Almost Finished

I didn't get to the basting part until after lunch yesterday, as I had a commitment.  But the basting went fairly well, and by mid afternoon I started quilting it with an open freehand swirl.  I wanted to keep it soft and cuddly, plus I didn't want to put a ton of quilting into it.

I couldn't decide on a thread color, but opted for a light grey.  Anything else looked too dark on the white blocks. 

The quilt looks fairly dark, but the grey thread looks okay to me.

By 9 PM I was done with the quilting and found something to make the binding - which got sewn on before I went to bed.

All that's left is to hand stitch down the binding.  I worked today, so I'll hopefully sit by the fire tonight and stitch away.

Thanks for all your sweet comments, it means a lot.  I do hope my BIL will feel warm and loved under this quilt.

- Karen

Finding some focus

It is amazing what can happen when you are focused.  Monday afternoon we got some news from my DH's brother.  He has been battling the aggressive form of prostate cancer for about 5 years.  He got some news on Monday that was not good.  I've been planning to make him a quilt for his birthday next month but have decided to get it done and give it to him early.  Along with my DH, my brother-in-law is a huge Connecticut Huskies fan so the theme was a no-brainer.  I knew I had some of this fabric left over from making my DH's UCONN quilt 2 years ago so this is where I started.

After looking through about 10 books, I decided  to make a quilt that I've now made 4 times!  It is fast and fun and it's from Kim Brackett's book Scrap Basket Surprises.

This was the first one,

this was second,

 and this third one was made for my friend's birthday.

This was Kim's original quilt.

When I got home from work Monday, I started pulling blue scraps and was able to get all the 2 1/2" strips cut out that night.  Since it was so scrappy, I decided to make a border of blocks instead of trying to find a single fabric that matched or using the strip border shown in the book.  I was hoping to be able to use stash fabric and not have to buy anything.

I fussy cut four 8 1/2" blocks of the focal fabric and then cut 6 smaller pieces to use in the other blocks.  I then added 8 pinwheel blocks.

Here's my block with the kitties.

This afternoon I finished the top.  I've got some fabric that will work for the backing.  I'm going to prep that and then get it basted.  I hope to be quilting by tomorrow.  It feels so good to be moving so quickly and I'm really happy with the way it's turned out. This was not the kind of news that we wanted to hear and not the way we wanted to start out the new year, but we are the only family he has and we'll take it one day at a time.  

It's been a very productive start to my 2014,

Karen

My #1 UCONN Fan - Bloggers Quilt Festival

I realized several months ago, that I forgot to share the quilt I made my husband for Christmas.  Since it was so late, I decided to wait for Amy's  Bloggers Quilt Festival.  My husband and I met in Storrs, CT at the University of Connecticut in 1971.  We married and moved to Florida in 1973.  Over the years my husband has become a very dedicated Uconn fan. 

When I decided I wanted to make him a quilt, there really was only one choice.  I found the logo of the Husky online and enlarged it until it was the size I wanted.  The color scheme was simple, blue and white.  I used mostly fabric from my stash.

I'm kind of new to machine applique but that didn't stop me from trying.  I traced the Husky onto fusible web and started cutting.  It completely started coming apart - the little spikey things were just too flimsy.  So I ended up cutting it, adding little dabs of glue and pressing with a hot iron. Worked just fine.  I then just machine quilted the design (raw edge).

The letters I took off one of his shirts, enlarged them and hand appliqued them down.

Each area of the quilt has different quilting designs.  This white part is my favorite.

So go on over to Amy's to see all the other wonderful quilts.

He loves his Uconn quilt, now if only the basketball team had done well.  I guess there's always next year......

Thanks for stopping by,

Karen