Some of the quilts I made on my summer vacation

For the past few years, I have made and donated a quilt or three to our church and school's summer picnic. To win one of these quilts, you buy a chance on a wheel. When all of the chances on the wheel are sold, the wheel is spun and the winner gets to choose the quilt they want. It's a fun system and it's very easy to get a particular quilt if you really, really want it - you just buy the entire wheel.

This year, I had promised two quilts, but ended up with three to donate. All were made from a kit or fabric from my stash. I love the challenge of pulling something together from what I have on hand and using up what I already own. It's so satisfying. I free-motion quilted all three in one day on the rental long arm at Quilted Joy despite some comical missteps (Too small backing! Twice!). If I didn't have the option to do them this way, they wouldn't have gotten finished. While I enjoy quilting on my domestic machine, the time it takes to do that, let alone baste the quilts, is prohibitive for charity work. Plus using the long arm is just plain fun!

First up is this Stack Quilt.  The pattern is by Nicole of Modern Handcraft and was fun to put together. I deviated from the pattern a little bit by adding one extra column of stacks and using a full width of fabric for the top portion. The prints at the bottom are an older Cotton and Steel line, Homebody, with some basics thrown in and the solid is Kona Snow. I went a little crazy with the quilting, trying out all kinds of different patterns on the long arm. I had fun making it.

Second was this giant star quilt. I used Jeni Baker's tutorial that she shares on her blog, In Color Order. As you can probably guess, with blocks this big, I was able to piece this quilt in no time whatsoever! I picked the prints from my stash (mostly Cotton and Steel plus a Japanese gingham) to coordinate with the cheery pink solid, Kona Punch. Quilted with loops (my favorite!) and bound in the same solid, I just adore how it turned out. I think there will be more quilts like this in my future. Easy, fast and fun!

And the final quilt I donated is the Glass Half Full pattern by Lindsay Sews. I bought this as a kit from Craftsy a few years back (it is no longer available) and had cut most of it at least a year ago. I had forgotten about it until I happened upon it while cleaning up the studio in the spring. It's easy enough to make - the pattern is well written and accurate - but it has so many steps and a ton of cutting that I burned out before I got to the sewing. Once I picked it back up, I was able to get the top finished over the course of a week. It's twin sized so I quilted it with some wavy lines to make sure it would drape nicely when in use. I think it turned out sweet and I know that it is being loved and used in its new home.Phew. Three quilts in one post. Never thought I would do that. There is more to come, including a list of what I read over the summer and so far this fall. See you soon.