A top finished, another begins

The Fat Quarter Fun top got finished yesterday.

I'm really glad I did the piano key border. There's so much piecing in this one that a plain ol' strip-of-fabric border would have looked rather out of place, I think.

Although I have bindings to do, I started another quilt instead. I've had it cut out for awhile. I made the first block last night to test the process.

It's paper pieced (I copied the pattern onto newsprint - so much easier to work with!), so I always have to retrain myself on how to do the Judy Neimeyer method. I did OK, with just a bit of a goof on that rightmost dark piece, but it's in the seam allowance so it will be forgiven.

I also had to test that light purple piece of fabric.  It's almost like metallic tissue and I was worried it might melt. But it was made for quilters, and it worked just fine.  I knocked the iron temperature down a hair "just in case".  

Thank you, quilting fairies, for batiks! It's really hard to tell if you've reversed a piece. Which of course I did. It will be forgiven in the overall quilt.

That's yesterday's progress.  Thanks for stopping by. 

What's Up

Yep, I've been away. No excuses. No fanfare. Just updates.

I made this quilt, which needed 59   2 1/2" strips:

I had strips left over, so made this one, which called for 20 strips. I used one of the Peppered Cottons for the background:

I used these two patterns:

I had two quilts that I had cut out a while ago from this pattern:

I had finished the first top a few weeks ago, and put the second one together tonight. It was already cut so doesn't count against my "no duplicates" challenge.  Here are the tops:

On the design wall, the second one looked better, but looking through the camera's eye, I think the first one works a lot better. Tip if you make this one: use fabrics that mush together rather than having a strong contrast. 

My current project is from the pattern Fat Quarter Fun using 30s fabrics. Forgot to take pics of the in-process blocks so I'll post them next time.  Life is getting back to some sense of routine, so hopefully I'll be posting more often.  Thanks so much for stopping by!