Two more nearly done projects!

Life has kept me busy... which is why I am finally posting two projects that have been hanging around my house for quite a while.  They are both nearly done.  One needs a sleeve and both need a simple label.

Early in 2013, Barbara Brakman (grandmothers choice.blogspot.com) started posting a weekly  8 inch quilt block and linked each block to a significant event in the women's suffrage movement.  Two of my friends eagerly embraced the idea of completing all 49 blocks in this series.  From the beginning, I knew that I would only do some of them, so I approached this project with the idea that I would end up with a table runner or something small and not a full size bed quilt.  It was fascinating to read the history each week, punctuated with vintage photographs and newspaper articles of the era, and then also see how others interpreted the blocks.  Barbara does an excellent job and I continue to follow her blogs.

So, apparently I did 12 blocks.  True to form, I sashed the blocks over a year ago.  I was a little dissatisfied with my sashing fabric choices... not enough contrast.  And like I often do with projects that I've tired of, the "top" got folded up and put away to be finished sometime or not.  But then Alice reminded me of the blocks this winter... and when I took out the top, it didn't look so bad.  So I sandwiched it and quilted it!

Here is a close up view...

so you can see the sashing fabric (not much contrast, but there are two different fabrics) and the binding a little better.

And I always like to show you the back...

which is more of the same.  I must have had a pretty good amount of that gold, though I did need to piece it at one end.  I'm not sure if this is the end, but you can probably tell if you enlarge the picture. 

Just for a change, I auditioned it on my dining room wall.

I think it looks pretty nice, but I would prefer if it were oriented the other way.  That sideways flag block bothers me.  But that means that I would have to move the hooks on my wall and I'm not sure I want to get into that.  So I have to decide where I want to sew my sleeve.  

And then here is a baby quilt that just needs a label.

I made it with just a random assortment of charm squares I had left over from other projects.

Here is a closeup...

 so you can see the binding fabric.  And another shot that shows the backing fabric.

I love the red hot chili peppers!  I got that fabric from a thrift shop.  Apparently they had some dead quilter's stash and I got several fabrics with fruit/vegetable themes.  I think the striped binding fabric might have come from that buy, as well.

I like easy projects like this that use up some of my stash fabrics... and it will be available for the next baby who needs it!