Awareness & Butterfly Beauty

The last of the basted flimsies are quilted and the binding is finished. 

The first quilt is called Awareness because it's made from a 3-yard pattern called Awareness which was designed by Donna Robertson and Fran Morgan, owners & designers of the Fabric Cafe. I pieced this flimsy last January during a snowstorm while retreating at the Essenhaus Inn, I am so glad winter is over 😉!

My finished quilt measures 45" by 51" which is a little smaller than the patterns says. 

Fabrics from the stash were pulled for the backing. Of course some fossil fern fabrics have been used but I have no memory of purchasing the other fabrics. They were 1/3rd yard WOF cuts but they were anywhere from 10" - 14" wide after the edges were cut straight. 

The next quilt is one I named Butterfly Beauty. I bought this fabric at Calico Point, probably in the winter when I really need a touch of summer. There was only one yard of the butterfly fabric, I tried to use every bit of it.

Butterfly Beauty is my own design. The border fabric is a pinstripe light gray fabric. As usual I used simple quilting.

I definitely had to use my math skills for this quilt. I would have used the Awareness pattern if I would have had more of the purple fabric but I only had a small piece, enough for the two corners.

The outside border was piano key quilted with diagonal quilting in the corners.

The quilting used a pastel variegated thread which doesn't show the different colors in the thread. The gray border fabric looks rather wrinkly for some reason. I do wash the quilts after they're quilted to remove the markings and the spray adhesive. The borders are quilted approximately 2" apart, maybe it should have been closer? Oh well, the quilting is finished and I'm not going to do a redo.

The backing was this cute floral periwinkle fabric I pulled from my stash. 

It looks a little dark in this picture but it isn't, it's cute and springy!

Butterfly Beauty finishes at 42" by 51", not a huge quilt but large enough to give someone a quilty hug.

There are several flimsies waiting to be quilted for compassion quilts hanging in the 'to be quilted' closet but I've reached my goal of 6 finished compassion quilts. The rest will have to wait until next year.

Besides the 6 compassion quilts, 2 other quilts were finished which are gifts. I already gave the  Fabric Vortex to our grandson and the Turquoise quilt will be gifted this summer. I'm pleased with my quilting this year, none of the quilts had pleats in the backing fabric and my lines were straighter. It was challenging to quilt butterfly beauty because it was hard to see the diagonal lines on the fabric. I used my quilting guide for the first time. I've tried to use it before but it always dug into the seam lines then made a zigzag which I didn't like. It worked perfectly on whole cloth.

Linking to -To Do Tuesday,  Wednesday Wait Loss, Put Your Foot Down, I Quilted This!, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

January Retreat at the Essenhaus

I pieced several small quilts while at the new to me retreat which was held at the Essenhaus Inn in Middlebury, Indiana. This motel is very nice, the sewing space was spacious and the complimentary breakfast was delicious!

The first blocks I pieced were the corner and inset triangles for the Garden Party quilt. Those are done and sometime I'll start sewing all the blocks together. I don't have a picture of the blocks I sewed, you'll see them in the quilt.

It was time to sew a 3 yard quilt. I didn't want to buy a book, I'm not going to make that many 3 yard quilts and I'm tired of buying books that don't get used. I googled free 3 yard quilts and several patterns pulled up, I decided on the Awareness pattern designed by Donna Robertson.

This quilt sewed together very fast since I had cut all the pieces at home. This little quilt measures 46" by 52". 

I had bought these fabrics in a kit that was intended for a 3 yard quilt. I hadn't looked closely at the fine print on the label of the package before, it said the yardage was 3 & a quarter yards each. I could have added another row and used more of the fabrics! 

Several years ago I purchased this cute butterfly fabric on the spur of the moment at Calico Point. For a background fabric, I used a gray pinstripe fabric.

I designed my own pattern and came up with a little quilt that I call Butterfly Beauty, she will also be a compassion quilt.

The mottled looking blue fabric on the left corner is actually a lovely purple fabric from the stash. I didn't have a large enough piece of the butterfly fabric to use. This little quilt finishes at 44" by 52" and will be quilted and donated in the spring.

I had prepped blocks to possibly piece two Wiggly Whimsy crib quilts. I started the first one but I didn't think the squares blended well. So I stuck those pieces back into it's bag then pulled the second one and made a good start. It's pieced and hanging in the to be quilted closet, I forgot to take a picture! Here is a link to a crib quilt I pieced several years ago. It's a free pattern somewhere on the Moda Bake Shop site but I can't find it now. * * * * Update * * * A commenter left a link to the pattern. Here it is!  I've also added a direct link to the pattern in my sidebar list of free patterns.

The last project was to strip piece for a teal patchwork quilt.

I sewed strips together but wasn't able to subcut them. That I did at home. I pieced the subcuts into 8" finished blocks. This flimsy now measures 55" by 71".

A backing has been pieced and the binding is also sewn. This will probably be the first quilt to be machine quilted in the spring quilting binge. 

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