"Royal Jewels"

This is number 41 of the 41 upcycled blues series tops I’ve made.

Well, I’ve actually only finished 39 of the 41 - as I have the last two - one is made up of pocket pieces - in process (it’s kind of just sitting right now) and a Hawaiian themed one - those pieces are all set aside.

All the rest - the other 39 tops are all finished and I’m frantically trying to finish up the quilting on them. I’m getting tired of looking at them!

OK, ok, I’m not very frantic. Not really. I would just like to be finished with them.

The backing

I have three more “not-yet-sandwiched” upcycled blues tops ready to be sandwiched. That means I have the backings ready to go. I’m not just grabbing some duvet cover for these since I’m kind of “out” of my larger ‘coordinates with blue’ duvet covers, I’m having to piece the backings.

Anyway, I finished this one a few days ago.

I’ve just been going to town on quilting all of these lately.

I missed so much time with quilting due to my trip to the states, jet lag/Thanksgiving and then machines being out that I am feeling like I’m not being as productive as I wanted to be.

But that’s life, isn’t it?

Some periods in our lives - well, things happen. I know if this is the worst that happens to me, then it is nothing. Nothing.

i was struggling with the wind a bit while trying to get pictures! It was brrry!

The quilt roll

Anyway, when I was working on the design for this simple quilt, I wanted to spice it up a bit and not just make it another “Jewel Box” quilt using this simple block.

I played around with various things but finally decided on the checkerboard border. Once I saw how it looked on the Electric Quilt program, I decided “That’s it!” Previous to that time I hadn’t been all that excited about it. When I tweaked the design a couple of ways and went with this layout, I then got right down to the piecing. It went together quickly.

The quilting - it’s getting a little easier for me. These swirls, that is. Eventually, I hope, they will be no different than loops or even hearts, both of which I feel pretty good about doing.

By now I am feeling a lot more confident about the swirls and circles.

Once more - the swirls - here’s a close up.

If it looks cold out there - and it felt cold!

The pattern has already been up on the site, but I updated the picture. It’s here.

You will be glad to know that upon completion of this top (and the two whose pieces are set aside as mentioned above), I will be done with this series!

I’ve not been adding to my blues, so at last, my goal of getting down to two plastic storage boxes - and not stuffed full at that - should be easily accomplished.

I do still have a couple of bags of small pieces and crumbs. Maybe sometime in the future I’ll make up some crumbs or strips blocks made from those - but probably not in 2019. You can always keep up with the whole series here.

Be sure to check out what my sis has in the store. She is working hard to keep you in fabric!

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