Blocks for Quillows Done!

I worked on the remaining blocks for the quillow project, and I am finished with the blocks. I also caught up on ironing, and pressed the eight quilt tops that were together, but hadn't been ironed. Five of those were quillow tops.

Warm color leftovers led to warm colored four patches. I've got a pretty good amount already, but I won't be trying to make a quilt out of these until I've got a lot more. It will likely take a couple years before I have enough to start with it. These four patches finish at 2", so it's going to take a LOT to make a quilt of any size. 

Since I am all about assembling quillow tops right now, I switched to a light gray thread, so I can use the same thread for all, and it gave me a great excuse to switch my leader/ender project. I needed to switch leader/ender projects anyway, because all the four patches I had going are sewn. 

I dug out a UFO that has been stalled for a year or so. Those corners on the Flying Geese units are silver, so light gray thread was perfect for sewing these FG into sets of five. I have all the Flying Geese made for the quilt I wanted to make, but I realized I made too many Flying Geese, since I wasn't counting sashing in the size of the quilt and I need fewer blocks than I originally thought. No worries, I figured out another quilt to make with the leftovers, and I'm just as excited about that one. I really love using those plastic clips to clip groups of ten units together. It makes it so easy to keep count of how many units I have, and I much prefer the clips to pins. I wish I had bought the clips years ago!

Whenever I'm assembling tops I try to take a look at my UFO's and see if I've got anything that's an easy assembly to add to my pile. DH had figured the layout for this quilt a few months ago, and the rows were labeled and piled neatly waiting for assembly. I decided getting this one assembled would be a nice bonus. No sashing, no borders, so it's easy to work in. I'll be in no hurry to quilt it, but having it a quilt top instead of a pile of blocks is progress. 

This was the last quillow I needed blocks for. I've got this sewn into rows now, and another quillow up on this design wall. I was wondering how an all gray top would look, but I'm pretty happy with it. 

I'm not sure if I seems like I'm just sewing all the time or not, but I've actually been out of town a lot lately. We spent five days in Prescott, AZ, then we spent another three in the Flagstaff area a week later. The only time I allow myself to buy men's shirts for quilting is while I'm on vacation, so we hit a couple thrift stores and I got 16 shirts, a pair of pajama pants, and a dress that I am cutting up to use for quilting. I got a few more shirts than that, but some have been claimed by family, which is always OK with me. I also bought some holiday fabric at a thrift store I'm passing to my sister. My best thrift store deal was 26 items for $16. 

Here's my haul of shirts, I've already cut up the pajama pants and dress. If it's 100% cotton, I'm game to use it. I LOVE plaids, and men's shirts is the easiest way to assemble a good collection of them. 

Northern Arizona is mostly pine trees, but we did get to see some pops of color here and there. I really miss having four seasons, so it was nice to get a glimpse of autumn.