Busy Week - Some New Tops Completed

This past week has been extraordinarily busy with miscellaneous appointments and other obligations, but I did manage to wrangle a few quilts to the finished top stage.

First up, a quilt I'm calling Oriental Brambles (not BB-1 or 2) because the floral branches in the center just look brambly to me!

You may recall a couple months ago I showed the feature fabric, a decorator fabric of undetermined age found in a bin of miscellaneous fabrics in our quilt ministry stash.  No selvedges, so no identification, it had been cut into on all sides, but I loved the print and the possibilities, so it came home with me and straight into the washing machine on delicate setting to see if it would behave in a quilt.  It did, no shrinkage and no color bleeding, so it was a 'go.'  My inspiration for this medallion quilt was a quilt by Gwen Marston that she actually made twice with her same feature fabrics (decorator and chintz) and different border fabrics.  The earliest one I found appeared in her book with Joe Cunningham Quilting with Style, page 148, made in 1981. Her later version made in 2003appeared in the book Freddy and Gwen Collaborate Again, page 22.  Some fabrics just age so well that we love coming back to them again and again!  

A lot of practice making flying geese.  By the time I got to the final border, I had absolutely no fabric in my stash large enough to create a lovely wide border in a colorway that would blend in nicely with the center of the quilt.  The dark blue piano key border seemed like the only viable solution since there were only bits and pieces of 8 or 10 dark blues, all less than a fat quarter.  Now, if I can get the quilting finished by the end of August this will be donated to the local camp benefit auction over Labor Day weekend.  And my sweet hubby loves this top (dark blues!) and wants to buy it back from the auction!  We'll see how that goes.  

So now I find myself in the middle of making two baby quilts and a "big brother" quilt for a 3-year old.  The first is this panel I bought years ago (around 2009 as I recall) and never had the opportunity to use it until now.  By the time my grandson had a little brother he was too old for a panel like this!

The quilt top is nowhere near as somber as it appears in this next photo.  The border prints are quite bright and cheerful.  I had in mind to add applique letters spelling out big brother's name on the back (not yet made) but now I'm considering adding them across the bottom of the front.  We'll see when I get the pieces cut out.  

Little brother's baby quilt top was completed a day ago, and the back finished up last night. No photos of the back as everything is packed up to go to the church for layering and pinning Wednesday morning.

Colors are a bit off in this first photo.  A bit better in the next two.

As soon as these are finished and in the mail (by the end of July?!) I'll be starting yet another baby quilt, the next one for a church family. Thankfully, I'll have until the end of September to get that one finished!

That's a wrap for tonight!  Hope you are all recovering from last week's sweltering heat dome!  The lower temps and humidity were most welcome this morning for sure!

June Blooms and Bramble II

 A couple weeks ago Audrey at Quilty Folk posted the first prompt for the second quilt in our Bramble Blooms QAL series.  She suggested the center of the medallion be created of pieced blocks, perhaps echoing the quarter triangle blocks in the first border of BB-I.  

I've had a copy of Sujata Shah's Cultural Fusion Quilts for several years but had never attempted any of her patterns.  It seemed like it would be easy enough to create those Crossroads blocks, but proved otherwise for me.  Especially the cutting - good thing you can't see the jagged edges on the backs of my first (and only) attempt.  Silly me, cutting my first four blocks from good fabrics instead of really old and undesirably ugly scraps!  Though after ripping apart the first block 3 times, I finally figured out that pinning the seams every half inch or so made a "fairly" presentable block.  They don't lie particularly flat, but hoping the excess bias can be quilted out eventually.

When I pulled fabric for this quilt series, I had a "focus fabric" which finally has been used in this quilt center.  It is the light floral triangles in the bottom right block.  I also rather like the funky polkadot fabric, and used up  nearly all of the small piece I had in these blocks.  The blocks were made from 9-1/2 inch squares and they finished at 7-1/2 inches.  

My plan is to use some pastel sashing around the blocks, though likely not the one shown here as it seems a bit too pale.  I'll probably wait until we receive the second prompt before finalizing that decision.  

OK then.  This past week the flower beds have been gorgeous with peonies and our first purple poppy of the season, and a glorious one it is!

This bumblebee appeared to be sound asleep!

Sammy Cat generally runs off when I attempt to photograph him, but the possibility of a rubdown on the back walk was just too tempting.

All stretched out (show-off!)

Happy summer weekend to all!