A Row Quilt

Have you ever done a Row Quilt? It's sort of like a Round Robin except instead of making a block and having a few borders sewn around it, you make a row and everyone else makes a row to go with it. Then, you put all the rows (usually 5 or 6) together and finish it. My Spring Chicks group started a Row Robin a couple of months ago and we had an exchange of our first rows recently. First, here's the one I made for Betsy: Her original row is on the top and the one I made, with the apple trees and fence, is on the bottom. She wanted houses and paper-pieced elements.

  

In this photo, Julie holds the row she made (on top) with my original row on the bottom. I just LOVE the kitties she made for me!!! These are MY kitties--Bobo and Tippy. It will be a bright, fun wall hanging for my foyer!

In my last post, you saw the center of this "owl" quilt I've been commissioned to make for my daughter's best friend's little girl. I've added the borders and am in the process of quilting it.  ***Thanks to Judy for treating us to Design Wall Monday!***

UFO #8 finished!

Number 8 was the perfect number UFO for Judy to pick! It was was presented to my daughter's friend for her third baby born March 1st. I put bright yellow Minkee on the back and turned it to the front to form the binding. I took a storybook panel apart for the blocks and made primary-color pinwheels as sashing. Little Oliver Roux (almost 10 pounds at birth!) is going to love its softness!

Quilt Show Success

My guild's quilt show was last weekend and I entered two of my quilts to be judged. I got a 2nd place and a 3rd place ribbon! The judging of the quilts was last Friday and I attended the all-day judging. If you've never watched quilts being judged, it's a real learning experience and I encourage you to do so. For one thing, if you've ever seen a quilt that has a ribbon on it and wonder why in the world it won, you'll learn why and, on the other hand, if you've ever seen an amazing quilt with no ribbon on it and wondered why they didn't win, you'll learn why that happens too.

Remember the Civil War quilt I started last year for my Civil War buff husband? The one on which I hand-appliqued 150 leaves on to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War? I finished it and gave it to him for CHRISTMAS and he LOVES it. The 2nd place ribbon you see is proof that the judge did too! (The quilt that won first place in the same division ended up with Best of Show so I'm very happy).

Did you take a look at all the other great quilts on Judy's Design Wall Monday?

A Big-Girl Bedspread

First of all, thanks to Judy for letting us post our design walls so we can be inspired by everyone's beautiful work. We love you, Judy!!

My daughter's best friend since 2nd grade, asked if I would make a quilt for her almost 2-year old. She wanted "pink, green and owls." We all know that owl fabric was all over the place a couple of years ago but not so now. I went to 5 quilt shops on a Shop Hop Thursday and did find a couple of owl fabrics but not in the right colors. So, I decided to build my own and put them on a tree.

This is just pinned up on my design wall to see how it looks. I made the tree too puny the first time and made another heftier one and like it better. And I think the owls are adorable! Better yet, my daughter and her friend love them too.

It'll take me a long while to satin-stitch all around this tree and the owls but there's not a big rush for this quilt and it feels so good to be creating something that is going to be loved.

February Color Palette

I'm doing a block, the same block, each month and will make a quilt out of them at the end of the year. Here are January's and February's:

Labels

I've actually done quite a bit of sewing this week but nothing I can show off as I'm getting ready for our Valley Quilt Guild quilt show. I'm finishing sewing on bindings, clipping stray threads and sewing on labels on the the 6 quilts I've entered in the show. Not the most fun a quilter can have but necessary and I don't like to wait until the last minute.

Our show is March 17 and 18 in Yuba City California, 50 miles north of Scaramento if you're in the neighborhood! It's our 28th annual show and we'll have over 300 quilts and about 20 vendors.

I'd love to hear about your guild's quilt show too!

Now go and see the beautiful creations all our fellow quilters are showcasing on Judy's Design Wall Monday.

I Started Another One!

This is kind of a bad photo, just some of the pieces of a quilt I began today. Here's the story of why in the world I'd begin a new quilt when I have so many others to finish:

DH and I visited Portland, OR this past week and stayed with a friend who just moved up there. He's lived in California all his life except for a couple of years in college way back in the early 70s. He fell in love with Oregon and always wanted to move back and now that he's retired, did just that. His house has a wonderful view and he's doing a great job unpacking all his stuff and setting it up (he's a life-long bachelor).

He apologized for not having a proper 'guest room' bed, only a pull-out couch, and his blanket and pillow situation was quite meager but he promised that he'd get a proper bed by the next time we came to visit. If that isn't inspiration to make someone a quilt, I don't know what is!

This guy has been to Alaska many times and loves it there. Just so happens, I was on an Alaskan cruise last summer and bought all sorts of Alaskan-themed fabric in those great shops up there! PERFECT!!

What you see here is 3 of the 6 horizontal, fussy-cut rows and 2 of the 5 'stripe' horizontal sashing rows. Each of the 8" fussy-cut squares has some sort of Alaskan theme; whales, moose, bears, totems, etc. I'll be putting the top together tomorrow and hope to be able to send this off to him in a couple of weeks. I plan to put it in a big ol' box with a note saying "for when you buy your new guest bed." I think he'll love it!