Square Quilt 2018 Done and Asian print fabric...

Quilt finished!!  Red binding pulls it together and some of these fabrics are from my Mother's stash from the mid 1990s, so it has an heirloom quality for the family as well. Very traditional and this is going to be a working quilt - a warm wrap for cold days...using quilts is the best way to honor the maker, not only plain traditional quilts like this one, but even the fancy ones people give family. Nothing warms you like a quilt made with love.

This is sideways of course, but the quilt is 64"x80" and I didn't want it to hit the floor in the picture. The two fabrics that were my Mother's are the lightest which is actually a blue and white print, but it surely does not come out in pictures well. The other one is the reverse - a dark blue with very small white pattern - these fabrics are the reverse of one another and are tiny florals. The blue with road signs was a length of fabric for jammies I made the grandsons some years ago, and the other two blues were in my stash awhile. The red was the backing from a recent quilt. I find quilt backing so handy when making a scrappy quilt later on!! I usually have pretty good amounts left of backing fabric.  

Meanwhile I bought a lovely length of Asian print fabric to add to my overflowing stash of same. Bought from a fellow PR member.  It is just beautiful!  

Working on a small lap quilt now - the Christmas lap quilt. Kind of an experiment because it has fleece lining which I have not used before.  There are a few other projects on tap as well. 

Koko Beall Patterns and a Cat-In-The-Way....

Here are a few of the patterns I have acquired in the last several months...I just love Koko Beall designs.  The link here goes to a lovely blog post that says more about Koko than is possible to find in a search....there ought to be more.

Aren't they nice! I love the simplicity of Koko Beall designs - simple yet elegant. Of course the models are all eight feet tall and slender, while I am most certainly not, but the styles are timeless. I already have a couple of Koko Beall patterns in the hoard, and here are they ones I already had.

I would like to make at least one pair of the pants to see how the sizing is and the fit, and a couple of the tops are very alluring. I did want a pattern that had not only the sleeve version but a sleeveless version as well as jacket and pants, so I think all bases are covered now.  I do not buy unless I see a back view as well because it is the line drawings that tell us so much about the real pattern. But the illustrations of the eras in which these patterns were released, as well as the 70s illustrations, were really my favorite style.  I sewed quite a few Very Easy Vogue back in years past.  I am going to try to get a few more of her patterns - a size near mine is good enough because they can be made larger or a bit smaller if necessary with such simple lines. 

This is why it took me awhile to pin the little Christmas lap quilt and even then....it could be better on the one side and will be. Our cat thinks anything fleece is for her, and this was on the fleece batting.....hahahhaha.....I tried to keep her off but until she wanted to leave it was not possible. Cough.

Detour to a Christmas Lap Quilt...

And yes, I see that I must even out that pinning - the back gave me problems a bit. This is "whole cloth" and I will stipple it - not all that large but will be either a small lap quilt - literally for a lap cover on the couch, or a table cover - depending. For batting I am using a lovely piece of fleece I bought in the remnant bin at JoAnn's a few months back.  The fabrics are leftover cotton curtains from when we had a door with a nice large window. We don't anymore, and I saved all the seasonal curtains I had made and use them in quilts now - but I didn't want to cut up the piece on top....what a lovely print and already has a quilt sort of look to it. SO - this project will have a binding of another lovely Christmas print I have some of that I bought for whatever I thought about using it for! So far it has been one greeting card, so there is a lot left. It is a red with gold sprinkles and poinsettias on it.   And no, I didn't finish the quilt previously mentioned as yet. :)