Last weekend some Rising Star Quilters descended upon the Lake Winnipesaukee Region for 3 nights and 4 days of quilting fun. We brought our projects, our machines, our ideas, and a great sense of fun. I brought 3 projects – a toile quilt, a baby quilt (Fancy Forrest) and an alphabet panel/baby quilt. There were others, but I didn’t think I’d really get to them. An added bonus to the wonderful friends is that Keepsake Quilting is just down the road and always a treat to visit.
I finished the top for my toile quilt and picked out a backing and binding. I collected these fabrics in 2004 (I can tell by the date on the selvage) for a challenge sponsored by the Allentown Art Museum, who had also had some of these fabrics printed. I never did it, and to further complicate matters, I bought a very limited amount (mostly half yards), probably because the challenge was for a smallsize quilt. That made it difficult to do everything I wanted, but in the end I am pretty happy. In this photo it is on the design wall and nearly done. It took about a half day of sewing and half day of cutting the week before. I designed the pattern on EQ7 and even scanned in my fabric. I was really proud of all of that. A few caveats I discovered – best to recheck the math – EQ 7 didn’t count pieces or yardage quite right. Not sure if it was user error or not, but I am thinking of developing a spreadsheet for this to double check (or using another application).
The other quilt has all the blocks done. It is the Fancy Forrest pattern by Elizabeth Harman. I so love it. It is for friends who are having a baby in June, and it will briefly live at Cambridge Quilt, once completed. The key to this quilt is organization and paying attention to the directionality of the pieces. Patience too helps.
I love the way it turned out and have a little work to do maybe with organizing the location of the blocks, but the top should be ready to quilt next week. Hip Hip Hooray. I also was able to pick a binding a back for this quilt.
Two more pictures, the lake and the sky….a beautiful part of the world.
I love the animal blocks, so cute!