Made to order!

At least that is how this quilt top looks to me on the back of my living room sofa! What a perfect fit!

Recently Lori D. of Humble Quilts blog listed some quilts, tops and patterns for sale for a friend of hers. I was the first to comment and was thrilled to get this log cabin star quilt top very well-made by Jill Reid from New Jersey. Thanks Jill and Lori. The border fabric on the top matches the sofa so well you can hardly tell it is there (I know the sofa looks solid brown, but there are actually flecks of red and green in the upholstery fabric). When I have become more confident with my new toy I will be quilting this up to use in my living room.

Speaking of quilting and my new toy, here is the first finished product--remember that I am relatively new to FMQ and very new to this machine, so I have a long way to go. The tension wasn't the greatest due to the thread I used, and I should have made more curvy, flowy lines around the large butterflies, but I am not unhappy with it. I think there is potential here.

                                                                             

I had blogged about this top here. You can't really see them in the photos, but the outer border has a tone-on-tone butterfly print, so I carried the theme into the quilting. I did stencil the large butterflies but was just winging it on the little border butterflies. (Get it? Winging it--butterflies.) Sorry, it is late and I'm getting punchy. : )

I'm so proud of myself for getting my Farmer's Missing Shirts (aka Farmer's Wife) blocks made the same week Randy posted them. She has been making two of many of the blocks. I decided this time I would follow suit, but I am making my second blocks out of Christmas print scraps. The top row, shown below,  is the first set of blocks Randy posted. The second row is this week's posting. I'm really loving the plaid shirt look. Can't wait to add more to the wall.

These are my Christmas blocks. I have Christmas scraps in brights and "dark & dirty". I think I am going to stick to the latter for these blocks, but the photo makes them look darker than they really are. I have altered one of the blocks to fit the scraps I had. I had to wing it a little on that one, too. It is the angel block. (I know, pretty bad, huh? Winging it--angel block.)

I've been using some Orca Bay pieces as leader enders, so I am making slow progress there. Rocky Mountain Christmas continues to get sporadic attention and I have started sewing together strips for my second Primitive Gatherings Picnic Quilt. You can see the first one here.

One last thing--I don't know how much time is left on this, but my friend, Doniene, from "Now It's Just Quilts" blog listed a fabric giveaway on Wednesday. She said it would run less than a week, but she hadn't posted a winner yet as of this writing. She just wants you to leave a comment about one of your favorite quilting tools to be entered. If you hop on over there you might still be in time to enter. She is planning on posting a small fabric giveaway the 15th of each month.

I was trying to have this posted before midnight. It never works out that way, but I tried. That'll do it for tonight. Until next time,

Janet O.