Making hay while the sun shines

Well, taking photos while the sun shines, anyway. I have two finishes to share today. First one is called Partly Cloudy. I pieced this little sample of dark and light strings a couple of months ago. After gathering, sorting into light to dark shades, and stitching together lots of 1.5" scraps, I ran out of steam when the top was about 36"x44".



Since coming to Charleston, I've learned about a charity called Quilted Embrace, which provides small lap quilts to wheelchair-bound seniors. One of the local guilds is collecting quilts for them, and I'm hoping to jump on that bandwagon if the guild allows me. Quilted Embrace requests 36"x48" quilts, so it was a simple matter to add a few inches in length to this piece and quilt it up.



The fabrics are quite busy, so a simple loop-de-loop motif inside parallel lines was a fast and easy way to free motion Partly Cloudy. I used a lighter neutral beige thread in the light sections, and a darker grey in the dark diagonal. It didn't actually make much difference, but it was a useful experiment. Black binding frames the riot of color and pattern.



The backing is a single piece of this pretty Asian-inspired blue and pink floral. As you know, working on smaller quilts is the best fit for my tiny sewing space, and I'm excited to be sewing up some pieces for adults. I'm still having fun with kid-friendly themed quilts, but have decided to concentrate on Embrace quilts while in Charleston. So excited, in fact, that I've already pieced and basted at least six quilts! I'll be sharing those with you one by one as I get them quilted.



If you read my guest post over at Kat's last week, you know how happy I am to donate this super-scrappy piece full of visual interest to a charity.

This next quilt is called Fiesta De Los Gatos. The cats are cut from a fun Makower UK panel, and it finishes at 50"x50". Sorry for the rather crooked and blurry photo; the sun was so bright that I could hardly see my phone screen, and the wind kept flipping up the lower right corner. I'll take more pics after washing because it's raining again now.

Each panel is surrounded by red, green, or blue sparkling fabrics. Between the fact that each cat is smiling and the festive metallics, I couldn't help thinking that the cats were at a party and the Fiesta name stuck. The thin, cream and gold inner borders are actually part of the panel, so they were easy peasy. I quilted a different filler motif in the background fabrics, and outlined each kitty.

Here you can see a cat outline. Sean was particularly amused by this moggy's toes. The backing fabric I used is fairly thin, so there was a bit of bearding. That's the white fuzz you see in this picture, which will wash away.

Here's a shot that shows some of the fillers I used: back and forth diagonal lines, meander, ribbons, and pointy arcs. I used coordinating red, green or blue thread on top so it was a bit hard to see what I was doing. It was a relief to see that the beige bobbin thread looked pretty good on the back.

The fillers are quite a bit denser than the cat panels, which might be an issue after washing. If the panels pucker too much after Fiesta De Los Gatos has its spa day, I'll go back and add more quilting. I haven't completely decided who to give this quilt to, but it reminds me a lot of one of my cousins. Perhaps I'll surprise her with it.

Linking up with Pets on Quilts at Lily Pad Quilting in the "pet themed" category.