"Lines and Boxes" - a June Finish!

When my son was a preschooler one day he asked his dad, "Why do you always wear lines and boxes," referring to his dad's fondness for striped, plaid and checked shirts.  So, looking at this quilt, Lines and Boxes seemed a perfect name!  Quilted with lines, pieced with 'boxes', and finished today, washed, labeled, and bound for the church camp auction later this summer.

Taken just after the sun broke through the fog early this morning, the hillside in the background was still shrouded in mist

The quilt finished at 82-1/2 by 91 inches, shrinking about three inches in both length and width during quilting and the first wash. A good size for either a double or queen size bed.

Shown on the queen size guest bed

This was made primarily of donated scraps with a few additions from my own scrap bins. I ditch quilted every seam, with the diagonal lines creating a shadowy effect in the 6 inch squares when I crossed them.  I like the effect and the result should be very durable, a good quality for a utility quilt.

Though this one will be auctioned, there were plenty of scraps and so I cut enough to make a second similar quilt for us. Hopefully piecing will begin this fall.

Though the grass was soaking wet from yesterday's rain I couldn't resist getting another outside shot in the early morning sunshine!   

Right into the washing machine as soon as we came inside.  Thankfully none of the deep reds and blues bled into the light fabrics! 

And to close for today, a sneak peek at the latest top to go under the needle.  Hoping to have the quilting finished by the end of the month.

Happy weekend, and may your email be filled with sweet quilty comments once again!

Blogger Comments - a home-grown fix?

UPDATE:  Since posting the information below last evening, Carol of Just Let me Quilt has posted a wonderful step-by-step tutorial explaining how to fix the Blogger comment issue!  Just click on the link above to reach her tutorial.  And a big THANK YOU to Gayle of Mangofeet blog for passing along this information to me which got the ball rolling.  We are all so very thankful!!

Today I received a comment on my most recent post from Gayle of Mangofeet blog.  She advised that she has fixed her Blogger comment issue by going into the settings and adding a gmail address into the email comment block.  She received an email at that address requesting confirmation of this as a new 'subscription' for comments, and once she confirmed she started receiving comments again!

So I tried this.  Since I already had my account set to a gmail address, I changed it to another email account I have, confirmed the change when requested, and then made a test comment on my blog.  Got it!    So, then I went in and changed the comment address back to my original gmail account (where I already have many of my blog commenters addresses), reconfirmed that subscription, and voila, my next test comment arrived in my gmail inbox!  Yay!   Now, to see if your comments will do the same.

I hope this explanation is clear, and I hope this works for you too!  Thanks Gayle!

Quilty photos in my next post!

Busman's Holiday

Last Saturday I awoke with a fair amount of pain in my wrists, most likely from the binge machine quilting of late.  So, considering I really didn't want to continue aggravating my wrists, what to do?  The ziplock baggie of blue-gray scraps came out and I played all day made this little doll quilt top, #2 in my series Pieced from Lois's Scraps.

I have a ton of admiration for those quilters who can work with teeny-tiny pieces of fabric, making them and their sewing machines piece in harmony to create perfect little teeny-tiny blocks. These cake stand blocks finish at 4 inches, and only one of the four blocks went together without a hitch. I guess my fingers are just a bit too clumsy to work with tiny pieces! But I love this scrappy little flimsy anyway, for all its quirks and lopped off points! It will finish at about 17 inches square when quilted, hopefully sometime later this fall.

A closer look -"The good block"

One of the other 'bad boys' on the block (though not the worst!)

I wonder if Google will ever get around to fixing the comment-to-email issue that currently plagues all of us. I hope so, as it seems so many of the bloggers I follow are getting mighty discouraged and seem ready to throw in the towel. Sure would hate to see that happen. Is this Google's master plan to discourage and eventually discontinue Blogger? One has to wonder at this point. So very sad.

A Collaborative Finish!

First, let me apologize to those who left kind comments on my last post.  This blogger nightmare of not sending your comments to my email has taken more time than I have had lately.  I promise to try to do better this time.  Now if Blogger would just fix the mess they've made!

Anyway, another church camp auction quilt is a finish as of this afternoon!  One of our ministry group members created this beautiful Kim Diehl top, and since she wanted to donate it to the auction but does not do her own quilting asked if I would be willing to finish it up for her.  With more than a bit of fear and trepidation I agreed.  Here is our collaborative finish!

Let us just say, the  background quilting is very 'organic' ... a nice way of saying "not very straight lines!"  If there is one good thing about using black thread for quilting, it is that you can't see the mistakes, and in the end just notice the texture.  This was my first time attempting to machine quilt homespun fabrics, except for the large brown blossom pieces, they behaved pretty well.  I had an extra dark bamboo pole just lounging in the corner of the sewing room and decided to put it to use as a hanger for this quilt, which finished at 47" square.  I'm liking the look, and hopefully the eventual buyer will too.

I'm more than a bit under the gun this summer, with at least three, and possibly four more tops to have quilted before the auction Labor Day weekend.  But one of the largest, a queen size, is down to hand stitching the binding to the back.  Another finish very soon, I hope! 

Finish!

My wild and crazy disappearing nine-patch is finished!  Well, still needing a label, which I'll pick up tomorrow when I get to our quilt ministry meeting.

This one is completely machine quilted, mostly in the Jesters Hat motif, with a single line of serpentine stitch in the first blue border.  It finishes at about 67x80 inches.

The back, where the quilting is a bit more visible:

And its indoor 'glamour' shot, since we've had rain for the past several days, and just too gloomy for outside photography.

Such a good feeling to (finally) have a finish under my belt after what seems a long dry spell!  This quilt is headed for the church camp benefit auction over Labor Day weekend.  More to come, soon I hope!