Working on New Quilts!

OK so I have three four patch blocks together for the quilt along with Leah Day and the Free Motion Quilting Project. I chose to do light colors so that they would look fresh and clean, and go in any room in the house. I was a bit challenged when I sat down to mark the block quilting lines. I had bought the Fons and Porter ceramic marking pencil from Leah's web site a few months back, and was excited to use it, but guess what! The "lead" is white! So no, I won't be using that...I started marking with a water soluble purple marking pen, but the blocks were still slightly damp from the starch (or maybe the humidity in the South Carolina air) so that dissolved rather quickly! I should have bought the "Mark Your Quilts Kit" so that I got an option for light and dark... I am going to have to make sure the quilt block is completely dry to mark a block, then quilt it directly after I do it. I am still happy with the fabric choice, just having a bit of a challenge marking it.  I was proud of how the blocks met up in the center, was able to reduce the stitch length to 1.3 as she had stated, and ironed all seams open as instructed.


My second project that I am also working on is a t-shirt quilt that has been on the back burner for some time. I have all blocks cut to size (14 x 14) and I am cutting up strips that are 2.5 each to sew around all sides. I am going to try the quilt as you go method since this will be a big and bulky quilt to maneuver under the sewing arm....also it is going to be double sided (t-shirts on both sides) so by quilting it this way I can make sure that they will match up as closely as possible on both sides. This will be the first time I have attempted to make a quilt this way (quilt as you go) AND double sided, but I am hoping it will be easier than pulling all the bulk around the table and quilting space. Sylvia, do any of these shirts look familiar? I am planning on using 40 of the larger shirts on this quilt (20 per side), and then I have some pocket pieces that I will scatter throughout once I get all strips sewn to blocks and figure out where everything will go. Looking good already! There will still be some smaller blocks left even after the 40 are on this quilt. There will be enough to do another small one sided throw or wall hanging. We will get to that after one is done ok :0)

And last but not least let me tell you how wonderful the girls were this afternoon as I sewed! They sat beside me on the floor and played so well. Lucie drew and had so much fun with the scraps I was not able to use on the t-shirt quilt, while Sara June enjoyed putting things in and out of containers that were all around her. We really enjoy our craft space!