Working on my Jubilee Quilt!

I've been crazy busy working on my Jubilee quilt........and it's really coming along!  I am doing it kindof like a Bonnie Hunter Mystery......cuz there are tons of little pieces, and making them in giant batches just seems to go faster!.....and for me, more accurately.  By the time I've made 100 hst's, I'm pretty good at it!  lol

So, I've pieced the 80 strings blocks that are needed......not trimmed yet, that will come later.

And I've made about 200 of the 468 hst's......they will finish at 1".  Sweet!

Here's the inspiration quilt again......the large solid red triangles surrounding the blocks are where my string pieces are going.  I'm making it up with 20 blocks so my finished size will be a bout 63x78.....perfect for snuggling up on the couch!  :o)

AND......just cuz they are at their peak of bloom......I thought I'd share the beautiful bouquet that one of my sons sent me for my birthday last week!  Sweet!  I just love iris and tulips......how did he know?  :o)

Hope you have a great week!

regan

I think I got it!

First, let me just say, THANK YOU SO MUCH for all the great suggestions that everyone made for the sashing on my plaids quilt.  I really appreciate everyone for putting their two cents in......it makes for a fun day of playing with fabrics, and moving stuff around on the design wall!  And what's really fun about that, is that you sometimes throw something up on the wall, totally unexpected, and that's the one that screams out "YES!  THIS IS IT!"

I started playing with all the sashings again, and looking back and forth from pic to pic, and I was really leaning towards a lighter beige/cream sashing with the black cornerstones, but it was reading really flat.  Ugh!  I went back and forth with the black sashing, and still was just kindof flat.  Nothing with a spark, and not that I need a spark in every quilt, but flat doesn't make me want to finish it.  You know what I mean?

So, imagine my surprise when I thought "Maybe orange!?!"

Yeah, imagine!  Me.....orange......hmmm!

Well.....WOOHOO!  This is it!

AND.....on point!  Holy cow.....I'm loving it now!  And I love that it is getting that secondary grid effect from the black cornerstones.....woohoo!

I was so excited about it, I made 5 more blocks, lickety split, so I could really see the wow-factor!

Of course, I'm wondering why it took me so long to think of orange..... (ok.....it's cheddar for you repro lovers!  lol......that was for you, Pat..... now leave a dang comment, will ya!?!).

Maybe I should just start each quilt with orange, and go from there......it would probably save a lot of time!

Have a great week!

regan

Florabunda top is done! Woohoo!

I was totally in love with making this top!  I love yellow (it's right up there with orange!), and all those fabulous big florals were so fun to look at, and cut up (finally)!  lol

Here's the top.....finished!  Yay!  It's about 76x86......a good size on it's own, no borders.

It's actually darker, more like the 2nd closeup pic.  I think the sunlight from the window was fading it out a bit in the first pic.  I'm just in love with it!  Thanks Bonnie Hunter for showing us the original in an antique shop, and giving us the challenge/nudge to use our big florals.  I'm so glad I did!  This is going on my bed when done!  I thought for a backing, I would use the florals in big sections......they are just beautiful fabrics, and should really be used and shown off.  I like that it will be totally reversible, too.

So, while I was making the florabunda quilt......I decided I needed to do something else for my leaders and enders.  Up until this, I have been sewing together 2" squares of my thrift store shirtings......any two squares together, then those together as a 4 patch.  Not caring if the pieces were light, dark, whatever!  A totally scappy 4 patch......and I had been making these for at least a year, and now have a drawer full of 4 patches.  At least 400!  So during the florabunda quilt, I thought I should make something of these 4 patches.  Here's what I came up with......a little red sashing and a black cornerstone creating a 9 patch block.

I put 7 blocks together while doing the florabunda quilt, and I'm just loving them!  But I need to really think about how these blocks will come together......I tried a few versions of sashings.  Above is just straight black.

This is black with red cornerstones.

 Here I thought I would try something different with the black and red theme.....I think it overpowers the blocks.

Here I put some of the 2 inch shirting squares across a wider sashing.

I just don't know.  I think they all pretty much overpower the blocks.  But as I'm typing this, and looking at this last pic......I'm looking at the blocks on the right with no sashing between them......and I kindof like THAT look.......so maybe I need to do a light shirting as the sashing.  Hmmmmmmm.  What do you think?  I would love your thoughts or suggestions on it.

I'm going to keep making the blocks as leaders/enders.......until I have at least 20!  Then we'll see what happens!

Have a great week!

regan