MQG Riley Blake Challenge Top completed

 While looking for blocks to make up our guild's BOM program, I stumbled across Red Peony Buds in a Jinny Beyer quilt block book (the center one).  It would be a bit complicated to turn it into a 12.5" block, so it was eliminated as a possibility fairly early on.

     Instead, I chose to make it into my Riley Blake Challenge quilt.  

     With the challenge fabrics, some solids I had on hand, a few Riley Blake fabrics from a charm pack I picked up, and paper piecing templates from various other blocks, I made three columns.  I decided to just piece them together rather than adding some white sashing in between as originally planned.  I regret that I included the charm pack fabrics of similar colors just because I did end up having enough of the challenge fabrics.  Any recipient of the quilt won't know that so I left them in.  

     The navy fabric was just enough to make it work with some careful piecing.  I chose to put the piecing down the middle rather than off center because I've done a couple off center quilts.  I think I wish I would have made it off center anyway, but I definitely don't have enough navy to rip and make it look good.  Originally I was going to use white for the whole top and float the columns a little further apart, but this is destined to be a child's quilt.  Not so practical.

     The backing will be a Cape Ann brushed cotton that was destined for some clothing, but was just about the perfect amount for the backing.  If I had the batting on hand, I probably would have basted this tonight.  Instead, I'm waiting a day in hopes of cheaper batting tomorrow.  

      And since my posting is so infrequent, I figured I should post my progress so far.  It is approximately 49 x 69".

Sew.Bee.Create finished quilt

Here is a finish from the Sew.Bee.Create Bee last year.  In full disclosure, this quilt has been finished since  April 2012 and was given to the husband for his birthday.  I chose not to post it last year for what seemed like an excellent reason.

It is twin size and blocks were made by the women of Sew.Bee.Create, a friend locally, me and my mom.  It is quilted with a meandering stitch and bound with the same FreeSpirit Jade used for the borders.  I wanted it to be wider and I didn't feel like making another row of blocks, so I settled for the borders.  The family has been happy to snuggle under this and make forts with it for the past year.

Beejeebers finished quilt

This weekend I finished binding my quilt made by the Beejeebers bee.  The quilt is based on Boston Streets and the directions I sent out are here.  I am thankful for the women of the bee that helped me create the gift for my nephew.

It was quilted on the diagonals.  I think I prefer free motion quilting to straight line quilting any day.  More entertaining for the mind as I have to think about where I'm going and which way I move the quilt next.  For the diagonals I need to come up with something to think about other than how many more lines there are to go.

The backing is a Kaufman aqua flannel.  I added two rows on the side and bottom of the quilt to make the quilt a bit bigger.  His dad is 6'7" so a lap quilt won't make it too many more years.  When given the Kona card to show me his favorite color, he started pointing to just about every color.   He's since professed a preference for orange.  I auditioned an orange binding but couldn't bring myself to do it.  Instead, it is the asterisk print from Constellations by Lizzy House.  There are still two more blocks that are on the way but I started to worry that I wouldn't manage to finish before Christmas if I waited too much longer.  Instead, I plan on using those for a baby quilt similar to this one.

Dimensions:  88 x 68" unwashed
Made by: Beejeebers Quilt Bee and me
Quilted: by me with straight lines on the diagonals

A few scarves

 This weekend I helped myself feel less guilty about previous acquisitions of voile and velveteen by making five figuring the 8 scarves.  I altered the measurements so the scarves were about 9" wide and 80ish" long.  The blue one is longer because I cut two WOF pieces and it goes around 4 times.

There are three nearly identical ones of the center combination.

The blue one has the triflora print in blue on the inside.  My velveteen stash is now reduced to a couple small scraps.  The voile stash is slightly bigger but it is earmarked for a couple roller skate dresses from Oliver and S for next summer.  Hopefully over winter break I can tackle my fear of sewing with knits and I'll feel less guilty about the number of knits in the stash that have not been touched.

In the past bit of time, I've made two pouches for the 6 year old's teachers and have quilted two quilts that I didn't make.  One was for my guild and one was for my mom to give my aunt.  And I made a lovely tutorial for the balance block.  

And here's a Christmas wall hanging that has yet to find a wall space at my house.  Super dense quilting of swirls in the middle of it.