Basting it up!

I kind of lucked out. The last time I had to baste a queen-sized quilt, I had to do it in sections because we didn't have a large enough area of floorspace to do it. But as we are having some interior walls painted this week, we had to clear out our loft area. It is the perfect size to lay out a large quilt. And (even luckier!), my husband helped me with the basting, making it a much speedier process. Woo!

I've been thinking hard about what to do with this one, and have a plan in mind. My thought is that I want some curves in the center area to help give all those straight lines some movement and a stronger sense of flow. Then in the outer border, I kind of want to do straight lines, mostly because I think it will look cool. Ha! Still not quite sure about the inner border... maybe a ribbon-candy type of thing? Or some vine-ish action? I guess I'll decide when I get to it. Hopefully, I'll be able to start quilting it later this week!

A festive pincushion!

I made myself another happy pincushion. Yay! This is another kit I received in the Shabby Fabrics Pincushion Club last year. It is one of their exclusive designs and is called the "Christmas Tree Pincushion."

It is a biggie! At the base it is about 6" wide and it stands 10" tall. As it is filled with crushed walnuts, it is pretty darn heavy too. Essentially, it is made of a series of stacked, stuffed yo-yos. It is put together nearly entirely by hand (the exception being the stitching on the star topper-- I did that on my machine). All of the fabrics were included in the kit, as well as the happy colored pearl-topped pins. I love those! Unfortunately, I don't see either the pattern or the kit available at Shabby Fabrics at this point. It might have even been a pincushion club exclusive kit. But, if you are interested, you could always contact Shabby Fabrics and ask (they are really friendly there!).

My only challenge in putting this one together was in cinching my yo-yos closed... I kept breaking my thread. Gah! Eventually, I figured the whole tension thing out though. And now I have a happy tree pincushion, just in time for the holiday season. Woo!

Finished: Paintbox Quilt Along!

After finishing up my wedding quilt, I was feeling motivated. So I grabbed my basted Paintbox Quilt Along sandwich, and got to work. And now I have another UFO complete. Woo!

The pattern is from Elizabeth Hartman of Oh, Fransson! She hosted a quilt along in 2010 for her Paintbox Quilt design.

I made quick work of the quilting by doing a simple, all-over stipple using King Tut thread in White Linen (#971). I am thrilled with how it looks, especially after washing it!

For the binding, I used Kona cotton in Navy from my stash.

I didn't do the fancy back suggested by the quilt along on this one. Instead, I used this happy blue-striped stars fabric from Sandy Gervais. It worked perfectly, as the front was completed using one of her collections (a layer cake of her Zippety Doo Dah line from Moda).

When I started this quilt, I was planning on giving it to my guild for donation to one of our chosen charities, so I did not include a label, as per guidelines. It feels weird to finish a quilt and not have a label! But there are some good reasons for keeping it anonymous, so I can respect that.

Last Thursday I gave the quilt to our Charity Committee at the monthly guild meeting. Hopefully it will end up in a happy new home!

Clue #4

Here is my completed Clue #4 from the Heather Spence Designs Mystery Quilt:

There are many possibilities with this block! As I've received Clue #5, I know what direction it is taking now, but I'll wait until I finish the clue before I share it. I gotta say-- I'm loving these simple steps. They are making this quilt very a very do-able project for me right now.