3x6 Sampler Blocks in Blue & White

Do you remember these blocks from the Flickr 3x6 Bee Quilt Block exchange? I pulled out the quilt blocks that had yellow and purple in them and made this quilt with batik sashing and borders.

And I had 6 blue and white blocks left that I thought I could make into a baby quilt, but when I got it together, it didn't look very baby-ish to me. And then it was put aside until I could figure out what I wanted to do with it. I decided I would add a pieced border and another border of the same blue I had already used to sash and border the original quilt blocks. I like how it's coming together so far!

I think when I have this blue and white quilt finished, I will go back and join the next exchange again. It's a great challenge for me to work with someone else's colour choices and it's fun to find a unique quilt block to make.

--Ann

WIP Wednesday - April 18, 2012

The snow is finally gone and the grass is starting to turn green and that makes it hard for me to stay focused on quilting projects. Saturday was the local Dalemead Quilt Guild's annual Stone Soup Day, where we all get together and work on quilts that will be given to local charity groups.

Scrappy strips - donated

Above is a baby quilt/toddler quilt that I donated from blocks received in the Scrap Busters Swap. The green border is a reproduction print that I already had and the backing is a flannel, also from my stash! We had a great time, so much fun that I forgot about taking pictures until we were packing up! By then all the quilts were put away!

3x6 Bee Flickr Swap

With a fresh week and a clean design wall, the rest of the 3x6 bee blocks were put back up. These are the quilt blocks that were primarily blue and white and I framed them with a blue print fabric that I was hoarding had in my closet. It is a good size for a baby quilt, but on the wall, I thought it wasn't the right mix for a baby. I've pulled out an assortment of blue fabrics and will be adding to all sides of this quilt to make something at least lap size. Stay tuned to see what happens next!

Dr. Seuss baby quilt

And yesterday I was working on the Dr. Seuss baby quilt - it's all quilted and the binding just about finished. Last week, I missed my WIP Wednesday, but I did finish another baby boy quilt, took a couple photos and put it up for sale.

Baby Boy Quilt with Minky back - FOR SALE

Thanks for all your comments! I really appreciate hearing from all of you!
--Ann

The Needle & Thread Network

WIP Wednesday

WOW! This week flew by and here we are at Wednesday again! The quilt binding is sewn on the Sunshine & Cloud yellow and gray quilt from last week and the custom wedding quilt is being quilted. I cut the left-over fabric from the wedding quilt into 1.5" and 2" squares and set them aside and while browsing some of my favourite quilting blogs, I found this picture of the Granny Square quilt block done up in red and white fabrics from Auntie Em at Quilt Crossing.

I thought how awesome that block looked, so complicated, yet so simple and imagined how the left-over squares would look done up in this pattern, so here's a couple that I put up on my design wall:

This will probably be a WIP for a while, as I have several other projects that I need to finish, but this one may not let me ignore it for long! I don't have enough squares for a full-size quilt, but I see this one as a picnic quilt or a lap quilt for sitting on the front porch on a cool evening.

One of the projects that is ahead of the granny square quilt is my blocks from the 3x6 bee group on Flickr. I wanted to include all the blocks into one quilt top, but it just wasn't working. I split out the blue and white blocks and you'll see them another time, and put the blue, yellow and purple ones together with an awesome batik fabric from my local quilt shop, Along Came Quilting. I originally wanted to finish these with lots of white space, but no matter how I arranged the quilt blocks, it never looked quite right. So, here's how it's going together:

Auditioning white space or sashing

Sashing wins!

Sashing with borders

So, that's what's keeping me busy this week! What are you working on? Have you ever had a project not want to go the way you thought it should?

--Ann

The Needle & Thread Network WIP Wednesday

This week at Magpie Quilts

This was an awesome week for actually finishing some projects that were stacked up on the sewing desk. The Christmas items that I cut out a while back are done.

 Pot holders - SOLD!

 Bell pull

 Table Topper

 Penguin table-topper

And I have all my 3x6 bee blocks on the wall trying to figure out how they are going to go together. I am thinking that I will make a couple more so I have 25 and then just sew them together without sashing to make a square quilt. Or I can split the group in half and make 2 smaller quilts. What do you think?

Next week I'll be whipping up some Christmas presents, so maybe I'll show you some hints, but no finished projects! Are you making any Christmas gifts? Please tell me about them!

--Ann