Thursday, March 28, 2019

Jack and Jill

Hi everyone! Is it really the end of March? That must have happened when I wasn't looking. To be fair, this has been a hard month and I haven't been looking at a lot of things.  This week I finally wound up a very large, important project that has taken up a great deal of my time the past few months. I spent a day this week at another school out of state and gave *two* high stakes presentations on the same day.  It went well, and I am happy to have that behind me.  Maybe now I can focus on important things, like the best color to use with orange in a quilt.

I was so busy and then mentally used up this week that I didn't think I'd have a finish, but it turns out I have two! Here they are:


These are two baby quilts that I've been calling "Jack and Jill."  They are just about 35-1/2 inches square and are intended as donations to Jack's Basket through Sarah's Hands to Help challenge at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.


These two little quilts are adapted from the infamous 'Quick Strippie" pattern at Mary Quilts. (You can find the free pattern HERE.)  I just made the pattern a bit smaller.  Mary is an absolute genius, because I cut these fabrics on Sunday before I got on the road, then stitched up one after I got back on Wednesday and one on Thursday.  I don't think it took even three hours to make up both of these.  Not difficult at all!


Both of these are made from about a half yard of some leftover fabrics.  The pink quilt uses up most of what I had left of some fabric I had originally purchased for a quilt backing.  I used it as a backing, but still had a couple yards left over and it's been here forever.  It's a hard print to use but works great here.


I still think the fabric is really pretty but I'm really happy to see it used up and in a happy little baby quilt.



The blue quilt uses a piece that I bought for a baby quilt, but never used because I made something else instead.  The fabric has all kinds of construction equipment, and the coordinating piece is nuts and bolts. Perfect for a baby boy.


I'm also glad to use up these two pieces!  The only real use for them is a baby quilt, don't you think?

I will quilt these up in a little bit.  Since they're strip quilts, I plan to just do straight line quilting on them.  I'm actually planning to quilt all of the donation quilts at once after I have them all finished.  I have one more to do and then that will be it for this year.

When I went out to take pictures of these little quilts, I found some happy little flowers poking through the dead leaves under the trees:


Those are some purple crocus, and I don't know if you can see these very well, but they are grape hyacinths:


I didn't plant any of these, but they make me happy!

For this weekend I'm planning to rest up and read some quilty blogs and then maybe buy a bunch of fabric.  I have some serious shelf space to fill!  Apparently I've been using fabric and not replacing it with more, so there are some gaps. Hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Sharing at Finished or Not Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, TGIFF, and Brag About Your Beauties.

9 comments:

Gram999 said...

I decided to make Jack’s Basket my charity for this year. I just heard about it. The nice thing is you don’t have to make all quilts. They want flannel blankets, baby afghans and others and other things besides quilts/blankets. I’ve made quilts like Mary’s Strippies and serged them together with strips of batting in the middle. They just needed binding when done. They’re fun, very quick and also reversible. I will be getting rid of LOTS of flannel when making the blankets too. I will be going to MN in May and plan to drop everything off at their headquarters.

piecefulwendy said...

What a happy ending to a difficult week, and you will bless a couple families' lives as well. Love that construction fabric; it is perfect for a little fellow! Great finishes!

MissPat said...

Glad the heavy work-related stuff is done (and the year must be winding down). Cute babies quilts. I have a fabric I pulled out for a comfort quilt that will work perfectly with this pattern, so thanks for the idea and the link. The bulbs in your second flower photo are Scilla (I think) not grape hyacinth, but welcome harbingers of spring regardless. I have a patch of crocus blooming that the rabbits have somehow missed.
Pat

Alycia~Quiltygirl said...

Oh so very cute!!

Louise said...

I'm so glad that your presentations were successful! Nice to have a big thing like that behind you. Jack and Jill are super sweet and will make fantastic quilts for JB :)

Rose said...

Thanks for this post. Jack's Basket is my choice also. This quilt will be quick and easy to make.

The Joyful Quilter said...

Jack and Jill are both SEW darling!! They will make perfect donations for Jack's Basket.

Linda said...

What cute quilts, and the pattern is great for showing off fabrics you love.
I miss crocus and hyacinths! They don't seem to do well here in south Texas.

Sarah Craig said...

Wonderful little quilts, Mari!