It's Leap Day!!!

Today is a very special day for some people and I'm one!! I was born on this day and today I'm turning 15 years old!! It's been a fun thing for me to be a Leap Year Baby.
My husband has taken me to North Carolina to celebrate with my children and grandchildren. What a treat! I hope you all have a wonderful day - I know I will :).
-Karen

Mystery Quilt Revealed!!

After weeks of clues and many guesses from you, here's the mystery quilt! Isn't it amazing? I am presenting a program tonight for my guild based on this quilt. I'll be showing all the clues but waiting until the end for the reveal.
I took these on a sunny day on the back porch, so the colors are pretty true. It has a very warm, woodsy feel to it. What always amazes me about scrap quilts, is how random some of the fabrics look at the beginning, but how they all fit together at the end.

Here's a reminder of the 9 patch block. What was so unexpected to me was what happened at the corners when the 4 little triangles came together. Just by looking at this quilt, it's hard to tell where the block is.

The pattern comes from this book. All of Cathy's quilts are wonderful - but the Pineapple Nine Patch really caught my eye.

Cathy did hers in reds and creams - which I love. But I've pulled all my reds for Orca Bay (which had to take a back seat for a while) so I wanted to use something different.

Remember how it started with the big triangles? 80 of these guys.

Then there were 120 little triangles. Plus all the other units.

Here it is on my design wall. I just love the circles that form and the way the border strips form the complete little corner blocks. They sort of look like pinwheels. I'll be adding an outer border to it. Hopefully it will get quilted soon.

Thanks for following along on my mystery. By the way, this is also another "free" quilt. All the fabrics came from my stash. It's always amazing to me when I can make a quilt this interesting, and I didn't buy a single piece of fabric!

Until next time,

-Karen

Folk Art Donation and Binding

I have finally finished this folk art wall hanging for our guild show next month. We are having a Chinese Auction and this is my donation. How I enjoy Red Wagon patterns, this is from the book Snowbound. This was actually a rescued block from a friend. All I had to do was add borders and quilt.
I struggled a little with the machine quilting. It's very fussy to go around all the applique shapes. I'm glad it's done.

I've been working on another project - I finished the quilting today. Here's the back. This is one of my go-to allover designs - I love it.

I tried something new in the inner border - turned out okay. I did a made up design in the outer border. I'm very happy with the way it turned out.

What fun to work with Joanna's fabric line, Butterscotch and Rose!!

Going from folk art plaids to Butterscotch and Rose keeps me very interested :). I'm also still finishing up the hand quilting on the wedding quilt. Never a dull moment around here :). Tomorrow I gotta look for a job - :O. To qualify for Florida unemployment, you need to apply for 5 jobs per week!! I'm definitely going to have to psyche myself up :)!

But tonight, I'm going to be spending some quality time with this yummy quilt and some binding.

Until next time,

-Karen

Last Mystery Clue

Well, it's time to share the final clues in my "mystery quilt". Here's a description of all the segments below:
1- the triangle and the hourglass block using 4 varied triangles
2- the big 60 degree triangle and the small triangle
3- a 2 1/12" strip and the unit with 2 small triangles on each end
4- the big triangle cut in half
5- 1 1/2" strips sewn in pairs of 2, cut 4 1/2" and 2 1/2"
6- corner unit using the small triangle and the 2 short log units
7- the big triangle cut again in half - should have 4 logs
At this point you would have lots of varied triangles all cut into 4 logs. You would choose four and turn them all upside down. This is when the magic happens!!
Here's a close up of the 4 varied logs sewn together and attached to the corner unit.

At this point, it's put together just like a 9 patch block. The hourglass block goes in the middle, and the other units are attached. So here's the finished block!! It will finish at 13 1/2". I'm sure some of you may have guessed which pattern it is and which book it's from, but the big reveal will be tomorrow. If you still have not seen this book, I think you will be amazed!

Hope you're intrigued, it's been fun!

Until next time,

-Karen

Getting So Close

I know it's been a while, I've been missing in action. But I've been busy. I always forget how long hand quilting takes especially for a bigger quilt. As you can see, I am getting so close. This quilt has been such a joy to see as the quilting design emerges. I'm still not totally pleased with the center design of feathers. I have a couple of ideas, we'll see....
I am really beyond pleased with how it's turned out. I will be excited to see it hanging at our Guild's quilt show in a few weeks. I am working on the binding now. Having a few problems, but I'll work them out.

Until next time,

Karen

Getting Closer

The clues are almost finished and so is my mystery quilt. Here are the next three units. These blocks finish at 6". I love mixing prints and batiks. Since these are all scraps from my stash, the only thing I worried about was value - making sure there is enough contrast between the lights and the darks.

These strips are cut 1 1/2" sewn in random pairs. They aren't this green looking. They are more neutral, but there are light green included. Sewing long strips and then sub-cutting goes really fast.

Here are the main units all together. There is one last unit that I didn't get a picture of.

As you can see, I used anything in my stash "ala Bonnie Hunter". See the Moda Challenge fabric from about 2004? It's perfect in there. The thing I've come to love about doing these kinds of quilts is that when there are so many fabrics included - nothing looks wrong!!

The reveal is coming soon. I'm off to sew :). Any more guesses????

Until next time,

-Karen