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!

Improv quilt

I haven't written on my blog forever! I love to read other blogs though and check to see if there are any new posts on my favorites probably as much as my son tries to play on his x-box. That's alot!

In my daily, blog reading I have been learning about Improvisational quilts here, at Tall Grass Prairie Studio and here at crazymomquilts by Amanda Jean. Amanda Jean, who I just know through her fun blog, is a prolific quilter and she has really motivated me to try her style of quilting with lots of fun color on white backgrounds in an improv style.

Jacquie at Tall Grass Prairie Studio, who I also know only from her blog, is another prolific quilter, and she is sponsoring a charity quilt project called Project Improv. You can check that out at the link above. Talk about motivation! So, I gave it a try and here is what I created. These are all of my blocks and I am figuring out how I will arrange them in a quilt.


It was so much fun. I love the puzzle part of quilting so I felt like this style was just made for me. I didn't get too crazy but I definitely got outside the box but took my rotary cutter, cutting mat and ruler with me! The crazier block in the middle here is for the back of the quilt. I actually realized I had too many blocks to work with so I sewed it and the little one next to it with the polka dot center together and will put them in a strip on the back.

So hopefully next time I post, which WILL be this week, I will have pictures of my finished quilt top. Happy sewing!