African Violets lap quilt

I just finished binding this lap quilt I made with African Violet blocks I won earlier this year in a
Block Lotto drawing.
 I was really happy to win the blocks, but hadn't figured out what I wanted to do with them until recently, when I realized they'd make a perfect quilt for someone who's very dear to me who's currently undergoing treatments for cancer. (I don't want to giver her name here in case she reads my blog!)

Here's the back of the quilt. I included some of the blocks I'd won that were left over---many of them were about 1/2 too small and were difficult to use on the front. I trimmed some of the other extra blocks to match the small ones, and put them together to brighten up the back. In the end, I was happy with the way the back came out!

Two finished quilts in their new homes

I've posted photos of these two quilts before, while they were in process, but I thought you might enjoy seeing where they've ended up.
I've turned the small square pants quilt into a table runner for my dining room table:

And the quilted and bound scrappy trip around the world has found a home on a guest bed/eldest son's room in our weekend house upstate:

I've come to realize that I enjoy making the quilts more than I enjoy having them, so over the years I've given away most of the quilts I've made. That said, I really do enjoy having them too, and I'm celebrating that with these photos.

I'm hard at work on finishing two other projects: a double-sided lap quilt made from African Violet blocks I won in the Block Lotto block drawing earlier in the year, and the Orca Bay quilt from Bonnie Hunter's blog. I just got back from the machine quilter,  who did an amazing job. I'll post photos of those soon, I hope

Square-Pants wallhanging finished

I've just finished this small quilt from 4 blocks I first made about a year ago from a great pattern I found on line in a blog called Lily's Quilts. If you click the link, it will take you to the pattern, which the blog author invented and called the "Lynne Bob Square Pants" block.

Isn't it a great block? I totally fell in love with it when I saw it, and was determined to make an entire quilt of these blocks, but as usual I got sidetracked and went on to another project, leaving these blocks as a UFO in a drawer.
          I sewed them together a couple of weeks ago thinking that I'd make them into a small quilt that I could contribute to the silent auction that my Guild was sponsoring in coordination with our bi-annual quilt show. But I wasn't able to finish it, so the silent auction came and went without my little quilt.
          With time pressure off, I decided to have so fun with this little quilt and really machine quilt it myself. (My idea of quilting is usually to sew a top and then send it to someone else to quilt for me.)

I used my recently repaired Bernina to do echo quilting in the white areas of the quilt. It was a lot of fun, and didn't take long at all, since it's only 2 ft. by 2 ft.

For the back, I used a charming giraffe print that I'd bought years ago for a baby quilt that never materialized, and I bound it with a royal blue fabric with white polka dots I also had in my stash. 

Block lotto hot-crossed-9-patch blocks

Here are the 9 blocks I made for the drawing at the end of April. I hope I win! I love these blocks.

My First Award!

I was pleased to open my email this morning and learn that I'd be chosen to receive a Sunshine Award by my fellow blogger and super-talented quilter Rhianon, also known as The Nifty Stitcher.

It's a wonderful thing, to learn that someone enjoys your blog enough to want to give you an award---I am smiling my "I-found-a-great-new-fabric-store" smile!

I am supposed to tell you more about myself, so here goes: I've been quilting for about 20 years, more or less. I'm trying to remember how old my kids were when I started so I can pin it down....but I'm not sure. My middle son is turning 18 this weekend, and I was quilting when he was born, so at least that long. I can remember taking him to the monthly meetings of my guild, The Quilter's Guild of Brooklyn, and dragging him along to quilting bees and a number of quilt shows. He made a beautiful quilt himself when he was young. I hope to make him a new quilt in the next few months that he can take to college with him in the fall.

I would like to nominate two people whose blogs and work I admire to get the Sunshine Award as well.

*  Julie, the author of joe tulips quilts. Julie makes fantastic quilts and often includes words in her designs. She also makes wonderful postcards, and her blog usually makes me smile.

* Barbara, the author of Piece and Quilt. Barbara creates stunning quilts, often using fabric that she hand dyed herself. She has an amazing sense of color and design, so I check her blog frequently to see what she has been up to.

Have a great day everyone, and happy quilting! ...Ginny

Quilter's Guild of Brooklyn Show

 Below are some of the most striking of the quilts presented by my quilt guild, the Quilters' Guild of Brooklyn, over the weekend at the Block Institute in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. I am always so impressed with the talent of the other members of my guild, and I always come away inspired and with about 10 ideas about what my next project should be. This time, I'm leaning toward doing a medialian quilt, like the one pictured on the left in the 2nd row, and I bought a wedge-shaped plastic triangle from a vendor at the show that I can use to make something similar.
My entry is 9 rows down, and it was one of the few quilts in the show with a white background. I actually finished this quilt a few years ago for and gave it a friend, but had never shown it at a Guild show, so I borrowed it back  for the event. It was nice not to have to struggle to finish something in-progress on a deadline.

Happy Easter!

This is the best chocolate bunny EVER---he's riding a Vespa! Although I'm sad to report that my real Vesta is out of commission. The battery died. After a Spring tune up, I'll be back on the road.