A Blessed Finally Finish: Women of the Bible Quilt

Even with the absence of a Project list for 2019 and deciding that I would have a take it easy year, I'm still surprisingly have been staying focused on finishing last year projects and making new quilts with the once new fabrics which have been waiting for the right projects.  I'm thinking that the ever present squirrels in my studio have a good quilting conscience who are prompting me to sew the right thing.  In March, after finishing one of the "haf-to-do" quilts on my mental plate, I thought some fun with something new was in order.  But then the mood for me to finally finish the Women of the Bible Quilt hit me, or maybe in this case was divine intervention, and I knew the time was right to sew it all together.

The Women of the Bible Quilt (or I renamed the Bible Quilt) was started at the beginning of 2016 with my good quilting friend Dee and we decided to join a QAL on Facebook hosted by Crafty Threads.  Each week, we received a free online pattern for either a 15" or 10" block which was inspired by one of the women in the Bible. There were forty blocks and the goal was to finish all of the blocks by mid October and to put the top together by the end of the year.  

I chose to make my quilt with bright fabrics since I had purchased a large stash of Crazy Mom's Good Neighbor fabric when it came out in 2015 and also had a fat quarter collection of Emily Herrick's Technicolor fabrics.  I also included some other fabrics from Riley Blake, Moda and Connecting Thread. Since the quilt was all about the Women of the Bible, I wanted to make sure the quilt had a feminine feel and was able to find some multi-color floral prints which tied in all of the other colors.

There were twelve 15" blocks and twenty-eight 10" blocks.  I started the QAL with good intentions but did not finish all of the blocks until the end of 2016. Once again, I did a QAL Escape Artist thing by modifying three of the last blocks just to get them done.  You can read about the finishing of the blocks then here and surprisingly some of my hesitation had to do with Gypsy Wife. An interesting note is that the Bible Quilt was started before my blog and there were name calling for some of these blocks between Dee and I.

I decided to set the blocks, sampler style, most likely inspired by my then recently finished Classic Meets Modern Quilt and laid out the blocks in four quadrants.  In order to do this, I had to sew an additional 10" block.

After adding the 8" borders and cornerstones which made a very large quilt, 85" x 95", my plan was to send this quilt to Nancy of Grace and Peace Quilting in Minnesota.  The top was finished the first week in March but I waited until last week to send it to her because I was waiting for the snow to end which in the Midwest did not stop until early May.  I thought it would be safe but then we had all those tornadoes and my fear of my quilt strewned across the highway from an overturned truck was still very real.  My prayers were answered when my quilt arrived safely both to and from.

Nancy did a wonderful job with the machine quilting, it's either Figure Eight or Wishbone using the perfect shade of pink thread which matched the pink stripe binding. (You can read Nancy's post about this quilt here).  The turnaround from sending and receiving the quilt was just eight days and once I received the quilt back this past Thursday, the binding was hand sewn by that evening.  I haven't hand sewn binding in quite awhile and I thought it was going to take at least eight hours but was surprised that it took less than four hours. The 108" wide backing is also from the Good Neighbor line and I'm glad I purchased it when I bought the other fabrics. 

I was thinking that I was going to have to rely on Nancy's photos of my quilt since she always takes nice photos of quilts hanging from her deck since I was worried that I wouldn't be able to take a full photo of  the quilt because of its size and would have been too much for the Master and Apprentice Quilt Holder to handle. But then I remember hanging the Slinky Quilt from the screen room gutters.  The Master Quilt Holder appreciated that he didn't have to hold up this quilt and listen to my being Quiltzilla and boy did those nine boot clips do the job.  I also had an epiphany while the Master Quilt Holder was standing on the step ladder hanging up the quilt and realized that I don't need a clothes line after all; good news for him since he's been resisting my request, aka whining, for the past few years.

After a little more than three years from the start of this quilt, the Bible Quilt is a wonderful, finally finish. It's seems like it took forever and am glad there's a little less guilt in the studio now. My original intention was to give it to my son and his wife but I've since changed my mind; it's going to be for my beloved and very quilt-spoiled granddaughter's bed when she visits. This amazing technicolor quilt is just perfect for a little girl.  BTW, before posting, I did an online search to see if anyone is offering a QAL or free Women of the Bible block patterns but could only find ones available for purchase.

It seems that more often than not I'm going to mention something about the weather, it's still crazy with lots of rain, warm and days of sunshine are few and far between.  Today, we finally switched our bedding to the Summer quilts and this is the latest we've ever did this.

