Crossings: A UFO Finish!!

 Squeaking in one more UFO finish for the 4th Quarter Finish A-Long with Leanne, She Can Quilt, I am so happy to show you this colorful quilt!

 The blocks were made for me by members of the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild Scrappy Bee way back in 2011. I am excited to finally be cuddling with this quilt instead of shifting it around my sewing closet!

 I even found the perfect backing in my stash in the form of this cursive text print by ikea. 

 Straight line quilting is my favorite style for the texture it adds after a run through the washer and dryer.

Crossings is my second time making this pattern. The first quilt, X Marks the Spot,  was made in 2010 and was sent, along with others, to Rwanda where it now decorates the bed of a child at New Hope Homes.

Several have asked about the pattern for this quilt. You can find the original directions here. It's a great pattern for using up scraps!

Crossings is my second and final UFO finish for the 4th Quarter of the Finish A-long. My original list was for 3 quilts, so i will be moving the third project along to my 2014 list. Thank you, Leanne for doing such a great job of motivating me, and many others, to finish up our languishing quilts!

Take a look at all of the beautiful finishes here. If you've never tried committing to the Finish-A-Long, I highly recommend it if you like results.

For me, it meant eleven finishes in 2012 that probably would still be UFOs!

Catching Up

Vacation plans and new babies got me a bit behind in my Virtual Bees.  I'm trying to catch up by sewing blocks for Toni,  Joan and Ruth. I still have blocks for one more Bee to go!

Toni chose butterflies as the theme of her quilt in the Kansas City Scrappy Bee. She provided us with two  strips of hand dyed fabric to make any style of butterfly that we wished using a black background fabric.  I immediately thought of Amy's awesome Butterfly Quilt and tutorial.  Mrs. Schmenkman Quilts is one of my very favorite blogs. Be sure and pay her a visit! Thanks, Amy. I may need a butterfly quilt myself!

Next up is Joan's block for the Nittany Block Party Bee.  Joan, who blogs at Wishes, True and Kind, chose this fun Scrapbuster Block  by Little Miss Shabby for her August block.  Twenty-four 1.5 inch blocks, along with the grey Kona,were included in the envelope I received from Joan.  It was fun to add 24 more little squares from my stash to complete the 12.5 inch block.  The piecing was a bit challenging only because my 1/4 inch seams weren't entirely accurate and they NEED to be to make it all work out when you sew the squares onto the grey strips. (I had to take a little deeper seams in a few places. Don't tell, okay!)
 I absolutely love this block and the combination of grey/brights.  This will be a stunning quilt when finished!

Finally, Ruth asked for half log cabin blocks using fabrics she provided. Ruth also is part of the Nittany Block Party Bee. ( I was supposed to have these cute blocks done in July!  Sorry, Ruth....they will be in the mail tomorrow!)  Although I have made many log cabin blocks over the years, I believe these are my first half-log cabins.  I'm anxious to see this quilt when it is finished!