Zippy Strippy Compassion Quilts

The last two compassion quilts are finished. I pieced the center sections before I went to retreat in April using an old jellyroll that has been guilting me for years. Deanna and I both bought the jelly rolls and extra fabrics years ago at the Pumpkinvine quilt store. She finished and gifted her quilt long ago, I didn't.

Remember when jellyrolls were first invented? Quilters were making zippy strippy quilts, some even participated in races to see who finished their quilt first. 

The problem with a zippy strippy quilt was it was too wide and not long enough. You could add borders which made it larger but then it was too big for me to quilt on my sewing machine. 

I started sewing these strips together but do the final doubling. I had a longer pieced strip which I cut in half to make the center. Sorry, I didn't take a picture.

I added borders to my centers and quilted them with simple straight line vertical quilting. The peach colored quilt was quilted in the ditch with lines 2" apart. The turquoise border quilt was quilted 1/2" from the seam line in the center then in the border. Both quilts were stitched in the ditch around the center sashing. Very simple but it works! 

They both measure 45.5" X 63.5".

This is the end of my machine quilting binge and I'm glad to be finished. Eight quilts have been quilted, five of them will be donated. The other three will be gifted eventually.

In the meantime, since I pieced these quilts, Michelle has published a jellyroll book, Not-Your-Typical Jelly Roll Quilts. Several bloggers made quilts and posted about the book. I won a free e-book from Quilting Jet Girl just by leaving a comment on her post. The next time I make a jellyroll quilt, I'll use one of the patterns Michelle designed, they really don't look like typical jellyroll quilts.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Wednesday Wait Loss, Free Motion Mavericks, Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

Two Border Amish Quilt

The quilting is speeding along on this little quilt.

This is the right side.

The center section.

And the left side.

The green doesn't show the true color in any of these pictures, rather a blah shade of green.

Linking to Patchwork & Quilts, Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Handmade Monday, Sew & Tell, Craftastic Monday, Design Wall Monday, Monday Musings, To Do Tuesday

Two Little Quilts

Two more small quilts have been completed. One is a compassion quilt and the other one will be a gift to a special person in my life.

Several years ago I pieced a Moda Love layer cake quilt. I purchased yardage and cut it into 10" squares then sewed the HST's. I did not read the instructions thoroughly because I thought I knew what I was doing, wrong! I ended up making way too many HST's and needed to buy more fabric to have enough yardage to finish the quilt.

After the quilt was pieced, I placed the leftover fabrics and extra HST's in a bag with the intent of someday making something with them. That happened last winter when I pieced the small quilts that both measure 44" by 52".

They were easy to make, the first one has large broken dishes blocks.

The backing is very scrappy. I had finished piecing the teal quilts for Joanna so I incorporated leftover blocks into the backing. This quilt is the compassion quilt.

There aren't as many HST's in the second quilt. I could have pieced 2 more HST's and made a square quilt but I just didn't want to piece another HST!

The backing isn't as scrappy as the first quilt but I thought the flowered fabric went well with the teal/purple fabric. 

The quilting these quilts was very simple, first I quilted the blocks horizontally then vertically in the seam ditch. 

The next step was to  stitch diagonally. Lines were marked 2" from the seam lines. I stitched diagonally to the marking then stitched around the square which brought me back to where I had been on the diagonal then finished sewing the diagonal stitch in the ditch sewing. 

The border quilting was straight lines. I had planned to use the serpentine stitching in the borders but I couldn't find my machine book that has the different stitches. Oh well, straight line works.

It didn't take long to quilt these quilts. The light fabric was marked with a washable blue marker while the dark fabric was marked with a white Sewline marker.

Again this was simple quilting but no pleats or tucks on the back!

Here is a link to the Peacock Moda Love Star quilt I pieced in 2021.

My Christmas cactus plants are on the south porch but back against the wall so they don't receive direct sunlight. This one is in full bloom! It was full of buds when it came in the house last fall and starting blooming in October. It had some flowers all winter long. I've never had one do this well. Several of the other cactus have flowers also but not like this one. This must be the perfect place for them in the summer.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, Free Motion Mavericks, Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

Two Border Amish Quilt

With a small quilt, it's easy to quilt across the long side. And this week I reached in farther than necessary, the quilt is halfway quilted!

