Creature from the Green Lagoon

Winter has been treating us pretty well so far. It has rained and snowed here, which is good from a water standpoint. And the snow is usually overnight or when we don’t have to travel. So naturally, we appreciate that. Of course, I’m declaring our appreciation to the world because I’m hoping that if the weather gods are reading, they will spare us the nasty blizzard on the day we leave town in a couple weeks. We’re making our annual trek to Arizona to visit family, and last year we had to postpone our departure by a day because of the conditions. Do you think they will be reading my blog? Right. Me neither...

So, I got a lot of quilty stuff done this week. We had our first Quilts for Kids (QFK) workshop of the new year last weekend, and it was fun as always. Because we knocked out the quilting of our 200+ backlog of quilts in December, I was actually able to just sew. I checked out a quilt kit (Gumby-themed, because Gumby’s creator lived in our neighborhood in So Cal when I was growing up. I went to school, with his daughter Ann. Literally, we sometimes walked together to school, although she was a year behind me). Sorry, I digressed there. Anyway, at the end of our QFK workshop, I did get three quilts to bring home and baste, quilt and bind for next meeting.

I finished a couple other quilts last weekend or early in the week. If you didn’t see my last post, you can check it out here, or just look at my Quilts 2020 tab just below the blog header. So, let’s move forward from there, shall we?

My two most recent finishes are two donation quilts. The first, shown previously as just a quilt top, is now done.  It’s a simple brown with blue polka dots fabric made from scraps donated to me by a friend.

It finished at 36.5 x 50.5”. I wasn’t that crazy about it, but after just a basic stipple quilting and a run through the laundry, it crinkled and softened up so much that I fell in love with it. Seriously, this fabric is at least 15-20 years old, and I can’t believe the texture and feel of this little quilt.

Next, the Gumby quilt was finished. There were two different orange fabrics in this kit, and they behaved differently in the wash. I’m not as thrilled with how this turned out, but some kid will love it I’m sure.

This was quilted with just a basic serpentine crosshatch for the body of the quilt and a herringbone loop motif for the green border.

And then it was time to get down to business and finish up the flimsy of the scrappy green quilt. The January color of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) is light and bright green. So, I wanted to use up my scraps and as many orphan blocks and bits/pieces as possible. I pretty much got everything in there. The blue strips along the sides will be the binding. They’re just pinned there for show. I’m hoping they will frame the quilt nicely, echo the blue in the inner border and provide sufficient contrast and interest. And also frame up those floating selvage “planets” (hehe) at the top. Yep, I even used those selvage circles from a couple weeks ago! I’m linking up to Scrappy Saturday at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

There is plenty of wonkiness built into this quilt, as I fiddled and cut pieces and wedges to squeeze in to make the math work out. But I did it! The backing was sewn up yesterday, so this will get basted over the weekend.  I’ll also be basting up two more QFK little quilts and the pink and green checkerboard quilt (#15 on my Finish-Along list on the blog post I linked to above).

I’m calling this green scrappy quilt “Creature from the Green Lagoon." This monstrosity sweet quilt seemed to take on a life of its own, so it felt apropos. I’m not sure if I love it or not, although I have to say it was both fun and a challenge to fit all these scraps and leftover blocks and bits into a semi-cohesive whole.

And now, some gratuitous kitty photos.  First, Alfie. He loves nothing more than to snuggle up with Bruce.

And here’s Darla. Miss Darla used this picture as her audition picture for a new feature film called “Downton Tabby”. She tells me she won a lead role playing Lady Kibbleton.  (wink)