Great weather .... Great Quilt

The weather has finally calmed down and turned out nice. The sun has been out for three days in a row…..light breeze but not incessant wind and it has been warm! (Not hot, but at least warm enough to be outside without heavy jackets, gloves, hats, mufflers, boots…...) The leaves are starting to pop out on the trees and my old fashioned iris are blooming! Maybe it will stay warm this time and not turn to freezing in the next couple of nights. It is supposed to rain but no freezing temperatures….!!!!
I am working on the scholarship quilts for SAPA (Society of Army Physician Assistants) and the one for the Veterans Caucus. I unfortunately have missed the deadline for the SAPA quilt to go out to North Carolina with Paul Lowe. I will have to overnight mail it on Monday morning. But here are some early photos of the progress of the top. Right now all it needs is some quick quilting, binding and then it is off in the mail.
Then I can move on to the quilt for the Veterans Caucus. I already have the piecing done on it (the hardest part as it also is something I have never done before….but you will have to wait to see it) and only need to finish sewing on the background blocks and then decide how I want the borders to look and sew them on….then it will be ready to quilt and bind.
Both of these quilts have been learning experiences. The SAPA quilt is the first time that I have set blocks on diagonal AND had sashing strips around the blocks. I have done both independently but never together. It was a little scary as I only had so much background material and really could not afford to make a mistake. I think that once I decided how I wanted to set the blocks together (a number of weeks ago), I became intimidated with the process and ground to a halt. But as the deadline got to the point of no return….I had to get started once again.
For years I have been copying articles on patterns, techniques, designing and designs. I have a number of three-ring binders with like topics all in one place. This has been a great help a number of times when I needed some information but would never be able to find it in all of the books and magazines that I have. I was able to find the article that gave the exact instructions on how to measure for the side setting triangles and had a chart on the sizes of the squares that I needed. It took me a little time to figure out exactly what I was doing but……after that it was some quick cuts and sewing and the pieces fell right into position and fit!
Boy is it going to be a great looking quilt. Even though the blocks are the same as the ones that I used last year…..the look is totally different. I am proud of the way that it turned out.