2013 Finish-a-Long!

My goals for this year are to free motion quilt a finished top each quarter, finishing 4 quilts this year, plus 1 to be hand quilted. So far I have finished a Forest Fairies quilt for my granddaughter Delaney which I gave to her for her fourth birthday. Here are some detail shots of it:

Star

4-patches

9-patches

Next in the free motion line-up was a Southwestern themed table topper, which I put it lot more quilting into, it was much smaller. I like the way it came out! It is obvious that my skill improves with practice. 

First Block

The Finished Tablecloth in time for Easter!

Alternate Block

 Next up I plan to join the 2013 Finish-a-Long sponsored by Leanne of She Can Quilt, and this is what I plan to finish next: 

It is another Southwestern Style quilt, this one a Sampler which I believe may have been a Block of the Month program I joined at some point, I really don't remember. I made all three of the quilts tops around 1997 or 98, and put them aside to work on something else, figuring I would get around to quilting them someday, and that someday is 2013! This top is pin basted, layered with a Warm and Natural quilt batting, and backed with a fun jalapeno peppers print. I plan to stabilize the layers with long lines of quilting diagonally through the blue chain, then stabilize each block by stitching in the ditch with invisible thread, then having a go at some fun quilting designs in the negative space. Wish me luck! 

Easy Street Top Done!

Along with a lot of other quilters I know, I made the Mystery Quilt by Bonnie Hunter called Easy Street this year. The instructions told us to find a black and white fabric and a gray fabric for the first "Clue", so I chose this crazy black and white print that has been in my stash for years because I didn't know what to do with it. Since I had no idea what the pattern would be like, I decided to go with it! Since it was such a crazy print, I paired it with the most sedate gray fabric I owned, an old Jinny Beyer print. What  fun to see what would happen when the "wild and crazy guy" fabric married the understated elegant fabric!

My Black and White with my Gray

4-Patches

And this is what the finished 4-patches looked like:

Then we were told to choose some more black and whites, some turquiose, some purples, and some LIME GREEN scraps, and I knew I would love this quilt because I am in love with lime right now. Here are some of the fabrics I pulled out to use.

My Focus Fabrics

I had a great time making the "flying geese" units and some units someone labeled "fat turkeys", even though I fell a little behind on the clues at Christmas time. I threw in a few fun novelty prints for interest, here you can see a friendly dinosaur -

Friendly Dinosaur!

And here we see a dolphin swimming by waiting to give a ride to Savannah Marquis!

Dolphin Swimming By

Once all the blocks were made I worked like a whirlwind putting the top together, every now and then standing back to see the mad whirl of color against the black and white, and here is the completed top -

Finished Easy Street Top

 I have named my Easy Street quilt "Margaritas with Salt... AND Pepper!" I won't be adding a border, it is quite large enough already thank you, and I plan to bind it with a black fabric, possibly with white stripes if I can find one.  I am hoping to learn machine quilting well enough to quilt this by the end of the year.