A busy quilting week

 Last week was a Quilting week of note for me.  I pieced four quilt tops - yes four.  I also finished up the embroidery embellishment on a "forever" applique project (almost two years in progress) and started quilting it.  More on project that in another post once completed.  How did I get four tops pieced in one week?

On Tuesday I attended a monthly sew day where I pieced a fun and quick I spy kit I had put together previously.  I put the blocks together and added the border in the evening.  Quilt top number one done.  I am really pleased with how it turned out and definitely will be making this one again.  I didn't have a pattern, just decided to frame a center square with strips, which I did in a partial seam method so that all the strips were the same size.  Easy to cut and relatively easy to sew.

On Thursday I attended the Quilter's Guild of Parker County annual retreat at Rockhouse Retreat in Santo, TX.  I brought five (yes five) kits with me.  I knew I wouldn't get them all done but wanted some options in case I got frustrated or bored.  Well, I finished two of the kits, and one the third I only needed to put the rows together.  Of course, now I need to make more kits.

This design by Kim Brackett is called Tiles.  Lots of fun to sew, and I love how it looks.  I was able to use up a bunch of patriotic scraps.  I might try it in novelties, but the tile sizes are not "standard" - cut 3", finished 2.5" so I would have to figure out different ratios.  

This next pattern is also by Kim Bracket, called Touch a Star.  It really came out dramatic in the patriotic fabrics.  But I had to press the seams between blocks open and oh my, there are some thick ones.  Quilting this one is going to be a challenge.

This friendship star design adds half square triangles at the corners.  The secondary pattern of diagonal white ribbons is really interesting, but again there is a lot of fabric at the block intersections even when pressed open.  I have another kit cut in patriotic fabrics and I think I'll try adding narrow sashing to that one to make it easier to put the blocks together - hopefully that won't disrupt the secondary pattern too much.  The idea for this one came from a FB post, no pattern name.

So, I now have four new tops to quilt and four less kits in the drawer.  It was a very productive week! According to my quilting spreadsheet, this puts my yearly total to at a record 53 quilts with two months left to go.  Thirteen are unquilted, three were gifts, two are mine, and the remainer were donations - lots of fun!