Yard Sale Quilt Top

I picked up a couple of old quilt tops at a yard sale this weekend for $5 each.  The quilt police may fuss at me, but I figured I could use them to practice quilting on...and they'd make a nice throw around quilt that my girls could play with without me having a fit about it.  They're not great quality or workmanship, so I didn't figure it would hurt.  I just finished up the first one this morning.  I'm not sure of the pattern name, but it used all sorts of fun fabrics. If you happen to know the name of the pattern, let me know.

Tractors!

Another terrific find this weekend was a blog post about Freehand Baptist Fans.  I am so thrilled to find this.  I prefer to freemotion quilt, but had never even considered that I could freehand the Baptist Fan pattern.  I was actually looking for some pattern boards to try them out when I discovered these directions. 

So both discoveries (the quilt tops and the tutorial) happened at a great time, because I wanted to do something at least a little "traditional" on the yard sale tops. 

It went really smoothly and I'm pleased with how it turned out.  Of course, my critical eye sees all the uneveness, and bumps, but I'm gonna give myself a break, because that top was NOT smooth, or flat, and it had some seam intersections as tall as Everest!

By the way, the backing fabric was a 100% cotton Ikea flat sheet I picked up at Goodwill for $2.99.  I used a solid blue for the binding.

Chunky Churndash Finished

It's been quite a while since I posted, but I wanted to show that I did finally finish my Chunky Churndash quilt. I ended up finding the border fabric at a local trade days. I passed it over at first, I mean, what did I need a bunch of fabric with granny square motifs printed on it for? But then, I remembered my scrappy churndash quilt, and decided I would give it a try. I think it worked out really well. Here is a close-up....

I quilted it with feathers in the white portion of the hourglass blocks and also in the border. The churndash blocks, I used the Quick 9 Patch Design. Probably would have done just as well with a nice edge to edge design....but I wanted to take the opportunity to practice my quilting skills!

Tiny Squares

I needed a new project to work on between the sewing of t-shirt quilts, and I've also been looking for a pattern to use up a charm pack I picked up from Missouri Star Quilt Co.   It was a daily deal from them a while back. 

So I found this cute little thing at Moda Bake Shop: 1800's Vintage Quilt .  The squares finish at 3/4"!

First Post!

I get so much inspiration from reading the blogs of other crafty women, that I thought I'd try it out myself.  See what it's all about.

At the moment I am looking around for some inspiration for border colors for the Chunky Churndash quilt I am working on.  It's a pattern by Bonnie Hunter found on her website Quiltville.  I just love her site!  Anyway, fabric.com is having a cotton print blowout sale.  $3.95 a yard!  And I am determined to find something suitable.  Since this is a scrappy, use your stash type of quilt (and I don't yet have a lot of stash) I wanted to at least do it using "bargain" fabrics.   But, as usual, I am gripped by color indecision. 

Anyway, here is a pic of my Chunky Churndash blocks all layed out:

Approximately half of the churdash blocks are from a swap I participated in, with the Quiltville Swap group on Yahoo.  I would have had a few more from the swap, but I joined a little late in the second round.

That's it for this morning, coffee is finished and I have to get the kids ready for school!