Three down...

...and three to go. Fortunately, the tops are done -- it's just going to take a few marathon days to finish the quilting and binding. With a little luck (and self-discipline), I'll be back on schedule next week.

I had to shut the cat in the bathroom to get a decent picture of "Penguins Afloat." For just starting to cut strips and sew with very little planning, I really like how this turned out.

I made more blocks than I needed (which, go figure, seems to go hand-in-hand with not planning), so there may be another version of this in the works very soon. The big question that remains, though is How will it look once it's washed? The penguin and yellow fabrics are flannel, but the stripe isn't -- so I'm expecting some shrinkage difference. Hopefully not too much.

Happy Friday, all, and Happy Spring!

One more on the way...

Man, this effort is asking for so much more self-discipline than I was prepared to bring!

I'm used to a much more leisurely pace -- playing with the fabric, rearranging, altering my original design, and enjoying the journey that brings me to a final quilt. This is basically pick-a-simple-design-and-let's-get-it-done quilting, which makes it feel a lot like work.

Not that I mind -- Lent is about sacrifice and self-discovery, and this whole project, while it started out to be just about giving back, is kind of morphing into lessons in restraint and commitment and (sigh) staying on course.

The third top is ready for quilting. This flannel is one of the few truly kid prints I own; I bought a whole bunch of it years ago to make a quilt for my godson and then never got around to it. He just turned 14 last Saturday (HBTY, Theo!) and is a little too cool for penguins now. I have a strong suspicion he's going to be an activist and advocate for those less fortunate someday, so he'd probably like the idea of this getting recycled, so to speak, into a charity project.

And yes, Archie's been helping. Wouldn't be right if he didn't.

Two down...almost

My second Quilts for Kids quilt is awaiting binding.

Because it was such a simple top, I wanted to jazz it up a little with the quilting -- but may have missed the mark. I used a combination of straight and wavy diagonal lines, and it's funky enough that I'm afraid one day it may prompt some little girl to ask, "Mommy, was the lady who made this quilt for me on drugs?"

Maybe I should put a disclaimer on the label?

Biting off more than I can chew...

OK, maybe wanting to make six kid quilts in six weeks was a little ambitious. I'm a little overwhelmed, given I had a couple other projects going on and now have homework (hah!) to do for my digital design class.

Two weeks in, I only have strip sets sewn and partially cut for two tops...

Archie is, of course, a big help.

...two tops are complete...

...and one quilt is totally finished. I tried to get a good shot of this one, but this kept happening:

You'd think I sewed catnip into the batting.

No toys are involved here -- he's just a wacky, wacky cat.

I think this one will have to do.

It's photographing very pink, but the "Emu Tracks" swirly fabric really has a red base. I used red thread for the quilting throughout -- outlining the zipper teeth, then straight lines in the green and wavy in the print. This was on craft size batting, so it's a good little kid size (about 34" x 45"). I'll probably make a couple of the others this same size, but the two completed tops are bigger. There's a lot of quilting to be done!

Sorry for all the gratuitous Archie pix. I couldn't resist.

Happy weekend, all!