My Quilt Parade

This is my second Y2K 2000 Charm Quilt top.  I started this top in 2006 and hope to complete it by the end of the year. It seems only yesterday that we were at once excited and anxious about the new millennium.  To celebrate this once-in-a-lifetime event, many quilters wanted to create a Y2K quilt with 2000 different squares (“charms”) of fabric.  There were many swapping groups.  I participated in several and was able to collect enough charms to make THREE quilts, each with 2000 squares!  So, here we are many years later, and I’ve barely finished piecing the second top.  Hopefully, I can get it quilted before the end of the next decade! And, yes, I still have 80 more “squishes” stored away, each with 25 charms, waiting to be finished into a quilt! UPDATE 12/31/20 :  I finally completed this second Y2K Millennium Quilt and posted about it  here . This ends the 2010 Quilt Parade with 27 quilt projects, including 11 sales and 8 charity quilts.  The remaining 8 projects

At the beginning of September, I joined Beth at Love Laugh Quilt for her Striped Quilt Challenge.  I really believed that I would not have a problem … at least starting a project and even believed that I would surely finish one before the challenge ended.  At the time, I knew I had some striped fabric, but I happily envisioned myself going to the fabric store to add to my stash!  Well, that didn’t happen.  And, my limited stash gave me no vision and no plan.  But, when I saw Beth’s quilt, I was inspired to make pinwheels. Isn’t it beautiful?! It took me about a week, but I did manage to get this small quilt top finished; it measures 45” x 47” and is a lap size.  I’m pretty happy with it, especially since I had a limited stash to work with.  I do like how the stripes make the pinwheels look like they’re moving.  Not so much in the picture, but in person they almost make you dizzy if you stare at them too long. SEPTEMBER 2010 UPDATE:  Sold on eBay in June 2011 for $13

In August, I joined Karrie Lyne over at Freckled Whimsy for her Charm Pack Quilt Along.  I love a quilt-along, and I also love the 12 Days of Christmas by Kate Spain for Moda. It took me a while, but I managed to sew all the rows and finally finished the center of the top.  I still need to sew on the borders.  Maybe I’ll finish it before the end of the month. SEPTEMBER 2010 UPDATE:   I never finished this project and decided to sell it on Etsy.  It sold in January 2012: This beautiful quilt top is made with four charm packs of Moda's 12 Days of Christmas by Kate Spain and solid white KONA fabric.  I love this fabric design and it is very hard to find and may no longer be available.  It measures 60-1/2" x 60-1/2” without borders.  Also included are 2 yards of Amy Suther "Sparkle All the Way" by Robert Kaufman fabric for the outside border and 13 leftover charms.

Hallelujah! My “quilt of errors” is FINALLY finished!  Well, at least the top is finished … I am so happy to finally get it done.  I’m also happy to report that I used up all my patriotic strips/scraps on this top.  Read about my progress here . I really like the border with the delectable mountain blocks and needed to improvise because I didn’t have a pattern.  The blocks were not so easy to make and are definitely not perfect. The top is much bigger than I anticipated, finishing at 85” square.  I’m sure this will nicely cover a queen-size bed.  There are nine blocks with 16 units each, and each block measures 26-1/2 inches.  Can you believe I was originally going to make it with 12 blocks?!  Anyway, making this quilt top was definitely a learning experience. August 2010 UPDATE:  Sold on eBay in 2011 for $90

Rita’s Quilt of Valor In March 2010, I visited with my friend Mary and her quilting group, The Atherton Quilters.  I had so much fun that day and everyone was so friendly that I joined the group! Here they are with the Quilts of Valor they made at their January retreat: The Quilts of Valor were taken to Sew Vac in Long Beach where they’ll be quilted by a volunteer longarm quilter and finished into a beautiful quilt for a veteran or service member. Even though I wasn’t part of the group for their January retreat, I wanted to make my own QOV, which I’ll be sending to Sew Vac. Every Thursday afternoon, volunteers meet at the store to cut, sew, and press QOVs.  During Disney’s 2010 “Give A Day, Get A Disney Day” program, volunteers received one free admission ticket to Disneyland.  How awesome was that!  Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and free Disney tickets are no longer available.  But Sew Vac continues its good work! July 2010

I just completed my fourth quilt for the Downy Touch of Comfort Quilts For Kids project.  Three are from requested kits and the fourth is from my fabric stash.  And, for now, this completes my contribution to this worthwhile program.  I’ll continue to make quilts for kids through Project Linus, which keeps my donations locally; and, I can also deliver my finished quilts to one of my neighbors who helps coordinate the local chapter … no shipping costs! The Touch of Comfort project was so much fun, and the quilts were fast and easy.  It was always exciting to receive the kit in the mail to see what fun fabrics had been sent.  I do hope they reach their goal of 10,000 quilts before the end of the year. July 2010

I've wanted  to make a quilt for my son David for a while.  I had a collection of plaids and homespun fabric that I thought he might like, but I couldn’t decide on a pattern I thought he would like.  One day I was flipping through my old quilting magazines when I stumbled upon this plaid dorm quilt from a Fons & Porter magazine. Plaid Dorm Quilt from Fons & Porter I thought this dorm quilt would be perfect since he is now living in a dorm after recently transferring to Cal Berkeley.  I hope this quilt will bring him some warmth and comfort during the cool fall & winter seasons while he’s away from home. The quilt has 168 five-inch finished squares and has a 12 x 14 setting.  It has a soft flannel backing and measures 58” x 66”.  I used Warm & Natural batting and quilted it with a simple line design. I’m happy with how it turned out and hope David will treasure it forever! July 2010

