Finish Line

I was hoping to share this top all quilted but with the way my life has been for the past year, that just didn't work out.  This is one of my entries for the In The Bag~Ugly Fabric Quilt Challenge that I joined I can't- remember -when but ends October 15 (?).  You can check out all the others here. 
I've had the border fabric for years and have always loved it but could never figure out what I wanted to make with it.

That dark green background and the light basket above it are two of the uglies I received.

Two more uglies: the grass green background and the dark purple background below it.

I really tried to use all the uglies in this one quilt per Challenge rules but I could not make them fit. So I ended up making another top! The Baskets top is about 82 by 68 inches. I love how it turned out, so bright and festive. I always say, if you can't cut a fabric you do not like small enough, then distract attention away from it.

This one measures 78 by 95 inches and it all Churn Dashes of four different sizes, four, six,nine, and sixteen-inch blocks. I had a lot of fun making it.
I mentioned in a prior post that I suffered (word chosen for emotional effect) a back injury fall of 2011 and it has just been hanging on with a lot of pain.  I started Physical Therapy two weeks ago and am starting to lead a more normal life again!  I have learned through a tough therapist that muscles heal better through exercise.

Happy 4th!

Hello, Happy Fourth of July! I've been sewing up a storm today. First off, I made this Philadelphia Pavement 10-inch block from Nancy Martin's Perpetual Calendar to donate to a fellow blogger who is making a Quilts of Valor quilt.
And I've been making slow but steady progress in my second quilt using the uglies from the In The Bag Challenge.

I ran into a problem with one of the uglies. Of course, I did not notice the hole in the fabric until the block was completed and I had no more fabric. What's a quilter to do? Make do!

The hole was in the center square. I substituted another fabric but then realized all I had to do was reverse the lights and darks (duh!) and then I would have enough. So that's what I ended up doing.

I've changed the way I make HSTs. I found it so much more accurate to make them larger and then trim them down to the correct size. I know some quilters pooh-pooh that as being more work but when your block finishes at 4 inches, it's a necessity!

It worked so well for the 4-inch Churn Dashes, I began using it for the larger sizes as well.

Here's another of the uglies, the veggie print and not the orange! I had to make a second quilt as I misread the original directions for the Challenge. We were to use 90% of the uglies in our project whereas I thought we just had to include a bit of it.

Talk to you later~

 Hope you have a glorious July 4th!