Three Finishes, all bound and ready to roll!

     I tend to work grouping similar tasks. For example, I will do a whole lot of backings at once for tops and hang them together ready to quilt. Last week, I made bindings for 4 quilts and sewed on three. The last binding is a large quilt, and it is harder to glue bind- moving the bulk around. All three are comfort quilts, waiting for someone to give me a name of a recipient.
     The black/color strips were sewn as tubes, then cut to stagger the placement. I quilted a different pattern in each stripe to practice my quilting.

Front

Back

     Dancing Star was a Square in a Square pattern- finally completed.

Front

Back

     Goodnight Irene was a leader-ender scrap quilt. I did diagonal quilting with my new ruler and I am not real pleased with the shaky lines.

Back

Front

New Leader and Ender quilt

    I thought I would make use out of all the 4 patch, 2.5" scraps, that I make as a leader/ender as per Bonnie Hunter. I have a lot of 4 patches now. First, at the beginning or end of each quilt I am piecing, I put 2, 2.5" squares, one dark, one light together through the machine. After pairs, I sew the pairs into 4 patches as leader/lenders. I decided I would fool around with graph paper and come up with something. I did and it required me to snowball 2.5" squares on two diagonal opposite sides of a 4.5" square. I made three sample blocks. Then, when doing my usual looking at quilt ideas on the net, I found out that this block is called Good Night Irene and there was an incredibly simple way to piece these besides the convoluted idea I had come up with. So, I ripped out the samples and made some of these. 
     I can't decide whether to make 4 or 5 blocks across. If I make 4, I need to put a border on the quilt. If 5, no border. I love borders, but I don't know which way to go so since I don't have enough blocks yet, it can simmer. I should look online to see how others do it so I don't try to reinvent the wheel again coming up with a square one. I cut 2.5" squares out of scraps people give me and sort them into light and dark and keep them in two small plastic containers next to the piecing machine, which is lately the Singer 15-91.

4 blocks across measure 32", 5 measure 40"

    My helper, quality control, has taken to laying on in progress FMQ by the machines. He is depositing much cat hair, so I put a scrap soft piece of fabric over the quilt to protect it, and he seems undeterred in his sleep. Saves all that cleaning off the fur before FMQ.