Coin Quilt

This baby coin quilt is my first finish of 2014 and most likely my oldest UFO. It is probably 5-6 years old? Not very old for some quilters but I haven't been quilting for very long either.

When I first saw a coin quilt I fell in love with them. A great way to showcase each fabric without having to have yard pieces. I've also found out they are a great way to use up some scraps too. I did a little straight line quilting and then decided to free motion some flowers into the white spaces. It has been a few months since I did any free motion quilting and I sure did feel a bit rusty. I love the way a quilt gets all wrinkly after a run through the washer and dryer.

We had a very windy and cold day here again. The wind was very helpful in showing the back of the quilt. It's a nice blue fabric with little houses all over it.


Robin L. - 1 finish for 2014

I love my Grandma Quilt

This is my 7th finish this year. I only finished 5 UFOs last year so I have already passed that. I'm hoping to at least triple last year's finishes. It's nice to see the UFO bin emptying. I have a stack of unfinished projects on the shelves of one of my bookcases and I also have a clear tub with projects that need  finishing. The ones I want to work on first are stored in the clear tub. When that empties I add more.

This came to me in pieces a year or so ago. One of my neighbors was making this for a family member who was having a little girl. She never finished it so she just went out and bought a blanket for the new baby and passed her UFO along to me.  All the blocks were cut out and the top was around half way sewn together. Her plan was to use a soft pink minky backing and a matching pink store bought satin binding. I finished the top and decided to do some hand quilting in some of the squares . I used embroidery floss and stitched hearts into the I love Grandma squares. I also did some straight line machine stitching in the ditch across the rows as back up. Since the embroidered hearts go out near the edge I couldn't use the satin binding. I couldn't find the right color pink fabric in my stash for the binding so it sat for the past month or so. When I woke up yesterday I remembered I had a box of fabric in my closet that had some pink fabric in it and luckily it matched.

I haven't used minky before but it wasn't too bad. I love how soft it feels but I probably won't use it as a backing again for awhile. I think it would make wonderful stuffed friends though.  The blankie still needs to go through the wash to remove the marking pen but I am waiting until I finish another pink UFO I am working on.  I didn't use any batting for this quilt.

I have started a hope chest for when our kids eventually marry and have children. This quilt will be added to the hope chest after it is washed.

Finishes 5 & 6

I'm still making things from a mystery box of fabric I bought 3 years ago. There were enough 6.5" flannel squares cut to make two baby/toddler blankies with a few extra squares left over. I stitched the tops together at least 2 years ago and there they sat. They both measure 36" x 42" . I backed them with flannel but skipped the batting. I wanted something flexible to wrap around a baby and also a bit lighter for a toddler to drag around. No binding, I just stitched and flipped and then added some straight line quilting to hold them together.

I haven't worked with flannels much but I find that I really like how soft and snuggly they are.

~Robin

Baby quilt in reds

I think I put this quilt top together in 2011 or it could have been the early part of 2012. Either way, I was in an online class with Bonnie Hunter and this is one of the designs we worked on. A couple years back I bought a mystery box of fabric and there was a couple quart size ziploc baggies crammed full of HSTs. I pulled out a bunch of red ones and added in the dot fabric from my stash and there it sat until recently. I decided to hand quilt this one. I used 3 strands of white or red embroidery floss to make some chunky quilting lines.

Of course my quilt inspector (Whiskers)  needed to check out my quilting stitches.   This is my fourth finish for 2013. 

~Robin 

RsIslandCrafts

English Paper Pieced Balls

Around four years ago I joined an I Spy charm swap. I had tons of charms to use and made a few different things. One of the things I started was these  balls. I made a few and gave them away at baby showers and used them for stocking stuffers. I love working with hexagons/pentagons. While I was going through my fabric stash I came across three balls that were sewn together but never stuffed.  I fixed that problem.

Now to get the binding added to the two quilts I finally finished.


~Robin L. (3 finishes)