Linking up with: My Quilt Infatuation NTT and Meadow Mist Designs, Favorite Finish

Star Shine and Blues-A Finally Finished At Last

My Star Shine and Blues (SSaB) quilt was finally finished this past weekend. I seem to be in a phase during the month of May with working on quilts started while I was recovering from my knee injury last October.  I'm thinking or maybe feeling after I finished the Jolly Jinny Jungle Quilt last month, the other projects from this time, are wanting to be worked on also and maybe preventing me from starting any new projects.

SSaB was started last August when I was in a mood to make a quilt with the many Cotton + Steel blues, yellows and lights in my stash which were accumulating too long in my stash.  Once again the fabric side of my memory bank finally merged with the pattern side when I realized the Hold the Pickle block which Sue of Seven Oaks Street Quilt posted in February, 2018 would be fun.  Yep, the fabric and pattern side aren't in synch but in my defense, fabric buying is done with the hope of one day finding the perfect project to  sew with it.  And when I do find a project, I like the challenge of finding the fabric in my stash rather than in the store. But then, I'm at the age when I'm beginning to forget what I bought until I happen upon it or it's thrown at me by one of those rascally Squirrels in my studio.

Flutterby (left), Red Pepper Pickle Dish by Connie (right)

I'm partial to the Pickle Dish Blocks and I loved Sue's version of a variation of the Pickle Dish Block which was to remove the Drunkard Path unit.  Back in November 2016 when I was visiting Mary Etherington and Connie Tesene (Country Threads), Connie proposed that the three of us do a Pickle Dish QAL, 'ala Red Pepper Quilts, and showed us a sample block and gave us a full-size pattern. I wasn't excited about the curved piecing and would have been more receptive if I was able to die-cut the quarter circles.  I thought by making my Flutterby Quilt would be a good substitute and once again I demonstrated my skill of being a QAL Escape Artist.

Sue's Hold the Pickle was perfect for die-cutting.  After deciding on the quilt size (60" x 72), this meant I needed thirty blocks: 15 Hold the Pickle Blocks and 15 alternate blocks which was sort of a framed four patch blocks. After much planning and deciding on which colors to use and where  (when I make another Hold the Pickle quilt, it will be just these blocks. I don't remember why I chose to do it with an alternate block but laziness may have been a factor--hard to believe, right?) I spent some time pressing, die-cutting and making a big mess (I will spare you a photo of this), I was ready to sew.

After making two of each of the blocks in September so I could test the layout, SSaB was set aside for other projects until November when I needed something I could sew in my Upstairs Sewing Room. If there's one thing that I appreciated from my accident is it's really nice to have projects which are ready to sew.  I also was very glad that the 26 blocks remaining were finally sewn together, sew many patches.

It was early February when the blocks were laid out and the top was finished.  It seems like SSaB was something I worked in stages spanning several months apart.

SSaB languished for one of the usual reasons, choosing a backing from my stash, because I'm on a fabric diet this year, which came down between a gray vertical stripe or a nice quite right blue Dear Stella print.  I decided on the Dear Stella print because sometimes you can't have it right on both sides and the one thing this print had going was that it had owls, birds and other forest creatures some of which appear on the C + S prints.  The really big hang up, though, was quilting with entire diagonal lines which I've never done before and wasn't sure how to pin baste.  It wasn't so bad after all. Once I prepped my Juki 2010 for machine quilting, much to my surprise, when I started I saw that the tension wasn't right since the quilt was puckering big time.  I ended up ripping rows several different times. Thankfully, I finally was able to figure out my tension problem and Juki might need to go in for servicing. 

I machine quilted with diagonal straight lines on the blue and yellow squares and wavy lines in between with light gray Aurifil thread. I quilted 3" apart and was easy to do by using the 3" patches as a guide.

I'm glad I decided to bind SSaB with the dark navy print since  it was needed to offset the navy prints already used in the top.  

I'm sort of regretting my idea of using navy but my thinking back then was to included all of the blues, ranging from dark blues to light periwinkle blues bordering on being a gray lilac.  I used some of these blues before in my Blue Ernie Stash Dash Quilt and I thought it turned out well. The yellow fabrics with the navy fabrics seem to fight with each other as to which one is the more dominant color; I would have preferred the yellow so the Hold the Pickle blocks stood out more. Maybe I should have placed the alternate blocks differently like away from the center. At least I did get to use all of my C + S blues.

