Barn Raising!

Over the course of 16 months in 2018-2019, 10 quilting friends and I made and exchanged 20 neutral blocks each month.  We could use any neutral colours including cream, beige, brown, white, gray and black and each block was to be made using two lights and a dark or two darks and a light. This way, each of us ended up with 320 neutral blocks at the end of the swap.  I divided mine into two piles--1:  white, gray and black and 2: cream, beige and brown, and decided to make two different projects with my blocks.   

I found some yardage of the turquoise fabric in my stash and it determined how big my quilt would be...when it was gone, the quilt top would be done. This is an asymmetric barn raising layout.  I ended up with a lap sized quilt which I may display as a wall hanging...we'll see.  The quilting was a co-operative effort between Julie the long-armer and myself.  She quilted the turquoise strips and I quilted the squares.  Her part has been done since March and I finally did my part this week.  I used black solid for the binding. 

The backing is gray with little turquoise and white triangles on it. The label was put on the back before it was quilted.  You can see the quilting better on the back. 

Now, I will have to figure out what to do with the other pile of neutral squares...

I had 6 blocks leftover from making the Scrappy Trips top that I showed in  the previous post.  I used 4 of them to make this table topper which I quilted this week with concentric squares with golden yellow thread.

I spent several hours this week slow stitching the binding on these two quilts.  The backing for the table topper was in my stash and I'm happy to use up a chunk of it for this quilt. 

I may make another couple of blocks and make another table topper to donate to a fundraiser.  The borders are still not on the Scrappy Trips quilt which will be donated to the hospice...isn't it funny how the project made from the leftovers got finished first???

I have several types of echinacea plants (coneflowers) in my garden and they are all blooming right now.  

Some of the hostas are starting to flower as well. 

I will be doing some knitting tomorrow for Slow Sunday Stitching.  I have just about finished another face cloth this week.  I will link up with Kathy and the other people who like to take things slow on a Sunday tomorrow morning. 

Until next time, have a great week!