What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

My friend Deb told me about a swap she and her stitching friends are doing. 

Of course, we love that they chose Mary Witherwax blocks!

Her group has existed for years, bonded in friendship and love.   

They’ve moved all over the country and still retreat together when they can.

They all do hand appliqué and don’t have too many ‘rules’ for the swap.

Having a history of many group projects they know what they like.

Their ground fabrics will all be scrappy shirtings - each member making duplicates of the same blocks.

In the end - they will each have ...

 I started this leader/ender challenge with quiltville in July of 2016. My friend Lucy, my daughter, and I swapped hourglass blocks all year. The top was done in September 2017. It has been waiting in the 'to be quilted' closet until this year. Now it has a chance to shine as a completed quilt. There are over 3000 pieces in this quilt. It was such fun to get a new package in the mail with new hourglasses. And fun again as they were sewn into the top.

This also completes my one monthly goal at elm street quilts. And ...

 My Friday group meets at the library. There are 3 of us, that meet regularly, and, we have another 5 that comes many times, but, off and on. They are all very talented, and approach quilting differently. That's why I enjoy it so much. I just like to make quilts. I may not have a reason to make one or a plan on what I am going to do with it. I may have several projects going at the same time, and, I tend to bounce around from project to project. I quilt my own quilts on a longarm ...

Lucy's basket is a finished quilt. It has been a long time coming. The basket's themselves were a pattern by Bonnie Hunter at quiltville.blogspot.com in her book more adventures with leader and enders.  My daughter and a scrappy quilter friend, Lucy, swapped the baskets in 2014. We each made 230 baskets. I moved it from ufo status to assemble in October 2019. I put it on my top 10 quilts I want to finish in 2020. I didn't finish it like Bonnie did. I wanted something smaller.

It was a long weekend, I have been slowly cleaning for company and Thanksgiving. Not my favorite thing to do. So, I do it very slowly with as many distractions as I can find. I did dig the Christmas tree out of storage. So far it looks a little pathetic.
I made another sand castle block. This quilt is in the book string frenzy. I started it here and here and here.

I am starting to see what this wonky courthouse steps quilt will look like when finished. I am joining squares together in sections to make it easier to assemble. More here.
I have really enjoyed making this quilt in the evening when it is dark and cold. It adds a little bright. It is s free pattern from Bonnie Hunter at quiltvile.

I have a dozen of these batting boards to use for block piecing. I never remember to use them, but, they came in handy for preparing my basket blocks. I really enjoyed making the blocks once the hard decision was made about which baskets to put where. It was really easy to chain sew, without the pressure of choosing.