As mentioned earlier in my post, the other projects, which used 2-1/2" strips, I started during my recovery period are now tops and ready to be quilted. No indecisions on the backing nor the machine quilting, I just need to find the time.

Also, I finally shipped my Bible Quilt to Nancy, Grace & Piece Quilting for machine quilting.  The top has been finished since March and I've been waiting for the endless snow to finally stop and I'm thinking maybe it's safe now.  I had visions of my package being strewned along a snowy highway after being ejected from an overturned USPS truck on the way to Minnesota. But then again, we sure are having a lot of rain and tornadoes in the Midwest, so I'm saying prayers and crossing my fingers.

I'm hoping to be able to start a totally new project this week, no more 2018 UFOs or any green fabrics Good Quilting friend Carol just gifted me (center photo).  Seriously, I'm thinking of calling Jinny Beyer's Studio to see if they would barred Carol from buying any green fabrics but I'm pretty sure they won't.  I have two already die-cut projects (left and right) with never before used fabric and I just love having ready to sew projects.

On a side note, you know the saying that old men sit around talking about the weather, well I'm thinking quilters who blog might be prone to doing this also.I can't  believe how long it took me to write this post because I need to take some photos outside which usually this is the time of year for doing this. I was waiting for the rain and clouds to go away so the Sun can make an appearance, which it did here and there, but then I wasn't ready to run outside to take a photo because I was still in my pajamas.  Today, the Sun is shining for more than five minutes and it is so welcomed and thankfully I'm not in my pajamas.

Linking up with My Quilt Infatuation NTT

Jolly Jinny Jungle Quilt--A Finally Finish

It's almost the end of April and this is my first and maybe my only post for this month. April was not the month for time spent quilting but rather too much time spent on getting the taxes prepared and filed and having the pleasure of seeing my Granddaughter, Micah every weekend this month which was the first time this ever happened and I hope it won't be the last time.  There was only two finally finishes for April, this quilt, the Jolly Jinny Jungle (JJJ) quilt and another Chicago Cubs baby quilt which may be another post for another day.  I'm calling this a DrEAMi project even though the JJJ quilt was started almost a year ago last May. It was finally made possible when two quilting forces somehow collided: one being after many years of being gifted these wonderful fabrics (and feeling guilty) from my good quilting friend, Carol,  and the another, Sandra, who hosts the monthly DrEAMi linky party, and who I also refer to as the Master mmmEnabler, thought I could use some yardage of green batik fabrics she was selling for a friend who was destashing, which meant this quilt had to be made. Sandra now has a new title--mmmPetus--yep, she does make things happen.

Good quilting friend Carol and I have known each other for twenty years and we spent some wonderful years working together at a quilt shop and share some of the same tastes in fabrics.  Jinny Beyer fabrics was one of the first line of fabrics we both purchased and there was a time when my quilts always included one of her fabrics. Even though it has been years since Carol and I worked together, we still get together for lunch and even a class with Kaffe Fassett. When we travel, we always buy something for each other since our travels always include going to a quilt shop.  Carol visits her son and family in Virginia so she makes regular stops at Jinny Beyer's quilt shop and most of these fabrics shown above, some Jinny fabrics and some batiks or tone on tones, are from there.  Carol knows that I love green so most of the time my gift of fabric is green.  I've always kept my gifts from Carol in a separate bin in anticipation of one day making a quilt with them.  And if these green fabrics weren't enough, I've already accumulated a lot of green fabrics, in all shades, design, pattern, etc. and I used to always pick up some green when shopping but made myself stop because I have found that whenever I needed a "certain" green for a project, I never had it, so I figured I might as well wait until I needed that "certain" green.

This is a Jinny Beyer print which I had yardage of and I've included plain rectangles of it in the quilt since this ties in all of the different shades of green together.  This piece came with a kit for an ironing pad bag and much as I would have liked to have used it for its intended purpose I really needed to use it for the JJJ quilt.  Carol would understand and this isn't the first time I've raided a kit. I like to name my quilts and the only problem I had this time was choosing which one I came up with in the course of eleven months. Since starting this quilt, I've changed it several times; the first name that came into mind was Postcards from Carol, since at that time I was finishing up my Postcards from Sweden QAL quilt and then there was How Green Is My Quilt, since this is a very green quilt but I finally settled on Jolly Jinny Jungle.  The Jolly is for the Jolly Green Giant and all of the Ho, Ho, Ho, Green Quilt which my mind was saying/singing, Jinny because I just had to include her very cool name and Jungle just because I like alliteration in my quilt names and Tarzan wasn't going to work.

