Finished Donation Quilts and September Goals

Over the last couple weeks I've been working to use up some of my scraps and at the same time finish some small kid-sized donations quilts for Quilts for Kids.

It started out with some 9-patch variation blocks that I won a few months ago from the Block Lotto. Each block contained two 3-inch 9-patches plus one dark and one light solid fabric, forming a 4-patch (Nine in Four).  I played with them and was not crazy about them, then finally had the brilliant idea to just use them to make a couple smaller quilts for donation instead of one large one.

So, with a half yard of some red grunge fabric plus some fun navy fabric with dots for the borders and backing (all from my stash), this first quilt whipped up very quickly.

The quilt measures 40x46", perfect for a small child. The quilting was just a simple cross-hatch done with my walking foot.

But there were still lots more Nine in Four patch blocks left, and my ideas started going downhill from there, LOL.  I had some cute (relatively speaking) pirate fabric and some leftover gold 1.5" strips from a former project. So I combined those with more leftover blocks and got this quilt.

This is Ugly Pirates I, and it measures 36x46.5".  I used the pirate fabric on the back too, and did a self-binding (as with the previous quilt and the next one). The quilting was a fun and quick stipple.

But I still had leftover blocks PLUS leftover pirate fabric and leftover gold strips.  What to do? I shopped my stash, determined to find something to make it big enough to use up the dang blocks. Don't run away screaming; below is Ugly Pirates 2 and it earned its title.

I had to use a brown windowpane check for the back/binding (admittedly a poor choice), but the pirate fabric is gone. The blocks are gone (well, there might be 2 little ones left in the Parts Department) and the brown fabric is gone. There are more gold strips, but they are reserved for a cute yellow and gold giraffe fabric I have that I'll use to make a similarly-styled baby quilt down the road. This quilt measured 36.5"x45" and got loopy quilting. By then I was loopy too. But they are done!

And you know what? Using these blocks was my Goal #7  on my 3rd Quarter Finish-Along list, which you can see HERE.  Only instead of making one quilt, I made three!  YAY!!

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It's also time to set a personal goal for OMG - One Monthly Goal.  Looking back at my goals for this year, I am proud to say that so far I have finished every monthly goal I've set for myself this year. That surprises me, because some were really last-minute finishes.

This month, I would like to finish a quilt that I'd hoped to finish in August, but personal circumstances (Bruce's surgeries) prevented that from happening. But it's a new month and everything is looking up - including spare sewing time, so I would love to finally finish up ONE International Sisters 2-sided quilt.

The ladies pictured above are only some of them that I've made, and will eventually be used in more than one quilt. In fact, I'm planning several over the next year; one for me to keep and the others to go to Harambe Humanitarian for fundraising purposes. One side of the double-sided quilt will be these International Sisters blocks, and the other will be an African fabric panel print.  I'm linking up to Elm Street Quilts and the September Goal-Setting post.

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Finally, my son Shane sent me a picture of granddaughter London (now age 10) on her first day of school. She is in 4th grade this year. Where does the time fly?? It's just a candid, and her eyes are closed..... but she is laughing. It is So London!!