Just 5 months to go

There are only 5 months left for my Double Nickel Quilt Challenge and my 55th year.  In honor of this, I have put all of the Double Nickel Quilt Challenge patterns on sale for $5.00 each for the next 5 months.  From July 9 to December 9, 2011, you may purchase any of the patterns as downloads for $5.00!  Don't forget to download the FREE patterns also.   They are an example of how I write patterns.

Boy does time fly! So where am I in this challenge?  I have made 21 quilts and 2 mug rugs.  Four of the quilts need quilted and 2 are ready for binding. I have a pile of hexagons, a pile of 4 patch blocks and a pile of half square triangle blocks waiting to be made into quilts. I have written 14 patterns.  My original idea for the challenge was to design 55 patterns using 5" squares meaning that I would just come up with 55 ideas and draw them up in Electric Quilt.  Well, that is not as easy as it may seem.  From computer to fabric does not always translate well.  So, I decided I needed to make the quilts.  I figured I could do this if I made small quilts.  After all, we have 20 young grandchildren that can use them.  But sometimes I get carried away and make a big quilt like the Nickel Snowball quilt which is finally quilted and bound.

Here's a closeup of the quilting design done by Linda of L&R Designs.  It's a wonderful pantograph design called "Bubbles" that I think fits this quilt perfectly.

I will never reach my goal if I make any more this big!  Expect to see many small projects from here on out.  They will still be projects that use 5" squares just smaller and maybe not quilts per se.  Even I don't know what I'll do next!

                     

FREE pattern added

I can't believe it has been over a month since I posted my last quilt.  It's been a very busy summer so far.  We took a 12 day trip to Texas where my husband won a gold medal in doubles bowling at the Senior Olympic games!  We visited with one of my brothers, my sister-in-law and a niece that live in Austin too.  For the long ride to Texas from Iowa, I grabbed a stack of nickel squares of Kaffe Fassett fabrics and some 2" paper hexagons at the last minute to try my hand at English paper piecing.  It's actually quite easy.  A 5" square is just the right size for a 2" hexagon.

  Here's what I accomplished-

68 hexagons

I have an idea of what I want to do with them but haven't tried it yet.  That will be another post.
Two days after we got back from vacation, I went to a 3 day quilt retreat.  I worked on this quilt and started on 20 flannel bibs for my daughter's daycare business. Who knows when the bibs will be finished!  I used 64 half square triangle blocks, 80 four patch blocks and 52 two patch blocks from those that I made on Memorial Day weekend. This quilt still needs a name and has not been quilted yet.

My Nickel in a Box quilt pattern is now available as a FREE pattern along with my Bright Shiny Nickels quilt pattern.  Both patterns are much easier to access.  You do not have to enter any information or put them in a shopping cart any more.  I hope this helps those who were having trouble getting them.

                   Bright Shiny Nickel FREE pattern                  Nickel in a Box FREE pattern