Move over Eleanor Burns, I made a quilt in a day!

"Autumn in new york

Why does it seem so inviting?"

Okay, so I am not in New York anymore. But it is autumn here in the South, despite temps in the eighties, and yesterday I made a little baby quilt that incorporates seasonal colors and themes. It will go to the Quilts for Kids service project of the Capital Quilters Guild of Raleigh, NC. The quilts are given to the neo-natal units at local hospitals to cover the isolettes. The parents love them because they can easily spot "their baby," and the nurses love them because the shield the infants from bright lights, and cheer up the nurseries. If there are enough quilts on hand, the families get to take their quilt home when their baby is discharged.

I won the leaf quilt blocks a couple years ago at the Cyberbee, a group of quilters in this area. I used two of the leaf blocks for my garden flag, six of them here, and have a few left. Since the leaf blocks were all ready, I was able to piece, quilt, and bind this quilt in one day! I used free-motion quilting with leaves, flowers, and swirls. It was fun to get this done and to know it will be treasured by a family going through a stressful time.

I am going to the guild meeting tonight with my friend Jean, who is floating on Cloud Nine after winning Best of Show and First Place at the North Carolina State Fair for her Twelve Days of Christmas applique quilt. Way to go! Jean's applique is to die for, and her hand quilting is so pretty. I loved the bright fabrics she selected, which have a lot of gold metallic details.

Another member of the same Cyberbee group also won a blue ribbon and the Golden Needle award for her quilt made during our Sharyn Craig challenge. Thirteen of us each made the same block, using one given fabric and any other fabric of our choice. So, one block that I made is in this prize-winning quilt! With thirteen blocks, there were some most unusual settings. Holly enlarged the block we made as a central medallion, and added some lovely bittersweet applique, as that was the theme fabric.

Here is the quilt I made from the same Sharyn Craig challenge. I gave it to my son Bryson and his wife for a belated wedding present, since they were married on October 18 in a beautiful autumn garden wedding. Happy Anniversary! I can't believe it has been four years! More detail shots of this quilt are available in my Webshots album 2006 Longarm Quilting.

Having left you such delightful eye candy, I am off to the North Carolina mountains tomorrow morning. Hopefully the autumn foliage will provide lots more inspiration for my quilting!