Well, I posted a sneak peak of the string quilt that I was working on before Easter. I did manage to finish it in time, but by the skin of my teeth. I even machine stitched the binding (something I’ve never done!) in order to finish in time. I was taking pictures of the quilt literally minutes before we left for the airport to take this quilt to my MIL.
Here it is unquilted with all the paper torn off and completely pieced:
My husband managed to capture this shot of me desperately trying to finish…I can see it in my face!
I made this quilt for my MIL for her generosity of time and love taking care of us after our little girl came. We needed help and she came immediately. She shyly requested a quilt for her birthday 3 years from now to my husband if I wanted to do that. But I knew that it was the perfect thank you for her gift to us.
Here it is all laid out and ready to be basted:
When I thought of my MIL, I thought that she would love blues and yellows. They are throughout her house. But of course I had to put my own spin on it, so there are lots of designer fabrics, joel dewberry, anna maria horner, amy butler, and so many more. There are at least 25 different fabrics in this quilt.
My wisteria was blooming right as we left, so I had to capture the quilt with it!
But I haven’t just been working on the quilt. I’ve been collecting a little bit of fabric too…well, maybe more than a little bit. I’m adding to my stash like I’ll never see these fabrics again…some of them I won’t! I have some great fabrics, but I found some amazing prices on many fabrics and then had to check out all the fabric stores back home when we were visiting. And then I found out that a quilt shop was finally being opened in my city! Finally! So here’s some of what I collected!
Love these fishes and the plaids are gorgeous in person! I’m sure I’ll be getting more of those.
Fat quarters from Joanns….I was surprised at what I found.
Other great prints, so many fabrics, so little time.
Then I needed to get to a little sewing once we were back in town. While I was gone, my first package arrived from the pretty in pink bee. Amy wanted wonky stars and I decided to piece the centers of the blocks just because I have to make everything harder. Oh well…I like how they turned out. It’s going to be fun doing a year of pink blocks for everyone!
a striped center:
a little log cabin center:
Here they are together. I did add one of my own fabrics too, so that should change the blocks up a bit.
I’m working hard on more quilts…I’m doing a couple of quilt alongs and cutting up fabric and getting ready to sew 80 blocks together for one of them. And there are other bees that I’m joining as well that I’ll be talking about soon. It’s time to sew!
That quilt looks so pretty! I bet she feel in love with it.
How do you stay so neat when you quilt? I've tried roll, and I just can't keep it together.
neatness is a trait that I inherently have…but I do have to re roll when I move onto the next strip. I was quilting in lines here, so I was keeping it fairly neat to keep the lines straight. It might not look like that if I was free motion quilting.
i really love this quilt, i would never have put these colours together but they work really so well, i'm sure she'll love it!
What a fabulous gift you made for your MIL! And your photography is beautiful!
Oh my! your quiltfor your mother in law is so darling! I love your color choice, and I am sure it was so well received! So generous of you! I can totally see your expression in the picture 'hurry and take the picture so I can keep quilting!'
such gorgeous fabrics too, I will have to check my joanns for those fq bundles!