Two finishes this week.

I have 2 great finishes this week, both Christmas gifts for our Grandsons.
The first is what I've been calling Avery's Truck Quilt. I'm not too terribly good with creative and catchy names for quilts.

I first saw this particular quilt design over on Jamie's blog here. I asked her if I could use the design, and she graciously said yes. I quilted it with an all over design called Hotwheels, designed by Dave Hudson, and purchased from Digi-tech Designs. 
The design shows up really well on the white areas on the backing. The bindings were done with my now normal faux-piping technique using the border fabric as the binding, with just an accent of orange in between. The backing was made with leftovers from the fabrics for the quilt top, plus other fabrics that I thought said something about Avery. There is book fabric in there, because he loves his books, yellow and chocolate lab fabrics, because he has a chocolate lab named Shelby. There are sailboats, because he loves the water, and lives quite close to it. The back was almost as fun to piece as the front.

Then the other finish I have is Jack's quilt, which is a pattern by Judy Martin, called Celebration, found in her book Scraps.

 I quilted it using a very simple continuous curve. I wanted all the fun fabrics in the quilt to be the focus, rather than the quilting. His binding is a diagonally printed stripe, with red as the piping contrast.
I'm looking forward to being able to give it to him and to explain to him that it is more than a quilt, that it is a game, called I Spy, and start him looking for all the fun things in it..... good things to eat, things found on a farm, things that live in the water......
I had some really fun fish and ocean themed fat quarters that I could never quite bring myself to cut into, since they are just so much fun to look at whole. So I pieced them into a backing.

Here's a close up of one of them. These were such fun quilts to make. There are still 2 more, waiting to be finished, as well. I'm linking up to the blog Crazy Mom Quilts for the Finish it Friday posts.

Design Wall Monday, Nov. 19, 2012

I have lots to show today. Some of it from the Quilt til you wilt day on Saturday, and more from what I managed to get done yesterday.
The first thing I did on Saturday was finish sewing Jack's quilt together.
This quilt is just so much fun. It is another pattern by Judy Martin, from her book Scraps and the pattern is called "Celebration" It was supposed to have some borders put on of the checkerboard and a single row of the 3 inch novelty squares, but I decided that I like it just as it is. Here's a close up of some of the really fun fabrics.


















After finishing putting Jack's quilt together, I got a start on Nathan's. It too is a Judy Martin pattern, from her book Patchwork Among Friends.  The pattern is called Friends Forever. I've changed it out a fair bit. The pattern showed the center of the stars being the same fabric as the points, and it is lovely that way. But I wanted to be able to make it more kid friendly, so I used some 6 inch charms of novelty fabrics that I had. That also then involved changing up the sizes of all the pieces, but that's OK, too.
There are 7 more blocks to make yet. I have them cut out, and just need to sew them together. The remaining colours will break up all those darks that are currently all together at the bottom. All the empty spaces around the edge will get filled in with more 6 x 3.25 inch rectangles, leftovers from cutting the rest of the quilt. Here's the rest of the colours waiting to be sewn up.

There will definitely be some rearranging of the layout once they are all done and up and the wall.
And finally, I spent most of yesterday putting together a backing for Jack's quilt.
I have all kind of fat quarters of those fish themed fabrics. I've never been quite sure what to do with them as they are way to cute and fun to cut up. So I've decided to use them in backings. And I threw in the pieces that I'd originally made for one of the borders that I decided not to put on. All in all, a very productive weekend.
I'm linking up to Judy's Patchwork Times where there are lots of other fun walls to look at and get inspired by.

Design Wall Monday, Nov. 5, 2012

This is the beginnings of another quilt by Judy Martin, called Celebrations. I actually showed this exact same picture last week, and there hasn't been any change to it. I have lots more of the three-sies of novelty fabrics sewn, since I've been using them as leaders and enders. But I'm not sure how much more sewing there will be done in the next little while. My lovely, generous daughter may have shared her head cold with me.  My head had been filling up all day, and I'm starting to get chills. Wasn't that wonderful of her..... NOT! I was supposed to be going back to work tomorrow after being off sick for the last 2 weeks, but if this keeps up, that won't be happening. Ah well, this too shall pass.
I'm linking up to Judy's Patchwork Times and her design wall Monday listing. I think maybe I'll cuddle under a quilt with a cup of tea, and look at all the fun stuff.