I got my bow tie blocks set together with the Civil War a Generals panel. 
I wanted this to be a small wall quilt. But it just kept clamoring for wide borders. I finally relented. It is now on the frame. I need to quilt it quick because I have QOVs coming in to be quilted.
I am leaning towards feathers of some type in the borders. But I need to figure out how to quilt the panel.
Any ideas?
Linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts, Freshly Pieced, Quilt Fabrication
I had the day off yesterday and hubby is out of town. Usually, that is the perfect chance to get a lot done. It didn’t quite work out that way though. I started the day clearing the driveway since we’ve been dealing with this.
There’s a pretty thick layer of ice under that. The garage door was frozen shut, but I managed to get it loose. Of course then the snow blower didn’t want to cooperate so I ended up doing it the old fashioned way. After that, I visited these little sweeties.
I stopped at an antique shop on the way home and found this lovely quilt.
There was only room to lay out a quarter of it. The hand work was magnificent! All the appliqué work was stuffed. It had this piece with it.
It was about 24 inches from top to bottom and the same width as the quilt. Perhaps it was meant to cover pillows? It wasn’t nearly as worn as the quilt. I didn’t bring it home, but I would have liked to!
Last night, I finally recovered my ironing table. Here are the before and after photos.
Quite an improvement, no? I used a Teflon coated fabric I bought at JoAnn’s and two layers of batting. The first cover lasted nearly 10 years. Not sure why I waited that long since it looks so much better now.
Here’s hoping that I get a big of quilting in today before work! Have a good one.
Last fall, I participated in a block swap hosted by Barb at Fun with Barb. I received this lovely pile of blocks back.
I have been thinking about using them to surround a center panel. I bought both of these last September when I visited Homestead Hearth in Mexico, MO.
I hate that panels are so often printed crooked! Anyway, I tried out each panel to see how they would look surrounded by the bow tie blocks.
I decided I liked General Grant best since these blocks are all made with Civil War repro prints.
This is still up on the design wall and so it is all subject to change. But I think I like where this is headed.
Linking up with Patchwork Times, Cooking Up Quilts, Love, Laugh, Quilt and Em’s Scrap Bag
We took a quick trip home last weekend to visit my parents. All that time in the car was just the jumpstart I needed to get back to working on my Brinton Hall quilt. This is where it is at right now.
Two corners done! And a third is started!
Looks like I need to prepare a few more hexies today. I have another hand sewing project that needs to get done today, the binding on the double 4patch quilt is just waiting for me.that needs to be done this week so I can gift it.
The weather here is rather frightful, so it will be nice to spend the day sewing after church.
Linking up with Kathy’s Quilts, Quilting is More Fun Than Housework
I love old quilts. The stories they could tell! Here are a few I spotted recently at a local antique mall.
This last one is my favorite. Do you think that “H” block was intentional?
Happy Saturday!
This turned out to be my last finish for 2015. And it is one of, if not my oldest, UFOs so that makes it a great finish! The first series of pictures were taken before washing. I used Glide thread for the quilting and two layers of batting, one 100% cotton (off brand from JoAnn’s) and one layer of Pellon low loft poly.
Here is a look at the back. I used an ancient piece of pink calico from the late 80s-early 90s.
I made a template out of paper for the feather spines and the feathers themselves were quilted freehand.
The rest of these pictures show the quilt after washing. You can really see the difference from the picture above to the one just below.
I am not happy with the feather wreathes in the centers, but they don’t show up much anyway.
I also seem to have a really hard time quilting a piano key border and keeping it even! Again, it doesn’t show enough to bother me too badly here.
I am not sure where this one will end up. I may just hang it over my bed.
Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Richard and Tanya Quilts, A Quilted Passion
During January, I am showing groups of quilts that I finished last year. This is mainly for my own benefit as it is a record of the quilts I have made without having to wade through a year’s worth of blog posts.
I love making baby quilts! They are the perfect size for trying out a new technique with out committing to a huge project that could take just short of forever. Looks like I made 13 baby and toddler quilts this year. 
Most of these have been gifted. A few of these are here just waiting for a new baby to come along.
Have a great day!
Linking up with My Quilt Infatuation
I spent some time on Monday looking through my UFOs to make a new list for this year. I actually didn’t find quite as many as I expected to! Some of these will be familiar :).
2. These blocks were from a guild exchange last year. There are 15 of these 15 inch blocks. I want to make one more so I can set them 4 x 4. With sashing, this could be a bed sized quilt.
3. These 4 orphan Noteworthy blocks will be made into a baby quilt with lots of negative space for quilting.
4. More guild exchange blocks. These are 12 inch blocks and again, I have 15 so I might make another.
5. More guild exchange blocks. These are destined to become a Quilt of Valor.
6. This isn’t quite a UFO. I bought this ruler and intended to try it out on the two layer cakes shown below. They are both Heather Baily lines and they look great together. I have been intending to do this for so long that it feels like a UFO!
7. I cut these tumblers in November. They are so pretty stacked up that I haven’t been motivated to put them together! How silly is that?
8. As if I don’t have enough UFOs of my own, I collect vintage UFOs! I love this background green fabric but the seam allowances are so very skimpy that I wouldn’t spend the time putting them together as is. My plan is to use these to make smaller shoo fly blocks. 
9. Now we are looking at carryover projects from last year. I still haven’t quilted this Metropolitan Fair top but it does have borders added since this pic was taken.
10. I’m still working on this hexie top. I recently cut a few more pieces. I do know how I want to quilt this so that is motivating me to get this done.
11. This is moving up to the top of the list. I need a full day to get a good start on it. It isn’t a project I want to do a little at a time.
12. I think I know where I want to go with these stars and have setting fabric set aside. So there is that teeny bit of progress since last year! LOL!
13. I love these blocks! I have had a hard time figuring out how to deal with their vastly varying sizes. Instead of doing something I will regret, I have been letting this simmer.
14. Sigh….I have so fallen out of love with these blocks. My design wall is not near big enough for this project. But I don’t need the whole wall to start playing so I need to get to it.
15. Yeah, these are still here too. One of these days!
16. I nearly forgot my Brinton Hall quilt! It has progressed a lot since this picture. I will show an updated one soon.
So that makes 9 new UFOs and 7 old ones. If I could get myself to finish one a month, I could really whittle this down!
Linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts, Freshly Pieced
I got the blocks for the double 4 patch together.
Wouldn’t you know it, I got one 4 patch turned the wrong way and it is right smack dab in the middle! Ugh! I did not notice until I looked at the picture.
I wanted to get it in the frame but I am a bit stumped on the borders.
Of course, I’ll have to fix that one block first.
Linking up with Free Motion by the River, Quilt Story, Blossom Heart Quilts, The Quilting Room with Mel
I mentioned in a previous post that I wanted to make a throw quilt for a friend I met through my job. In bits and pieces of time over the holidays, I got my blocks done. I decided to make a Double 4 Patch so I got up Christmas morning and cut up some fat quarters into these.
The strips were for 4 patches. After sewing and pressing each strip set, I placed them back on my strip cutter die in this fashion.
That way they were already placed in position to sew. This saves so much time when I remember to do it!
Half of the blocks will have red backgrounds and green chains and half will be the opposite.
These blocks are fairly large at 12 inches each. I made 24 blocks to set 4 by 6.
This will end up being 48 inches by 72 inches. That seems a bit narrow for a throw quilt so I am thinking about adding borders to just the two sides. Time to dig through my stash to find something that will work!
Linking up with Patchwork Times , Cooking Up Quilts, Em’s Scrapbag
KatyQuilts 