What I'm currently working on

These are some of the blocks I'm currently working on from a BOM I took at the Quilt Barn in Puyallup, WA. There are a total of 12 pieced and 12 appliqued blocks, but they didn't all fit up on my design wall. Of the pieced blocks, all but one are done and since I fused the first 4 months of the applique blocks I decided (instead of redoing those by hand) to fuse the remaining eight blocks as well, which means they all need satin stitching now.

For the satin stitching I had to change my usual machine set-up from my Juki, which is a pure straight stitch machine, back to my Pfaff Quilt Style. Once everything was set up I used a 2.0/.3 zig-zag setting for the satin stitching and tear-away stabilizer. It's quite time consuming (about an hour per block), but it just makes some of the lighter fabrics "pop".

I think the top will be large enough without the use of sashing, but I haven't made a final decision on that yet. Since I have to buy fabric for the border and backing anyway and the blocks are not all done yet, I will let inspiration hit me whenever it comes. lol

Two quilts done

Looks like I totally forgot to update my blog with my two latest finished quilt tops. Both of these tops have been sitting in my UFO pile for quite some time, so it feels good to have them done.

The first top is my comfort quilt for my mother's passing from cancer February 13th 2005. Members from WASIQ had sent me the heart and flower blocks for this top. To make it large enough to really snuggle under it I added two of my own blocks and then alternated the blocks with wow (white on white) plain blocks that provided a great quilting surface. Each of the plain areas has a different design on it, using Pam Clarke's method.

On the back I used "Quilt for the Cure" fabric.

The second quilt below (African Queen) was made from a BOM at the Shibori Dragon in Washington state. After the blocks for 12 months were complete I used EQ5 to design the final layout. The quilting on this top was also done using Pam Clarke's method.

And how's this for the backing?