Friday Find Quilt Blocks

I saw tons of potential in piles of quilt blocks already cut and ready to create with.  Picked them all up for $3!!  After a little figuring I found a way to make them work for a king sized quilt top.  I am having to remeasure the squares as they range from 6"-6.25".



I thought of this nice lap quilt Jan made me and used it for inspiration.   I played around with my fabrics a bit until I found the way I wanted to assemble them.

 



I decided to go with triangles and rectangles, set various ways.  I think it will be quite exciting to see come together.  Come on, it's not everyday you can make a quilt top for $3! :)

 

 

Butterfly quilt blocks

While resting my foot I decided I would check out my butterfly blocks to see how many more I will need. The pattern I am using had a finished quilt size of 44 x 55 but I want a king size quilt approximately 109 inches by 109 inches, so I know I need a lot more than 18 butterflies. But just how many do I need?



The butterflies all still need little black bodies but I decided to do the bodies after I have all of the blocks completed. This isn't the final location for each butterfly, just a way to see how many I need. Well, it looks like I need 145 butterflies total, I have 106 ready for bodies so I'm very close. :)

Thanks again to all of you who helped by sending fabrics!!  I have managed to keep it to where there are only 1 or 2 butterflies of each fabric - except one of the first ones I cut, there are 3 of it, lol.

More Butterflies :0)

I have been very lax about sharing my other butterfly quilt blocks. Life has been busy and I've been having a hard time blogging. I've been a little sad as my grandchildren moved away - I miss them terribly! Husband has been trying to keep me busy and distracted from missing them but I've still lacked the motivation to do too much. The weather has been very weird, unusually warm, and pulling me outside. I had my check up with the oncologist and the xrays and blood looked good - still no recurrence. I've been feeling the urge to share more, and got tagged in a meme, so hopefully I'll find the motivation to actually build the posts. :0) How are you all?



Ida sent me a lovely swatch of checkered hearts - she must have know how I love hearts!  Thanx again Ida!  (PS, the butterflies do get appliquéd bodies - I think they'll look much better then.



Karmyn sent these fun prints!  (Sorry I guess the phone wiggled a bit as I snapped)  Meow!



Judy sent these wonderful fabrics!  Sorry again for my wiggle phone - I must have been more tired than I realized when I snapped these.

Thank you SO much ladies!  I am so excited to see this whole project come together!  I have some awesome friends who have helped bring it. :)

Butterfly Project

A few weeks back I asked for some help with my butterfly quilt.  Nearly immediately I had two people send wonderful fabrics!



My friend, Amy, sent these fabrics and I made two butterflies out of each fabric.  Aren't they wonderful?!  Especially fun to have a monarch wing print to make wings, lol.



My friend, Jan (author of many blogs, but I think you can access them all from the one linked to her name) sent these gorgeous additions.  Wouldn't mind finding a leopard winged butterfly out in the wild, lol.  I also made two from each fabric here, the little circles inside square fabric is now put together, lol.  All butterflies will have black appliquéd bodies eventually.

I have received a few other fabrics and will be posting them later.

Thank you ladies!!! :0)

 

Can you help me?

 



Have you ever stumbled across a project in your unfinished box that you you didn't remember starting?  When I first came across these butterflies I had totally forgotten about them.  There were some pieces cut out and I finished sewing them up.  I now have 46 butterflies.  However, to make a king sized quilt I need about 60 more.  I would like to continue with only having 1-3 butterflies out of each fabric, and fat quarters are great for this, but they've really come up in price since I started this project 6 years ago.



I have been searching the remnant areas too, but a friend suggested that I ask my friends to donate fabric swatches and turn it into a friendship quilt.  So here I am asking if you happen to have a 10" square piece of fabric you wouldn't mind mailing me to make a butterfly, I'm sure it would only cost one postage stamp to mail such a small piece.



If you'd like to help just send me an email lisa(at)lisaschaos(dot)com.  It takes a 10" square for each butterfly, 20" for two, etc.  The fabric should be cotton, cotton/poly, etc as long as it's a non-stretchy fabric we're good.  I love recycling fabrics, so pieces of old shirts, napkins, etc are welcomed.  Above, you see the fabrics I have used so far.

Completing some UFOs (unfinished objects)

I found some dates on my papers amongst the quilt stuff, it was 2004 the last time I worked on my quilts.  I completed my first quilt that year, sent it off for quilting and my youngest son ran off with it when he moved out, lol.  I completed one more quilt top, and nearly completed two others.  The quilt that was completed and two others were all in plaids, the first one, nothing but blue plaids.  I just love plaids.  But I had a hard time finding any in the stores.  So I had to find shirts at rummage sales and in our own closets, lol.

I decided to start with the top that was already all put together.  Husband and I decided to just back it in flannel so we'd have a lighter weight quilt.  Here I have it draped on the table, getting ready to pin it so I can quilt it.



Pinned and about half way done quilting.



I did this one in a diagonal pattern, rather than stitching in the ditch.  I was going to do diamond shapes, diagonal one way then back the other way but we thought it looked fine after once across so I stopped there.



All the blocks to this one were done and the first three rows were sewn together.  I had to finish putting it together before I could begin pinning the quilt.  I finished this one up and gave it to my grandma for Christmas.

 

The New Bed

While I was working on these log cabin blocks. . .



. . .my husband was shaping these hickory boards into a bed frame.



While I was pinning the layers of the joined blocks, batting, and backing, to make a quilt. . .



. . .my husband was planning the headboard of hickory and aspen.



While I was quilting my first quilt (wow, what an experience!). . .



. . .my husband was staining and assembling the headboard and attaching to the bed frame.



Together, we created our new bed.

Sidenote - All the photos were taken with my cell phone - the most convenient camera while crafting, lol.

Second sidenote - Although the head/horns had been hanging above the bed for about 4 1/2 years, the wire recently broke and the horns crashed onto us - they are no longer there, lol.

The Christmas Quilt

What have we here? This is a Christmas quilt my mom made for us.

But all Tristan sees is roads for his cars.

So many cute little Christmas items embroidered.

The funny thing is, when I was a kid, I would have seen roads for my cars too.

Happy Thanksgiving!

In August I signed up for Jan's Pay-it-forward. Then I promptly forgot about it.

One day in October, I received this magnificent quilt in the mail! Jan tells me that the fabric is called happy campers and as I was it the circles will fray, rag quilt-like. :)

As you can see, Tristan loves it! There's so much for him to see, so many little pictures in the fabrics used!

So, this is the day, I tell you, that it is my turn to Pay-it -forward.  If you're interested in receiving a little something made by me please let me know in comments.  The rules state that I have 365 days to complete said project and send it to you.  So you never know when you'll open your mailbox and see a little package from me, and you don't know what it'll be, because I don't even know yet, lol.   I didn't see anything in the rules about how many to do, so I'm going to say 2.  Two lucky(?) peeps will get something made by my hands. :)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!  Have a wonderful family-filled day!