Here's What I Did Friday Night

I decided that I should work on the Storybook Challenge quilt since it is due in mid August.  Those of you that follow my blog know that I am making the blocks from several books I have and I am selecting and cutting each as I go along, wow does that make progress very slow.  I did manage to redo the chicken,  I made it larger and selected colors that matched the other blocks better.

I also made the bird house block and the flower block shown.

This morning I decided to keep on plugging along and made another flower block, the truck block, and the teacup.  I added a border to the bird to make it the same size as the others, not sure I like the red border it "pops", but I am using my stash as much as possible so it may stay as is, I need to remember that this will be given to a child with cancer that I am sure will love all the bright colors!   Also put a border around the tree, that block might not end up in the middle it might go to one side??   I will play around some more with the layout and then decide what other blocks or fillers I need to make, boy I'm not sure I'm cut out for doing my own thing! 

The hardest part is that the blocks that I liked did not all have compatiable sizes, the center tree is 15" (before border) and the others (except the dog) are 10", I will probably add borders and plain blocks???

Enjoy your weekend.

Childhood Book in a Quilt

I decided to start on Kathie's Challenge, we are supposed to make a lap size quilt that represents our favorite childhood story.  The best part of this challenge is that our quilts will be donated to the Maine Children's Cancer Program after they are viewed and fellow quilters try to guess which quilt goes with which story!  I chose a book called Laurie and the Yellow Curtains by Sara Asheron, probably nothing you have ever heard of before but it was the first book that I could read by myself and I still have my original copy. 

Now I have never made a quilt from "scratch" before so I am going to go with the "box" version, which is picking blocks that represent parts of the story from these two books. 

The one with a tree house was originally only a tree, I added the house since the story ends with Laurie getting her own house with "a yellow door and yellow curtains on the window" , I just changed the squares in the middle of the tree.   I think that will be the most difficult so I decided to get it done early. 

 Another part of the challenge is to use  your stash so I am trying to match colors best I can and I think I will change the fabric for the nest on the Henny Penny Block so that it goes better with the fabrics I have used thus far.  I will share as I go along, it is due on August 12 so I have plenty of time to finish and quilt it if I get moving :0)

Tomorrow my niece will be here and I will be showing her how to use her new birthday gift, a sewing machine!  I also plan on taking her to the quilt shop to select  fabrics for her first quilt.  Here are the goodies she will be getting to start what will hopefully be a lifetime of sewing/quilting.

Have a great evening.