Christmas quilt top finished and house blocks

When I was cleaning the basement a few weeks ago, I found some 9 patch quilt blocks that I made, years ago.  I'm thinking they were made in the late 90's... so about 20 years ago.  Anyhow, I didn't think to take a picture of the blocks alone.

I only had 24 of the blocks, and they were made with 3" squares, so it wasn't going to make a very big quilt.  So, I decided to make some hourglass blocks to use with them.  I had the red plaid on hand, it came from some old stuff that I got when a friend of mine was cleaning out her parents' house.  There was just enough of it.  The off-whites were from my stash too, I used about 4 different ones that I had.  

If you look closely, there are some really old ones in here.  I remember making Christmas stockings for my boys out of some of this fabric.... so that puts it over 30 years old.  And there are some non-Christmas ones as well, I don't know if you can see it in the photo above, but that block in the center, the burgundy colored square has chickens on it.  It truly was a "use what you have" at the time.

The color looks different outside today!  Now to find backing. I'm sure I've got something in my stash, and then I'll need to get it quilted.  I thought very briefly about hand quilting it.  But I don't know when I would get it done.  So off to the long armer it will go.

We are making little house blocks in our block exchange group in the quilt guild I belong to.  There are 12 of us in the exchange.  We each need to make 12 blocks of 2 different houses, so 24 in all.  Here are mine -- they really did go together quickly and were fun to make!

We were instructed to make them in "happy" colors, and we were not to use black or gray.  I can't remember what was said about brown, but I really wanted to use the brown bias plaid for the chimney on the first block, so I did.   Hopefully I didn't break any rules!

I hope you all have a good week, and Happy Thanksgiving!!

What I've been working on.......

Hello there!  Yes, I am still around.  I do read and follow several blogs, and I thought that maybe it's time to post a few things here.  I have been working on stuff the past few years, just kind of fell out of the blogging habit..... 

The first project is my "home" pillow, made entirely from scraps.  I even pieced the background with different text prints.  I basically followed the tutorial found here.  Now that i've made the first one, I'm ready to make more.  And luckily, Iowa is a fairly easy state to make!

 Next up is the baby quilt I made for a friends new grandson.  I basically took layer cake (10") squares and did the quilt as you go method, quilting them with the white right to the batting squares, and then trimming everything up to the same size, and joining them together.  This is the first time I've attempted this in a straight set, instead of wonky.  Wonky is much easier, because you don't have to be concerned with how things will line up!

Anyhow, here you can see the back, too..... i used a multi-colored dot on a white background.  Then there is just minimal quilting around each black to attach the backing.  

The foxes are kind of fun, and I have more than enough to do another baby quilt with this fabric.

I am hoping to blog a little more often than every 3 years.......... :)  Maybe once a month?  We'll see...