Quilter's Laundry Day--My Favorite Kind

Today is the day!  Time to grab the laundry and hang it out on the line!  A few weeks ago, Jen at A Dream and A Stitch and Jan at Color, Creating and Quilting announced sign ups for a blog hop featuring Jen's new pattern Quilter's Laundry Day.  As soon as I laid eyes on the pattern, I knew there were endless quilting possibilities waiting for me.

I quickly sent an email to Jen signing up for the hop and headed to the back room for my stash.  The possibilities for the 4" quilt are endless!  When deciding on the quilt that would hang on my line, I went with something sort of simple that I could add more intricate quilting too.

You see, I'm pretty sure this quilt was a wedding gift for the couple that lives in the house.  Wait! No!  It was the wedding quilt of the woman's great grand mother that she inherited.  So much love and family history in that little quilt.

 Her most favorite thing to do, on a fresh Spring day, when the sun is shinning and the crisp air is softly blowing, is to walk across the rolling hills barefoot, feeling the soft carpet of spring grass between her toes, and hang her freshly washed quilt on the line to dry.  There is nothing quite like the fresh clean smell of a quilt that has been hung on the line.

So when it came time for quilting, I pulled out my Aurifil stash to choose just the right colors to bring life to this cozy little scene.

The very first thing I quilted was the little quilt itself.  I knew it must contain some of my favorite classic quilting motifs...feathers, orange peels and cross hatching.  

For the rest of the quilting, I just kind of let the quilt talk to me.

Much like my outbuilding, the poles that hold up the clothesline have a nice wood-grain on them.  As you can see from the wavy lines, the ground is made up of soft rolling hills, much like my beloved home.

The road leading up to the house is a cobblestone driveway with sprouts of flowers popping up everywhere.

To finish this quilt off, I chose a simple black and white polka dot binding. 

Thankfully, mother nature gave me a sunny warm day to take my mini outside and snap some pictures.  And of course, this photo shoot could not be complete without  a picture of it on...my clothesline.

I hope you've enjoyed reading about my version of Quilter's Laundry Day.  Don't forget to check out everyone else on the blog hop today and yesterday's participants.  Also, make sure you visit our hosts at A Dream and A Stitch and Color, Creating and Quilting for a chance to win some awesome prizes.  Below is a list of all the hop participants.

Saturday March 11th
Janice Holton at Color Creating & Quilting
Sola at Alice Samuels Quilt Co
Jennifer Strauser at Dizzy Quilter
Amy Gerlich at Amy Scrap Spot
Sharon Denney Parcel at Yellow Cat Quilt Designs
Steffi at Steffi's Hobbys
Tami at Sew Much for Free Time
Suzy Webster at Adventurous Applique & Quilting
Mary Marcotte at Fleur de Lis Quilts & Accessories
Susan Gordon at Sevenoaks Street Quilts
Anne Boundy at Said With Love
Barbara Wootie at The Flashing Scissors
Jan Welander at Making Scraps

Friday March 10th
Jen Rosin at A Dream and a Stitch
Kate Heads at Smiles From Kate
Jennifer Fulton at Inquiring Quilter
Karen Thurn at Tu-Na Quilts, Travels and Eats
Melva Nolan at Melva Loves Scraps
Vicki at Vicki's Crafts & Quilting
Julie Stocker at Pink Doxies
Anja Clark at Anja Quilts
Diann at Little Penguin Quilts
Jayne at Twiggy and Opal
Susan Arnold at Quilt Fabrication
Leanne Milsom at Lizze the Quilter
Sandra Walker at mmm!quilts

Gotta love a quilt blowing in the wind. 

QAL's--Where Do I Stand

This past weekend was mostly a stay at home sew weekend for both me and Dave the Quilt Engineer.  I promise he is still alive and well and most importantly sewing.  He's just been (to quote Dave) "busier than a one legged man in an ass kicking contest."  Work has kept him quite busy and sometimes not even home.  So, hopefully, he will be back to writing about his adventures soon, until then you are all just stuck with me.

I think we have established I have a QAL problem.  I'm okay with that and I'm not looking to recover any time soon.  So how about an update on my progress and a reminder of two up coming QAL's this month.  I apologize in advance for repeating some of the information.  Just in case someone is new to my attempt to overdose with QAL's and might want to join in as well.

