Heartland Guild Quilt Show

One day down and one more to go - of our guild's quilt show.  

Lot's of hard work goes into a show, even a small one.  We partnered this year with the local garden club and they provided some gorgeous flowers for our show.  The large quilt in this picture is my Rainbow Scrap Challenge sampler from 2015. It looks good hanging up.

Our "Featured Quilter" is a very talented lady. Karen brought us some amazing quilts (large and small) for the show.

The coffee cup quilt is the latest President's quilt to be finished. Each year the retiring president is gifted with blocks from guild members based on a theme determined by a new officer. This one with the coffee cups is just adorable. Love her layout merging 4 of the cup blocks together into larger blocks. So cute!

We also have a great assortment of small items being shown.

New FGV block

Last week a special new block for the Farm Girl Vintage series was issued by designer Lori Holt. It's a free download.  It is to celebrate a year of Farm Girl Vintage. Happy birthday!

Check it out on her blog, Bee in My Bonnet. I downloaded it from the Fat Quarter Shop website. 

I did make both versions this morning, both 12" and 6". A word of warning however - there are 52 pieces in this block. And for that 6" size that meant a whole bunch of 3/4" squares.  So the process was a little bit "putsy" but the end result was all worth it.

Traveling Stars

If I make this quilt 8 blocks by 9 blocks (88 X 99 finished) then I have enough blocks made with 1 star block to spare.  This might be big enough but I won't know until I get it put together and lay it on the bed to see how much overhang I actually have. 

These blocks will remain on the floor for the rest of the day and I'll rearrange colors as I "live with it" for awhile. Then I'll pin the vertical rows into stacks in the correct order for sewing.  Maybe I'll get at least one row sewn together later today or tomorrow in between some other commitments.

Quilt inspector is on the job

I've been working on my Traveling Stars blocks again this morning. For those who are new to my blog, the centers of the star blocks are 6" squares shared by guild members when they have traveled somewhere. It's a fun guild tradition.  Here are the most recent 10 blocks.

The quilt inspector walked over these and looked but didn't rearrange any so it must meet his approval. Now he's just settled in for a nap.

I have about 75 blocks finished now and at least 15 more squares left to use in my box. Since the blocks are 11.5" unfinished, I've decided not to sash them. Instead I'm adding a strip at the top or bottom of the vertical rows. I want an extra wide queen sized quilt so that it works like a bedspread on my queen bed. So right now I'm thinking 9 across by 10 long. No borders will be added and the quilt will end up BIG at 99 X 110.

Traveling Stars

Sunday involved more organizing than actual sewing, but I did make 3 more Traveling Star blocks. The color in this photo isn't very true but this one turned out so bright and cheery.  The square is from Taiwan and brought back by a guild member who recently visited there. 

I have several more ready to sew. And then I really need to start putting these together to make my quilt. There must be nearly enough of these blocks for a queen size quilt by now.

Farm Girl Vintage

There are 23 Farm Girl Vintage blocks done so far. These are my small 6" version but the same blccks are done in the 12" version.

I decided to lay them all out again to see if there are any colors I haven't used often enough or a color used too often.  I need more blue.  And I need more cream backgrounds since I want to mix white and cream. But overall the blocks are just too cute and there are lots more to make.

Passing it along

It always feels good to have a finish but it feels even better when the partially finished project goes to a deserving charity or other entity to finish. 

This large quilt top was finished last week and made entirely with fabric and blocks donated to me by a friend who was moving. Just this morning I passed it along to a guild member who will deliver it to a local lady who makes quilts for the VA hospital and for veterans in local nursing homes.  I told her I would get the leftover 6" strips that match to her as well.  Her friend will quilt and bind it and give it to a deserving veteran. Not an official Quilt of Valor, but still glad to share when I have more fabric than I need.