My bouillabaisse quilt top is FINALLY finished!  I started it in September 2009 and have  been working on it off and on.  And, in July I committed to finishing it.  It has twenty blocks and each block is 20-1/2 inches.  It measures 97 square inches, with a 6-1/2 inch border. This is the second bouillabaisse quilt I’ve made, but I had so many issues with it! It seems that no matter how many 1-3/4” strips I cut, it just wasn’t enough!  But the real dizzies were the points and bias edges … OMG, by the last few blocks, I couldn’t care less whether anything matched:  I just wanted to get ‘er done!  It’s shown on a queen-size bed, and it’s the second queen-size quilt top I’ve made. I’m not sure yet whether I will quilt it myself or send it out.  I’m definitely keeping this one so I’m really leaning towards sending it to a LA quilter.  But, for now, it’s in my “To Be Quilted” pile! This is a picture of the original bouillabaisse quilt I made in 2003.  I bought the fabric kit and w

I made this top from a kit I purchased at my LQS a couple years ago.  I saw the sample in the store and fell in love with the fabric and design.  However, the store ran out of the kits, but I bought some yardage and received the pattern for free. It’s such an easy scrappy design that uses one charm pack plus one jelly roll.  The block is a four-patch of 2-1/2” squares, plus four 2-1/2” strips, which are sewn to the 4-patch in a log-cabin style.  I started this last week and just finished it yesterday. July 2010 UPDATE:  Sold on eBay in February 2011 sold for $65

One more nickel quilt!  This pattern is Northern Lights , and the quilt measures 47 x 60 inches.  I made this quilt from a stash of Christmas fabrics that I’ve had for a few years.  I cut up the fabrics into 5-inch squares, found a pattern that I liked, and put it all together into a baggie as a kit. Last year, I pulled out the kit and put the blocks together; but I wasn’t thrilled with the color combo … the background just didn’t seem right … and I put it aside to work on other projects. Well, 2010 being the year to finish those UFOs, I tackled this project and finally finished it!  But, even when I completed the top, I still wasn’t thrilled with it … it just didn’t sing to me.  I struggled with the borders, and then finally decided, the heck with it, I’ll just make it borderless.  But now that it’s finished?  It sings loud and proud! I quilted it with an allover heart and loopy design (a nice change over meandering), and the backing is an angel fabric that my BFF foun

I joined the pinwheel sampler quilt-along hosted by Rachel of p.s. i quilt in February, but then put it on the backburner.  Recently, I got motivated to finish it when I saw the completed quilts that others made.  I t measures 56 x 68 inches, and  I quilted it with an overall heart and loopy design. This was my third blogging quilt-along, and they’re just so much fun.  I would have never tried a pinwheel sampler on my own.  I really love how this turned out! July 2010 UPDATE:  Sold on Etsy in February 2011 for $140

I purchased the kit for this table runner a few years ago, and I finally got around to finishing it up.  It went together fairly quickly as it is a “quilt-as-you-go” project.  But, as easy as it was, I still had a problem and almost didn’t finish it.  The middle square is supposed to be centered, but as you can see from the picture below it is not!   After sewing on all the “log cabins” (strips), I realized the strips on one side were too short.  I was too lazy frustrated to repair the damage so I just trimmed the edges as-is, thinking this would be another loser project. However, after I finished binding it and putting it on the table, I realized it wasn’t too bad.  Besides, you all wouldn’t have known there was a major mistake if I hadn’t told you … right? June 2010

Another nickel quilt from Pat Speth’s book!  The pattern is "Dutchman’s Puzzle", and the quilt measures 55 x 69 inches.  Again, I used old scraps that I just wanted to get rid of use up.  I didn’t even enjoy the process of sewing the blocks and thought for sure the top would be a real loser.  But look at it now … it just all came together once I added the two borders.  The outer border is a red paisley that I love.  This may be one of my favorites once I finish quilting it! June 2010 UPDATE:  Sold on Etsy in December 2010 for $57

I made this quilt from scraps that I’ve had around for years.  Individually, these squares are outdated and not very inspiring.  But put them together into a scrappy quilt, and they all somehow work beautifully together! The pattern for this quilt is “Autumn Stretched Star” from Pat Speth’s “Nickel Quilts” book, and I used an alternate X–O block arrangement.  The design is created with 5-inch squares from fall-theme fabric and 2-1/2” squares in a cream color. I t measures 57” square , and I quilted it with an overall stippling design.  This was an easy and fast pattern! June 2010

This is my second string quilt for the two string-quilt challenges I’m participating in.  I blogged about my first string quilt here . I thought the Memorial Day weekend was a good time to finish this one. I’ll be donating this quilt to the Quilts of Valor program. I started it in March and posted about it here .  It all began with a pile of strings in patriotic fabrics that I’ve had for years.  The quilt measures 52 x 65 inches. May 2010 UPDATED:  Sold on eBay in May 2011 for $45

Another Wrapped In Hope quilt … this is the third quilt I have donated to this wonderful program.  This quilt is for Christian from California, and he likes Spider-man and books. I already had the Spider-man material in my stash, which I’d purchased a couple years back.  I alternated the 6-inch squares with red, white & blue Hourglass blocks.  So simple, but what a great design!  Do you see the secondary design the blocks create … the white star? My friend Mary also made a Wrapped in Hope quilt.  Here we are in the parking lot of the community center right before our guild meeting.  Her quilt has butterflies and a pretty pink flannel backing.  Perfect for a sweet young lady! May 2010