lizzie's quilt, a 40 year finish and farewell

On Sunday night, about a week before Christmas Eve, I decided that I should make my sweet neighbor girl a quilt for her 18th birthday. It was a crazy idea, no doubt, but I forged ahead anyway. I'm not sure that I would recommend making a quilt in such a hurry the week before Christmas ever again, but I'm glad that I managed to pull it off. A deadline is a good thing! I gifted it to her on her birthday, which is on Christmas Eve. She was very surprised and loved it, which made it all worth it. I have heard reports that she's been using it a lot already. Hurray!

I made the label and THEN pieced it into the backing. I loved that method....because as soon as the binding was done, the quilt was done, done, done. Can't beat that! The blocks are 9" finished. Each rail was cut 3 1/2" x 9 1/2". All the top and binding fabric and some of the backing fabric was from my stash. (woohoo!) The quilt finishes about 63" x 81".

And now, for something completely different.....

My husband took some time over Christmas break to finish his Batman latch hook project. He is pretty sure that he got it for Christmas in 1978, making it a 40 year WIP. Hahahahahaha! I love that he actually took time to finish it, although we aren't sure where to put it now. :) He finished it for an honorary finish it up Friday project. Isn't that adorable??? I snapped a pic of him showing my boys how to latch hook, which was beyond precious. I give him 5 gold stars for his finish.

I've been looking back and it's been quite a year! I don't have a ton of accomplishments to highlight, but it's been a good year nonetheless. I did a fair amount of teaching/speaking and I did a decent amount of quilt making. Most importantly, I feel like I was able to be more PRESENT with my family this year than I have been in the past. It isn't always easy, but it's always worth it!

-I completed 14 quilts this year, which feels pretty reasonable. Out of those 14, 8 were primarily from the stash, 4 were primarily from scraps, and 2 used fairly equal amounts of scraps and stash. (The geeky side of me loves to see the breakdown of the finishes in this way. Always interesting!)

-I had a goal to use more stash this year, and I think I accomplished that. Hurray! I also added a lot to the stash, because I'm still living and breathing. Hahahahaha! It's just the way things go!

-I worked on several scrap quilts this year, too, but most of them are pretty intense, so they will take a lot of work to finish. I usually enjoy the process, so it's all good!

-I made the decision to wrap up my business this year, which was HUGE. (You can read more about that here, if you missed the announcement.) It was a very hard decision to make, and I'm sure I'll be dealing with the emotions of that for months to come. Change has always been difficult for me, so I shouldn't be surprised....but here's to the next chapter, whatever it may bring!

This is extremely difficult and very bittersweet, so I'll make it quick and to the point. Thank you for being a part of this amazing ride. It's been unbelievable. I loved being a part of your lives. Thank you for reading. Thank you for your comments. Thank you for all of your support over the years. I'll forever be grateful. For one last time....

Happy Monday to you! xoxox

red and white trees!-a completed quilt

I finished my red and white trees! quilt last week. It took me a few days to get around to hanging it up, but I think it was worth the wait. I LOVE how it looks in my entryway!!! It's so nice to have a seasonal quilt hanging there and I'm thrilled that I was able to complete it BEFORE Christmas. Amazing.

(There is a free tutorial here for the snowflake pillow sitting on the fireplace.)

Most of the fabrics in the quilt are red and white dots, with the exception of the asterisk print, which is from my Emma and Myrtle line. Red polka dots were a natural choice for the back, and I used a little bit of red good neighbors fabric for the binding. The quilt was made 100% from my stash. That feels great! The quilt measures about 39" x 60 1/2". The trees! pattern can be found here or here.

I hope the last few days before Christmas aren't TOO hectic for you all....remember to breathe! Have a great weekend! Merry Christmas to you and yours! xoxox

red and white trees!

I made the first block for this quilt LAST year on December 20th, because I'm brilliant like that.....hahaha! Over the weekend I finished the last two blocks and assembled the top. It was a TREAT to have only 9 blocks to sew together to make that happen. Woohoo! The plan is to back it with the red and white polka dots (shocking, eh?) and one of the red fabrics shown will be the binding. I hope to finish it up this year yet and hang it in my entryway. The nice thing about the restrained color scheme is that I can get away with leaving it up well into February. Or all year round, really. The pattern is called Trees! and can be found here or here.

