Two finished tops

   I just returned from the International Quilt Festival in Houston on Sunday and the weekend before I attended our fall quilt retreat. I think I am untangling all my stuff from all of that. Normally I would not do so much, but they fell close together and I still think about the Feb. 7th heart attack and how close I was to going nowhere around here, so I went.
     At the retreat, I was able to finish the top, Basket Case. Although simple pieces, it was tricky to put together and I had to pay attention to the diagram for every block. I was going to make it a row longer, but there were only 40 strips in the jelly roll. The pinked edges of the strips drove me mad to keep consistent and a couple of them were not cut even. I dearly wanted the top done to bring home, so it is a square, not rectangle. It is 60 x 60. Maybe I can add a white 3" border all around yet so it is ok for a comfort quilt.
     The other quilt I have made before, Diagonal Variations. It has 2 strip sets sewn, one white-color-white and the other color-white-color. They are put right sides facing each other, sewn in a tube, then cut with a 45 degree triangle. Lots of squaring up before the blocks are sewn. I had all the blocks numbered in order and had to just sew the blocks together for the retreat. I also made seven flannel pillowcases (can't show them yet) for Christmas gifts.
     I can't resist multiple glamor shots while the weather was for one day sunny and dry.

All but the binding

     I managed to get some long arm quilting done. This is Pineapple Blossom, free pattern from Bonnie Hunter, that I started at a work shop with her last October in Rochester. I really liked making the quilt and want to make another, but bigger. I like the colors. The green border says meow with little balls of yarn, kind of funny. Just have to do a binding and I was thinking scrappy with all the pieces I save.
     When it gets bound, I will do a better picture and show the back.

Quick pics

     Last week was the Morningstar Quilt Guild show at the Erie County fairgrounds which was a new venue for them, but the Grange Building worked out quite well. I only had my phone with me, and some of the photos self deleted, but three quilts I really liked were these. I took a lot more, but are lost.

This one is Circle Game by Jen Kingwell, much nice than the original one on the pattern

Portion of a lattice quilt, the name of the pattern is lost.

Exciting quilt all made from men's shirts that she found at Amvets

Construction begins

     The last color tweak of the colorwash and the last black and white before I took it down, column by column and clipped them for 19 across. There are 21 rows.

      And 7 of them are sewn together so far. The web works.

Inching towards perfecting

     The batik colorwash I have been tweaking and tweaking I hope is coming to the time where I can take it down and sew it. I rummaged through all my batik scraps trying to find some dark reds to make the corner more defined and smoothed. Sometimes, it is like a Rubik's cube- move one piece and others scream out to get moved. I moved some of the light colors also. This is the red corner that kept bothering me.

     After cutting some more squares and rearranging, I had this.

    And this is what the black and white looks like.

     I almost can't even see this clearly anymore. I will wait another day to make a decision. Can't wait to web it.

Colors, colors everwhere

    Pretty darn fortunate to be taking a colorwash class with Wanda online. I love these types of quilts. I made a floral one a year ago or so, but it sold at a quilt show. The only quilt I ever sold, wish I had it back. I am using batiks I have collected and collected. I have them on cafeteria trays I bought on Amazon. They are sitting on the ironing board at the design wall.  Lots of tweaking yet, but at least pieces are up.

Colors in photo are not true- they are not so dark.

Sewing on

     One of the pieces I used in the art quilt presentation was this ongoing leaves quilt. I pin basted it and am doing big stitch with No. 8 Perle Cotton for the quilting. I find this type of hand quilting fun. It is portable, and I can take it when I have to wait somewhere.