Checkerboard & Squares

I call the pattern for this one Checkerboard & Squares.  I haven't actually come up with a name for the individual quilt yet.  It is machine pieced and machine quilted (by Front Porch Quilt Shoppe).  Melanie has asked me to write a pattern for it.  Hopefully I will get around to doing that soon.  The quilt finishes at about 42 inches square.  I used some of the extra jellyroll strips on the back to make the backing wide enough so that I didn't have to buy extra yardage.

Grow! jellyroll baby quilt

I will be donating this little quilt to the Methodist Church where my quilt guild used to meet.  They always give a quilt to the babies that are baptized there.  I machine quilted it myself, quilting in the ditch around the two borders and in between the rows.  These are so quick and easy to make. They make great charity quilts or gifts. 

Watermelon Tourmaline quilt top

Here is my latest effort toward finishing up last year's quilting to-do list.  This top fulfills the "make a batik quilt" item on the list.  It is the quilt that I had in mind last year when I added that item to my to-do list.

The quilt pattern comes from Eleanor Burn's book, Quick Trip Quilts and is made from batik fabrics that I ordered from Keepsake Quilting's catalogue.  For a trip around the world quilt it was really fun and easy to make.  Even though there are lots of small pieces in the quilt, you don't sew any short seams.  It is strip pieced, of course, because it is an Eleanor Burns quilt, and it comes together really quickly.  I highly recommend the book if you are looking to make a trip around the world quilt.

The inspiration for the quilt was a trip to Maine that we took several years ago, in 2009.  When we were in Bar Harbor we went into a little jewelry shop where they had a lot of tourmaline gemstone jewelry.  Tourmaline is the official gemstone of the state of Maine.  They showed us some bi-color tourmaline that was popular, but expensive, called watermelon tourmaline that was pink and green.  I thought it was very pretty, but we didn't buy any.  Here is a picture of what it looks like.

I decided to make a watermelon tourmaline quilt instead.  It took me quite a while to get around to it, but I finally did it.  Well, I finally pieced the top anyway.  I still need to decide what I am going to do about the quilting.  Decisions, decisions. . .