Are you doing any Christmas sewing? If you are, I'd love to hear about it in the comments. If you are already done, I'd love to hear your secrets to making that happen! ;)

Happy Monday to you!

black licorice--a completed quilt

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

First off, thank you soooo much for your kind comments on my previous post. I am truly and deeply touched by all of your kindness and words of support. To answer the question that was asked so many times, yes, I do plan to leave my blog up as a resource. The other night at dinner I told my husband, "my blog really reached a lot of people". You should have seen the incredulous look he gave me, along with a big old "Duh!!!" We shared a good laugh after that. It has been an emotional week, but along with it, I have a deep sense of peace. For that I am grateful.

I'm excited that I have a finished quilt to share with you today! This one is called black licorice, but it also reminds me of stained glass. I gave it to my daughter, who loves ALL of the colors. She has been happily sleeping under it for several nights now.

The quilt is made up of 1554 little rectangles that finish at 1 1/2" x 2". That felt like a lot of pieces, even for me! :) Solids from a variety of manufacturers were used. There are a few shot cottons and a few linens that were used that give it additional texture that you wouldn't recognize until you get up close. I love quilts with details like that. I also love the darker patches sprinkled throughout that make subtle and random cross patterns when you are looking at it from a distance.

I made a special trip to the grocery store yesterday to get a package of "All Sorts" for the photos, just for fun. The candy tastes pretty good, too!

There is a LOT of quilting on this one....a black X through the middle of each and every rectangle. When I first quilted it, I quilted an X through all of the black rectangles, but it didn't look like it was quilted at all. Crazy! So, I went back and added quilting through all of the colored rectangles. It took a lot more time than I expected, but it was definitely the right choice!

I knew that I wanted to use Kona Marine for the binding, so when I went shopping and found this black and blue polka dot at SR Harris, I knew that it was "the one" for the backing. Hurray for a perfect match!

Using a black background for the quilt was definitely a stretch for me, but I'm glad that I tried it. I'm reasonably happy with the results! The quilt measures about 63" x 72".

 

This is my 3rd finish (out of 10, hopefully!) in my "Salute to Solids" series. You can see the first one here and the second one here. That means it must be time to start a new quilt! Hurray! :)

  

Now, it's your turn! Please link up your finishes for the month. Thank you, as always, for joining me for finish it up Friday! xoxoxxo

 

still quilting and a few small projects

I hope all of you who celebrated had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! We had a lovely weekend full of family, delicious food, and time to relax together. I could use a few more weekends just like it!

I did not accomplish my goal of getting the binding on this quilt before Thanksgiving. In fact, I'm still working on the quilting today. Turns out it needed more quilting than I was originally planning. That, and I spent a lot more time in the kitchen than I thought I would. (Isn't that always the way?) I figured it's best to add the extra quilting now rather than trying to add more later. I'm almost 75% done quilting at this point, so it shouldn't be too much longer. I am getting excited to bind this one!

I took a little time this weekend to sew up a zip pouch with this lovely scrap of yellow floral fabric that I found, which was designed by Bari J for Art Gallery Fabrics. I thought it was so pretty that it needed to be a pouch. I'm not a huge fan of sewing zippered pouches, but I sure enjoy using them, so I go through the motions once in awhile anyway. :) This one isn't perfect, but it will work for toting around a knitting or crochet project quite nicely. It's loosely based on this pattern, but I used a single fabric for the exterior. I also used fusible fleece for the outer layer and quilted it before assembly. It is a good combo!

I've been working off and on (mostly off) on a few prototypes of mini thread catchers. The patchwork squares in the one above finish at 1". Why is tiny always so cute? It's quite addictive....and honestly, quite putzy….but it's mostly worth it! Ha!

Last, but not least, I used my friend Anna's new Forage fabric to make this normal sized thread catcher. (Pattern is available here.) This "thread catcher" is currently in my sewing room holding chocolate....which I highly recommend. The patchwork squares in this one finish at 2", which seem huge in comparison to the previous one...but it's good, because it holds more chocolate! (It also works well for catching threads, or giving small gifts like charm packs, mini charms or even fat quarters to your friends. :))

On another note, we tried out a few new recipes this weekend, which I would highly recommend:

Smitten Kitchen's green bean casserole is AMAZING! It was the first thing to disappear at our Thanksgiving dinner. It was SO GOOD that I'm going to make it again tonight. It's totally worth the time and effort!

