A bit of comfort

     Almost always, my comfort quilts go to someone I don't know, or someone gives me a recommendation and then I ask them to give the quilt package. However, this time, my dear sister-in-law has been diagnosed with endometrial cancer. After a successful surgery to remove the tumor and surrounding tissue, it was determined that the cancer cells are extremely aggressive. In order to halt any of them, she is undergoing chemo that started on Wednesday. My husband and I took her a quilt package which she already used this week. Our prayer is that the chemo destroys any cells left and doesn't make her really ill. She will loose her wonderful red curly hair. Just heart wrenching. I showed this quilt when I finished it a while back, but now it is washed and dried so it shows off the quilting. The name is Little Boxes and it was a free pattern from jellyrollfabric.net.

All those Little Boxes- in the Snow

     I had finished quilting Little Boxes, but it wasn't until today that I sewed the binding on. The free pattern was from jelly roll fabrics. I have to say, I do not like the quilt. I think the white is overbearing the boxes and it is boring because the fabrics repeat since they are subcut from wof strip sets. I made this because it was easy and I gave my mother long strips to sew in pairs. She likes to be busy and she sews straight seams with no matching. It is the second one I have made. My husband thinks it is the best thing I ever made and he wished it were bigger. Hard to believe. It will be a comfort quilt. 
     I am consciously trying to give the reader more interesting photos and am following the photo hints I found from quiltylove.com. The sun and snow made the quilt look more pizazzy than it is because the snow neutralized the white. I did not shoot a picture of the whole back as it is all one seamed fabric. Enjoy!

Inside, some backing 

Retreat to move forward

     One of the best ways to make forward progress is to attend a quilt retreat. They feed you, house you, and you just sew and look at other people sewing, exchange ideas, and make progress. My guild goes twice a year to a place near Lewiston, NY and this year we added an extra day- Thursday through Sunday. You can leave everything set up and just sew. 

Cutting tables in the middle on bed raisers

We put done work on the railings finished 

Where did those quilters go?

Some of the things I finished besides the colorwash-

A quilt for a friend (Patience Corners pattern)

Another Little Boxes (jellyrollfabric.net)

Binding's on! Two down

     I finished sewing the bindings on (all by machine) the pink Disappearing Nine Patch and Little Boxes. They came out real well. Just waiting for a home. In the washer right now.

The Pro quilts Little Boxes

     The Nolting Pro, not me. First quilt off the new machine. This was so much easier. I was not fighting the machine. I did not try using the ruler yet. I made all the sashings a square spiral and each column, I made a different pattern. This is a free pattern from Liz. I have another Little Boxes with blue boxes that needs the white sashing cut and sewn on.

Detail

One off, another on

     Film at Five is all sewn, waiting for a backing and quilting. I really, really like it. The more variety of scraps you have, the better. So, it is off the design wall.
     On the the wall is Little Boxes. I had made a pink version, which is still waiting for quilting. I finally had time to lay it out. Now, I have to cut a multitude of white strips for the rows and top and bottom. The pattern is free from http://www.jellyrollfabric.net/
     It works great for WOF strips. Good thing I bought some more Kona white on sale at Hancock's of Paducah.

 

Needs white strips in between rows yet,
trying to figure color placements

Little Boxes strip quilt

     This quilt is one that is made by sewing a white, color, color, white WOF strips in a set. I sewed a number of sets, then subcut the sets to 4.5" wide. I arranged it on the design wall. The pieces were sewn end to end on the 4.5" white edges. Then long white strips were sewn to the bottom of each row, except the top row got one white strip on the top. It needs no border and is larger than a lap quilt. The pattern is free from Liz at  http://www.jellyrollfabric.net/ but I don't see it listed on her site. The name is Little Boxes. 

On the wall, not quilted yet