Some (mostly) finished projects from the last six months

This posting is mostly for my benefit-- I am so bad at labeling/documenting my work that I am putting up some pictures to keep some dates straight. Hopefully I will go back and properly label, etc! I made the bed topper, below, in July/Aug 2011. The pattern is from Fons and Porter(July/Aug 2011) and is called Lily Patch Topper. It is 60" x 60".

The next piece is a "mystery" quilt that I worked on between Feb 2011 and Sept 2011. I started it when I was at my first retreat in Danville. I chose the fabric that February Sunday morning as I was heading out the door to go home, and worked on it as each Quilter's Newsletter came with a new installment every couple months. On the day before I was headed back to my second retreat in September, the final installment of the mystery arrived in my mailbox, so I set aside my other projects and pieced together the "mystery" throughout the weekend. It was tedious work at times (especially the installment that was all applique work), but was very rewarding. I finally got it quilted by Joe F., and have almost completed the hand sewing of the binding.

You might be able to see some of the great quilting that Joe did, as well as some of the applique on the quilt. I used the freezer paper method for the applique work.

I spent a lot of the fall, mostly October and November, making a t-shirt quilt for my older son, who had given me a pile of t-shirts about a year ago and suggested he might like a t-shirt quilt! It didn't sound very appealing to work on at first, but once I started working on it, I was so glad I did. It's not exactly the most exciting work (lots of cutting and stabilizing), but the designing was fun, and finishing off the project was so satisfying. I used flannel for the sashing and backing, and machine quilted it myself. When I discovered that my son, who has a new apartment mate while at grad school this year, was in a competition with his roomie not to be the first one to turn on the heat in their townhouse.... I knew I had to give him the quilt early, and gave it to him at Thanksgiving rather than waiting until Christmas!!

And then, after returning from the Houston Quilt Show in November, I started working a little bit on charity quilts... the kit we picked up in Houston (3 one yard cuts of fabric plus a pattern called Square Dance). Joe quilted it, with flannel on the back, and glow in the dark thread on the back--so cool.

Next, a Project Linus quilt that is part of my quilt guild's work. The sailboats are paper-pieced (fun!), and I made about a dozen of the sailboats (friend Cheri's boat is the right boat in the second row from the top). I had enough extra fabric that I asked to finish it myself. Again, Joe quilted it. (Jan 2012)

Another "3 yard/3 fabrics" quilt. This is the Topsy Turvy pattern and I pieced this over a 24 hour period this past weekend. All very fast, except for the FIVE borders. This one is waiting to be quilted ( I found a wonderful coordinating flannel for the back)

Also, some fleece blankets (with pocket hugs), also for donation.. (Feb 2012)

Finally, for something completely different.... this morning I finished a scarf that should have been done months ago! Now that spring is almost here...