Gifts for my sister's 60th Birthday.

 When considering gifts for my sister's birthday this year, I looked through the quilt tops that I had completed. Most of them were seasonal or whatever, not really a nice throw-size quilt top. So I did decide on a top that I had sewn from Rollin' Along. I had sewn the cover quilt sometime through this past year. I was pleased with how it came out and it did need to be quilted and finished up.

Sometime while finishing this quilt, I decided to sew a gift bag to hold the quilt. I have made quite a few of these Lined drawstring bags. The laundry bag size fits a throw-size quilt very well. It probably can fit a queen-sized quilt. I wouldn't necessarily do this much piecing on a bag for myself, because it did become a little bit tedious. For a gift, though, it is fun. Plus I used up quite a bit more jelly roll strips. My sister can store the quilt in this bag and put it in the closet when not using it.

In addition, the thought came to me to make a mini quilt with a cupcake for her birthday. I like how the cupcake came out, too. I think I managed to hurry up and zap this out in a day. This cupcake quilt block was in one of my magazines from when Quiltmaker put out the 100 Quilt Blocks magazine. 

I do enjoy these labels that I purchase from Sweetwater . I receive monthly labels with my name to label my quilts. This Happy Birthday one was purchased separately.  I thought it added a nice touch.

Diatom Quilt top completed

I completed my quilt top for the Diatom Quilt Along hosted by Quilting Jet Girl. There are quite a few quilt tops completed already.  

With mine, I just kind of pulled from my stash as the Quilt Along progressed.  I did have fat quarters of Rifle Paper Company so I kind of just mixed and matched those. The background and blue star points are Kona solids. I enjoy pulling from my stash now for quilt alongs because I do have quite a variety of fat quarters accumulated.

Thank you, Yvonne for this fantastic pattern. I like that the blocks are 18". That's a good size to sew some smaller projects. 

I sewed these 2 blocks as the quilt along was proceeding. I thought I could add another block down the road for a table runner.

Fantastic - Fast & Fun Finish!

I had previously purchased the Fast & Fun Lap Quilts book, but I had not sewn a quilt from the book . So, I figured, why not join the Quilt Along. I started to sew my blocks around the 2nd week into the Fast & Fun Quilt Along. But I was able to keep up with the weekly blocks because you can do a lot of chain piecing. Thank you Melissa at Happy Quilting for having this Quilt Along.

I did not have 2 layer cakes so I just started picking through my stash. I had fat quarters, plus some pieces of fabric that were left over from smaller projects. I kind of went for a "light, muted colors" look. This quilt will work fine for me to use on my bed in the Summer.

This Fast & Fun Sampler quilt is a nice bed size - 92" X 92". I just did my lovely straight-line quilting to get it done. I did actually sew the binding together before the end of the quilt along, so that would it was already organized.  The sampler quilt used extra sections left from the layer cake for a scrappy binding which is great, too. A number of quilts in the book use strips from the 10" squares to make a scrappy binding, too. That way your fabric is mostly all used for the quilts.

I love how the backing was this pieced section with the Merry-Go-Round blocks. And then I just had to add yardage to the top and bottom. Sometimes I get held up getting backings organized because I don't want to piece it together. This went together so nice and easy.

It was awesome that I won a Layer Cake from Lou Lou's Fabric Shop. I have not broken into it yet, but I'm sure that I will soon. By participating in this quilt along, I got to sew each of the blocks in the book. Maybe I'll sew Treasured or Keystone Corners next with my Layer Cake. Thank you to all of the sponsors for this Fast & Fun Quilt Along - it really does keep you moving along to keep up with the quilt top. 

A Bokeh for a Wedding Anniversary gift

 I finally finished my Bokeh Quilt from when I participated in the Bokeh Quilt Along at Quilting JetGirl in 2021. My husband's brother and his wife celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary on May 12, 2023. Their 2 sons were having a family get together for the event. 

I asked my husband if he wanted me to finish one of my quilt tops for a gift for them. I have over 1/2 dozen quilt tops completed but not quilted. He picked out the Bokeh quilt top because Nanci, my sister-in-law, likes purple. 

I just quilted a crosshatch because that is the fastest for me. Down the road, I really want to learn free-motion quilting but I need to practice on some smaller items first. 

This quilt is laying on our camper bed. The finished size is 60" X 60".

The backing fabric gave me issues. I prewashed the backing and by washing it, it was pulled way off grain. It is a cotton sateen and I think that is part of the problem. While spray-basting, I took the backing off 3 times to try to reposition it. My husband even helped 1 more time. 

When the quilting was done I did not like it at all. It would have been fine for me, but I did not want to give it as a gift.  My husband kept saying to add some "patches". In the end, I did decide to try to cover up the most obvious crooked section. On the below left side, 2 of those "little dots" ended right in the middle of where the binding was. This made the whole thing look messy and crooked. So I covered up the dots with this embroidered panel.

I ended up calling a local quilt shop to see if someone could embroider a quilt label for me. One nice lady agreed to do it for me. I needed it to be about 5" tall and about 20" long. I think it came out fine. It does help to cover up the very obvious bad section. She made me one for each side. This is the right side, this side did not look as crooked. 

The lady at the quilt shop said that really just covering up the left side made the difference.That the rest of the back of the quilt seemed ok to her. Homestly, I am glad to have this quilt done and it has been gifted. I am linking my completed Bokeh quilt to The Little Mushroom Cap Friday Finish.