Chocolate cake in a mug by Pioneer Woman was also amazing! My daughter actually made it for my husband and I to share after dinner last night. It took barely any time at all (especially compared to the green bean casserole mentioned above) which just goes to show, that it all evens out in the end. :)

Alright, that's it for me today! Happy Monday to you!

black licorice quilt progress

My sewing room is feeling a little full these days because I have so many works in progress...I'm afraid to count how many! I figured it was high time to get working on a finish, so this weekend I decided to baste my black licorice quilt. I prefer to pin baste because I get the best results. (I have a basting tutorial here that you might find helpful.)

I'm quilting a simple cross hatch through the black rectangles. I'm living on the edge and I'm NOT marking my lines before I quilt them. So far, so good! Quilting with black thread on black fabric is pretty forgiving. Also, the rectangles are small (2" x 1 1/2" finished), so eyeballing it isn't too hard. I'm moving right along with the quilting, thankfully! My goal is to finish the quilting and apply the binding before Thanksgiving day, so hopefully I can sit and relax with some hand stitching after cooking all day! It should be fun!

Do you have your hand stitching planned out for the holiday yet? Or am I the only one that does that?

Happy Monday to you!

lost in the crowd construction begins

I constructed my first block for my lost in the crowd quilt today! Originally I was going to assemble the quilt in rows rather than blocks, but oh, Mylanta, that would be a pain. I figured out pressing directions to ensure that ALL the seams in the entire quilt should nest in the final quilt assembly, even if I construct it in a block based format. Nesting seams is very important to me because it produces a neat and tidy quilt top.

Here's a rustic pressing diagram that shows my plan. (Arrows indicate pressing direction.) When I sew the squares into rows, the fabric is pressed toward the background fabric. When the rows are assembled into blocks, I will alternate pressing direction every other block. The A blocks will have the horizontal seams pressed up. The B blocks will have the horizontal seams pressed down. When the blocks are sewn into rows, every seam should nest. Hurray!!! I hope that makes sense to you and not just to me. Hahaha!

One block done, 63 more to go! I counted today...I have 822/1200 4 patches made. Not too bad, considering that I started this project in February! I love seeing a plan come together.

Because I know that someone will ask, the background fabric is Kona Lime.

Happy Monday to you!

magnificent maples quilt-the beginning

I started a new quilt last week. I've had the fabric pulled for well over a year--background fabric and everything. Last Tuesday was a BEAUTIFUL fall day, so I celebrated by whipping up this fun and easy maple leaf block, even though I only had 20 minutes to sew. It was time well spent!

I'm SO EXCITED for this quilt! I'm having a blast making the blocks and I am SMITTEN with this color scheme. I love that most of the fabrics are blenders, with a few louder (but not too loud) prints.

As of this afternoon, I have 25 blocks complete. I'm using Kona Natural for the background and each block will finish at 9".

Here is my original fabric pull. I've already edited out at least 7 fabrics and I've added that many more into the mix. I think it's funny how much my fabric decisions change once I get started. I've learned a long time ago that is usually the case, so I only cut a few blocks at a time to avoid chopping up a bunch of fabric that I won't actually use in the quilt.

Now I have to decide if I will repeat any fabrics or make each block out of a unique fabric. Either way, I think it's going to be magnificent...at least that's the hope! :)

Happy Monday to you!

black licorice-a completed quilt top

I finished my black licorice quilt top! I worked on it quite a bit over the weekend and I was delighted to discover this morning that I only had 2 seams left to complete it. What a way to start a Monday!

Each piece finishes at 1 1/2" x 2". There are 42 blocks in each row and 37 rows, for a total of 1,554 pieces!!!! It's a good thing I did the math AFTER the quilt top was complete rather than before, otherwise that might have been a little daunting. Ha!

I think it's tricky to find that fine line of being out of your comfort zone, but still liking the results. I feel like I was able to accomplish that with this quilt and I'm so thankful!

This quilt is part of my "Salute to Solids" series. I have plans to give it to my daughter when it's complete. She's pretty excited about it!

Happy Monday to you!

mark twain block update

I've been chugging along on my EPP (English Paper Pieced) Mark Twain blocks. As you may recall, I started this project at the beginning of the year. Here it is, October, (already!) and I'm pleased to report that I've been able to keep up with my goal of making 5 blocks per month. It turns out that is a perfect pace for me, consistently. I have found that having the personal goal keeps me on track, which is a very good thing. You and I both know that there are PLENTY of distractions when it comes to new quilting projects and such. (Isn't that the understatement of the year????)

