A little bit of mercy

Hi everyone! Getting a bit of a late start this morning, but I promise there are some pretty pictures coming up. It's a lovely day here in Baltimore, and I hope it's lovely where you are, too. Our roof got a temporary patch this week, but we had some strong storms that pushed off the major work for another week, and we got a ridiculously high bid for some other work we need done. A homeowner's work is never done, is it?

I finished a quilt this week! Yahoo! A few weeks ago, I bought myself a very expensive present, and I kept the old one and set it up with the walking foot permanently. This is the best thing I could have done, because I finished this top faaar too long ago, and now it is all quilted up and cozy.  Here she is:

This is a donation quilt that is going to Bernie for Mercyful Quilts. I made this from a panel last year and I think it could work for a man or a woman, don't you? I finished it off yesterday and even washed it, but it didn't stop raining in enough time to get some pictures. It was worth waiting until this morning, though, because it's nice and sunny now.

A few weeks ago, Bernie posted a quilt and talked about how she had had a "quilter's block" that had kept her from quilting it. When I read that, I immediately thought of this top. I had almost no ideas about how to quilt it, and then later I had really complicated ideas about how to quilt it. In the end I just did an uneven diagonal plaid with the walking foot, and it turned out great.

One problem I had with this quilt was that I could not get it basted for the life of me. I tried taping the backing to the floor, clamping it to a table, I even tried pinning it on the design wall. The danged backing just would not cooperate. I ended up doing this:

Yep, I pinned it directly to the deck boards! It was the only thing that worked.  I swept it all really well, and I knew the quilt would be washed after it was quilted, so it wasn't a huge deal. It worked, and I got that sucker basted in no time. And no wrinkles on the back!

Right now, this quilt is in a box by the back door, ready to head off to Bernie. I hope it brings someone a lot of comfort in a really hard time. We could all use that, couldn't we?  Here's one little bit of comfort from a friend that I got in this morning's mail:

Wendy offered me some aqua batik scraps she had, as well as some "runny" yardage, and she sent this really cute pincushion in the package, too. Isn't it darling? Thanks so much Wendy! It makes me smile and will be  great for my flower head pins.

Okay, I am going to brave the post office and get that box sent off to Bernie, then I think I'll tackle the dye in that yardage. I've got a few good ideas, and I got some Retayne, so I'll let you know how it works out! Hope you all have a lovely and restful weekend. Keep those masks on, wash your hands, and stay healthy!

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Brag About Your Beauties, Finished or Not Friday, and the Patchwork and Quilts Party on Sunday.

Finished paneling

Hi everyone, and welcome to another weekend! I don't know about you, but I sure could use it.  It's been a very busy week around here.  Lots and lots going on behind the scenes!  Nothing quilt-related, just family and work stuff, and some of it not fun, but it certainly kept me running. Thankfully, I did have a major distraction that turned into this week's finished quilt top.  It's nice when that happens, isn't it?

Do you ever get a project in your head and for some reason it just captures your imagination and you just have to work on it, even when you have much more pressing things to do?  That's what happened to me with this project.  Sandra over at mmmquilts calls these projects "squirrels" that cause Dreami moments-- when you just have to drop everything and make it.  (You can find out more at Sandra's blog HERE.) Here is my squirrel:

Yay, a finished quilt top! This top started out as a panel that I pulled out to make into a donation quilt.  I had some yardage from the same line of fabric and now I've used up the panel, the coordinating yardage, a small brown piece, and some beige that's in the hourglass blocks.  Let's hear it for moving out old fabrics and making room for some new stuff!

This quilt looks so simple, and it is, but I'll tell you-- I could not stop thinking about it all week.  I even doodled some block layouts and alternate blocks when I should not have been doodling.  Then I went into the sewing room and tried a bunch of things.  Given the way it turned out, I think that was okay, but it was a little weird that it was taking up so much mental space. In the end it went together pretty easily.  You save a lot of time if you're not piecing blocks!

I cut the panel into 9-1/2 inch blocks, then added 1-inch red frames that finished at just a half inch around each of those.  The alternate blocks are simple hourglass blocks that are turned every row to make faux frames for the panel blocks.  Each of the blocks finishes at 10 inches, and the top is about 58 by 68. I had just enough of the green in the hourglass blocks to squeak those out, and I also used up all but about an 8 inch strip of the red border.  I divided the length of red I had to determine the width of the final border, so it ended up at about 3 inches wide, which feels a little narrow to me, but it did use up that red fabric.

In case you haven't noticed, we are stuck with indoor pictures.  This week was mostly sunny and warmish, and then I went to take pictures. Yeah, it rained and rained. I was going to brave it when it was only drizzling, but the ground was really saturated.  It's very wet out there! The indoor pictures didn't turn out toooo badly, but maybe I can get some outside on Friday and replace these. UPDATED TO ADD-- I did get some new pictures and have replaced some of them. Still very squishy outside!

Now that it's out of my head, this quilt is destined for donation to Mercy Hospital through Hands to Help. I was hoping that this would be fairly gender neutral, and looking at it now I'm not so sure.  It's feels pretty woodsy, but there are a lot of flowers in it. Perhaps I'll have to try again with another quilt. I don't have one in my head yet, but I'm pretty sure if I look around I'll find a few doodled ideas!

Finally, here's a picture that I took on campus on one of our sunny days this week:

Tulips blooming! Doesn't that just make your heart sing?

Hope everyone has a good weekend filled with signs of spring! I have lots on the agenda, including a date with some lemon bars and maybe a bit of painting.  If it rains, I guess I'm stuck with just the lemon bars, so I'm not sure whether I'm hoping for rain or not!

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Finished or Not Friday, Brag about Your Beauties, and probably Sandra's Dreami link party.