So to give a timeline as to the making of the JJJ quilt, after the backing was received was Sandra, I drew up a design of HRTs, since I like the look of HRTs and could die-cut them and rectangles on graph paper.  The design was helpful for me to determine the color combinations and how many HRTs to die cut and rectangles to rotary cut. The patches were sewn together from last May through June and then sat in the basket until November when the HRTs and rectangles were sewn together into 6" x 12"(f) blocks which may have gotten done because this was one of the projects I could sew while recuperating from last Fall's fractured knee.

After the blocks rested for another four months, I finally finished the top at the very end of March.  The quilt measures 54" x 72".  I ended up not following my design exactly and just letting the blocks decide where they wanted to go.

The machine quilting was organic, curvy waves approximately .75" apart and the thread was a bright Olive Green which is no longer available from Connecting Threads.  The binding is yardage from Gail Kessler's Dimple line and after looking through my four bins of green I was getting afraid of not having that "certain" green and glad I found something which went with the quilt.  I'm still not a big fan of scrappy binding as well as scrappy backing.

And this is the backing I pieced from the yardage purchased via Sandra.  I knew when I saw it that it would work with the other green fabrics.

In case, you noticed that there was too much fingers showing in the holding up of this quilt, it's because the Master Quilt Holder was busy barbequing and I wanted to take photos while the Sun was still out.  The Apprentice Quilt Holder, aka Demando, was asked to take the photos while I held up the quilt and it was not easy especially when the Apprentice is taking time doing selfies and photos of his sidekick, Duke.  I so appreciate the Master Quilt Holder now and understand his complaints that holding up quilts wasn't easy.  I also feel bad for the times I took my time taking photos because I wanted to drive my point of wanting a clothes line.  And if you're wondering why the Apprentice didn't hold up the quilt, as mentioned before, the Sun was still going strong at 6pm and if I had asked him to hold up the quilt, he would have complained until the Sun did go down, thus ruining the photo op. I don't think he's ever going to be a Master like his father so that's another reason for my needing a clothesline.

BTW: last year, Carol and I came to an agreement/understanding which may have been initiated by me not to buy each other any more "gifts" but leave it to her to already break it.  We're meeting for lunch soon and she mentioned that there was a little something from Jinny.  I hope it goes with the other fabrics I still have in my gift stash.

Sandra's newest QAL, Beothuk Stars, has just started and I'll need to do some catch-up when I return from my one-week visit with Micah who's doing a great job of grandparent sitting. I'm looking forward to making this quilt since I'm using Carrie Bloomston fabrics which I've been accumulating for awhile now--no Carol involvement this time, but yes for Sandra for being an mmmPetus.

Linking up with MMMiQuilts DrEAMi, My Quilt Infatuation NTT and Meadow Mist Designs, Favorite Finish

March DrEAMi: Dynamic Haphazard Pattern/Spunky Americana

Looking at my quilt which I started working on National Quilt Day, Saturday, 3/16, you might think that I was merrily sewing together HSTs any which way and without any plan whatsoever.  It might have saved me some time if I had but my Spunky Quilt was made with the assistance of a free quilt design software program, Dynamic Patterns, created and developed by Liz of Savor Every Stitch in 2017.  This program consists of two styles, Haphazard which is just HSTs and Mondrian which is just squares.  You can see I chose the Haphazard pattern which lives up to the name because the quilt definitely looks random, unplanned and unsystematic or just plain fun.

This is a DrEAMi project for me even though it was in the making for the past several years. I first purchased a fat quarter bundle of fabric which included prints of Jennifer Sampou's Studio Stash and some bright homespuns and then added some prints by Art Gallery's Denim Studio and other homespun prints from my stash. It took me awhile to realize that these would be the right fabric to make the Haphazard Pattern with HSTs and finally used the software for the first time last year.  Since making my Postcards from Sweden last year, I've become fond of HSTs especially when I can die-cut them myself.

I did something a little different with the Dynamic Pattern program since I wanted my quilt to be 54"x72" rather than square so rather than designing an entire quilt, I designed a series of 18" blocks, like over forty. These were fun to design; after you input your HST sizes (always 6" and 3"), the colors (dark and medium blue, red, tan and yellow-I didn't get hung up on matching the exact shades) and the proportions of the sizes and colors for each block, the software program will automatically generate blocks. I couldn't stop at just twelve, even though that's all I needed. I guess this is a testament to how well Liz designed this program because I did not crash it.

