Two finishes

I am taking credit for 2 finishes but one was a baby quilt I finished up but didn't start.  Elaine, from our group at church made the flimsy and layered it up and pinned it. She brought it to me to quilt and after I quilted it I added the binding. Elaine hand quilts a lot of her things and doesn't do much machine quilting and asked if anyone would be willing to machine quilt a baby quit if she pieced it. She used fabric from our quilt closet at the church and pieced a Disappearing 9 Patch.


Binding front and back of baby quilt

 
I quilted it in the ditch around all the blocks  with off white thread using a straight stitch. Then I quilted a grid across all the blocks with blue thread and I used the #4 stitch on my Bernina. I used the same thread and stitch on the binding.

Birthday Party/Celebration tablecloth/quilt

I finished  the Birthday Party tablecloth too.  I used primary colored variegated thread using the #4 Bernina stitch and quilted a grid that crossed through each of the blocks in one direction only.



Binding and grid quilting from the back

close up of quilting

I used the blue for the binding because I didn't want this to look too girly. I plan to use it for birthday parties and maybe other celebrations. Maybe I will write on the back inside of the grid squares what the celebrations are as the quilt is used. At some point I will pass this on to my daughter; most of our family parties take place at her house.

Checkerboard Flimsy

The borders are on and I can layer this up and quilt it. Or..... since I no plans at all for this, I can leave it up on my design wall for a while until I need to use the wall. It is nice and cheerful and I like looking at it.
I follow Wanda Hansen's blog Exuberant Color; she has been making 16 patch checkerboard quilts. They all look wonderful.  I didn't have a plan when I started this I just made strip sets and I was thinking 4 patches to start. I didn't consciously make a decision to copy her blocks but I can see it definitely influenced me. I was admiring all of her 16 patch garden quilts this morning and it dawned on me. Sometimes we know exactly where an idea  came from and sometimes we never know but I believe it always comes from something we've seen or heard. What we do with that spark of inspiration  may turn out completely different or maybe not so much. I am thankful for all of the inspiration from all the creative people where ever I find it.

It is 52 inches square and when I am looking at it on the wall it appears more cohesive than in the photo. I wonder why that is. I would think that in the photo, which is smaller one would be looking at the whole thing but when looking at the quilt on the wall the eyes would be moving around and seeing smaller areas. Hmmm, I believe that is the answer.
I put all the 2 inch strips and uncut pieces of hand dyed fabric in a bag and I don't know if I will keep it (for another 20 years, maybe). While I decide it can stay, it really doesn't take up much room. I think I am hopeless.

I have to make a baby quilt next and it has to be a fast one as there are 6 babies due soon from our church congregation and we only have 2 quilts in the closet. However I don't have to make more than one quilt.

 I found these 2 fabrics Wednesday at one of the quilt shop stops.
I am thinking of cutting away all the black and repositioning the smaller dinosaurs  as I don't really like the shape it would be if I just bordered it.  This is probably not going to go as fast as I thought it would, after all.




Next up after this is a T shirt quilt. I've had the shirts for a long time and I finally bought the interfacing a couple of weeks ago, only to find I already bought it the last time it was on sale. Oh well, it won't go to waste and it doesn't take up much space either.