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

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

 

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!

a helpful remedy

I don't often wash my quilts right after they are finished, but as I mentioned last week, I washed and dried my broken dishes quilt to get that lovely crinkle. I got the crinkle I was after, but I also discovered that the turquoise dye in one of the quilt blocks bled quite a lot. Ugh. There is a lot of red in the quilt, so I thought that it would be one of the red fabrics that would give me trouble. Nope. I discovered the issue AFTER I had dried the quilt in the drier. Blergh.

I shared a photo with my friend Mary, and she recommended using this method to try to remove the excess dye. I was doubtful that it would help, but I thought I might as well give it a try. At this point, what did I have to lose?

I followed Vicki's instructions, using "All Free and Clear" detergent. I'm very pleased to share that a LOT of the excess dye came out. Woohoo! Thanks so much to Vicki for sharing her methods and Mary for pointing me in the right direction!

I do want to add, that in the first washing I used cold water, 2 color catchers, a cup of vinegar AND I threw in a bath towel to absorb any excess dyes, should there be any bleeding. I also removed the quilt from the washer immediately after the washing, so I thought I was pretty well covered. (That's all my tricks and it still bled!)

I thought I would pass along this information, just in case you are in the same position someday. I hope you find it helpful, too!

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!

fast four patch quilt top

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

This week I have a simple 4 patch baby quilt top to share. I started it yesterday afternoon and I finished up the top this morning. It was a fun one to sew up!

The pattern is called fast four patch and it's in my friend Amy Smart's book Fabulously Fast Quilts. I was joking with a friend recently that I should actually sew something from my collection of books that I have on my bookshelf. This is a great start! It was fun to follow a pattern and to SKIP the math for once.

For this quilt, I started with the backing fabric, since it was THE perfect size for a quilt back, then I pulled fabrics for the front from my stash. I have NO shortage of aqua options, obviously. Hahaha!

The quilt top measures about 40" x 48". I LOVE how it turned out!

 

Another finish for this week.....as of yesterday at 3 pm, my kids are DONE with school for the year. I'm not sure I'm completely ready for the transition, but I am determined to enjoy as much of summer vacation with them as I can. They sure do grow up fast....

 

Now, it's your turn! Please link up your finishes for the week. Thank you, as always, for joining me for finish it up Friday! Have a great and SAFE weekend. xo

  

biased-a completed quilt

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

Last weekend I put the final stitches in the binding, so...my biased quilt is complete!

This is a simple string quilt that was foundation pieced onto phone book papers, which are later removed. (You can find an in depth block tutorial here.) It's a great use for a phone book, don't you think??? :) While the construction method is fairly straightforward, the color work is complex, I would say. It was a fun quilt to build, one string at a time. I am VERY pleased with how it turned out!

I kind of got sucked into this project and I didn't want to work on many other things at the time, so I pieced it rather quickly. (That's a good thing!) I used solids from a variety of manufacturers in more colors than I could guess. I know I say this all the time, but as with any scrap quilt, more is better!

For the back, I used this BRIGHT lemon yellow print from my good neighbors fabric line (which is out of print). The binding is Kona pomegranate, which is a beautiful pinky-red that is super hard to photograph accurately, but trust me --it's a good one! It's one of my current favorites, actually. I made biased binding for this quilt, even though you can't tell, because it's a solid fabric. Since the name of the quilt is BIASED, I thought it was fitting. It's the little things, right?

There was no question in my mind that I was going to send it out to be quilted professionally because I didn't want to mess it up! The quilting was done by Steffani Burton. (Thanks, Steffani!) I love the contrast of the quilted swirls against the graphic lines of the piecing. I think it makes a nice pairing.

I labeled this quilt right away, too! Labeling isn't my favorite, but I feel that it IS important and I'm trying to do it more consistently. Two in a row is a pretty good start. Ha!

The quilt measures about 60" x 75". This is my second quilt in my Salute to Solids series, where I am on a quest to make 10 scrap quilts from the solids bin. You can see the first quilt in the series here.

I'm going to be teaching an improv string class based on this quilt at Glamp Stitch-a-lot in Ann Arbor, Michigan in November. You can find more details here, if you are interested!

Ok, that's it for me today! It's your turn to link up your finishes for the week. Thanks, as always, for joining me for finish it up Friday! Have a GREAT weekend!

a traditional log cabin quilt-complete!!!

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

Today I am THRILLED to share with you my completed log cabin quilt!

I started this quilt back in May of 2016 and I'm delighted that it took me less than 2 years to complete it. Truth be told, most of the blocks were made earlier this year in a marathon quilt making session. It was a little intense. Hahaha!

I made it a point to use some of my most precious fabrics in this quilt. I used a lot of fabrics from Denyse Schmidt, some from Heather Ross, Carolyn Friedlander, and soooo many other great designers. I also mixed in some of my own designs from each of my fabric lines. (That was pretty fun, I have to admit!) I added a lot of blenders and several 30's reproduction fabrics, too. I LOVED using such a large variety of prints in one quilt. The more the better!

It looks SO good on my bed! EEEP!

I quilted it with simple loops all over with white Aurifil 50 weight thread. I love the texture it created....and it hasn't even been washed yet! It took a LONG time to quilt!!! Days and days. I'm really glad that I quilted it myself, though. There is such a feeling of accomplishment quilting a KING size quilt, even if the quilting isn't perfect.

My original plan for the binding was to use red and white polka dots. That's my default, it seems. I didn't have any appropriate options on hand, so I chose this springy apple green polka dot instead. I LOVE the pop of color on the outside of the quilt. It worked out so well....plus, it was in my stash, which means I could make the binding at 9pm. We all know that is important! :)

I love the front of the quilt, but the fun fact is, that it's actually two quilts in one, because I pieced a back from my stash. I used a stack of fabrics that I had bundled together YEARS ago, thinking it would make a cute quilt...you know, someday. Well, after some editing (adding AND subtracting), I have ANOTHER quilt. That's good use of my batting dollar. Hurray!

I LOVE that this block says "Cookies". That will be sure to make me smile every time I see it. Quirky and fun.

On the back I used some of my vintage fabric (the two florals shown) that came from my grandma's house. It was a little thin, but I really wanted to use it. Realizing that the quilt will only be as strong as the weakest fabric, I added some Pellon SF101 to the back of the thin fabrics to stabilize them. They should withstand a lot of wear now. I'm so glad I thought of that solution sooner rather than later. (Which would be typical!)

I think the back turned out even better than I imagined it would. I LOVE it when that happens.

I labeled the quilt nearly right away, so it's REALLY done! After all that work, I am very happy to put my name on this quilt! I opted for a hand written label because it feels more personal. I like having a bit of my handwriting on the quilt label, even if it's not super polished.

The quilt measures 108" x 99". AND....it's scrap project #202!!!! That means that I've officially wrapped up my second round of my 101 scrap challenge. WOOHOO!!! That feels amazing!

All together this quilt used about 12.1 yards of scraps for the front, nearly 10 yards of fabric for the back, and about 3/4 of a yard for binding, which means that this quilt contains nearly 23 yards of fabric. How CRAZY is that???? It weights nearly 9 pounds. This one heavy duty quilt!

You can find the measurements here, if you care to make one of your own!

 

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