Needles and Pens

Well, my little guy didn't nap yesterday for more than ten minutes at a time, but I was persistent . Added the last strip of border to my sampler top at about 11:00 last night. It's ready to quilt! Don't let the small picture fool you, though. In fact, to get this picture, I had to stand teetering on the edge of my kitchen counter, with the camera held almost up the ceiling in order to get it all in. (Yes, it took many tries! LoL) From twelve little 9-1/2" blocks, I have created a monster to quilt. Finished size, 67" x 82," Much larger than I had originally planned, but it'll make a nice snuggly wrapping-up quilt for someone when it's finished. Once I get around to quilting it, that is. ;o)

I posted last week about the sampler blocks I pulled from the UFOs, and since then I've been trying to get in a little time each day on the project. Unfortunately, my daughter has been working long hours this week, and my grandson has been protesting naptime, so it's been slow going. Still, I am making some progress. Last week, I got all of the blocks set together with sashings: And this week, little by little, I've been working on this pieced border, which I finished up last night: I'm really happy with how this looks so far! The border is a pattern from Marcia Hohn's Quilter's Cache , called Curling Ribbon . I've used this same border treatment on a number of my quilts. I love the intricate look of it, and yet it's a relatively simple border to make. And you can use the same triangle units, set diffently, to create a Pyramid border. It's definitely a favorite of mine. ;o) Next I'd like to add one or two solid borders to finish it up. Maybe tod...

I didn't quite accomplish as much at yesterday's sew-in as I had hoped, but I did get one project completed, my scrappy quilt top for Quilts with Love . Here's the top, before borders were added: And here is the border, in progress: Finally, the finished quilt top: Isn't it amazing what a border can do? This pattern, Tammy Tadd's Paislies on Parade , is one of many available as a free download from Camelot Cottons . I changed things up a bit, enlarging it to 84" x 54," to meet the requirements for Quilts with Love, and by making mine super scrappy. But I can see this pattern working well with all kinds of fabrics and color combinations. Now if my grandson will allow it (I'm babysitting today), I have another border I'd like to work on. Wish me luck!