Almost finished

A few friends and I are doing a block swap. When Elizabeth first mentioned it, I thought "Oh, that sounds like fun! I have always wanted to participate in a block swap!" Then she mentioned that you make 9 blocks each month! Nine! Was she nuts?

Apparently so I am because I said Yes. And it is not bad- the blocks are fairly simple and they are only 6" square. You put 9 into a larger block which ends up (quilter math anyone? yes I really mean 6 1/2" unfinished...) 18" square. Each month you make 9 blocks of the same pattern. They can all be the same, they can be all different, or some of this and some of that... it doesn't matter, because everyone gets only 1 block from each of the other quilters. Our only stipulation for this swap is batiks.  

We started in Feb and I have gotten back blocks for the months of Feb thru June. So yesterday I started putting the blocks together.

Here is Feb:

And March:

April:

May:

June:

They look great don't they? So far, my favorite is April. Though March is a close second. Using one type of fabric really ties the whole thing together. Elizabeth did this swap with her guild a few years ago and they used Civil war fabrics. I am a new fan of them and think that would be fun too!

I also made this quilt top. It was made using the pattern Surf Club by Sweetwater and a layer cake of their fabric line Lucy' s Crab Shack. The link is for the website Lily Bella Fabrics who still has the layer cakes. And she has them for $35.00 instead of the usual $39.00.

I did change the pattern a little- my friend Charmion and I wanted to make the quilt larger, so I added a inner border of white to float the center pieces, and then added a pieced border of 4 1/2" squares around the outside. Cute, huh?


The problem with living in smaller apartment is (smaller in that it is smaller than my old house) there is no where to take pictures of the larger quilts. Hmmm... this will take some thought.


Off to plan the quilting for Little Lucy.


Happy quilting,
Kate