Finishes -- YEA!

I've been working on finishing several quilts to send them off for Hands 2 Help.  Here are the quilts done so far. 

First up is a mystery quilt I started several years ago.  It's been sitting in my quilt closet waiting to be quilted.  My thought is a quilt top takes up less room than a quilted quilt. And, I didn't need another queen size quilt. Heck, I've even had the wide back for this quilt for several years.  This one will be going to Carolina Hurricane Project.  I'm sure someone will be able to use this queen-size quilt. You can click on it to see an enlarged version that shows off the lovely quilting texture.

The quilting pattern is Ariana by Donna Kleinke. You can find it at One Song Needle Arts.  This particular pattern is a great design to give some soft curves to a quilt. My thread is So Fine #402, a light beige.  The quilt finished approximately 81" x 105".  It was so big I actually took off the original outside and inside borders and just used a 3 1/2" finished border. It just barely fit on the wide back I had bought for it.  The only place I could get a picture of the whole thing was having Pat hold it over the side of the deck.  

Here it is nestled between two of our gorgeous azaleas.  (I love including some of out garden in these quilt pictures.) 

My next quilt will be going to Jack's Basket. The inside block was part of a stash of fabric from a former member of the local quilt guild.  I like to use these UFOs when it is possible and I thought her snowflake block would be great to make up into a 36" square.  Little did I know it would take me forever to decide what to do to make it look great.  I spent way too many hours on it but I love the finished quilt.  

I auditioned all sorts of fabric and designs to go with the center.  Although it isn't obvious in the picture the first round is a light grey followed by some penguins on a blue background.  Then a black and white houndstooth followed by a solid royal blue Kona.  I'm hoping some family loves this quilt.  If I had any little babies coming in my family I would definitely keep it!  

Check out this great backing.  I don't have a lot of large hunks of fabric.  I'd scanned all of my fabric shelves trying to find something to use as the back.  Nothing seemed to work.  *Light bulb moment!* I remembered a box of flannel fabrics in my quilt closet.  I was totally surprised when I found this lovely blue flannel in the box.  I have no idea when, where or why I added it to my collection.  But, I was just so tickled with it for this quilt.  

I'm hoping to get one or two more quilts done for Jack's Basket.  I've gone through some of my blocks that are looking for homes.  I found 2 sets of blocks that I can definitely make into 36" quilts. Each block set has been kitted up with additional fabric and a design so that I can work on them at retreat. I'll look for backings before I go so I can throw them on Ruthie right after I get back.  

Since Mother's Day is almost upon us I thought I would share this lovely hydrangea my son and his family sent me.  I'm just tickled with it.  It will be lovely in the house for a while and then I will plant it in the backyard.  We've got several hydrangea plants in one section.  This will be close to them but more visible from the back.  

Today I'm connecting with Sarah's Hands2Help link up. Scroll down to the end of the blog to find the linky party.  I'm also linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday and Finish or Not Friday.  I'm going to spend a little time checking out these linky parties to see what folks are up to these days. Won't you join me?  

Odd ball question:  Have you noticed more people are using the Captcha that makes you try to identify similar pictures?  I hate those things!  You'd think I'd be able to tell which pictures have stop lights in them... but unfortunately sometimes I don't get it right.  Talk about frustrating!  

Instead of using Captchas I set my blog to accept any comments for 5 days.  After that comments are moderated, ie, I have to approve them before they show up. I am pretty diligent on removing comments that are questionable such as advertisements and links to other pages that I don't trust.  I'm also careful of comments that are not in English.  Sorry, I just don't trust something I can't read and know that it is legitimate.  

I'm looking forward to a quilty weekend.  I have a quilt on Ruthie waiting to be quilted.  Hopefully I'll get it done Saturday and still have time to work on another quilt for H2H.  

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie