I finally finished this paper pieced quilt top. Because it took so much longer than I expected, I won’t be doing the hand quilting on this one until the fall. There is one more pattern I want to put together before gardening season starts, so I have begun working on that. You will see more of this quilt in a few months.

Here is my just finished monotone quilt. It was meant to be more for warmth, so it is not too fancy. The pattern is just a simple Irish Chain, with a border. This was my first experience with using a wool batting, and that wasn’t too bad. The backing fabric is the same as the background on the front. I have had the bolt of the patterned fabric stashed since last year. Last May, While shopping in Cornish, Maine, visited the Barking Rose Quilt Barn. I was luck to find a good match to the bolt fabric in a small flowered print.

Probably it would be a good idea to carry swatches of all the fabric waiting to be matched in my cloth drawer all the time. Does anyone do that?

Originally uploaded by tomygardenpath.

Here is my first try at a star block from this book. It was much easier than I thought, and the directions were great. I haven’t planned a quilt yet, just used some fabric I had to try a star. The templates are in the book for each pattern, and all you have to do is scan the page, and make the number of copies you need. This star took eight, and 4 more triangles for the corners. Now that gardening is winding down, I am looking forward to getting another quilt ready to handstitch. The name of the book I am using is Quick Strip Paper Piecing.

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This quilt made of a blue and green batik and white cotton. It is 70 inches square and was pieced by machine. I have been doing the quilting by hand for the past few months. The star pattern is quilted in the white blocks and the border is done in the sawtooth pattern. If I was to do this pattern again, I would add a white strip between the border, and the main quilt body. But, I won’t because there are so many more patterns that I want to try, I won’t have time for repeats. My next project is going to be a small one, a more complicated star pattern done with paper piecing. Hopefully, I will have that completed in a week or two.

I made these quilts a few years ago for some friends who were having twins. The mom picked the colors to go in an African theme room. She chose non traditional baby colors, and ones that would catch the eye. These are the brightest quilts that I have made to date.