Red, Orange, Yellow Quilts all done!

Just to catch you up...I was excused from Jury Duty...thank goodness.  This case would've bugged me just based off the other folks in the jury box...not the plaintiff or the defendant.  Luck was on my side though, so I could go swim and jam and quilt some more.  I've lost 5 lbs since swimming three times a week and my clothes are getting looser and looser.....

I am pretty proud how the "red," "orange," and "yellow" quilts turned out.  The frustration with the back puckering continues, but as long as you just stare at the front, its all good!  I am going to have a hard time giving these up, as I have really fallen in love with these quilts, but alas I cannot keep them all.  I guess I need to give them to friends and family so that I can visit them often.

Without further ado, here they are!!!!

The "Red" Quilt....gotta love Dad in the background

the "red" back

The "Orange" quilt

The "orange" back

The "Yellow" Quilt---I'm going to call it "Lemon Meringue Pie"

Pretty proud of the "yellow" back....I did the circle in the middle improve style

The "red" quilt came from a pattern by Laura Nownes called "Sweet Rolls."  I loved this log cabin style modification.  It came together super easy and quickly.  Mom was a huge fan of all things red, so many of the fabrics in this quilt are hers...this may be a keeper.  Also, I was able to use up this huge pile of off white muslin she left me, so it was a great way to use some fabric from the stash.  I really liked how quickly this quilt came together and I would seriously consider making more of these.  Maybe a multicolored one next time!

The "orange" zig zag quilt came from another blogger, the Bee Square Blog.  I have seen a ton of these zig zags all over the internet and I am drawn to them for some reason.  I had been wanting to try one for a long time, so I am glad I did with these pretty orange fabrics in my stash.  I based the color palette off the orange one with the brown polka dots and the dragonflies.  I am in love with dragonflies, so this was a fun one to work with.  I wanted to branch out with this one as well so I used a natural linen color for the background instead of white....just to try something different.  I AM IN LOVE!  Linen is so fun and I really liked the natural, earthy tone.  I really think I will be using more of this in the future.  I already got some grey and an ecru colored linen for a future quilt.  I worked in the blue zig zag to provide a little contrast so it wasn't so light colored.  Since blue and orange are complementary, I thought it would look nice.  Came out ok, huh?

Sweetwater's "mama's strawberry pie" pattern was the inspiration for the "yellow" quilt.  Mom loved lemon desserts, especially lemon meringue pie, so I thought renaming this quilt "Lemon Meringue Pie" would be appropriate.  I had fun mixing many of mom's plain yellows with my more elaborate ones.    I haven't done a lot with triangles, so this piecing job intimidated me a little.  I asked a lot of questions when I bought the ruler for this.  However, once I got going, it was easy.  When the front was all put together, I still had a bunch of triangles left over, and since the top looked so good (even after worrying about the outcome), I thought I might join them together in a circle.  I had the triangles laying out on the table for three days unsewn until I got up the guts to try to join them all together.  But these pieces went just as easily in a circle as they did in lines.  I even tried out a different stitch pattern available on my sewing machine to applique it to the backing.  Even though I didn't sew it perfectly to the back and the decorative stitching could have benefitted from some stabilizer on the "wrong" side, I was pretty proud of my impromptu applique job.  In fact, I have plans to do another quilt with different sized circles on it.  I need to get over my fear of curves, so I will make a point to keep trying more designs that include curves.

I am working on the green quilt now.  The squares are all pieced, and now I need to lay them out in the order I want.  The squares make leaves and all the leaves are joined to a stem running the length of the quilt.  I am really using a lot of mom's fabrics in this one, so that is good.  I just went home to help dad clean out some of mom's stuff and discovered two more boxes of fabric.....ugh.  Since much of it is themed by holiday or events, I am thinking my next project (after the rainbow of quilts is complete) will be to make a quilt for every holiday and event celebrated by her.  A nice tribute, I think.  I will hopefully get to put together the green quilt this weekend.  And I need to update you on Super Q's battle with the Robot Vacuum.  So until then.....

Happy Crafting!!!!