Joy's Block and more

I get inspiration from a lot of places but sometimes it comes from blog friends. I try not to copy things but once in a while, I really want to. On November 5, Joy from The Joyful Quilter posted this little block - I'm guessing it's about 8-9" square. It intrigued me and I decided I had to make it...but I wanted to make it a much larger quilt.

This is the picture that inspired my quilt - I think Joy's hand is holding the block. Later she put a cute orange binding on the quilt. You'll find the finished quilt in Joy's post.

From Joy's blog 

I went to my stash and just pulled fabric that I thought would work. I made 5.5" HSTs. I did add 5.5" borders to the quilt and I finished the dark diamond in the border. The border and binding are Modern Muse by Stephanie Brandenburg for Frond Design Studios. I do love her fabrics!

This donation quilt is about 61" square. I free-motion quilted this with loops and double loops using 40-wt Glide thread, #10877 Sterling. 

The back is a blue and green swirl from my stash

Some other things I've been working include a couple more Chunky Race quilts. (Jasmine at Quilt Kisses inspired these quilts).When the quilts are finished, I'll get much better pictures.

Yesterday I finished Joy's Block. I finished piecing this quilt top, a disappearing HST that I saw on a Missouri Star Quilt Company tutorial.

And I finished quilting this quilt. It was a productive day!

I enjoy this "quiet time" of year because some days, I have lots of time to quilt! I still can't sew for hours at a time but I'm doing more than I was and I'm optomistic that will just keep improving.