1) Pat Sloan's The Children's Library

     The patterns for this BOM are based on the titles of our beloved children's stories and are released on the first of the month.  I've decided I will create my color palette for each block based on each book's cover.  This month's block was The Pokey Little Puppy, one of my favorites as a child.  Maybe that's why I have three puppies who would definitely steal my deserts from me in a heart beat.

2) Pat Sloan's Aurifil Designer BOM

     So far I'm up to date on this one.  The new block will be released around the 15th of the month and will be a 12 block sampler quilt when it is finished.

3)  Sew Fresh Quilt's Jolly Christmas Quilt

     Lorna's festive Christmas QAL  is going on for the next couple months.  Every two weeks on a Saturday she releases a new holiday block for us to make.  So far there have been stockings, mittens and bows.  Last week she released the Poinsettia Block, it may be my favorite so far.

4)  Living Water Quilter's Star Cross QAL

     This QAL is actually a bit different because it is a real quilt along.  We are actually quilting together, not piecing.  Each Monday, Geraldine posts both written instructions and a video to show us how to quilt our Star Cross mini quilt.  This is my quilt with the first two weeks completed.  Hopefully, I will complete this week's instructions tonight.

5) Jen and Jan's Quilter's Laundry Day Mini Quilt

     Jen from A Dream and A Stitch and Jan from Color, Creating and Quilting are hosting this QAL/blog hop for this super cute block designed by Jen.  The block reveal hop will be March 10th and 11th.  I am almost completely finished with my version of this mini.  I'd love to show you the whole thing, but how about a teaser shot from the back instead?  You can see the block and find the instructions to make one of your very own here.

6) Stitchin At Home's Medallion Quilt  

     Cindy's releases the instructions for this QAL on the third Saturday of every month.  So far we have been working on the center block.  I need to add one more border strip to the bottom of mine, but other wise I'm all caught up.

7)  Pat Sloan's 182 Solstice Challenge

     I tried as hard as I could to resist these blocks.  I am human.  I am weak.  I finally Instagramed and blog read too much and caved.  Last week I showed you the first three blocks.  Today, I will show you the rest to date...Warning: Picture Overload Ahead.

Cobble Stone Block

The Crosswalk Block

Tidy Rows Block

Never Ending Love Block

Amoung The Stars Block

The Coffee Shop Block

Quilt Math Block

I actually have one more block to make.  I can alter the Grandma Anna's Basket block (I'm not in love with it's applique) or substitute in my single Aurifil block from last year.  Decisions...decisions.

8)  mmm!quilts Windfall

     Mark your calendars for this one.  It is hosted by my QBFF, Sandra, and starts on the Spring Equinox, March 20th.  It is for a smaller version of her Windfall Quilt.

I am all ready to go!  I'm not quite ready to step back into a fall color palette so I'm going with more of a spring look.  I'll be pulling from my stash as well.

9)  Sewcial Bee Sampler

This little gem is going on right now (they are 5 blocks in) and is being hosted by Maureen Cracknell and Sharon Holland.  I just found out about it last night (thanks Sandra).  If you go to the link above and check it out...you'll know I'm gonna do it.  I can't say no, it's a sampler block quilt and I have a FQ Bundle of  Paradiso and I can hear it calling to me.  Like right now, I can hear it...I'm not crazy!  I'm going to wait till the weekend and see if I'm still feeling the same, but you know I'll do it, right?

10) Cora's Quilt's Gathering Mystery QAL

     This one will start toward the end of March.  I love Shelly's designs and I really want to participate, but with so much going on already, we shall see if I start this one.  I made her Gypsy Queen Mystery Quilt two years ago and started last years.  She is a wonderful mystery quilt writer, I hope you will consider checking it out.  I might have to live this quilty dream through one of you.  

So have I completely went off the deep end?  Maybe a little.  But, not all the blocks come out at the same time and their finishes will be spaced out as well.  If I fall behind, that's okay, catching up shouldn't be that tricky.  As long as I'm having fun, that's all that matters.  Plus, I'm slowly seeing a dent in my stash and that feels good.  So are you joining me in any of the QAL madness?

Today I'm liking up with Fished or Not Friday.