A Box From My LAQ

On Christmas Eve my friendly UPS man delivered one of my favorite things... a box containing quilt tops from Nancy Clayburn of Quilting by Design who does my long arm quilting!

First out of the box came this UFO. The pattern I used is called "Down the Garden Path" from an April 2002 issue of McCall's Quilting. It started with a set of Faye Burgos for Marcus Brothers fat quarters I bought from Keepsake Quilting.

When I took the top out of the closet earlier in the month to measure for the backing I had a moment of panic! Look at the pattern closely to find the line of dark red squares that are bordered on both sides by the light background floral.

Here is a close-up where you can see the line I'm talking about in the upper right hand corner. Well, it just looked so odd to me and I was afraid I had sewed the top together wrong. I went on a mad scramble for the pattern and found that it was not wrong - whew! The pattern reverses direction at that line but it took me awhile to stop seeing it as a mistake.

Nancy did a big diagonal feathered design which I really like.

I had bought the darker green floral for backing fabric, but was WAY short on yardage. I have no idea what I was thinking... but luckily I had enough leftovers from the quilt top to piece a backing along with a 1/2 yard of coordinating fabric I found in my stash. Another whew!

UFO #2 is the cover quilt from the book "Quick & Easy Romantic Quilts" made using Robyn Pandolph fabrics. She is my favorite designer and I just love her lines. I admit to a bit of a hoarding issue with my stack of Pandolph fabrics... it's hard for me to cut into them sometimes!

 Nancy described the quilting as "windy meandering".  I think it suits this top perfectly.

 Here is the backing fabric. So sweet!

I will get the bindings attached and be all set for hand sewing when the NFL playoffs start in January! Both of these are going on my 2013 Q1 Goal List (more about that in another post).