Another Finish

My final tic-tac-toe quilt is done!  This was my August UFO, and the blocks have been in my hands for over 18 months.  The back is pieced, with some additional blocks from the lotto.  I'm glad I finally got motivated to finish this one, thanks to Judy's UFO challenge.

I LOVE this colour.  I've actually had the blue in my stash since 2005, when I first started quilting.  Bought it because I loved the colour, but never found anything I liked with it.  These mixed tic-tac-toe blocks were perfect.  And the six on the back were chosen because they worked so nicely with the blue.

Moving on

I've been working steadily on my star quilt for a couple of weeks now.  But it's almost the end of the month, and I really want to finish at least one quilt for the UFO challenge.  So I gathered my nerve, shifted my sewing table 3-4 inches farther away from the design wall (about all the space I had), and tackled the quilting on one of my tic-tac-toe quilts.

I backed this one with polar fleece - I've had it for years, and it was the perfect colour for the green tic-tac-toe.  I didn't add any batting, because I think the fleece will be more than warm enough.  This quilt is *so* soft and flexible, I love the feel of it.  To keep it that way, I decided on very light quilting around each block.

I managed to complete all the quilting without knocking the star off the design wall!  Next up, binding, and I may even get this one done before Friday.

tic tac toe

Tic-tac-toe squares floating in space.  I think this will make a cute quilt for a little boy.   This was inspired by Kristin's post on the block lotto blog.   I agree with those who liked the white, too - but I have a set of squares and a plan for a white setting, and I wanted to do something different here.

Design Wall Monday - Mar 22

This is what's on my design wall today. Some more wonky tic-tac-toe blocks.  This time in more muted colours.  Not sure how I'll set these - other than, that it will be different than the last set.  My goal is a different setting for each quilt.

For now, they are stuck on the wall at all angles, as I contemplate a simple wonky setting in white.  But I think not, as I have another set that I've already planned this for.


Also on my wall are my 5 pairs of blocks for the March block lotto.  I guess they'll be up there another week, until the winner is drawn for this month.

Check out Judy's blog to see what other quilters have on their design walls this week.

2 More Finishes

I've been busy today.   Got to go out for lunch and some quilt-shop browsing with a friend.   I managed to leave without buying anything new (except for some new needles), so nothing added to my stash this week.

But around the outing, I managed to get a lot of quilting done.   Two quilties finished, ready to send to the children's hospital at the guild meeting on Wednesday.

Hearts and Nines is the first one.   My red celtic square, surround by hearts and nine-patches.  The quilting on this one is a meander with hearts interleaved.   In the middle, I echo-quilted around the celtic knot.

The second one is my tic-tac-toe quilt, made from blocks I won in the block lotto.  I posted about the set of blocks here - there are 48 in total, and I pulled 9 of them for this quilt.  The rest will make a few more quilts over the next few months.

These are really fun, bright blocks, so I wanted a fun setting for them.  I think this will make a nice quilt for a child.


For this quilt, I echo-quilted in each of the small blocks, following the lines of the bright tic-tac-toe.  The photo on the right shows the back of one of the blocks (click on the photos to enlarage).

The blocks in this quilt came from 8 different quilters, so I included each of their first names and locations on the label.

Both of these quilts will be donated to the local children's hospital.


And since it's Sunday, here's my stash report for this week.  Nothing in, and nothing out (all the bindings for the above quilts were already counted).

Total in this year - 42 yards
Total out this year - 46 1/2 yards

Net this year: 4 1/2 yards out

Check out Judy's blog for other stash reports today.

A Tic-Tac-Toe Stash Report

Last month, I won the Block Lotto, and now I have 48 lovely tic-tac-toe blocks that I need to do something creative with :)

I decided that I wanted to do a number of small quilts, rather than one large one.  When they're done I'll donate them to the local children's hospital.   So I divided up the blocks and picked a set of 9 to start with.

Since the blocks are all wacky grids, I thought I'd set them in a similar fashion to carry the theme forward.  This layout on my wall seemed a bit crowded, so I bordered the blocks in white to provide a bit more space. The top is now complete, and waiting to be quilted.   The good news for my stash report is that this quilt took 4 yards of fabric, including the backing and binding.

The bad news for my stash report is that I bought some fabric.  20 fat quarters for $25 from Sew Sisters.  So this week I have

4 yards out
5 yards in

Total in this year - 42 yards
Total out this year - 43 1/4 yards

Net this year: 1 1/4 yards OUT 

Still sitting in the black this week :)  Check out Judy's blog to see what other quilters have been up to with their stashes.

Tic-Tac-Toe

My design wall today has a number of tic-tac-toe blocks hanging out on it.  Four new sets of blocks have arrived so far, so I put them all up on the wall hoping for inspiration.

Not sure yet what I'll do, other than the fact that they will probably turn into a few baby quilts, rather than 1 large one.   Now to decide if I colour-group them or go for variety, and how to set them.  I have one idea in mind, and I'm sure a few more will come to me over the next couple of weeks.

Check out Judy's blog to see what other quilters have on their design walls this week.