the bindings - I could replace the thread and Bonnie's book (although I think I got an autographed one).  But the bindings were for gift quilts and used the last of certain fabrics.  Not only would I have to find a sufficiently sized replacement fabric, but I was going to have to sew binding lengths together and then iron them. (whine n' snivel).

An impromptu invitation to the family ranch this weekend made me think I should get two of those quilts bound, and so with a deep sigh of resignation, I went to the stash of quilts and pulled them out.  And what did I find?  Tad-dah!

I was over the moon!  And the red and pink paisley fat quarter was a bonus (it is soooo pretty!).  The package of hand quilting needles were a complete surprise.  I don't remember buying them.  But, best of all was finding the bindings.  So I have no excuse now about getting those bindings sewn on.  I may have to finish the hand sewing at the ranch, but they will be done and in the hands of loved ones.

The first one is for my mom.  Pink, yellow and green stars, with alternating blocks of a floral that has those three colours.  I call it Stars In My Garden.  My mother has a beautiful flower garden and these are colours she will love.  It's double bed size.

The second one, Sunflowers In My Garden, is a Buggy Barn pattern.

I challenged myself to find a pattern to use up some brown fat quarters.  At the time, I hated brown and whenever I bought a FQ bundle I would pull the browns out and put them aside.  When the stack of browns became a tower, I knew I had to do something with them.  I found this buggy barn pattern and thought it would solve my problem.

Each quilt square is made up of 64 patches of brown - an 8 by 8 square that went together super quick because I strip-pieced the browns, subcut the strips, then mixed and matched.  And each of the corner stones is a 4 by 4 patch square of browns.

A funny thing happened as I made this quilt.  I discovered I loved brown - as long as I don't have to wear them that is.  My stash of fabrics now includes all sorts of lovely browns - from dark chocolate to milky lattes.  My new sister-in-law loves sunflowers.  She has been collecting some pottery with a sunflower design.  I thought the pattern would be a perfect compliment for her ranch house decor.