Good morning from Ohio!  Here are a few more highlights from my guild’s quilt show.

This star quilt was made for a mom who loves July 4th.  I may need to get started on one of these, I have plenty of patriotic fabrics to choose from!The quilt below was made from 6 inch squares and hand tied instead of quilted.  This is a quilt I could wrap around myself,  jump on the couch and read a good book on a snowy/rainy day…maybe even this weekend…too bad it’s hanging on a wall!  Batik fabrics are the right choice for this beautiful elephant wall hanging. I was intrigued by how she did the eye and here is a close up view.  You can also see how each piece of the elephant was machine appliqued to the background fabric.  I hope some of these quilts have inspired you to try a new technique or pattern…the perfect thing to do on a snowy winter weekend!

Hello!  It’s Cindy reporting in from Ohio.  Sandy, I hope you are having fun in the sun!

I’d like to share some highlights from my guild’s recent quilt show.  We are lucky to have many talented quilters of all skill levels and we continue to learn from each other.

This Christmas Quilt was so cute and fun to look at.  It reminded me that even the smallest fabric scrap can be used to make an adorable block.Tiny scraps make these candle flames, I think they are paper pieced.  The buttons add a nice detail to the bottom of the candles.  I really like the fabric scraps used for the stained glass windows of this church.  One of our guild members is working on thread painting, a skill I would like to develop.  I like what she did with varying shades of blue and gray on the mixer.Isn’t this pretty?  Definitely a piecing skill to add to my bucket list!  So much to look at in this kite quilt!  I especially like the rick rack around the kite block.  How about the striped binding?  What a nice touch!I’ll be sharing more quilts with you in my Thursday post.  Have a great week!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ll be on the road again by dawn tomorrow. I’m heading to Florida for a couple of weeks to work during the day and play at nights and on the weekends. One of the first things I want to do it take a long walk outside in the sunshine. I do so love the seasons in western New York, but at this time of year I crave a clear blue sky.

My roommate and I are taking the Amtrak Auto Train from Washington DC to Sanford, FL. We’ll put the car on the train in the afternoon, roll away from the station in late afternoon, then wake up in Florida in the morning. We rode this train home from Florida about 10 years ago and we’re looking forward to another great experience.

While I’m enjoying the warmth and the sunshine, I’ll be on the hunt for more red fabric because I’m bored with my current pile of postage stamps. I’ve been googling thrift shops, fabric stores and flea markets in central Florida to see where I can hunt for treasure to help support my crazy queen size postage stamp quilt project.

The current block counts are as follows:

• I have 60 finished blocks. Each block contains 16 postage stamps.
• I have 18 blocks worth of 2 row strip sets.
• I have 75 blocks worth of 4 postage stamp strip sets.

So… I have the makings of about 153 blocks. I believe the finished quilt will have 253 total blocks (19 rows of 15 blocks each). I’m calling this almost half way done, but still a long way from a victory dance!

I have begun to consider what the backing should be for this quilt. More red? Something different? Feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments.

P.S.I considered taking my machine to Florida, but have decided to travel without it. Maybe I can find a bargain on a light-weight travel machine while I’m in the sunshine state?