Crackpot Quilters’ Blog

by Nancy

This is a wall hanging I made this summer in response to a challenge given to all of the members of my quilting group.  The challenge was called “What will you do with Blue?”  One of the women in the group gave each of us a fat quarter of the blue fabric and told us to go for it.   There were few rules, except that our piece had to use at least a little of the blue fabric somewhere and had to be at least 10″ square but not more than 16″ square.  Here’s what I came up with.  The flag is paper pieced.  Here’s what the backing looked like:

I had some leftover states fabric from making a pillowcase for Andrew, so it seemed like just the right thing for the backing.  It was quick and fun to do.

P.S. These pictures were taken with my cell phone, rather than our regular digital camera.  🙂

by Nancy

Here is my applique table runner that I’ve been working on for a while. I hand quilted around the applique and machine quilted the borders in the ditch. All I have left to do is to blind stitch the binding to the back. I love the fabric and colors, and it looks great in our green dining room!

by Nancy

Well, I’m very relieved to hear that I was not responsible for nearly crashing the blog! While I’m waiting to hear if anyone else wants to weigh in on the options for Crackpot Quilting Day, I thought I’d post a picture of the placemats I’ve been making. I got the focus fabric at Fields a while ago. The pattern is free from the JoAnn’s website. Unlike other placemats I’ve made, this one doesn’t have binding around the edge. Instead, you layer the top, batting, and a piece of muslin and quilt that. Then, you place the quilted top and real backing right sides together and sew around them except for a hole for turning it right side out. The result is slightly thicker than other placemats I’ve made. It may have been slightly faster because I didn’t have to do binding. Overall, I’m pleased, though I think my general preference is for a standard binding for placemats.

by Nancy

It’s about a month until All Together Week – yay! What would crackpots like to do this year? The traditional making of blocks for a charity or Project Linus quilt or top? What pattern? I like the past year’s Project Linus kites, but I’m open to anything. Or do we want to do something different? Everyone get together and sew on our current projects? A workshop by Marty on making little zippered bags? A workshop by me on making a reusable shopping tote?

What do all of you think?

by Nancy

Here it is! Pictures of the doll and doll quilt coming soon…