Blue One Block Wonder

 I tried to finish up a lot of UFOs during the pandemic.  Here is one of them:

I bought the fabric for this OBW in a quilt shop in southwest Virginia.  It must have been old or not selling well because it wasn't very expensive.  I bought 7 panels, 6 for the front, and one for the back.

I don't know what I'm going to do with this quilt. I may ask my family if anyone is interested in it.  I think it is really pretty, but I don't have space for all the quilts I make.  

One thing that my longarmer pointed out to me:  it is bearding a little on the back.  I used Dream Cotton batting (100% cotton), but I am not sure of the manufacturer of the dark blue fabric since I bought it so long ago.  I don't think anyone but a quilter would notice the bearding.  I washed the quilt, and it didn't seem to make it any worse. I've made lots of quilts and never had one beard before.  I don't think it would have even shown if the backing had been a print.  I had considered using black batting with this quilt, but the white in the flowers stopped me.  

Hearts of Hope, Top Done

 I finished putting the borders on Hearts of Hope today.  It took me a while to decide what to do.  My quilt is 7 X 10 hearts (odd X even).  Bonnie's quilt is 7 X 7 ( odd X odd), so the border she designed will not turn the corners properly on my quilt.  I saw someone else with an odd X even quilt who did use the string borders that Bonnie designed, and I did not like the way their corners looked.  My choice was either to design my own borders or to just use straight borders.

I decided the quilt was busy enough without the string-pieced borders.  The person who will receive the quilt will not love it any less for having plain, unpieced borders, so that's what I chose to use.  I had to buy fabric for the two neutral border since my neutral stash is very low, but I found the blue fabric in my stash.  I also found backing in my stash.  I am trying to use up the big pieces I have.  Somehow I made an over abundance of the yellow/blue squares that go around the hearts.  I thought about using them on the back, but there are a lot of seams in this quilt, and it didn't make sense to add more seams with more little squares on the back.

This quilt is  throw size, 74" X 56".  

I had problems with one of the neutral fabrics I bought fraying.  I have NEVER had this much fraying before.  I have heard people complain about Kona fraying, but it is nothing compared to the fabric I bought.  It was made by Marcus, and I have looked high and low online trying to find it but I can't.   All I can say is it will be a long time before I buy any more fabric by Marcus.  I got it at a quilt shop, but it definitely wasn't quilt shop quality. Fortunately, I only bought 1/4 yard of it.

Hearts of Hope, Part Two Done

 I got all the hearts put together today.  I think I am going to give this quilt to a friend when it is finished.  Her walls are yellow, and her furniture is blue.  This quilt has UVA as well as VCU fabric in it, and her kids went to UVA and VCU.

This week I need to get all the hearts sewn together and start on the borders.  I'm a little tired of string piecing right now, so I'm glad to have a week off from that.

Hearts of Hope Sew Along

 I started Bonnie Hunter's Hearts of Hope a couple of weeks ago.  This is a free pattern on her website, but she asks for a donation to  Quilters for Ukraine Go Fund Me. The last time I checked, they had raised almost $80,000.  Here's a link to the first Hearts of Hope post.  https://quiltville.blogspot.com/p/hearts-of-hope-sew-along.html  Sorry, it has been so long since I posted a link, I am not sure how to make it clickable.

So far, I have finished the first week's units.  I am about half way through the second week's.  I lost 3 days of sewing last week because I was sick. 

Because I can't count, I ended up making extra blue units (the top of the hearts).  Then I had to make extra yellow units, so all the tops would have a bottom.  My quilt is going to be rectangular,  7 x 10 blocks instead of Bonnie's 7 x 7 blocks.  

Sew Many Strips

 I finished binding my third Sew Many Strips quilt yesterday.  This one was all scraps with no thought as to color.  I used up a bunch of ugly prints and busy neutrals.

I think Sew Many Strips is the perfect scrap quilt pattern.  It uses strip piecing, so the sewing goes fast, considering how small the pieces are.  You can make it completely scrappy like this one, or controlled scrappy for a different look.

This was my first one.  I used blue, green and a little purple.  I gave this one to my cousin who hosts our family reunion.

The next one is all batiks.  I gave it to my sister.  This one might be my favorite.

I have one more to go,  done in fall colors.

Update on my quilt drawing.  Not Quite Zuckerwatte went to my niece.  This is a variation on a Bonnie Hunter pattern.

My goal is to finally finish up my unquilted tops.  Three are done.  Three more are at the longarmer, and I have many more to do.

The pillowcases I sent to the young adults in my family are starting to arrive.  Say what you will about our postal system, but I mailed them Monday, and the first arrived on Tuesday!

More Pillowcases

 I decided to make pillowcases for my nieces and nephews who are still in college and for those who have graduated from somewhere other than Virginia Tech. Tech grads have already gotten theirs. I have made 26 pillowcases since I started this in February.  The minor children in the family will have to wait for theirs!

I made 3 VCU pillowcases:

4 George Mason:

1 Pokemon:

1 UVA:

1 South Carolina:

and 2 more JMUs:

I would say that I'm done for now, but maybe not.  I saw some baseball fabric that would be perfect for my sister, I need to come up with something for my niece at Sweet Briar (probably a fox print), and if everyone is getting pillowcases, my mom probably needs one too.

Not Quite Zuckerwatte Bound

 I got Not Quite Zuckerwatte back from the longarmer and bound it last week.  It looks like a quilt a little girl would like, but the youngest girl in our family is 15.

I really like the quilting  pattern that Virginia Longarm chose.  I usually let the quilter pick the pattern since they see so many more quilts than I do, and they know what type of pattern works well on the kind of quilt I make.

I sent an email to my family today letting them know that this quilt is looking for a home.  They need to let me know if they are interested in it, and I will draw a name from the interested people later this week. If this goes well, I will do this with other old quilts I have hanging around.