June Goal Finished! Black and White Quilt

With time to spare, I just finished sewing together my black and white swap block quilt that I blogged about here..  If anyone has a better name, I'm all ears!  I'm linking up with Shanna and Melissa's A Lovely Year of Finishes June finish link up!

To be honest, I'm all out of the gray fabric. I just barely had enough of the gray to do all of the sashings. It's 75" by 75".  I may add a gray border to it, or just use gray to bind it.  It was super fun to get a closer inspection of all of the blocks as I stitched it all together.  With temps in the upper 90's though I'm not even ironing it until later, let alone quilting it.  It feels good to get done though.  I think I'm going to stick to smaller projects for the rest of the summer.

I also just barely got home to Oregon by jet before this crazy heat shut down many flights.  I spent a week visiting my family in Dallas, and just got back Thursday night.

I thought I'd share a quilt (which was hand quilted) that was on my bed there that my mom got from my grandma's closet after she passed away.  It's also a very valuable reminder to me to get better at labeling my quilts, as this one had no label on it, and my mom and aunt have no idea if my grandma made it, or bought it, or even how old it is.  This makes me really sad...

Finally I had these waiting for us in the garden when we got home!  We've had such weather extremes these last few months that the garden is no too happy, but it's progress!

WIP Wed: City Sampler and Black and White Quilt

Besides a few more City Sampler blocks, I've also been trying to finish up my June goal on A Lovely Year of Finishes.  My friend Shanna even let me swap some big spools of auriful thread for some of her Kona white, but after I made a few dozen sashing strips for the black and white swap quilt, I decided that it was still too busy.

I knew I wanted something tame, so started digging through my solid fabric stash, and found some gray.  I think this works much better as sashing. I also made about a dozen new blocks from my own stash to replace some of the swap blocks that either just clashed entirely with the whole quilt, were made with browns or colored fabric on the borders (a no no), or were just too far from my personal style. I feel a bit bad about doing this, but if I'm going to spend the time making it into a quilt, I want it to like it.

Here's another sashing option.  I've also toyed with the idea of somehow throwing out the traditional layout to make it more modern as well.  What do you think?

This quilt has been really frustrating for me, but also challenging.  I almost always learn the most when I step outside of my comfort zone, and that certainly is the case with this quilt!

Modern Mini Quilt Challenge

Jennifer of Ellison Lane Quilts is holding a Modern Mini Quilt Challenge.  Anyone is welcome to link up a post about a mini quilt that has been made in the last few months.  I have a few to pick from, but I'm throwing my "Ombre" Quilt into the hat!

It was created for Project Quilting's second 2013 challenge, making a project with white and one other color. My blue scrap bin was overflowing at the time, so blue and white it was! I had been wanting to make an ombre quilt, or color gradient, and this was the perfect opportunity! This quilt is only 22 by 17 inches, made up entirely of finished 1.25 inch half square triangles. I used simple free motion waves as a quilting design, because it reminds me of water.   I also used an "invisible binding" technique for the binding / back.

Thanks for visiting, and be sure to look at all of the other great mini quilts on display!

June "Sea Star", and more City Sampler Blocks

Last week I was able to finish up my June Lucky Star BOM block.  I decided to throw some pink into the mix, and I'm glad I did!

I also got a few more City Sampler blocks finished as well.

The week-end was busy with garden chores and household stuff.  I'm hoping we don't get anymore wild temperature swings, as it helped wipe out a good chunk of the garden, despite our efforts to protect it.  I've learned, as the saying goes, the only thing that's predictable about gardening in Eartern Oregon, is that it's unpredictable!

WIP Wed, and June ALYoF Goal

Besides my various quilt alongs, I've decided that June will be the month that I try to sew all of my local swap blocks together into a quilt top or 2.

Over 6 months this past winter, several of us in town sewed up 12 of these 8 inch blocks each month, alternating with the black and white fabric to create a checkerboard quilt.  The center of each block is fussy cut fabrics.  I have 72 now, plus a few extras that I made.

I'm debating if I should about add a sashing to them.  Several of the fussy cut prints are very child-oriented, so I may also split off some to make into a kid quilt for either a niece or nephew or for Project Linus.  It's not only fun to look at wide variety of the center fabrics, but also all of the various black and white prints!!

I'm linking up at Freshly Pieced WIP Wed, and Fiber of All Sorts A Lovely Year of Finishes.  Come see what others are working on!

More City Sampler Blocks

3 more City Sampler Blocks finished, 94 left to go :-).

Tula Pink City Sampler Quilt Along

Hi, my name is Becky, and I'm a quilt along addict!

I've joined yet another quilt along.  Over the week-end, I was able to make a trip over to Walla Walla, WA and Stash Quilt Shop.  They were able to bring back a trunk show from Tula Pink, after this Spring's Quilt Market.  Tula Pink's new Quilts are just incredible!  I was able to buy her new book at Stash, so that I could join in on the City Sampler Quilt along over at Sew Sweetness.

These blocks are really fun to make, and also half the size I'm used to making, only 6 1/2 inch square.  They are great for using up my scraps, which is exactly what I'm going to do.  I'm throwing in some of my Tula Pink fabric, and also am going to make them "Mardi Gras" colors...

With summer heat right around the corner, it'll be a great summer sewing activity!