This picture shows the true color of the green.

The center section of the quilt. I guess I don't have the frame centered under the lights correctly, the color is off shade.

WOW! This is even worse, definitely not the right color.

I have learned my lesson, don't buy off brand fabric no matter how less it costs. It's a sturdy fabric, it isn't going to fall apart when washed, it just quilts hard. I'm very glad this is a small quilt.

I won't be rolling this side anymore, I'm going to move my chair to the other side of the quilt and stitch toward the center.

This quilt is for my stash, I just wanted to make an Amish crib quilt.

I was in Wakarusa several weeks ago and took a picture of the quilt garden. They didn't have the sign up about the flower garden design but, to me, it looks it might be a pinwheel? I'll update you the next time I get my hair trimmed. Here is a link for you to peruse with information about the quilt gardens.

Linking to Patchwork & Quilts, Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Handmade Monday, Sew & Tell, Craftastic Monday, Design Wall Monday, Monday Musings, To Do Tuesday

Embroidered Baby Quilt

 In November I showed you an embroidered baby quilt flimsy, the blocks were embroidered by a granddaughter. Today I show you the finished quilt.

Some of the animals were embroidered with very light thread, they don't show very well. 

The borders between the blocks were stitched in the ditch with an iridescent white thread. I don't think it really shows in the picture. I don't know what you call this design but it works fine for the blocks. The embroidered blocks finish at 7.75".

Displayed on the grass.

I didn't have enough of the flowered fabric for the entire backing fabric so I pulled some pretty lavenders from the stash.

I add an embroidered label. I should have used a stencil for the lettering but I wrote free-hand instead. There wasn't enough room for the word 'by' but I think you know what I mean.

I used a water soluble blue marking pen for the border.

This is what the stencil template looks like.

Obvious the stencil is turned a different direction. If I had been quilting by hand, I would have stuck the needle under the design and made it look woven. For machine quilting, I linked the cables and called it good!

The finished quilt measures 47" by 58". I washed it to remove the blue markings.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Free Motion Mavericks, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

Two Border Amish Crib Quilt

Even though this green fabric stitches harder than normal, I'm enjoying myself. I haven't quilted in a long time.

I always start at the right side and work my way left.

I'm reaching in farther than I would have to. In the center, the crosshatching reaches to the center design. I would rather stitch a long seam than a short one.

The quilting across this section is finished, I rolled the stick after taking the pictures. Since the outside border is already quilted, it makes the inside quilting go faster. At least it seems like that.

I do need to stitch in the ditch on both sides of the red borders. 

As I told you last week, I'm using the old sticks and stands frame because it think it holds layers better than the Grace frame does on the sides.

This is one of my favorite quilting tools, it holds the pins I use to pin the quilt to the frame. I used to keep my pins in a small plastic container but I lost the lid. I was constantly spilling the container and needed to pick up the pins all the time! This bowl is magnetic, the pins are no longer spilled. I keep my chapstick in it too. Since it's magnetic, I place it on the corner of the quilting frame and it locks onto the corner clamp.

Linking to Patchwork & Quilts, Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Handmade Monday, Sew & Tell, Craftastic Monday, Design Wall Monday, Monday Musings, To Do Tuesday

Log Cabin Hearts

In the midst of my machine quilting binge, I received a call from Calico Point, another quilt is finished, this time it's Log Cabin Hearts.

I don't know the name of this quilting design but it's very pretty. A close up of one of the blocks.

Displayed on our bed.

I haven't used a flange binding for several years but it adds a touch of color to the edge of the outside border.

You need to stitch slowly to sew the flange without sewing onto the binding section.

I used white thread on the flange. 

Log Cabin Hearts finishes at 95" square. The directions on the pattern has a very wide outside border. I didn't want that wide of a border.

The Log Cabin Hearts pattern was designed by Esther Hershberger back in 1996. It's an older pattern and has templates instead of rotary cutter instructions. I measured the templates for cutting measurements.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Wednesday Wait Loss, May Favorite Finish!, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts