2013 NewFO Challenge - May Update

I'm following the NewFO Challenge where anew project has to be started every month.  They don't have to be finished ... just started!  While visiting April's NewFO Linky Party I found a really cute pillow I liked at Leisa's Day by Day called Whimsical Birdhouses. Leisa was kind enough to send me her Birdhouse Block pattern.  So, that was the project that I started this month, right after mailing off my To Boston With Love flag.  Here's Leisa's pillow that really caught my attention!

The rules for the NewFO Challenge include the fact that you don't have to finish the project that you start.  I got the birdhouses all built, but didn't have to time finish up the pillow.

I am part of a group called Ozark Fabric and other Fun Stuff! and we are creating quilt blocks that are going to be put together by one of the group to make a quilt to send to Moore, Oklahoma.  I have sent off my blocks already and many more are arriving at the quilter daily.  I remembered to get a picture of them before mailing them off.

I have also finished all of the blocks needed for my Sister's Choice quilt.  My sweet little helper Popeye helped me get them all sorted out into rows.  Now I need to get them put together and choose the fabric for the border.

 Visit Barbara over at Cat Patches and see what others have started this month.  Happy quilting everyone!

April NewFO Challenge

I was browsing pictures of quilts on the internet and ran across one that I really liked!  I liked it so much that I saved it as by desktop background.  This quilt was called Toulouse and was by Miss Rosie's Quilt Co:

I kept looking at it everyday and decided that I liked it enough that I wanted to make it.  I started out making the cute little 9 patches and worked from there.

I've only gotten three of the 15" blocks made so far, but I really am happy with them.  It was after I had made these three that I discovered that the name of this block is Goose In The Pond.  I think it's my favorite!

I stopped working on My Toulouse because I decided to participate in the To Boston With Love project.  The Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild has started a project called To Boston With Love. They want people to sew a small flag using the themes of love, peace, and/or harmony - the flags will all be strung together to be displayed in Boston in June. Visit one of the above links for all the details. As of right now, the flags all need to be received by May 21.

My Sister's Choice!

One of the items that I originally listed on the 2013 New FO Challenge was Bonnie Hunter's Sister's Choice quilt.  This is a lovely quilt that is on the Free Patterns! tab of her blog.  It can be found here.  She was or looking for something to do with her over flowing bin of 2 1/2" scrap strips!  As I have been using Bonnie's Scrap User's System since I started quilting, I too had many strips in my 2 1/2" drawer.  This seemed like a perfect quilt for me since I've been quilting for less that a year.

 This is a picture of Bonnie's Sister's Choice quilt that she has on the bed in her guest room.  I hope mine ends up looking as good at hers.

 I only had 8 blocks made so far, but I really was happy with how the blocks were turning out.  I have been using the same neutral fabric for the background and the same green fabric for the star points.

 

 I am up to 52 blocks now and have had to switch to a different neutral twice since I used all of the first two up that I had in my stash.  I use a safety pin to group 10 blocks together, so I don't have to keep counting how many I have.  I have a few more 9-patches sewn together, but those will have to wait until after Easter for me to be able finish them. 

I still haven't decided how I will finish the quilt.  Bonnie didn't use any sashing and just sewed the 72 blocks together 8 X 9.  She used a 1 1/2" inner border and a 5" outer border.  In making all of the flippy corners, I ended up with MANY bonus HST's.  For now I've just stuck them in an extra drawer but I think I might use them to do some kind of a border with. 

Happy Good Friday everyone and hope that you have a very Happy Easter!  To link back to the others participating in the new 2013 New FO Challenge, click here.

February New FO Challenge

Well, it's that time of month again.  It's a good thing that I decided to do a small doll quilt this month for my New FO Challenge.  It was a cute little thing that I found called Card Trick Doll Quilt that was included with Alice and a Rabbit.  These were a gift for signing up for the newsletter at Patchwork Posse!

 I had never made the Card Trick quilt block before and it really looked interesting.  Besides, my hubby said that he really liked this little red, black and white quilt.

And because this challenge didn't require these things to be finished, I just pinned the little doll quilt up on my wall.  I like it here so that I can see it while I'm working at my computer.  Oh, I couldn't resisting adding a picture of my cat.  I recently got a little cordless vacuum that I use for cleaning around the cat box.  Popeye absolutely loves boxes and he just has to play with them before they get recycled.

He couldn't resist crawling in and just laid there for the longest time!

My Dash of Pink

I started out looking for something to make to hang on the wall that I could look at while sitting at my computer.  This was one of the items I had listed as wanting to do on the 2013 New FO Challenge.

I found the Dash of Pink project at  www.allpeoplequilt.com which is a Better Homes and Gardens Network Site.  They have quite a few projects, patterns and how to articles and this one got my attention.  A Dash of Pink was inspired by “Dash of Summer” by designer Tara Lynn Darr.

I got the center made using only fabric from my stash and was very happy with it.  I had thought to use the pink print from the center or the churn dash block as the inner border.  When I asked hubby his opinion, he said that he liked the red one instead, so that's the one I used.

When I finished with both borders, I draped it across the back of our couch and found that I really liked it there!  I'm still working on it because I have to find fabric for the backing, but I think I'm going to have to go hunting for something else to put on my wall.  My hubby said that he like this one best of all my quilting.  I guess it will probably have to stay on the couch!

To link back to the others participating in the new 2013 New FO Challenge, click here.

Almost finished with Easy Street

It has been quite the trip down Easy Street and the last two parts really brought The Big Finale!

Pieced Triangle 1 -  9 individual pieces & blocks - Make 4!  These are the 4 corners of the quilt.
Pieced Triangle 2 - 15 individual pieces & blocks - Make 12!  These are the rest of the borders.
Pieced Block A -  25 individual pieces & blocks - Make 16! These are in 4 X 4 layout on point!
Pieced Block B -  25 individual pieces & blocks - Make 9!  These are the alternate blocks.

I still have the rows for last five  "B" blocks that I still need to put together before I can start sewing all of the pieces together.  I've laid them out and am pretty excited about how they look.

I like the way the green squares run across the quilt from left to right and up and down.  This is going to end up being a very large quilt.










 My daughter doesn't know it, but I'm planning on making it a gift for her.  She knows I'm making it and suggested purple for the border.







Check out Quiltville for others posting Easy Street progress!

Easy Street Part 6

Once again, I was still up when the latest clue was posted.  This looks like a pretty easy one!  We have to make 128 Double Bricks made up of  two 2” black-on-white strips sewn together then cut into 3-1/2” lengths.  This will make the Double Bricks 3-1/2” squares.  Bonnie said that if we only had one fabric left that we could just cut 3-1/2” squares, but I managed to find just enough black-on-white fabric to make the required blocks.

Bonnie also assigned some Extra Credit!   We need to cut 16 5-1/2” squares from the green fabric.  Then stack them and cut them corner to corner twice with an X to yield 64 quarter square triangles.  Well, I manged to get them all done!

There will be NO Mystery Monday Link because we on our way to a RAPID FIRE FINISH!
Clue 7 goes live on Monday morning instead!  The next Link-Up will be the following Monday.
I'm really looking forward to Monday's accelerated step 7.