The website where I found this Bento Box quilt pattern has long since taken down the tutorial, Too bad since it was a very well written pattern so it is a pity I can not link back to it. I guess that is what happens when you work on a project for 4 or 5 years before finishing it. Good thing I had made a print out of the instructions. 

I made it with a light grey background and a fat quarter bundle I received in a monthly assortment of fat quarters I was receiving from Sew Sisters Bargain Hunters Club. So pretty isn’t it? (no affiliation, yada yada). 

Simple quilting using the serpentine stitch programmed into my sewing machine and straight stitching in the borders finished it off. 

I’m putting this one aside for the next time I need a baby quilt for a little girl. 

A friend of ours is having a third baby and for each of her first two babies we made her a quilt that was “sea” themed. This time around we couldn’t find any suitable materials and were at a loss what to make until I saw a quilt on another blog called  one-fish-two-fish-red-fish-blue-fish    That was it! I’d make fish blocks! That would be sea themed!

I did some web surfing and found the instructions for the blocks I made on the Objects of Design blog here .  I made 54 blocks using a variety of batiks and “batik like” fabrics.  I then played around with some sashing ideas as I did not want the fish touching each other. I ended up using 1.5″ sashing finishing at 1″. The outside borders were 3.5″.  Any wider and I’d not have been able to use WOF for backing. 

Here is my finished quilt:

I used a gorgeous blue fabric for that back that reminds me of water!

The quilting was done on my sewing machine using a serpentine stitch which I think nicely mimics the look of waves.

Oh and the fish swimming the wrong way is intentional. There is always someone swimming against the stream! 

When I pulled apart the almost finished Bonnie Hunter Rick Rack Nines quilt from her Adventures with Leaders and Enders book, I ended up making 7 smaller quilt tops from it. This is the second of the quilts that have been completed.

The 9 patches were from the torn apart quilt and I added the blue material to make them dance, the orange inner border and more of the blue fabric for the outer border. 

It’s a small quilt, about 34″ by 40″. I really love how the material crinkled up when it was washed. It has such an old time look to it as if it was made many years go. 

The quilt is going to the guild’s outreach program for donation. 

There are quite a few things I want to accomplish this weekend or if not this weekend in the very near future. My goal is to get as many of the items below as possible done, or close to done as possible done this  weekend. Other than 1 – 4 that really need to get done this weekend the list is in no particular order. 

1. finish sewing down binding on the Dancing Nine Patch quilt with Orange Stripe in Border
2. Fix quilting mistake on Dancing Nine Patch quilt with Orange Stripe in Border. 
3. Make binding for Fishies quilt
4. Apply binding to Fishies Quilt
5. Make Red binding for Red, Black & Blue Rail Fence Quilt
6. Apply binding to Red, Black & Blue Rail Fence Quilt
7. Select binding for Grey Bento Box Quilt
8. Make binding for Grey Bento Box Quilt
9. Apply binding to Grey Bento Box Quilt
10. Make brace pad for a friend
11. Make 2nd brace pad for a friend 
12. Make 3rd brace pad for a friend 
13. 1st Xmas bag for Guild
14. 2nd Xmas bag for Guild
15. 3rd Xmas bag for Guild
16. 4th Xmas bag for Guild
17. 5th Xmas bag for Guild
18. Quilt top for Judy
19. Sew charity quilt squares together to make a top -ROWS MADE
20. Choose binding for Green, Blue & Orange Rail Fence quilt
21. Make binding for Green Blue and Orange Rail Fence quilt
22. Apply binding  for Green Blue & Orange Rail Fence quilt 

Well that should keep me nicely out of trouble.  Better stop sitting here staring at the list and get to it. 

I’ve been working  hard on binding my Regent Street Star Quilt and finished it very early Monday morning thanks to a bought of insomnia that I put to good use. I can’t seem to make the insomnia go away so I try to make it productive whenever I can. 