I decided that this would be the project I wanted to work on for National Quilt Day so in preparation I had to choose twelve blocks from the forty designed and the ones chosen were based on the blocks which were more dark and medium blues and had more 6" HSTs than 3" HSTs. I decided to use the neon yellow homespuns sparingly in 3" HST, orange replaced the 6" yellow HST and the apple green homespun in the bundle was eliminated. After the twelve blocks were chosen, being the anal planner I am, drew each block up on graph paper, indicating the color combo which was handy so I knew how many HSTs of each color combo was needed and also when laying out and sewing the blocks.  Since each of the HSTs would have a dark blue print, I added two additional Aged Muslin dark blues to make sure I had enough variety and being the more the merrier type of quilter, I then added more reds, tans and oranges. I spent all day preparing the fabrics and die-cutting HSTs. Once that was done, I teamed up combinations of dark blues with either light blue, red, tan, orange and yellows and these combinations were the same for the 6" and 3" HSTs. And yes, I had extras.

After all of the HSTs were sewn, the blocks were put together and sewn together one at a time.  It really helped that each HST was numbered just to make sure I didn't inadvertently sewed them in the wrong order or orientation but when I did happen to do it a few times, it didn't matter except when a yellow HST was involved and placement was important, then I did take it apart.  My little display board came in handy when sewing the blocks together.  When pressing the HSTs, I pressed towards the dark blue and once the HSTs were sewn together, I pressed the seams open.

 Here's an example of the computer design and the resulting block made.  If you're wondering why I didn't just use printouts instead of spending time drawing them out on graph paper, it's because I didn't want to use up all of the color ink on my printer.  But what is nice about the printout  is that it shows how many of each color combination is needed to make the block.

There is an element of a mystery quilt after all of the blocks were sewn and then needed to be turned into a top. The left photo are all of the blocks and the right photo is the final layout. (Another pressing tip, the row of blocks were pressed in alternating directions so they nested when the rows were sewn together). While laying out the blocks, I was regretting my decision to use the neon yellow homespuns since it looked like post-it notes but after came up with a layout with the neon yellow HSTs spread out like they're bursting from the center like fireworks. I'm glad I kept them and included the orange to give this quilt its name, Spunky Americana.

Machine quilting was a breeze with vertical straight lines, approximately l" apart using Connecting Threads Essential Thread in Bluebird. The backing was also from Connecting Threads, 104" wide denim and you can see the Bluebird thread blended very nicely. I'm happy to mention that my usual stubbornness in finding the right binding paid off this time.  I was going to settle for using one of the blue Aged Muslin since I didn't have enough of the other prints, or if I did, it wasn't right but kept thinking the perfect binding for Spunky Americana would be a Debbie Mumm print, denim blue with super skinny stripes-a favorite of mine for binding, something I thought I used up all I had.  Well, after looking through my four bins of traditional blue fabrics, I was so happy to find it in the fourth bin which I wasn't going to check but am glad I did--and I had just enough--a little over one-half yard--yep, meant to be.

Would I make another Haphazard quilt--yes, especially with all of the scraps I have like Kaffe Fassett, Patriotic, Homespuns, etc.  There are so many possibilities with just using two colors like black and white or just solids and also "disappearing" the blocks like cutting them in quarters after they are sewn.  Hopefully, I won't have to wait until the next National Quilt Day to start die-cutting another one and also if I need new block patterns, I'm going to splurge and print them out-- I'll make sure I have enough color ink.

On a side note, I'm glad to have my Spunky Americana quilt ready for the March DrEAMi link-up this Saturday, 3/30 hosted by Sandra of mmm quilts who will be hosting her third QAL starting April 3rd.  Since I've participated in her other two QAL, I'm sewing the Trifeca.  Hopefully, I should be able to find the right fabric in my stash since my fabric diet is going very well.

Also, starting this month, there's a new linky party-Favorite Finish Monthly Linkup hosted by Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs and will definitely be linking up my Spunky Americana quilt because I have to admit this is my favorite finish for March.