I took some time today to lay out the blocks and see how the colors are playing together. So far, I'm very pleased!!! Looking at this photo, I see that I need to add a lot more green. The background joining pieces will be red-orange, just like the centers of each block, although I really like how they look on the cream background in this photo. My goal is to make 110 blocks, so if my math is correct, I'm nearly 41% done. Not too bad!

The antique quilt that inspired this project can be seen here.

Happy Monday to you!

black licorice-a work in progress

I've been working on this quilt off and on for quite awhile now. I considered giving it up for adoption a few times, but I decided to see it through to completion. It's tricky to push yourself out of your comfort zone but still like the project you are working on, but I think I've finally gotten to that point with this quilt. Hurray! My daughter LOVES this quilt, so she will be the recipient. I'm pretty sure that she loves color even more than I do, which is hard to imagine. :)

I'm using a variety of solids, all from the scrap bin. Each block is cut at 2" x 2 1/2" and finishes at 1 1/2" x 2". No strip piecing here, since it's all scraps. The black fabric is a combination of leftover Moda bella jelly roll strips and black Kona cotton. The pieces are a lot smaller than I bargained for, but even still, I'm aiming for a 60" x 72" quilt. I'm finally half way there, which is pretty exciting!

 

This quilt is a part of my salute to solids personal challenge that I started last year at this time. (You can read more about it here.)

 

Happy Monday to you!

retreat gifts, part 2

Thanks so much for sharing your ideas for "happies" in the last post. It was fun to read your comments. I've added a few new ideas to my list!

 

Of course pincushions are the number one on my list of things to make for retreat gifts. I have a few batches of them to share today!

In early August, I attended another annual quilt retreat with some of my quilting friends. I've been a part of that group for a few years now, so I'm finally catching on to each of their personal tastes. (It takes me awhile!) This year I made a paper pieced pineapple pincushion for each of them in colors that I thought they would like. (The pattern is in Plenty of Pincushions, Volume 1, which is available here.) Lots more assembly line sewing, but once I hunkered down, it wasn't so bad.

Each of the pincushions were heavily quilted, so I piggy backed them through my machine during the quilting process and it went pretty quick! Again, I love seeing multiple items grouped all together.  

A few weeks ago I was playing in my sewing room and I came across the scrap vortex blocks that I started on the 100 day project. I didn't do so well on the 100 day challenge, but that's ok! I turned a bunch of the blocks into pincushions in one afternoon. It was nice that the patchwork had already been made! I added a tab to each pincushion to "up" the cuteness factor.

I took these to a retreat that I taught at over the weekend and I let each student pick one of their choice. It's so fun to share things like this with other quilters and to release the pincushions out into the world as little bits of happy. It never gets old!
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Here is a rundown of my pincushion method in a nutshell (no pun intended!):

Each pincushion top is a little bit of patchwork that has been quilted onto a batting scrap. The backings are quilting cotton interfaced with SF 101 for a bit of extra stability. They are filled with crushed walnut shells, which is sold in pet stores as lizard litter. I hand stitch the openings closed with invisible nylon thread, so the stitches aren't visible.

I find that this combination produces a lovely finish for a pincushion. (I think it's safe to say that I've done sufficient testing. Hahaha!)
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Happy Monday to you!

need more coffee-a completed quilt

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

I recently finished this quilt that I'm calling "need more coffee". It's a spin on my mini coffee cups quilt....but I made a LOT more blocks this time. 110 blocks, to be exact. I was working on these blocks at my annual Gruber's retreat this past summer and my friends urged me to offset the rows of coffee cups rather than rely on a straight block setting. It was definitely the right choice! That little change made a big difference.

I used a variety of light prints for the background, but all of the coffee cups are RED!

I used the spool print from my Emma & Myrtle collection for the backing and a sweet gingham print for the binding. (The binding might be my favorite part of this quilt!!!)

I glue basted the fabric to help line up the repeat of the print for the backing. It takes a little bit extra time to do it, but the satisfaction that I get out of it is priceless. I know, I'm such a nerd!

I quilted it on my Janome Horizon. The original quilting plan was to quilt a 1/2" grid all over, but I came to my senses and settled for a 1" grid instead. I decided that it'll do. Hahahaha!

 

The quilt measures about 60" x 76".

 

As much as I LOVE this quilt, I think I'm going to give it as a gift. I can't keep them all....sigh.

