When I completed my Splendid Sampler late 2016/early 2017, one of the goals was to use up a bunch of my red and blue fabric stash.  Surprisingly, even though that quilt was huge, I didn’t use up as much fabric as I hoped.  I did use up a bunch more piecing the backing of that quilt, but I also decided to cut up a bunch of 2.5″ squares to try and use up some more.  This quilt was the result of those scraps.

Originally I was just going to do a random placement, but I decided to try to do a scrappy Irish Chain instead.  I drew up a plan in EQ8, but then it sat for awhile because I wasn’t sure how to piece it together effectively because there were so many small pieces!

I finally bit the bullet and started to piece it in Q1’18, then finished the top and quilted it in Q2’18.  Since this from a bunch of scraps, I decided I wanted to use it to do more machine quilting practice.  My goal with my quilting plan was to try and pull forward the red chains so they were more noticeable against all the scrappiness.

This is the final result:

You can see the red chains a bit better from a distance:

some close ups of the quilting – I’m sad that quilting is so hard to see.  I was practicing feathers in some of the blue areas between the chains, continuous curves in the red blocks, and making pebbles nice and round with good backtracking so they don’t look messy.  I also quilted some straight lines to make a diamond pattern that kind of fades into the background.  Of course you can see absolutely none of this.  🙁  I think I’m getting too good at choosing blending thread colors.

The back:

A photo with Pagosa Peak in the background:

I enjoyed practicing, but I put a TON of time and quilting into this quilt and I really don’t think you can see it very well.  I think if I had to do it again, I’d do something more simple – or use a more contrasting thread – but the practice was very good!

Have a very safe and happy 4th of July!

This was on my Q2’18 FAL list, so I look forward to linking it up.  I got it done just in the nick of time!

Also linking up with Wednesday Wait Loss with the Inquiring Quilter – she is having a special Red White and Blue Quilt Link up!

Recently my husband’s cousin had a baby, so I had a great excuse to make a quilt.   I found a fat quarter bundle of Dr. Seuss fabric that I thought would be fun to work with and set about drawing up a pattern.  The bundle included a bunch of panels, so I drew up my pattern to highlight those panels.

I pieced it during an Albuquerque Modern Quilt Guild sew day – it came together quickly.  I also found a digital edge to edge fish pattern that was so cute I couldn’t resist.

This is the finished quilt – it was cloudy the day we took photos, so unfortunately there are a bunch of shadows.

More details:

and the back:

this is the best photo for seeing the cute fish and loops edge to edge design:

I hope Gary’s cousin loves this quilt!

This was on my Q2’18 FAL list, so I will link up at the end of the quarter.