I love how this quilt shows off some of my favourite Alison Glass fabrics. It was easy to make yet the result is so showy. As per our usual habit Marc and I quilted it together at the local long arm quilt studio. 

This is a free pattern that can be found at the Moda Bake Shop. It measures 64” square.

Three of my recent finishes are my happy blocks quilt and 2 Maple Leafs quilts.  The Toronto Maple Leafs fabric was bought when my nephews were much younger and is no longer suitable for a quilt for either of them, hence these quilts that will be donated to my guild for the charity outreach program. Here is a picture:

I’ll save posting a picture of the other Leafs quilt as it’s identical to the one above. 

The happy blocks quilt was from stash and used up the rest of the butterfly print that found in the centre of the blocks. Those happy blocks go together so fast and easily; I find them so relaxing to make. 

This was quilted by Whirls and Swirls, a local long arm quilt studio where they supplied batting and backing and quilted it as part of their charity program.  I picked it up from them to bind and it too is going to the guild charity outreach program. I really like the quilting they did on it. 

Now to finish binding my Bonnie Hunter En Provence quilt.  

And after a few days of binding another quilt is finally off of the UFO pile and ready for use. This quilt is slightly too small to be used on our bed (it fits – just – but likely blanket wars would ensue…), so it will find a home on the spare bed, giving the quilt that on that bed a chance to take a break from duty.

This quilt started quite a number of years ago when I began randomly collecting black and white fabrics. The collection kept growing until I finally found a pattern that showed them off nicely. Sadly the pattern, which was from a magazine, was the victim of a move, and seems to be MIA. I do believe a similar (aka almost identical pattern) may be in a book called Tessellations by Jackie Robinson and that Jenny Doan may have a variation as well of this pattern as well.

Here is another picture of the quilt, from just after we quilted it at Whirls and Swirls Studio:

The corner blocks in the border were not part of the original pattern. I can’t remember what they had done in the corners of the border but whatever it was I changed it up to do the square in square blocks instead. Sadly I did cut off a couple of points when I put the borders on.

While I still love black and white fabrics I think it may be a while until I start another black and white quilt. There is another black and white quilt in my unfinished quilt pile, though that one does have a bit of red it in it to pop it.

It’s pretty much a stay at home and retreat day. So I’m posting and will be frequently updating a list of projects I hope to get completed. It’s in no particular order, however it is meant to keep me focussed and productive today.

1. Trim En Provence – DONE
2. Trim the Black and White Quilt we just quilted – DONE
3. Trim charity quilt – DONE
4. Trim the star quilt we just quilted – DONE
5. Audition and choose binding for En Provence (debating between light purple and scrappy whites) – DONE
6. Make binding for En Provence – DONE
7. Make black binding for the Black and White quilt – DONE
8. Make purple binding for the charity quilt – DONE
9. Make grey binding for the star quilt from the leftover backing – DONE
10. Apply binding to charity Quilt – DONE
11. Apply binding to one of the larger quilts (Black & White Quilt) – DONE
12. (a would be nice) Apply binding to another of the larger quilts – DONE
13. (a would be nice) Start binding one of the quilts

And on the would be nice list:

We finally quilted En Provence the Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt from 2016/2017. I did the quilt in her colourway and am quite pleased with how it turned out. Marc helped me quilt it and on the long arms that Whirls and Swirls rent out by the hour.

Now to trim it, make binding, apply it and sew it down. I’m right now planning to bind it in the same material as the backing as there is enough left over to do that and the colour should work perfectly with the front of the quilt. If the audition doesn’t go well for that i might just bind it in scrappy neutrals. We’ll see.

This quilt is made from a block by Bonnie Hunter featured her Addicted to Scraps column in Quiltmaker magazine called Idaho Square Dance. It’s made in blues and creams/whites from my stash.

The quilt ended up 93″ inches square. It has been gifted to a dear friend. If my math is right there are 2,763 pieces of material in the top of this quilt. I like Bonnie Hunter patterns but they sure do have a lot of parts!