Basket Pincushion and a New Quilt Started.

I needed a quick small gift for someone and decided to make a pincushion.  I found several little 4" basket blocks in a drawer in my sewing room and picked out this one to quilt.  The backing is a solid blue to match the flowers on the basket.  I like making pincushions!

I met Mary Elizabeth Kinch at the Gwen Marston Beaver Island Quilt Retreat several years ago.  I have one of her books and love admiring her large quilts made with many small pieces.  Every Christmas, she does a series of blogposts about 12 different antique quilts.  This past Christmas, one of her favourites was one called "Foothills".  She recently decided to do a quilt along http://www.maryelizabethkinch.com/qal-registration/ to make this quilt and I signed up!  I have a collection of men's shirts that have aged appropriately and are ready to cut up to make a quilt so I will be using them for this project.

I don't have a lot of time for sewing these days so this is what I accomplished one night this week. There are a lot of shirts in my collection so it takes a while to pick out the 7 fabrics needed for each block.  I finally made the flying geese and hourglass block for this block tonight.

I like the splash of brighter colours in the middle of the block!

I made a few parts for my next 4 blocks...

I am going to continue to make lots of parts and then will figure out how to combine them to make the blocks.  I have not made much of a dent in the pile of shirts yet...