Becky's quilt obsession

This is the first picture I’ve been able to take of this quilt made 9 years ago for my daughter’s wedding. Sorry for the light and windchime in the way, there’s no place inside to take the picture without obstructions. DGD#2 decided she needed to be in the picture. I made this from a picture in one of Joen Wolfrom’s color books. I did contact the original maker, who graciously gave me permission to copy it, but she had no directions. She had actually appliqued the red border on the black background. I diagramed it out and pieced it. It is a king size, about 114” square. There are probably 100 different fabrics in this quilt. I collected for nearly a year before I made it. Fast forward to 2006, DGD#2 is expected. I bought a few more fabrics in red and white, but used a lot of the leftovers of the above. This is still hanging in DGD#2’s bedroom even though she changed to pink Hello Kitty after Christmas. DD says she likes to lie on DGD’s bed and look at this quilt, it reminds her of...

My friend, JoAnne, just finished her Bali Stars top. It is a Judy Niemeyer pattern. She asked me to post it for her and to ask for comments (she doesn't blog). Her approach to setting the colors is different from the pattern. Do you like it? Thanks for visiting. See other walls at Judy's Becky for JoAnne

Label making: Turning the binding on the Scrap Squad Project by hand – why did I start this? I made a label for the last corner, if I ever reach it. A little back art from leftovers for the small quilt project I’m doing from the same blocks as the scrap squad quilt. I’m in charge of the small quilt sale at the Guild’s Quilt show in September, so I need to finish some up. I’m playing with the leftovers and cutting some blocks with a template set I’ve wanted to try. The curved piecing isn’t bad. Happy Quilting, Becky

Last Wednesday I was ready to bind my Scrap Squad project. I planned to use blue diagonal striped fabric for it. There it was on the shelf in plain view, I thought. Oh, no, it’s black, not blue, and I didn’t put enough black in this quilt to get by with it. Okay, let’s find something else. I went to the stripes box, and the Americana box, and all I found was these two slightly less than half a yard pieces of regular stripes. Cut on the bias, that would be an awful lot of joins for this 72” square quilt, if it would even yield enough. I didn't want it to have straight across stripes. The blogs had been advertising visit your local quilt shop day, so that’s what I decided to do. I pick up DGD#2 on Wednesdays, so I picked her up from school and asked if she wanted to go to the quilt shop with me. Well, what she really wanted was a kiddy frosty from Wendy’s, but then we could go to the quilt shop. After our Wendy’s stop, she began asking me if she could have some fabric. I sai...

Batting hung out on long arm for the night to “stretch out”; backing cut, squared, washed in Synthrapol; top finished, pressed, ready to go. Circle Lord Spirals on Black Bart – it’s time to QUILT the Scrap Squad project! Becky

I’ll have to figure out how to get one of those neat flashing buttons for Scrap Squad. We received our first assignment. The quilt in the article uses this block  borrowed from Block Base), called Double X 2. You can color this a variety of ways to make “layers” – some lines within it more prominent than others. I’ve just finished a Craftsy course with Joen Wolfrom, and she challenged us to create a project with layers. That was my original thought, but remember, this is supposed to be made out of scraps. My plan was for this to be a Quilt of Valor, so I pulled out the Americana box. Note it is very small. I found some more scraps and fat quarters in the blues box, enough for darks, but I needed toned blues for the diagonal background, and background. I remembered that I cut most of the blues up into a Winding ways king and a braid king, and cut the rest into 2-1/2” strips. I found that box, and was in business. I found medium blues, but very few of them were toned. There were...

It’s January – usually my time for working on Charity projects until I can get my act together to plan a new project – but wait – I already have one, no two! Both have a lot of blue! I see stars in my future. Who am I kidding, I always make stars, just look at my header. I ’d better clean up this place so I can begin. I need to clean off the table, and the design wall. Don’t you just hate it when your body doesn't cooperate with your plans! Kleenex, fluids, and breathing treatments are part of the setup. I've learned to rip and press while using the blue thing, but I haven’t tried actually running the sewing machine at the same time – I value my fingers too much! I guess I need to clean the machine, too. I don’t neglect this part, I’ve been sewing fluffy polyester and it builds up quick. I’ve installed my DH’s Christmas present. I showed him a picture of the thread holder butterflies, but said it was too expensive. That was months ago. Isn’t he wonderful to reme...