Now, it's your turn! Please link up your finishes. Thanks, as always, for joining me for finish it up Friday! Have a great weekend!

two of a kind

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

I want to start this week by saying that this will be the LAST week of finish it up Friday for the summer. I need to step back and take a breather. Did you know that I started finish it up Friday in October of 2011? That means we've been at this finishing business (with the occasional hiatus during my social media breaks) for almost 7 years. That's CRAZY! Also, that's a LOT of finishes! I'm very much looking forward to the break from finish it up Friday so I can spend more time with my kids this summer. I do plan to keep blogging, if I can find time to sew, that is. :)

 

Speaking of finishes.....I have a PAIR of quilts to share today.

When I was making my epic Heather Ross quilt, I was actually working on two at a time. I made one to keep and one to give to a friend. I'm so glad I did!

Each of the quilts is a twin size, measuring about 67 1/2" x 91". I used my Easy as Pie tutorial (available here), but I expanded it to make a twin size rather than a lap size. I LOVE the simple pattern because it was QUICK and easy to put together and it lets the fabric shine.

The quilts are identical on the front, but the backs are slightly different. I used a mixture of the same two fabrics for the backing, but I alternated the arrangement of the fabrics. I used cotton lawn from Heather's line Sleeping Porch, which I found on clearance, (bonus!) and I knew that they would make beautiful backings. The combo of the orange and cream colors reminds me of an orange creamsicle. It carries out the summertime feeling of the quilts. Also, the lawn is lightweight and DREAMY!!!! It quilted up beautifully.

I quilted them both with loop de loop quilting on the baby lock Tiara that I still have on loan. I used 50 weight Aurifil thread-color 2026-which is a lovely creamy color that blended with all of the fabrics quite nicely.

Normally I don't use a light or white binding for a quilt, but these bright yellow dots were a perfect match to the colors in the quilt. It is smooth and lightweight, so it was a delight to hand stitch down to the back. (Hurray!)

This cute lined fabric (Fine Lines by Michael Miller) works perfectly for labels. You can see the backing fabrics better in this photo, too.

I gifted the quilt to my friend yesterday and I'm happy to say that she LOVED it!!! I also enlisted her to help me take quilt photos after I gave it to her, because I'm nice like that. Hahaha! :) As you can see, it was a little bit breezy down by the lake.

I especially love this photo....it's the epitome of a Minnesota summer. I am soooo pleased that these quilts are done NOW so that they can be enjoyed and used all summer long.

 

That's it for me today! Please link up your finishes for the week. Thank you, as always, for joining me for finish it up Friday!

June 2-a completed quilt

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

I worked very hard this week to finish up this quilt! I started it last summer when I hosted my June quilt QAL. I basted it about a month ago. I started quilting it on Tuesday and worked on it for the better part of 3 days to quilt and bind it. I'm so pleased that it's finally complete! It's such a happy quilt, isn't it?

While the quilt top assembly didn't take too long, figuring out a quilting plan did. I finally decided to treat a few of the elements separately. I did loop-de-loops in the pieced sashing. I quilted the diagonals in one direction continuously, but I had to start and stop for the diagonals in the other direction. There were a A LOT of knots to bury on this quilt! (I use the tutorial here.)

I used a walking foot to do some concentric square quilting in the polka dot blocks. That took a lot longer than I bargained for. More knots to bury! I estimated that it took me about 6 hours to quilt JUST the center 18 squares. I think it took me at least 10 hours to quilt this entire quilt. That's crazy! This quilt isn't that big. I'm happy to say that the quilting turned out better than I imagined, so it was totally worth it....sore shoulders and all. :)

For the backing, I used this cute typewriter keys print and added borders on all 4 sides to frame it so it would be centered. I LOVE this combination! I'm also pleased that it all came from my stash.

The binding is a tiny gingham that was printed on the bias. It's from the line Cottontail Cottage by Bunny Hill Designs for Moda. I love how it frames the quilt. Gingham binding is almost always a good idea!

The quilt measures about 51" x 68".

 

The links to the June QAL can be found here:

 

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

 

The original pattern for the June quilt (85" square) can be found in my book No Scrap Left Behind. Isn't it fun to see the same pattern in a different color option? That, to me, never gets old.

 

Alright! That's it for me today. Please link up your finishes for the week. Thank you, as always, for joining me for finish it up Friday! Have a great weekend!