Strip Pieced Baby Quilt finish!

I've had a busy week in my sewing room.  I'm gearing up to work on some custom quilts using baby clothes and needed to get some loose ends tied up before I get myself going on those.  But before I get into that - let's have a winner for my giveaway from Monday!  I had 16 people leave a comment on my blog post, so I went to random.org and plugged in the numbers...and the winner was comment number three!

Congrats, Mary O - I sent you an e-mail so you can let me know where to send that pretty spool of thread :)  Thank to everyone who took the time to enter - I appreciate it!  I'm having a little difficulty with blogger not sending notifications of all the blog posts to my e-mail so I couldn't answer all the comments :(   But I do appreciate each and every one of you for taking the time to do that, and for reading my blog.

So - one of the quilts I've been working on this week is made from 2 1/2 inch strips.  I finished the top earlier this spring, but haven't had time to get it quilted, so now seemed the perfect time to get it out and finish it up.  I found the backing in a pile of fabrics I had purchased for a different project that ended up differently than I originally planned - yay for using up some stash!

Aren't the colors fun and cheerful?

It took almost exactly two bobbins of thread to do the machine quilting and the binding for this quilt.  I used Aurifil Natural White (2021) 50 wt because it just blended in so nicely with all the brights, giving this quilt great texture in a subtle way.  I did loops and heart quilting because it's so much fun!

It's hard to get a good full on shot of it, but you can see how fun and colorful it turned out!

I have this quilt available for sale in my Etsy shop - you can just click the picture to go there!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend and get to do some quilting!  I have a stack of quilting ready to go for my weekend - so I'm off to get started.

Quilter's Recipe Box - Unit Seven, Lozenge

Welcome to month number seven of the Quilter's Recipe Box.

This month's unit is a variation of last month's Square in a Square Unit - but instead of adding to all four corners we will only be adding to two corners.  The block is Linoleum.  It is featured in the Farmer's Wife book, as well as EQ7.  I haven't found any more information about it, but it's a nice block!

So, let's get started and make the block!  You will need one 3 1/2 square of your feature fabric, four 3 1/2 squares of a secondary fabric, and four 2 x 3 1/2 rectangles of a third fabric.  From your background fabric you will need eight 2 inch squares and four 2 x 3 1/2 inch rectangles.

First, you will sew the four Lozenge units.  Mark each 2 inch square on the diagonal.  Sew one square to two of the corners of the 3 1/2 inch secondary squares as below:

Trim, and press to the outside of the block.

Make four Split Square units from the 2 x 3 1/2 inch rectangles.  Then lay out your block like this:

Then sew it together and it will look like this:

Easy as can be :)  You can get the entire set of Quilters Recipe Box units in my Etsy shop!

Last week I mentioned a giveaway.  I have an extra spool of Aurifil thread to pass on to a lucky person.  I accidentally bought a duplicate spool of red that I thought I would pass on.

This gorgeous red is called Paprika.  It is a beautiful bright red and would look awesome on a patriotic quilt!

Curvalicious Quilting for the Finish!

Well, I didn't quite get my quilt for the Island Batik Ambassador challenge finished in July, but it was pretty darn close!  (If you want to see the start, click here)  I added the borders early this week, but had to finish several other projects before I could actually start quilting it.

Yesterday I managed to get all the curves quilted and part of the border, but as close as I was, I had to let the rest go for today.  The quilting was really fun, kind of a sampler of different free-motion fills.  They are all done with Aurifil thread, mostly 40 and 50 weight, but I did use 12 weight for the straight line quilting in the border and in one of the dark blue arcs.

I finished up the borders this morning, and added binding.  I was a little sad to see that it is a very friendly quilt.  Yes, the borders are waving!

I added more quilting to the border, and even gave it a wash and dry, so it's a bit better.  I suppose I should have quilted that border more because it really did lie flat before quilting :(  I might try blocking it next to see if I can get it to lie right.

But look at all that lovely texture!

It was really fun to come up with all the different quilting designs.  I love it as a sampler of different motifs!  Not one thread break even with all the tight quilting and different weights of thread, either.  Batik on the top and bottom, with cotton batting.

This was a fun challenge - it was really great to be creative and do something out of the routine for me!  The July Challenge is Oh, Baby!   I've got a plan for that one, so I'm ready to get started.

Isn't that a cute graphic?  Totally adorable!

I'm spending my weekend adding labels to a pile of quilts.  One of these days I'll make sure to label as I go.  While I'm at it I'll have to make a label for my Curvilicious quilt, but I need to figure out a name for it.  Any suggestions?  Thanks for helping!