WIP's

Amandajean @ crazymomquilts is celebrating her 500th blog post with a giveaway. To enter you have to comment on your favorite WIP. I have many WIP. I often speculate that if I stayed away from fabric stores, websites, ebay for a year, I would not run out of things to sew. So why do I keep buying? It is definitely my addiction. At least it doesn't hurt anyone, just occasionally my wallet. Ok, anyway, I decided to blog about my favorite here. I actually have two that I will share because both need to be finished and if I were to get these completed I would feel GREAT!

The first is this Patriotic Sampler that I started about 5 years ago. The top has been done awhile now and I need to get it quilted. I am proud of this one. It was a block of the month and I modified it a bit because it was going to be too big. I always look at it when I need to remind myself that I can do applique.

The eagle and the circles with stars are all machine appliqued.

I love house blocks and stars anyway, so there were lots of these in this quilt. I was going to put this on my son's bed at the time and it can still go there. It is even more appropriate for him now because he has become very patriotic and wants to join the military in some way after college. I think he would just be pleased that I actually finished it for him.

The next WIP is definitely more recent. It is my Project Improv quilt top. I will probably quilt this one first and get myself used to quilting a bigger quilt on my machine again. These two quilts couldn't be more different, could they? I don't know what I am going to do with this one. Probably love it awhile and then donate it somewhere.

I had fun with the Project Improv quilt. Unlike the Patriotic Sampler, there were no patterns, no rules, just sewing and cutting anyway I wanted. I love the pieced border and sashing. It doesn't make a lot of sense but that was the fun part.

I want to end today by thanking blogland, especially the two blogs that I have highlighted today, for getting me sewing on a regular basis again. I love to sew and don't know what I would do without it, but it is much more fun to share it with those who love it as much as I do. Reading about everyone else's projects has just lit a spark in me that hasn't flickered quite that brightly in a long time! Thanks everyone!

Bloggers Quilt Festival

I decided to join the Bloggers Quilt Festival sponsored by Amy at Park City Girl after seeing so many other quilters show their favorite quilts on their blogs. I chose this cat quilt because it makes me smile. It is definitely a quirky quilt. I don't remember where the pattern came from but I do know that I purchased it at a quilt shop probably 8 or so years ago. (I apologize to the designer for not being able to give them credit here.) The fabric is a mix of cottons and flannels and the quilting is very simple machine stitching in the ditch. What I love about it is the random use of color and the combination of different materials like flannel for the cats' faces and buttons for embellishment. There is a little bit of handwork on the dress collars. This was a fun quilt to make because it used all sorts of techniques to keep me interested it it to the very end. I sometimes get bored with a quilt and have to put it down for a while. I guess that is why I have so many UFO's and WIP's!

Thanks for coming by for a look at my part of the quilt festival. Please let me know that you were here!