NewFOs, a UFO and a Donation

Two finishes this week and both for a good cause.  Back in August 2011, Victoria Findlay-Wolf of BumbleBeans, Inc. and quilt designer Pat Sloan put out a call for more quilts for the BASICS organization that helps transition the homeless to new housing.  I've contributed before and knew I wanted to send another donation.  I had a top on hand that I was willing to donate so figured it would be a cinch to get it quilted up by the late November deadline.

Best intentions aside, that didn't get done.  So I promised Victoria that for the next distribution event, I'd send two quilts.  Of course, then the challenge was what to make.  Fortunately Joann's had a big Winter Warm-up sale in mid Januay at which I found a 2-1/2" strip set of mottled solids and some coordinating background and backing fabric perfect for a new project.  It also helped that right opposite the fabric display was the quilt book display and I was able to find a pattern I liked and even better, it was in a book I already owned.  That resulted in my NewFO for February:  Spinning Tops & Flowers!

It is my variation of the "Spinning Tops" design from Pam & Nicky Lintott's book "Two From One Jelly Roll Quilts".  The Lintott's design had the blocks set right next to each other but I had to add sashing to mine to make the variety of colors I used work.

The second part of the promise was the top I had on hand (the UFO) called "Flowing Silk".

It was a Connecting Threads kit for their "Sweet & Sour" line that I had purchased in 2010 to re-purpose one of the orignal kit fabrics for use in another project.  The replacement fabric, the one in the dark purple columns, and the backing were purchased at Hartsdale Fabrics and worked perfectly with the CT fabrics. 

So I feel good:  a NewFO, a UFO and a quilt donation -- it's a triple play!  I had to work right down to the wire because the distribution day is Friday.  I finished up the binding on both and had to launder the quilts on Wednesday and just barely made it to UPS to ship them off for delivery today.

In other NewFO news:  one of my January NewFOs is also finished and has been placed in its designated spot.

I quilted the Civil War Mini Twister quilt on the Sunday before Valentines Day and hung it up right away.  The other January NewFO mini "Pink Ginger Lemonade" is still awaiting hand quilting but hopes are it will also get done and get to join its pals soon. 

Hopefully now I can get back to what I really need to be working on: the PHD and Patchwork Times UFO Challenge projects!


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February NewFo is a Flimsy!

Once again, I have another project for the NewFo list at the end of the month. 

I am supposed to be working on UFOs but this time I have a good reason for this diversion:  this top is going to be quilted and donated to the BASICS Quilt Gather for the upcoming March distribution day.  Last summer Victoria Findlay-Wolf of Bumble Beans, Inc. and quilt designer Pat Sloan teamed up and put out a call for donation quilts for the BASICS organization.  At the time, I already had this top (pictured below) pieced and had planned to quilt it by the November deadline. 

But then I didn't meet the deadline and to make up for it pledged to Victoria to donate two quilts this year as they approached the final 100 quilt goal.  Victoria recently posted an update about the project and an upcoming distirbution day.  Fortunately, the post came just as I was finishing the new top.  So the goal over the next two weeks is to get the two tops I have quilted, bound, washed and mailed out.  For once, going off course has its advantages!

Uh, oh, February's UFO is #1!

Judy posted the number for February today.  And that means, I've got to get back to work on this....

my Autumn Double Wedding Ring that I stopped working on back in December, 2010.

Right now it is here:

Needless to say clearing this box out would do wonders for the top of that bookcase.  I would love to get this one done but am already behind for the year.  Can I do it?  We'll see.........

Pink Ginger Lemonade

I have always wanted to participate in one of Lori's doll Quilt-A-Longs.  Up until now my CW stash was tied up in other projects.  But last year I finally got those projects done (well, to the flimsie stage anyway) and now have stash to spare.  Here is my version of Lori's "Pink Lemonade".  With my deeper pinks and darker gold alternate squares, I decided the taste of mine would be closer to "Pink Ginger Lemonade" and so it is named.

I made my blocks smaller, finishing at 3" because I already have a place to hang the quilt when it's finished and needed it to be smaller than her original design.  I had a choice between two background pinks in my stash and choose this darker one because the other one was directional (a stripe) and I wasn't sure I wanted to deal with that with these blocks.  I also liked that it went with the two charm squares I had of the even darker pink that I also used for some of the blocks and I liked the way the two looked together.  This gold was the only one I had in my stash that worked with the dark pink.  I stretched my churn dash colors a bit using brown, blue, black, burgundy and purple prints for those blocks.

Trying out border choices

When I finished the top, I swore the gold was also the perfect binding fabric but hanging it up along side it, I wasn't as thrilled.  I tried the striped pink background fabric, liking the way the stripe Lori used for her binding looked--but mine was only o.k. and I felt it would add too much pink to the finished quilt.  I also tried the lighter gold fabric, which at one point I liked then later I didn't.  So I have since ordered another gold print with a little white in it that I hope will work for backing and binding.

I'd love to hand quilt this one like Lori did (and use the newly learned skills I gained in 2010), but we will see if that happens.  This was fun and quick and I hope to get to do another in the future!

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