A Finish and A Start

I finally finished hand quilting a small quilt with Big Stitch.  I started this baby 2 years ago and dug it out from the bottom of a pile a couple weeks ago to get it finished.  Now it's done:

This project came from Carolyn Forster's book Utility Quilting.   There are several quilts in that book I like and it has great info on finishing quilts as well as instructions for fast hand quilting with Big Stitch.

I needed a quick project to work on this morning so I got back to these sweet little X Blocks.  They are made the same way as the X Block swap blocks I wrote about here. 

These finish at 3" so it's a little quilt.  I started with 5" Charm squares where the large blocks start with Layer cakes, 10" squares.  I plan to make one more set of 6 to provide a little more variety.  I am linking up with Patchwork Times.

Tomorrow I head off to Houston for the 35th anniversary of Quilt Market and the 40th anniversary of International Quilt Festival.  It is sure to be a great two-week trip--I'm really looking forward to all the folks I'll get to see there.  A few special friends are making the trip this year and that will make it an even more exciting event.  I'll post a blog or two as time permits.  First, comes the work I am going there to do, then the fun stuff.

Let's Quilt!

Barbara