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!

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!

etc.-a new work in progress

I've been resisting starting a new project for the past several weeks. After a lovely trip down to Iowa for teaching last weekend (and 500 miles of time to think), I cracked. I HAD to start something new or I was afraid I would explode. SO many ideas. SO little time. I know, it's a great problem to have. I wouldn't have it any other way.

The funny part is, when I went downstairs to sew, I thought I was going to start a specific project that I had sketched out on graph paper. I had worked out the math and everything. This isn't that project! I guess this one needed to come out first. I'm not sad about it! I'm having a lot of fun with this idea already and it will be perfect for my Salute to Solids series, too. (You can read more about that here.)

I'm calling this one "etc." All the solids are from the scrap bins so far. The strips measure about 1" finished and the blocks are about 6" unfinished. I'm excited to see where this goes. It's always an adventure!

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!

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!

Abby's sunset quilt-complete

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

Abby's sunset quilt is complete! I LOVE the simplicity of this quilt. It's made of just plain squares and just solid fabrics, but it's anything but boring. Hurray!

This is a variation of my Hot and Cold quilt. (The original pattern can be found in my book No Scrap Left Behind.) I loved playing with the contrast of warm and cool colors again, but this time I wanted to let the colors mingle a bit more than the original, yet still be separate. (I talked about the construction of the quilt top in this post, if you care to read more about it.) I can only guess how many different colors are represented in this quilt top. (It's a LOT!) As with any scrap quilt, the more the better!

For the backing I used some of my good neighbor's yardage in this lovely lime green. I love how it looks like a field of flowers. A row of patchwork squares breaks up the repeat, so no fancy piecing is needed to match up the print exactly. (I did think about trying, but then I came to my senses. Phew!)

I quilted it on my Janome Horizon with a walking foot. Normally when I machine quilt, I use the same colored thread in the top and the bobbin. Why invite unnecessary trouble? Well, this time I decided to use two different colors of thread: green in the bobbin and silvery gray in the top. It's not perfect, but it's not an eye sore, either. In the end, I'm glad that I made that choice. The straight line quilting, however.....it's. not. easy. In fact, when I started quilting this on Saturday, I got soooooooo spun up and frustrated at how poorly I was quilting it. Thankfully I had enough good sense to walk away and take a break. (I normally don't!) The next day I assessed the situation again. When I showed my husband where I was going to pick out some stitches, he scolded me....and he even used my middle name!!! I guess I was being a little bit unreasonable. (what??!?!) Let me tell you, I have a perfectionist streak that runs DEEP and I got to stare it right in the face. (It wasn't pretty....sigh.) Anyway, I carried on and finished the quilting. It's definitely not perfect. I did go back and pick out some slightly crooked lines...and then I tried to let go of the rest. Again, not. easy. I know that some people say that if you can't see it from a galloping horse 10 feet away, then it's good enough. (That one always drives me crazy!) I certainly don't agree. Somewhere in the middle there has to be a happy medium, right?

I used two different colors of Kona cotton for the binding: cerise and dark violet. I used cerise for the top section, in the warm area, and the dark violet in the cool area. I was pleased that I could come up with a decent solution from the stash. I did all the hand binding in a marathon session...less than 4 hours. (I love to savor the binding process, but yesterday it was a race against the clock, and the sunset!)

When my daughter and I were taking photos it was CRAZY windy. Here are some of the outtakes...just for fun.

 

I LOVE how the front and the back look together!!!

At the end of the photoshoot, my daughter was holding the quilt and I thought it would be fun to add a quick snapshot of her, since the quilt IS named after her and all. I love this photo so much! She posed like that all on her own. :) I also love the fish house in the background and the little bit of sunset, too. It sure sums up a Minnesota winter!

The quilt measures 62" x 74" and it's scrap project #197. This is also my first completed quilt for my "salute to solids" challenge. (You can read more about that here.) It feels good to have one done!

 

Here's a few sunsets from the past few months, taken right outside my patio door. Of course a camera doesn't capture half of the awesomeness of the sunsets....but you have to try, right?

Alright! Now it's your turn! Please link up your finished projects for the week. Thank you, as always for reading, commenting and joining me for finish it up Friday! I sure appreciate it! Have a great and safe weekend. xo

WIP Wednesday

related WIPs and glamp stitchalot

This quilt was in time out for a few weeks/months (?) because I couldn't get the color break quite right. A few weeks ago I had a friend help me figure it out, so sewing has commenced. I'm pretty excited to see it come together! When sewing the rows together, I pin at each intersection, so it takes awhile. I decided that I'm going to enjoy the process rather than to rush through. (What a concept, right?) You can see an in-progress layout here, if you care to take a peek. This is 1/4 of the quilt top. I'll take any progress I can get. :)

When I was cutting out all 1000+ squares needed for the quilt above, I noticed I had a lot of fabric left that measured at least 2" x 2 1/2". So....I started cutting rectangles into that size. Initially I thought I would pair them with a white background, because that seems to be my default.

However, I decided to challenge myself to break out of my comfort zone and use a black background instead. I have a lot of black scraps in my scrap bin, so it seemed to make sense. I like how the colors POP against the black background. They seem to glow!

I've been using this as a leaders/enders project, which is another thing that is out of my comfort zone, but it's getting easier as I practice it. I'm excited to be putting these scraps to good use. Woohoo!

I wanted to share with you an exciting announcement today, too! On November 8-10, 2018, I will be one of four teachers that will be at Glamp Stitchalot, which is held in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I'll be teaching improv string piecing classes. You can find more details here. I'm super excited and I think it will be a lot of fun!

That's it for me today! I hope your week is off to a great start!