A finish is a joy forever!

Pollyanna's Pinwheels is finished! I just love this sweet little doll quilt created out of some fat eighths and a border fabric that my mother gave me.

It all started with a challenge from quilt designer Kathleen Tracy on her yahoo list. You were given the challenge to make a quilt no larger than 30 inches using a 4 inch double pinwheel block. I know as soon as I read the challenge that I wanted to use my new pink and brown fabrics. Yes, I cheated on my stash diet and bought 4 new fat eighths! But now I only have one of them in my stash as the other three were used in this quilt. *grins*

I named this quilt while I was still sewing the patchwork which you can read about here. I wanted to keep this quilt looking very old so when I ran out of one of the pinks, I pulled a fabric close to it instead of buying more. Make do is my motto this year.

I hand quilted this freehand. That means I did not mark my lines and giving the quilt an older look. The border fabric was used horizontally as the bias binding. The quilt measures 17 x 19 inches.

I love to hand quilt! It makes a piece of patchwork come to life. I quilt my quilts heavily in most cases which means I do not have a high production level but do have optimal enjoyment!

And my rule is always that my quilt is finished when I have the label sewn on. I was just showing a quilting friend my other doll quilts and it is great to go back through and look at the labels to know when I completed a quilt.

Back by request...here is Becky's Blocks. Many told me they wished I would put the photos back on the blog. This quilt as with Pollyanna's Pinwheels are doll's quilts with a vintage look. For those who create these traditional quilts, at times our quilts look similar, but in both cases, the quilts I created are my own work.

My mother sent me the little doll you see sitting on Becky's Blocks. She said after she read the story I created for my blog post, she had to send me this little doll. I tea dyed her to make her look older and work well with the quilt. I am thinking of giving her one more bath in tea. It is okay as she whispered in my ear that she enjoys a good tea bath. *wink*

Yesterday, my quilting friend Elly came over to spend the afternoon quilting and then have dinner. It was nice to sit and talk with needle and thread to hand. She spoiled me with a truly wonderful birthday gift.

She put some acorns in a little basket with a roll of beautiful vintage look fabrics and dark chocolate yummies. It was so nicely put together that I hated to take anything out of the basket but I just had to see those fabrics of course. She wrapped a piece of lace with a bow around them and I am sure that lace will show up in a project one day soon.

One very fortunate thing? I am currently hand quilting a quilt in autumn tones. Good thing as the chocolate is too delicious to resist. I won't have too much of a worry about chocolate fingers. *grins*