2019 Is Off to a Good Start!

 The winner of Strip Quilt Secrets from Diane at http://www.butterflythreadsquilting.com and her blog hop was Julie in WA and she is partial to blue. Congratulations Julie, I know you will love the book!

 I won this gorgeous pile of goodies from Sherri over at http://www.aquiltinglife.com

I was only expecting some strips and strings, but she also included a couple of mini charm packs from her fabric line Walkabout. Thank you, Sherri! I think I will whip up some string blocks.

I finished binding my Turquoise Twist quilt on Thursday night. The design is featured in Strip Quilt Secrets. Aren't all those strips together spectacular? It really is that bright!

The gray minky backing calms it down a little and my wavy stitch quilting on the two inch diagonals gives some curves in all those strips.

I dove into Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt, Good Fortune, on Black Friday. Although I have made several of Bonnie's quilt patterns, I have never participated in one of her annual mystery quilt sew alongs. I decided to join in this year because it was going to be a relatively small quilt 72 x 72 inches (small by Bonnie standards) and I knew I had plenty of fabrics in my stash to make it with. I am so glad I made this! I learned some new tricks too--I had never spun seams before or sewed strip sets on telephone book pages. I was terribly worried about the pieced borders fitting correctly, but they actually fit! Now, I need to get a backing for this beauty and figure out how to have it quilted...

Does anyone have ideas for how to have this one quilted? I think I want to have the quilting dense because I am a little worried about the smaller seam allowances on the green chevrons and green border triangles...Here is a link to Bonnie's website where this pattern is available:
http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2019/01/mystery-monday-link-up-reveal-2.html

 Since my Turquoise Twist Quilt was done and my Good Fortune top was all done, I started working on the Vintage Block Along Lori Holt has been featuring on her blog:

http://beeinmybonnetco.blogspot.com 

This is Grandma's Star. I am making the 12 inch versions instead of the six inch versions.

Next up was Pattern Basket and it finishes at 15 inches. I made the first two blocks yesterday.

This one also finishes 15 inches and I made it this morning. It is called Around the Corner.

This block finishes 12 inches and is called Little Farmhouse. I am using scraps and I seem to be making most of my blocks from aqua and red. Did you know a front door on a house that is painted red is supposed to signify that the house has been paid off? I just think it looks cheerful!

There are two Harry Potter Quilt Alongs starting this week. I was having a hard time deciding which one to make, but I have just decided to make them both. After all I have three classrooms, so why not have two HP quilts? I bought all the Kona purple they had at my Joann's and it is not enough for both, but I will just get some more. You can find the schedule and information for them here:

https://sewfreshquilts.blogspot.com/p/harry-potter-quilt-along.html

I have this little beauty to bind for Ludene and another huge quilt in the queue to bind for her too! I will work on this for Slow Sunday Stitching:

https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2019/01/slow-sunday-stitching.html

I think I am off to a good start for 2019 with one quilt that I started on December 26th already done and another top together too. With the exception of the accent turquoise and the backings, both quilts were totally made from my stash!!!

PS My daughter is on safari with my mother in law in Botswana and she just sent me this picture of them with this elephant!