This is my UFO that is almost finished after more than a year of stops and starts. I need to add two borders wo each side and the top will be done. I decided it will be a gift to my sister-in-law Lisa in thanks for all the care she gave my late mom, but I had to expand it to a king, which meant I had to use some of the original backing fabric for the borders of the top (the medium aqua). The binding will be the darkest blue.

So that meant I had to piece multiple fabrics for the back, and I got carried away, making a French braid and triangle stripe, keeping the southwest feel. (In an abundance of caution I had bought a yard each of all 9 fabrics, and was able to find extra yardage of the pale blue a year later, but I didn't have a full 9 yards of any single fabric. So the medium aqua will be in the middle of the back, flanked by the two patterned stripes, and then the paler blue on each side, in case the quilt is reversed.

The last bit has involved working with really big chunks of fabric, which makes me really ready to get back to nice manageable 12 inch squares or smaller, or maybe a mini quilt!

my first quilt

I thought it was time to post photos of the first quilt I completed. The photo on the right is the whole quilt, queen size, and the one on the left is the lable on the back and a bit of the backing.

This was block-of-the month quilt from Joann's that I bought 3-4 years ago and finally started on in 2008 and finished in 2009. I changed the fabrics in the large setting squares and the inner border, because the kit had used the brownish floral that is in the center of the quilt (and I dislike that brown and wanted more of a blue look), and the large setting squares. My long-arm quilter, Mindy Washburn, did a beautiful job of pulling together this novice effort (my borders were a bit wavy, and there were other problems with "squareness"). My prior sewing experience was a lot of garment-making so I was used to "easing" seams to make things fit. I know now this is not a great technique in piecework!

Band t-shirt quilt

This photo shows the black and white music fabric I used for the backing, and the beautiful scrolly quilting by Mindy Washburn. I used to printable label sheets and made a label with my daughter's picture and listed her honors and awards.

This is my third quilt, completed right before Christmas 2008. It is a t-shirt quilt made for my daughter Catherine, composed of her high school band t-shirt. It was quilted by Mindy Washburn. The borders are intended to represent piano keyboards; the plaid corners are the plaid that the band leaders wore ("Lake Highlands").

This is a closer view of the blocks and shows Donna's beautiful quilting.

my second quilt

I started quilting in 2008. This was my second quilt. It was a "mystery quilt" that I pieced from directions online for the Quilts of Valor Foundation. My friend Donna King did the quilting on it. I donated it to an Iraq veteran who lives in New Jersey. (the borders actually were straight but I hung it over some doors to take the photo, so the top border is folded under.
This one had a number of flying geese, and I had to do lots of "redos" to get it to come out right. I think Donna had to do a lot in the quilting to get some of my variations in block size not to "wave."