The 3 Amigos

3 Amigos

It is SO sunny and beautiful today that I had to get out and photograph these.  I drove down to the bike trail and I’m sure there were a few people wonder what kind of crazy woman I was taken pictures of quilts rather than out enjoying the sun on my bike!

I finally finished the last and third quilt for our group of friends called “The Birthday Gang”. We are having another birthday get together next weekend.  All of these quilts were inspired by the book Freddy & Gwen Collaborate Again and have made me fall in love with my scraps.  I wish I had the time to make a quilt for every person in my life!  Making things for others is by far more enjoyable than making something for myself.

And so… because I know you will ask… here are some of the details…

Pesos ~ aka Chinese Coins

This was the first quilt I made. It was started on the day after Christmas.  It is loosely based on the quilt called Chinese Coins.  And since I am going with the Spanish theme, I had to call it Pesos.  It is approximately 60″ x 66″.  The coin pieces were cut at 6″ and randomly sewn together, the polka dot strip was cut 4 1/4″ wide because that is how much fabric I had, and the border was cut at 4 1/2″ wide… again because that is all the fabric I had. This friend loves purple, so I wanted to go with a generally purple theme.

El Ranchero ~ aka Housetops

This is the second quilt I made.  I love, love, love this liberated log cabin layout.  It is loosely based on the quilt called House Top.  It is approximately 61″ x 61″.  I started with 5″ cut squares in the middle and just kept adding strips until I had 18″ blocks. The border was cut at 5″ wide. This couple loves cowboy movies and have decorated one room in a western theme.

Mi Casa ~ aka Garden Path

This was the third quilt on the list. I have to admit that I had a hard time getting into this one. I started by making 18″ string blocks and it was NOT making me feel very excited.  So… I went digging through my stash and found these bright pink and fuchsia fat quarters to add onto the ends of the blocks.  They certainly helped to add some more  interest and now I love it.  And because I didn’t have enough fabric from the two fat quarters to make the quilt square, I also added a paisley that had all the colors in the fabric.  The finished size is approximately 60″ x 60″.   This one was inspired by the quilt called Garden Path. And this friend is the most girly-girl of the bunch, so she had to have a predominately pink quilt.

3 quilts for 3 friends

To finish the quilts, I add flannel to the back and got both the flannel and batting half-off at JoAnn Fabrics.  Then I rented the mid-arm quilting machine at one of my local quilt shops.  It took about 1.5 – 2 hours to quilt each one. So…  my average investment for each quilt (backing, batting & quilting) was about $40.00, making them a sweet deal.

I wanted to make them each snuggly, usable quilts. So often when I’ve made gifts in the past, a common response is, “but it’s too nice to use!”.  Well.  These are made to be used, snuggled under, and enjoyed by the whole family, including the furry pet children!  After all… they were all made from scraps!

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