Yes, I have finished it! This is my first leaders and enders project, the little 3.5″ units pieced as I put together various other projects. Did I like it? Well…it did make for very neat, tailless piecing on the other tops. I liked that a lot. It was hard to train myself to do it religiously, and I could only go so far with it and still concentrate on the other work. But, yes, I will do it again, with a simpler project of mindless squares. 
I made this quilt to use the backing fabric in my stash (French Country Journal by Michael Miller). I’d been saving it for a while, and it is just too pretty to cut. And there will always be more fabric. So I decided to use it, and designed this quilt. It’s inspired by a quilt in Scraps, Inc. I haven’t seen the book, but I liked a project that Pam made, so I designed this in EQ7 to resemble a trellis. I used all the yellow, gold,and blue 3.5″ squares in my bin, and sewed 2″ white squares to two corners to create the little lozenges. 
This was an odd shape. I bought fabric at Missouri Quilt Company for borders, but decided against them. I added another two rows at the bottom, removed the side and corner setting triangles, and substituted the floral fabric (potential border fabric). This finishes it a bit without being heavy. I like it. It’s 51″ x 69″ 
I quilted it all with yellow Sulky on top and white Bottom Line on the back. Most of it is done in an orange peel motif [probably never again after all the terrible puns (redundant?) on Twitter!]. Those are butterflies in the centers of some of the white areas. I would do them differently another time, but they are not bad. 
This doesn’t have a purpose yet. It may go into my Etsy shop, except that I really like it a lot. But I only need so many quilts. 
Hope you had a finish this week. I’m linking up with Finish it up Friday and WIPs Be Gone.
Category Archives: Finishes
Scrap-in-a-Box is Finished! Alleluia!
Yes, It’s finally finished! I’ve only had the top finished since the end of May, so I suppose two solid weeks of quilting isn’t ridiculous, but it seems like forever. Maybe because we #twilters and others started this mystery quilt late last fall as we gathered and cut our scraps. Maybe because we pieced along all winter and early spring as the design was revealed. Maybe because by the time I assembled it, the blocks weren’t exactly, um, flat. But now it’s done, and very pretty!
To deal with the waviness, after I had spray basted this quilt, I machine basted it through all the blocks with water-soluble thread. Then I abandoned my original quilting thoughts for a design that fell mostly on the seam lines and in the flatter spaces. 
It all washed up pretty flat and straight in the end. Some of the quilting lines look like I was under the influence of something, but that’s what happens when you quilt over bumpy ground. All in all, it’s very successful. I love the colors I used. I’m keeping this one, at least for a while.
Thanks to Charlotte for designing this and guiding us through it, and all of the other participants. Always fun to work together. See our diverse results here.
I’m linking up to WIPs Be Gone at A Quilting Reader’s Garden.
Beach Drunk is Finished!
Today I had fun photographing this year’s beach quilt made with Drunkard’s Path blocks. No, there’s no ocean around here, but we do have a State Park with a beach. And, oddly, no one was swimming on this 50°F day…
Here is the design as I did it on EQ7. I often it to quickly layout and turn blocks, without worrying about fabrics, just to get a general idea. These are nine inch blocks. I wanted to keep the pieces large to show off the fabrics.
I started with six fabrics, but added four more to fill in the values. This quilt has no shell print fabric. One of the batiks is “Surf”. There is a peeling white paint print, and one that appears woven, not an awning stripe, but maybe a lawn chair? There is a metalic gold leaf print I really like. Most of the others are abstract batiks, although the darkest reminds me seaweed or fishnet. I used that for the binding, too.
I quilted this with wavy lines using a caramel-colored Living Colors from Superior Threads. The spirals were done in a Rainbows thread in a green, blue, yellow, pink variation.
The backing is a gold and cream batik that makes me think of coral, or maybe seaweed. There is a row of blocks pieced in, but it doesn’t show here.
This quilt is a little darker, more earth and sky, than some of the past ones. It’s available here in my Etsy shop.
I’m linking up to Finish it up Friday and Whoop Whoop Friday.
Scrappy Cabins 1 is Finished
Last week I got this project quilted and bound. Yes, I see the, uh, design decision, near the lower left corner. I mean, I see it now. I partially blame all of you, who looked at the top here and never mentioned the problem. (I’ve made sure to get lots of eyes on the pink and black one currently on my wall!) I’m not too upset. It gives it some character. Not all furrows are straight, after all.
As the commenters said, I like the green and the pops of purple. I used a shiny purple thread, Art Studio Colors by Superior, to quilt three wavy lines vertically and horizontally on each block. I had already stitched in the ditch with Bottom Line, which is mostly invisible, but gives it sufficient quilting.
I made this for donation and to lighten my string bins, and I think it will be loved.
We hope you’re finding time for finishes. I’m linking to Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts, and to WIPs Be Gone at A Quilting Reader’s Garden.
Finish: Baby Geese 2
Yesterday I finished up another take on the geese, and I like it a lot. You can see the Flea Market Fancy in it, but I also used up lots of old pinks from my stash, including a pink Jinny Beyer check that might be from the early nineties.
Since I was cutting yardage, sometimes small bits, I made these blocks 6″ finished, easy to cut and sew and calculate. The quilt finishes at 36″ x 42″.
I used the walking foot with pale yellow Bottom Line by Superior to stitch between all the blocks to keep it square. Then I switched to free motion and did a small stipple over all the background triangles. I was worried that dense quilting might make it stiff, but its not at all, and the unquilted geese are especially soft and nice. Warm and White batting.
I am in love with the rose batik I used for the back.
Stay tuned for version 3, which may be the last of the series!
Go to WIPs Be Gone at A Quilting Reader’s Garden to see more finishes.
