I've Waited SO Long to Show This!

In January I received a brown bag with a yard of fabric in it.

Batik fabric.

Beautiful Batik fabric.

My job - to make a quilt top using this fabric and have it completed by December.  Then I would give away the quilt top to whoever put it in the brown bag.

This is the fabric I was given.

Didn't know whose fabric it is.
Didn't know what they like
or what they don't like.

So I made something
that I would like.
And finished it in the summer.

Kept it quiet all of August.
September.
October.
November.


And then the trees were such a pretty color that I knew it was the time to take pictures of the quilt top.

I had two charm packs of batiks - they were the perfect combination of colors and textures.  

And, somehow, they were the perfect number of charms to use this pattern.

The pattern is called "Smitten" by Rachel Griffith.  

You can see it here.
(Her colors were for a baby quilt)
(I also saw an awesome rainbow rendition of the quilt here)

But the obvious color scheme for mine focused on the lovely Autumn Batik.

Here are some of my favorite blocks in this quilt:

  

I had so much fun making this quilt - and was so excited to give it away.
Two of my children could not believe I would give it away. . . they really liked it.



Merry Christmas to my dear friend.  I'm so glad you like your quilt top!

CathyH

Christmas Exchange - The 2012 "Reveal"

Our "Seams Like Sisters" Quilting Bee holds a special event each year - which we unveil in December.

For 2012 our special event involved a yard of fabric placed in a brown sack.  We shuffled the sacks around and took one home.  Using that yard of fabric we were supposed to make a quilt top.  At the 2012 Christmas party the yard of fabric (and it's companion quilt top) would be returned to the proper owner.

Some of us had trouble remember what fabric was put in the sack last January!!

But, in the end, each of the Sewing Sisters ended up with a quilt top.  Here is a quick glance of the quilt tops  - those with pictures!

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

I think there may have been more quilt tops - but these are the pictures I have. 

What  an amazing story of creativity!!  Great job, my Sisters!

I will show the quilt top I made in a post tomorrow.  The leaves on my crape myrtle turned the most amazing color one day (and dropped all the leaves the next day!) and provided the best opportunity to photograph the quilt I made.  Check back tomorrow!

CathyH

Christmas Exchange

For the last two years, our "Seams Like Sisters" Quilting Bee holds a special event each year - which we unveil in December.  You may remember that, for Christmas 2011, we each made blocks for our Sisters in the color(s) they desired. This resulted in a number of quilts that were unveiled THIS Christmas.

You can see last year's reveal on this blogpost.

Here are a few samples of the blocks put into quilts, as some of our Sisters brought these to the 2012 Christmas party.

Christmas Colors:

Specific Block in Specific Colors:

Green Blocks - made into Houses around the Church!

Snowmen:

And, you will probably remember my Red and White Quilt.

I love my Sisters.

CathyH

Blogger's Quilt Festival

Amy at Amy's Creative Side is, again, hosting a Quilt Festival Online.  What a wonderful way to see a Festival of Quilts - in your own home at your computer.

I always seem to have a few quilts In-Progress, completed quilts are - well - rare.  2012 was to be my Year of Finishes.  Maybe I should call 2012 my Year of Almost-Finishes!!

I want to show you one quilt I finished this year:

The pieced blocks in this quilt were given to me by my Bee Sisters last Christmas.  I, in turn, made 12 different blocks so that my Bee Sisters could each make whatever kind of quilt they planned.  You can see the revealing of these blocks at this blogpost.

I used a couple of special techniques in making this quilt.  First - I made the setting squares by making quick quarter square triangles. I love the way these triangles frame the pieced blocks!!   Here are some pictures of the steps I took to make these blocks.  You can see my blogpost about this technique here.

I also used the Quilt-as-you-go method to quilt this.  I quilted each block separately, on my regular old Kenmore, then joined the fronts together, then hand-sewed the seams in the back.

I loved using Quilt-as-you-go for these reasons:

I used only fabric from my stash.  I had a variety of reds - none of them large enough for the back.  

The back and the quarter square triangles on the front are made from a whole bunch of different red fabrics. Additionally, I used scraps of batting that I had on hand.  I did not have to buy any batting.

And the BACK of the quilt is almost as fun as the front!!

To keep track of which block goes where, I numbered the blocks.  I used a slip of paper with the block number on it and just sewed the paper onto the block until I had the rows sewn together.

Here you can see the blocks on my design wall before I added the border blocks.  If you look carefully, you can see the number tags - and one of the quarter-square-triangle setting blocks put on the design wall incorrectly.

I am so glad that I asked my Bee Sisters to make Red and White Blocks.

And I am SO HAPPY with the results!!

It just makes me smile.

Blogger Quilt Festival #436
Quilt measurements: 72" x 72"
Special techniques: Quilt-as-you-go and Quick-Quarter-Square-Triangles
Designed by me, Quilted on my Kenmore.
Pieced work by my Bee Sisters
Best catagories: Favorite 2 Color Quilt
                          Favorite Bee Quilt
                          Favorite Home Machine Quilted Quilt


You can look at the other Blogger Quilt Festival Quilts.

Red and White.

I like it.

CathyH

I Love Red and White!!

I am FINISHED!!!!

Last December I received 13 Red and White blocks from our Seams Like Sisters Bee.
They are BEAUTIFUL!!
They are all in a quilt and
In a FINISHED quilt.

This quilt was so much fun to make!!   And it was a great stash-buster.  I used scraps of red prints that I had in my stash and scraps of batting and some white-on-white yardage that I had.  I even had red thread.  The reds I had were so similar that you almost cannot tell that there are 5 or 6 different red prints used to surround the pieced blocks I received.

An earlier post described how I made the quarter-square-triangle blocks that are in between the pieced blocks.

 I used a Quilt-as-you-go method.  I even tried some free-motion quilting on three of the blocks.  The triangles just called for straight-line quilting, though.

Maybe the most amazing thing about the quilt is the back.  I added a white Ohio Star amidst the variety of red fabrics.  THEN, when I hung in to take a photo... well ... you can see faintly see the blocks from the front of the quilt.  I LOVE this quilt!!!

I look forward to using this quilt at

Christmas.

And Valentine's Day.

And Memorial Day.

And the Fourth of July.

And Labor Day.

And anytime I want to feel loved!

Thanks, so much to Kelly, Holly, Linda, Renee, Sandy, Susan, Judy, Carla, Diane, Kathi, Priscilla, and Shirley.  You ladies just Seem Like Sisters to me!!

CathyH

Some July Progress

My UFO goal for July involved my Red and White Blocks that I received for Christmas from the lovely ladies in Seams Like Sisters Quilting Bee.

I decided I would Try Something New - and put these blocks together in a Quilt-as-You-Go method.  After designing a quilt, a Bee Friend had sewn tags onto those blocks to remind her the order of her rows and columns.  I tried the same thing with the backs of my blocks.



The setting blocks of quarter-square triangles and the fabric for the back of the quilt all came out of my stash.

I am really liking the red and white.

I love the way the triangles are making patterns with the patched blocks.

Stars.  

On-Point Squares.

And I have an interesting plan for the edges.

On another note - I went to an estate sale in my neighborhood and purchased these two flour sacks for a couple dollars each.  

One of them has this intriguing note on it:

 

I'm not sure, now, if I will ever wash them!!  I don't want the printing to be removed!
Has anybody had any experience with items like this?

I'm linking up with Lily's Quilt's Small Blog Meet

And with Patchwork Times' UFO Challenge.

Check out all the wonderful summer quilting going on!!
Cathy H