A Checkerboard Finish

 Here is the finished "checkerboard" quilt, completed last week.  This is the one with the "greenish" alternate blocks that are so hard (for me) to photograph accurately!  

I used a lovely variegated thread for the quilting, though the colors are not immediately visible in some of the photos.  Serpentine stitching in vertical rows about two inches apart for the entire quilt.

The quilting went fairly quickly, a couple hours a day until the wrists got tired and sore.  Not hurrying these things anymore!

I love the serpentine rows of quilting as they leave a nice loft and ripples throughout the quilt, even before washing.  I actually did not wash the quilt before putting it in the donation bin at our quilt ministry.  Finished size is about 72 inches square.  Here's a peek at the reverse - the darker green is used along each side with a length of the pale green striped fabric in the center back.  

The bulk of my scrappy 2-1/2 inch squares were used up in this quilt (656 squares to be exact) and the remainder will appear in the encore (smaller) quilt, maybe in the next post.  

Simple piecing, simple quilting, slow and easy seems to be my current pace.  Next up for the weekend, the state taxes, having finished the federal forms this morning.  I'll be VERY happy to have that chore off my desk for another year! 

A sneak peek at the "encore" quilt top:

And that's a wrap for today.  I'm slowly, slowly, advancing in hand quilting my Bramble Blooms I quilt, and looking wistfully at the unfinished Bramble Blooms II top hanging in the closet awaiting a decision on final border(s). At this point I'm planning on keeping both of those quilts when they are eventually completed, hopefully at least one of them will be in the finished column later this year.  

March is the season of Lent and the month for pruning back many shrubs and our overgrown blueberry bushes are in need.  The deer always help out during winter though their reach doesn't extend much over 5 feet.  Our bushes have grown to an unwieldy 6 or 7 feet high and equally wide.  I've always been nervous about this chore, not having anyone personally show me how or what truly needs cutting back.  Words in a book certainly are not always a good substitute for practical in-person lessons in these things are they?  

P.S.  Blogger is no longer sending comments to my gmail account for reply.  Has anyone else experienced this issue recently, and have you found a fix for the issue?  I attempted to fix it in my blog settings to no avail.   So, if you are commenting for the first time and I don't already have your email, kindly include that with your comment if you would like a reply.  Thanks!!

Forest Litter

 The myriad of twigs, leaves, grasses, ferns, etc. littering the forest floor alongside the creek inspired the name for my latest finish, another triangle quilt. 

This quilt finished at about 72 inches square, and was part of my attempt to begin emptying the bin of batik fabrics.  Happy to say that after two quilt tops I can finally get the lid back on the bin, but it remains full.  Looking to make another small dent in these fabrics over the next couple months, just need to wrap up a few other projects to clear the deck a bit first.

I used up several of my favorite batik pieces in this quilt, including a couple for which there was just enough for one 8-inch triangle plus a side edge half-tri.

The quilting is all straight-line with the walking (even-feed) foot.  Looks easy, and it is, although a few of the longest diagonal lines made for a lot of quilt-shoving through the harp of the Janome. Six passes through each and every triangle gives a nice texture which will improve after washing the quilt (not yet done in these photos).  The quilting took a couple weeks to complete since I'm trying not to overtax my wrist joints these days.  

A completely different look for the back of the quilt with the formal floral fabric in the middle flanked by the tan fabric along each side.  That formal floral is gorgeous in person but I've had it in the stash for about 15 years now without a clue how I might use it so a backing it became.  

This quilt has been donated for the camp auction to be held over Labor Day weekend.  Hopefully, there will be time to make another couple quilts for the auction over the summer months.  

Mid-February and we are enjoying a break from the cold, cold winter weather.  Temperature is in the mid-40s this afternoon, the cat is enjoying a bit of sunshine on the deck, wishing I could get out for a long walk but the snow-pack is still fairly deep and walking along our heavily traveled road with all the logging trucks and dump trucks is less than pleasant.  

Winter/Christmas quilts being washed and put away one by one in eager anticipation of bringing out some lighter spring quilts by the end of the month.  I don't wash the quilts every year unless they've gotten soiled, but every few years they do seem to appreciate a freshening up.  

That's about it for today.  Wishing you all a lovely President's Day/winter break this week.

January Scrappiness

 Hello friends!  To celebrate the first month of this new year with something beside snowstorms, I have one finished quilt and a completed flimsy!  Besides a cat on my lap as I type this, he's ever so good a helper pretty much all day long as he's bored silly in the house and too cold to spend much time outdoors.

Anyhow, here is my first completed quilt for this new year.  In my last post of 2025 I had just completed a triangle top made of batik scraps.  That quilt is currently in the quilting process.  But, there were leftover triangles, lots of them, and those leftovers have now become a finished quilt destined for our quilt ministry.

The flimsy, measuring about 50x65 inches:

And now finished:

Lots of brights in this one!!  The back (hopefully) used up all that orange/yellow batik from who-knows-when-or-where ...

My favorite way of quilting these triangle quilts is shown above, lots of long straight-line quilting paralleling the seams with stitching lines approximately 3/4 inch apart.  No ditch quilting since the triangles are pieced with the seams pressed open rather than to one side.  

Late last year I pulled my box of 2-1/2 inch squares and began making scrappy16-patch blocks during our quilt ministry meetings (lots of mindless sewing which is great for getting some stitching done in the midst of all our ongoing conversations, show-and-tells, coffee and snacking, and helping each other with the boring stuff like sandwiching and pinning our quilt tops).  I ended up with 59 16-patch blocks, and pieced some of them into this simple top.

I couldn't get far enough away to capture the entire top nor get a good rendition of the color of the solid blocks.  The top measures about 72 inches square.  The next photo shows the light green alternate blocks closer to their true color.

My plan is to quilt this with a serpentine stitch using a variegated thread.  A second top is in the planning stage using the remaining 16-patch blocks in an on-point setting.  

All of these projects are destined for our quilt ministry as we have more than enough quilts around here to keep us warm.  My goal for the year is to use up as much yardage as I can from stash and get more simple quilts completed and out the door, and reduce the number of overflowing bins around the perimeter of my sewing room.  Wish me luck!

Til next time, in these dark days may we all be a light for others in our circle of acquaintances.