Shoo Fly {a finished quilt}

Back in the fall of 2012, I saw a gorgeous Shoo Fly quilt on Sotak Handmade.  I few weeks later I made a quilt top with the same design, and happily it is a WIP no longer!!!

The finished quilt measures 60” x 72”.  If you want to make your own, I used this 12.5” quilt block tutorial on Quilter’s Cache, and adjusted the fabric choices for the squares so that the design makes a ring.

Red, white, and blue is such a classic color combination, and after making the quilt top I got it into my head that it would be a perfect Quilt of Valor for a woman.  Keeping that in mind, I picked a dark blue with white star fabric for the binding to keep it patriotic. 

I had a hard time picking  backing for this quilt.  The white with aqua pindots was a simple solution.  I like how the pindots give the fabric some liveliness, but the overall simplicity of the back makes the front really sparkle.

I just meandered all over the front with white thread.

I get a feeling of Zen using my longarm—I just enjoy doodling around and no more pushing and pulling the quilt through my domestic machine or sweating the stitch length.

Thanks for visiting!

Over the weekend

I worked on a couple projects and got two items ticked off my list.  First up is my Stash Bee block for Cindy who is making a Quilt of Valor to donate.  The block is paper pieced, so I picked up a pack of Carol Doak’s foundation paper right away and then procrastinated until the last moment to do it.  Boy, it was tough, but once I got the hang of it, I got a teensy bit better at it although I still made a mistake roughly 1 out of 2 times…lol!  It took a lot of fabric to make this star.

Last week I also finished up a quick table runner for my daughter’s previous preschool’s silent auction.  I’ve donated one every year for the past 3 years with different themes, so this year I decided to go with red, white, and blue.

It turned out nicely and my little tag looks good on the backing.

Finally, I have all the rows sewn together for my Aneela Hooey Medley quilt and some joined together at this point.  The quilt is looking uber cute, but then Esther decided she wants a different quilt with wild animals on it (I think the line is Moda’s In the Woods), so we have already made over half the blocks for that one now, too.   I wonder if Ronnie will get her first big girl quilt, or will Esther try to finagle a way to get two quilts???  We’ll see…

It was a great weekend for quilting here in southern Maryland…hope you did, too!