Itching to Create

My local guild's quilt show is coming soon. We have to turn in our quilts by early April, so I'm trying to get them all bound and attach hanging sleeves. These steps are b.o.r.i.n.g. and take forever. I'm trying to stick to it and get them all done before I reward myself with a start on something new (or even play with an old UFO which would be way more fun than bindings and sleeves).

But I am itching to play with my scraps and make a new, one-of-a-kind quilt top.. my favorite kind of quilt play.

Here are a couple of quilts I recently finished.. binding is on, and hanging sleeves attached; they even have labels. This first one I call Urban Garden. I originally made it just of the strips, in an attempt to do some stash busting. It was boring with just strips, so I added the appliqued flowers. Those took a long time to finish, because I had to stitch them down, and there were very many ins and outs. I was so pleased and proud when I finally got them done. It was quilted by my friend, Diane.

The next one I call The Ugly Man Quilt -- is it an ugly quilt, or a quilt for an ugly man? You decide. (It could be both.)

The blocks were purchased in our little store that happens during our quilt show. They looked pretty in the bag, but I didn't open the bag to realize that most of the blocks are ugly. Oh, well. It's done. I do hope some man will find this to be an acceptable quilt. This one has leaves falling down the front, very similar to the flowers I did on the previous one, except I did a much better job on sewing the flowers. This was also quilted by Diane. Please notice that there is no snow in the outdoors picture! We got 6-8 inches of snow on Wednesday. Today, Saturday, it is all gone. That's March in Minnesota.

Here's another quilt. This was made by various members of our guild and was put together by Sally. I am attaching binding to this one next. It will also hang in our show, in the Community Service category. I love how cheerful this quilt is. I would not have thought of using orange sashing, but I love it, and love the border fabric, too. Sally dressed it up nicely. It was quilted at Missouri Star Quilt Company.

One more quilt. I made this one along with Crazy Mom Quilts when she did a Scrap Vortex sew-along. I wasn't super thrilled with this, but I guess it's not bad. (It was also quilted by Missouri Star Quilt Company.) I have already sent this on its merry way to a camp in northern MN for kids who have AIDS. If you want to contribute to that quilt drive, let me know, and I'll give you the scoop.

Now I'm heading back to my sewing room to work on... bindings. Hanging sleeves. Labels. *yawn*