Three for the Donation Pile

In this time of sequestering ourselves in our homes, there are two things to do - begin spring housecleaning and quilt.  Oh, let's not kid ourselves, there's really only one thing to do!

This has turned out to be a productive month.  Last night I finished the third of three quilts for our quilt ministry donation stash.  The first two are my One Monthly Goal for March, and I'll be linking this post with Patty at Elm Street Quilts when she posts her end-of-month linky party.

The first is Occasional Stars:

Finishing at around 57x68 inches, I quilted a diagonal grid within the blocks and free-motion quilted a simple stencil design in the borders.  You might be able to see the quilting a bit better in the next photo, along with the back of the quilt.

I've been more than a little hesitant about quilting this one mostly because the homespuns were so finicky as they were being pieced, stretchy, and the seams kept rolling up on themselves rather than staying pressed flat. The diagonal grid was a perfect choice for this one though as it turned out, the fabric seemed to behave better diagonally than it might have by just attempting ditch quilting with the walking foot. So yay for this one!

The second quilt for my OMG is this baby quilt, based on a pattern called Sweet Dreams found in Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting, Nov-Dec 2005, page 52.  It's actually a smaller version of my original quilt made of the same fabrics from the same pattern back in 2012.

This quilt measured 39x49 inches and was quilted in an overall meander.  Binding is made up of bits and pieces from my leftover binding strips bin.  I love this little quilt as much as the original, and hope some little person will one day love it just as much.

I love that Grandma is also a quilter!

The back:

The third quilt, completed just last night, is another homespun.  The top was donated to our quilt ministry, and I decided to quilt it.  This one shrunk up quite a bit after washing, the top started at 63x63 inches and after washing it now measures 58-1/2 inches square.  The backing is a heavier fabric, donated to the group, definitely not the usual quilting fabric, but it softened up in the wash, and I think this one will make a great camping or tailgate/stadium quilt, or just a really durable quilt for a hunting cabin.  Diagonally quilted through every other square with alternate squares free motion quilted using a wonky star cardboard template.  The first photo taken before the quilt was washed so the markings are still visible.

After washing and drying, it looks like this, sort of.  I could never get a really accurate color rendering as all the photos were either taken at night or in cloudy weather with only the light from the window.  The first photo above is probably most true to the actual colors.  Looking forward to the day when outdoor photos are a possibility again!

A bit of the back, again not true to color as the yellow background is really more of a butterscotch color:

So that's what I've been doing this week, and I'm so happy to have this trio about to go out the door.  How is your week progressing?  This is day 2 of our home stay-cation, not much different from normal life for us retirees living in the boonies.  Hubby has ordered us a take-out fish fry for tomorrow since all the restaurants here are closed for dine-in service.  We'll see how that fares after a 10 minute trip home and a quick warm-up in the oven.

Happy quilting!