And lastly and more importantly, I would like to thank Liz for creating and designing the Dynamic Patterns program and allowing us quilters free access to it--it's a kind and wonderful way to share your talent.  If you're not familiar with Liz's blog, please check out Savor Every Stitch and see what an amazing quilter she is and to think she has been only quilting for just a few years now.  Her machine quilting is jaw dropping beautiful and maybe one day Liz will inspire me to try a few curves and meandering with my machine quilting. Meanwhile, if that day ever happens, I'm fine with gushing over her beautiful quilts.

Linking up with MMMiQuilts DrEAMi, Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework, Oh Scrap!, My Quilt Infatuation NTT and Meadow Mist Designs, Favorite

The Kiwi and Mango Tango Bundle Buster Quilt

I like making quilts with big blocks especially with a great pattern; Yvonne Fuchs, Quilting Jet Girl's Bundle Buster and a stash of fabrics with colorful and fun prints.  It was at least three-four years ago, I think, that I discovered this pattern through a FaceBook post by a quilt blogger that this was a free pattern offered first only to subscribers/followers of Quilting Jet Girl and the pattern will be available some day. Of course, me, the lover of strips, squares and big patches and all things simple immediately went to her website, became a subscriber and was very disappointed that the Bundle Bundle pattern was not yet for sale. Some of us are do crossword or Soduko for mental stimulation, I, on the other hand, like to figure out quilt patterns with graph paper and pencil. Usually, I can figure it out if the quilt dimensions are given.  Most of the time after I do this exercise, I put it aside and end up never making the quilt. After spending a considerable amount of time figuring out the pattern, I came up with how to make this quilt and was ready to make one since I love how this pattern having made more than one of each of the Yellow Brick Road and Turning Twenty patterns.  Would you believe after doing all of this, the next day, the Bundle Buster pattern was made available for purchase as a PDF download from Craftsy.  So, really wanting to make sure my cuts and layout were correct, I immediately purchased the Bundle Buster pattern.  Since this pattern is no longer available from Craftsy, here is the link (non-affiliate) to Quilting Jet Girl's website if you're interested in purchasing the Bundle Buster pattern.

The first time I used the Bundle Buster pattern was in 2017 as an alternate block for the Grandpa Quilt which is one of my most popular posts.  This really is a great pattern for using the large and fun prints which this quilt definitely does have.

I am surprised at myself for not having made another Bundle Buster quilt until this week since I have enough fabric in my stash to make at least ten more.  Also surprising is that I didn't think of this pattern when I purchased fat quarters of some of Pam Goecke Dinnorf's  Figment fabrics several years ago. After realizing last year that this would make a great Bundle Buster quilt, I pulled together some Japanese homespuns, scraps of Stok, Bonnie Christine and Mixologie prints (fabric used in my 2017 Freefall QAL Quilt) and a fat quarter of my favorite Chic Neutral citron yellow print to put this on my 2019 Wanna Make List.  I don't have a true 2019 Project List since this year I'm trying a Sew With A Flow attitude and I can tell you so far I may need an adjustment since I spending way too much time with yarn. Even though I love all of the colors in this quilt, the greens and oranges are near and dear to my heart, especially in the large focus prints with the spoke circles.  If I won't eat a Kiwi or a Mango, much to my son Demando's dismay, I could at least name a quilt with these two fruits.

The Bundle Buster pattern is very fat quarter friendly and efficient--there is very little waste.  For some of the fat quarters I did not cut out according to the pattern since there were some of the large focus prints I wanted to showcase and only use for the strips then there were some scraps I only had enough for a strip or a square.  Once all of the patches were cut and laid out on my design board, it sewed together very quickly despite only sewing one block at a time--it's all about the sewing sequence.

Once I decided on a backing with my usual hemming and hawing, I decided on a green gingham check homespun and quilting it with alternate straight and wavy line quilting with dark gray thread which really gives the Kiwi and Mango Tango quilt a nice, soft feel and does this quilt feel light. I was going to bind it with the same black and grey check fabric in the quilt, but opted for a black print to frame the quilt better.

Sorry for the dismal photos, but per usual, once I have a quilt to photograph, the Sun takes a day off which isn't surprising since this week's weather included freezing temperature, way too much wind, tornado warnings, snow, rain and even a 60 degree day.

Tomorrow is National Quilting Day and I've informed the Hubby who probably thinks I celebrate this everyday.  I'm looking forward to starting another new project, maybe another Bundle Buster since I already have the fabric set aside, and will be not considering working on a UFO unless it happens to jump at me when I'm in the Studio.  I hate when that happens.

Happy National Quilting Day!

Linking up with:  My Quilt Infatuation NTT