Modern Red Rectangles - A Finished Believe Circle Quilt

In December, it was my turn to choose our design, and I chose simple blocks in red and neutral.

They don't look like much individually, but put them all together and they form a stunning modern design.

I love how, with some general guidelines, a group of blocks made by ten different quilters can result in such a lovely finished quilt. And I also love that these projects help use up fabric stash that may have been around for quite a while.

Sometimes it is more than fabric stash that gets used. Thread stash needs help from time to time as well. As you can see, I have tried a wide variety of thread over the years. I'm a fairly die hard Aurifil fan these days and I was ready to see some of these older threads go, especially the ones with such a tiny amount left on the spool.

Normally, I lean toward neutral colors for quilting but for this project, it was going to be all red all the way. What a great way to use up some of that lingering thread stash. The wavy horizontal quilting lines have become one of my favorites for adding texture without overwhelming the quilt.

It's always a tension risk to mix up weights and brands of thread and I thought I was being careful each time I changed thread, but apparently I was not being careful enough. Fortunately, this only happened for a few rows, so the unsewing was not too overwhelming.

Look how much thread was used! Now there is more room for trusty Aurifil.

This is why I don't like using most other thread brands. The lint and build up is so heavy. This is not good for your sewing machine. A good cleaning is in order before the next project begins.

The quilt back includes two extra blocks from the twenty blocks made by our circle.

There was enough extra from one of the backing fabrics to use for binding.

Now to throw this quilt in the wash with three or four color catchers. Hopefully, they will keep those reds right where they belong. The Believe Circle of do. Good. Stitches sends most of our quilts to My Very Own Blanket, an organization that gives quilts to foster children so that they will have something that belongs just to them and can stay with them no matter where they go. That is where this quilt will be shipped later this week.

Believe Circle Quilts 2015

The Believe Circle is one of many groups that are part of do.Good Stitches. Our circle makes quilts for an organization called My Very Own Blanket. There are ten of us. Five are quilters and we rotate responsibility for the quilt each month. The other five are stitchers. Both quilters and stitchers contribute blocks to every quilt. We are just past the half way point of the year and I thought it would be fun to share what we have made so far.

In January, I was the quilter in charge. Houses were the theme for the month. See the finished quilt here.

In February, Allison asked us to make arrows of all kinds.

She finished her quilt, too, and it turned out great. You can read about her finish over on her blog.

In March, Nicole had us make did Monkey Wrenches. Nicole made not one, but two quilts from all the blocks we sent her. She blogs over at Fist Full of Fabric. It doesn't look like she has posted the finished quilts yet, but keep an eye out. I bet they will be there soon.

In April, Laura asked us to make a nine patch and a star block.

In May, it was my turn and we made raindrops. You can see the finished quilt here.

In June, it was my turn again and we made quarter log cabin blocks.

In July, Nicole has asked for big bear paw blocks.

The first half of the year has been lots of fun. I can't wait to see what the rest of the year brings for our circle. If you are interested in joining one of the circles of do.Good Stitches, you can read all about it here.

A Few Quilted Flowers

This quilt top waited quite a while to make it's way back under the machine to be finished. I knew I wanted to do some sort of motif in each block and these flowers ended up being just the right thing.

Rather than use the same thread color for the entire quilt, each block is quilted in coordinating, or sometimes contrasting thread.

The blocks in this quilt top were made by the quilters and stitchers of the do. Good Stitches Believe Circle. They sent their blocks to me...ahem...last December. It's all good now though.

The back is three long panels of purple. Pay no attention to those feet. They usually get cropped out. Must have forgotten to do that on this picture.

 The flowers show up nicely on the back too, especially on the darker purple.

Just added a label this morning.

This quilt has already been washed and dried to give it that soft crinkly look and feel. It will be sent off to My Very Own Blanket next week.