Friday Flimsy

Today's flimsy is my latest quilt top. This one is 48 x 60 inches. I think it will be a good size to take to college one day. My nine patches for the swap are coming along - all except for one batch that I cross cut at 1.5 inches instead of 2.5!

Friday Flimsy

Hello everyone, just a short post and a picture before the first HS football game of the season. We have two high-schoolers in two different schools, we work out a schedule in advance for whose game to attend on Friday nights. We don't go to away games, we do go to Homecoming games and Senior Nights. We pay the most attention to the halftime shows, because both of our high-schoolers are part of their school bands. This flimsey is a recent one, a Schnibbles pattern called Cindy Lou Who, mine is about 33" square, as I started with a bunch of HSTs that were already cut out. This one makes me smile!

Friday Flimsy - Friendship Star

I think this has been one of the fastest summers on record. The kids have already started marching band practice and volleyball practice, DD#2 had her senior pictures made, DD#1 is leaving for college in a few days. I am never ready for the end of summer, I always need another two weeks! The flimsy I am showing you today came about from a swap in 1999, I think I put the top together in 2009. It was quite an international swap, with blocks coming from Australia, Germany, Scotland, and the USA. In the next few weeks, in preparation for another swap, I will be making nine-patches for the Great Nine Patch Celebration Exchange hosted by Julie K. at juliekquilts.blogspot.com.

Friday flimsy

I can only offer flimsy excuses for not posting, like end of the school year, an enormous gardening project that involves removing massive amounts of ivy, and general family life! I have been working on a mystery quilt from erik homemade, am starting another mystery quilt offered by Judy L., and anticipating a third mystery at durable goods . Today's flimsy was a mystery offered by Judy Hopkins many years ago. I extended the blocks into the border to make it a little bit bigger. I really love the fabrics in this flimsy.

Bless your heart quilt back

I decided to go ahead and make words for the back of the flimsy I posted on Friday. The words were a lot of fun to make, but it easier to make them more uniform than it was to make them wonky! I have even worked out a quilting pattern that I can do on my DSM, using my very limited abilities at machine quilting. Next week is spring break for my kids, so after that I will see about basting this and actually quilting it!

Bless Your Heart Friday Flimsy

Today's flimsy is one I call 'Bless Your Heart'. In the South, bless your heart can be used to express gratitude, or to get you off the hook when talking bad about someone, as in, "that girl is such a mess, bless her heart!" My dear MIL from Queens, NY, loved this expression! In her book, Scrap Patchwork & Quilting, Marti Michell recommends cutting 1 1/2' strips from all your fabrics before you start cutting for your current project, and save these strips for log cabin quilts. I did this for many years, until my ziplock storage bag was overflowing! When I wanted to learn to paper-piece, I searched the web for small heart patterns, and made those up when I felt like doing something small. Eventually, I combined the two, using the paper-pieced hearts for the center of the log cabin blocks. I added a piano keys border with larger hearts in each corner. Maybe I'll free piece some letters (a la Tonya at Lazy Gal Quilting) that say bless your heart and use them as part of the backing...hmmmm.

Friday Flimsy

I am going to try and post a picture of one of my flimsys on every Friday. It will be good to see them all, I keep them stored in 2-gallon ziploc bags with binding and backing(if I have the fabric for them already picked out). Today I am showing you 'There is a Bear in the Woods'. My inspiration for this quilt was a post dated Oct. 20, 2009 that Bonnie Hunter did on her blog that dealt with adding elements to an older UFO to suit her taste now. I had made 30 of these Bear Paw blocks many years ago and was never happy with them. I had tried to get rid of them several times, but always pulled them out of the donate pile at the last minute. I also inherited my Mom's UFOs when she passed away. After seeing Bonnie's blog, I rethought these blocks, pulled these green strips my Mom had cut to make a tree quilt, set the blocks on point, and ended up with this flimsy. I really like it, and now I am able to donate the remaining blocks without any regrets! My Mom would be happy that I used one of her UFOs! Check back next Friday to see another flimsy.