Easy Street, Part 5

OK- it's official!  I am behind.  Christmas gifts have taken priority over Easy Street.  I made this one piece for step 5 so that I'd have something to show.  I'll catch up starting December 26 and I will be caught up by the time Step 6 is released next Friday. 

This is one of the Christmas gifts I finished last night.  A baby quilt for my minister's sister.  I'll give it to her tonight at the Christmas Eve service.  I just love the "gender neutral" colors. 

Merry Christmas!



Easy Street, Part 4

I am in the throes of finishing up quilting projects for Christmas presents, but I had to made these just so I'd have something to show for today!  I also was so curious to see how these would come together.  I love these colors. 

Today I'm headed to a local quilt shop to quilt a queen size quilt I am making for a Christmas gift.  You know how it is when you don't get the top done in time to send it to the longarmer, so you have to do it yourself!  I haven't used the longarm in over a year, so it will be simple.  This week I also have a baby quilt to make and some placemats.  But, my goal is to finish the rest of step 4 before Friday and step 5!  I WILL NOT GET BEHIND!

Easy Street, Part 3

Easy Street, Part 3 done!  My strategy is that I don't let myself sew anything else until my Easy Street clue for the week is done.  But, honestly I found that this week's clue was easier that the others.  Maybe not easier, but we needed less units this week, so that may have made it seem easier.  I can't wait to see how this comes together because I love these units so far. 

The past 2 weekends I have participated in our church's mission market in which we sold handmade items to benefit our missions.  I made tree skirts, quilted an antique quilt, quilted a table topper, made a wall hanging.  Of everything, the wall hanging was the most in demand.  This wall hanging went for over $100!  And guess who couldn't live without it!  Our minister.

Easy Street, Part 2

I finished the 4 patches this weekend and began working on the flying geese.  Only got about 20 of them done.  They are actually easier than I thought.  After all the quilting I have done, I've never had a fool-proof method for making flying geese.  I've only made them with paper piecing.  I went out and bought the Easy Angle and Companion Angle rulers and I have to tell you- this method is awesome.  There is no waste and they come out as near perfect as I can imagine.  Going to keep at it this week until I finish all 128 of them!

Easy Street, Part 1

Not exactly a good time to start a new project since I am rushing to complete Christmas quilty gifts.  But, how can I pass this up?  Bonnie Hunter's new mystery quilt is called Easy Street, and since I live in the Big Easy, why not?  Plus she promises that this one won't have all of the little pieces of past mysteries.  And I love the colors of this one and it is a queen bed-size quilt.  I'm working on the 192 four patches of black/white and grey.  I will be finished by the time the next clue comes out Friday.  I will not get behind on this one!  I also like that Bonnie says she likes big quilts and has little use for throw size quilts.  As much as I love throwing a quilt over me on the couch, she's right.  I have enough of those to last a lifetime.  Have you ever noticed that when you give someone a throw size quilt as a gift you can just see them trying to figure out if it will fit their bed?  You have to explain to them that this is a throw size quilt to use on the couch, at the end of the bed, etc. 
My next 2 weeks are busy trying to get projects completed for our church's mission market December 2 & 9.  Making tree skirts, table topper, wall hanging, child-size quilts and quilting an old quilt top that someone donated.  Oh, and this is all between work days! 

Donation Quilt

Each year I make a quilt for the silent auction at a national nursing convention.  I am a member of the foundation board and this silent auction benefits the foundation.  I made this quilt in a queen size for a friend- it's at the quilter.  With the fabric I had left over- and some more I purchased- I was able to put together this throw size.  Those who like lime green and tourquoise will like this quilt.  I quilted it on my home machine.  It's 72" square- a size that's pretty easy to handle on a domestic machine.  I tried to use different designs in different places.  Since there are long lines it was easier to do. 
I actually make a quilt and an afghan- so now it's time to get to the knitting since the convention is in 2 weeks!

Fleur de France

I bought this fabric and pattern this summer from MesAmis quilt shop in New Orleans.  It was to make a throw quilt for a friend who just renovated a cottage in Bay St. Louis, MS.  I set it aside to finish other more pressing projects.  You can relate, right?  The GSQA board president challenged the board members to make a diamond quilt for our October 20 program- Diamonds are a Girls' Best Friend.  So, last weekend I pulled this out.  It served 2 purposes at once!  This is my first diamond quilt.  It's not as hard as I thought once you get the hang of it.  I always wanted to make Kaffe Fassett's diamond quilt.  But, it intimidated me- all those different diamond shapes, even though there are templates, so years ago when I made that quilt I changed it to squares on point or "fake diamonds".