Geese Finish
I finished the Geese baby quilt (38″ x 44″) made with Kona Ash and the bright “boy” scraps. I am really happy with the way it turned out. I took these photos in the bright sun just to show the quilting.
The quilting is all done with gray Bottom Line by Superior. I wanted it to just be texture and shadows, no additional color. The horizontal and vertical lines are all done with the walking foot, then I did the diagonals and the echo quilting in free motion. It was a little hard to distinguish the geese that are flying horizontally, so I echo quilted inside of them, and I like the result.
The scraps include whales, construction trucks, baseball equipment, and Mickey Mouse. I was cleaning out my 6 1/2″ squares, so I made 51/2″finished blocks to make the most of the fabric. I used the two-squares-and-a-rectangle method, and this very handy chart to calculate sizes.
This is only the second Flying Geese quilt I’ve ever made, and the other was long ago. I loved how easily and precisely the blocks went together using this method. Now I’m going to do another, busier one using pinks!
Can’t wait to see your finishes! I’m linking up to Whoop Whoop Friday at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.
Turning Down the Volume
Here’s a quilt that’s a bit different for me, since I do like bright color.
I purchased this fat quarter bundle on a whim this fall. The colors spoke to me. The gray is pretty, but it overpowers the lights. I added Kona Azure, but that was also very strong. I knew I wanted to cut these up as little as possible, so I made 6″ HSTs with them. I wanted to arrange them in a random design across the quilt, but it looked terrible.
I finally added some more Azure and made this star.
And (surprise!) I quilted it with feathers. I used aqua Bottom Line for all the quilting, top and bottom. It is very restful and soothing, and I was sad when I had no more areas to quilt.
I backed this with an aqua cloud print. A very successful little quilt. 38″ square.
The snow makes a beautiful backdrop for quilt photos, but enough is enough. Four to six more inches tonight… Stay warm and sew, everyone!
Fireplace Screen Cover Finished
Greetings from the frozen and snowy lands. Our snow is only up to Yuri’s belly (calling him Yuri Zhivago as he prowls around the Siberian landscape), but we have had some extreme cold. t’s better today. My upstairs studio is a place of relatively warm refuge. Please remind me of this when I complain in July.
Several years ago my DH and I bought this beautiful fireplace screen. We live in the woods, and have leaf motifs on rugs, wallpaper, etc., so we thought it would look good most of the year. Au contraire, ma soeur! It looks great September through November, and stupid out of place the rest of the year. After Pam (Hip to be a Square) made a hanging for her fireplace, I resolved to make a cover for our screen.
Here is the winter side. Kind of a whimsical and batik-y fire. I backed the base fabric with Pellon fusible fleece.
I cut all the fabrics freehand and glue-sticked them in place. I edge-stitched and quilted the logs with various black and brown Sulky threads. I quilted the flames densely with Superior’s Rainbows in flame tones, and also used my new Fabric Mate markers. (Question: have any of you had success at permanently bonding the fleece to cotton fabric? I have used it a few times, and only get a temporary bond with much effort. Any suggestions?)
The summer side could very loosely be called broderie perse, something I’ve loved since I was young. There are no laboriously turned edges here, though.
I cut these flowers from home dec fabric and edge-stitched them with invisible thread, and did just a little accent stitching with decorative thread. I think it’s fresh and fun. Working on it was a good antidote to the endless white outside!
I’m linking up to WIPs be Gone at A Quilting Reader’s Garden.
Finishes: Disappearing Four Patch and Baby Rail Fence
This week I finished the D4P, and then made the scraps into a fun baby quilt. Read more about the construction here. I made this (these) to use some small pieces of fabrics. I won an eclectic bundle back in August. It had some quarter yards, some fat quarters, some were “Wee Wanders” by Sarah Jane. I also had some floral remnants left from bundles I had purchased. All were pretty small pieces. I knew I wanted to do a color fade. I looked at a few patterns, including Robbing Peter to Pay Paul, but I came back to the D4P. I added some Phillip Jacobs prints, some delicious coral batik, and some dark coral grunge.
I stitched in the ditch between blocks, then quilted large roses and stylized flowers all over, using Bottom Line in Blush.
For the baby quilt, I left out the darker fabrics, and paired it with a yummy Martha Negley strawberry, raspberry, meringue print.
I liked the spirograph-style flowers so well that I put them all over this quilt, as well as wavy lines, using a variegated pink Sulky thread. I ran all the stitching edge to edge, so there were no slippery ends to bury.
Hope those of you in colder areas are staying warm and catching up on your sewing.
I’m linking up to Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts, and WIPs Be Gone at A Quilting Reader’s Garden. Hey, Angie!
Patriotic Finish
This quilt seemed to take a long time to finish, but I think it was mainly because I had to wait for some background fabric to arrive in the middle of assembling the top. It was also tricky to lay out. At one point I sewed a couple of blocks in wrong and had to fix them, so I asked the Twilters to look at it before I sandwiched it, just to be sure. Sometimes you’re just too close to a project.
I found this design at Sew Excited Quilts when Jackie was working with her strings. She worked out all of these great layouts, and when I saw the one with the stars, I knew it was what I wanted for this Quilt of Valor. I calculate that my quilt 56″ x 81″) has 1120 pieces of fabric in it! This has, finally, made a bit of a dent in my strings.
My stash has reached the point where I no longer have large backing pieces in every color, so I purchased this backing fabric on sale from Fabric Shack. I look the water color-like print!
I used white Bottom Line to stitch in the ditch and for all the stippling. I used a heavy Coats and Clark variegated thread for the stars and the hearts. I have mixed feelings about the way the stars turned out on the white areas. I really like tone-on-tone quilting, where the shadows do the work, but I also like pretty thread. These do add interest. What do you think?
I’m linking up to Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.
Evening in the Garden Quilts 