BACKINGS AND BABY BIRDS

Look at the baby robins now!  Are they hungry, or what?!?!?  They are keeping mama busy.

Canuck Quilter had a post about backings here.  She showed some of hers and it got me to thinking about one of my favorite quilts - my Blogging Buddies friendship quilt.  I checked my blog post about it and noticed that I never put a picture of the backing on my blog, so I decided to take a picture of it.  I didn't have enough of the grey fabric, so I used up a bunch of orphan blocks that I made or won at my guild's "block of the month."  I also had 2 extra blocks from the front of the quilt.

DH held up the quilt and there was light coming in the window behind him, so you can see the front through the back.  Hee Hee!  I love the back almost as much as the front!  Most of the time, my backs aren't very special.

Right now I'm working on getting backings ready.  This fabric is for my Dear Jane quilt - its. Prairie Gathering by Pam Buda, Marcus Fabrics.  This is one of those rare times that I have enough fabric for the whole back.  I just love this fabric!

I plan to baste a few quilts at the same time and one of them is this quilt top that my Mom embroidered years ago.  I am finally planning to quilt it.  I have some fabric set aside, but it's not enough, so I'm not sure yet what I will do for this one.

This pile of fabrics is for the back my Flags of the American Revolution quilt and I really don't have very many large pieces of red or blue so I'm trying to figure out how to get these pieces put together so it will be big enough (trying to use up stash).  The quilt is 80 1/2" square.  I have lots of red and blue, but not many large pieces.  Probably used up on some donation quilts.

It's good that I've been using stash, but it seems like I have lots of small pieces and tons of scraps, but not many large pieces - at least that will "go" with what I'm basting.  Hmmm, maybe I'll need to do some shopping.  The LQS gives a 25% discount during your birthday week and my birthday is coming up soon, so I have some plans.

DEAR JANE, THE TOP IS FINISHED!!!

I'm very happy today!! I finished putting the top together yesterday, June 24, 2017!  Woo Hoo!!!!!!!!  Thanks for all your encouraging words.  When I first saw some of these quilts, it was at a quilt show in Fort Worth, Texas on Feb. 8, 2008.  Brenda Papadakis was there and gave a talk about her journey making the book and of course the book was for sale.  I didn't buy it.  I thought about the quilt for a long time and eventually put it on my Christmas list.

I received the book for Christmas on December 25, 2013, from my DS/DIL (after it had been on my Christmas wish list for a few years).  I had decided that if I ever got the book I was going to make it.  I  made the first block on January 22, 2014.  I pretty much made all the blocks in order or at least worked on the rows in order.  Sometimes, I didn't do each block in the row in order.  My plan was to make each of the 169 blocks with a different "main" fabric and not duplicate any of the "main" fabrics in the center square.  I did use background fabrics more than one time, but didn't really keep track of them except to try not to put the same ones next to each other.

I had a similar plan for the border triangles in that I didn't duplicate any of the "main" fabrics among them, but some of those fabrics might have been used in the middle section.  I bought some better quality muslin for the sashing and corner blocks (kites).  I will also use this muslin for the scalloped border around the edges.  That will be the next job - to sew on the muslin borders and mark it for the scallops.  Then, I will machine quilt it.  I plan to get it quilted before September.

Baby robin update:  The babies seem to be getting more feathers and they are being fed quite often.  We can see the adult birds flying into and out of the nest through our living room windows.

Now I can relax a little more!