Finish For A Friend

Sometimes it becomes necessary to come to a friend's aid; to finish a quilt that a friend is unable to finish. Sharon and I find ourselves in this position with a mutual friend, and we have slowly worked our way through 2 quilts with approximately 5 more to do. Read about the first finish here. We - Sharon and I - have backings ready for two more, with plans to quilt soon.

The current finish is this beautiful Jacob's Ladder quilt, a pattern called James River Blues by Bonnie Blue Quilts  (now Red Crinoline Quilts). Our friend Kay made this at some point in recent years, but illness has prevented her from finishing it.

Just before going on retreat, I loaded it onto the long arm machine to quilt first thing after getting home. It took me longer to get to it than I'd planned, but finally on Thursday afternoon I quilted it. The quilting was simple enough; I had anticipated some difficulty, but nothing was too trying. The term "quilting out" really does apply when one has a quilt top containing a few imperfections with stretching or unevenness. 

Today, I have spent the morning applying the binding. This is a big quilt, 84" square, and quite bulky, but it is done, and it really looks pretty darn good. 

The backing is gorgeous. This was found in Kay's storage, all prepped and ready for this quilt. It has been a dream to work with, yet I do not know the name or the maker of the backing. It is a pretty unknown gem found among Kay's quilting treasures.

This coming week, a big outing is planned. Several of us are going to visit Kay, and we are taking this quilt to give to her. I hope she finds it a beautiful surprise, one that she looks on with pleasure. There sure was a lot of pleasure in finishing it.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Quilted: Jacob's Ladder Quilt

Goals. Since finally becoming comfortable using the Tin Lizzie long arm quilting machine, the goal of quilting at least two quilts per month has been something of a goal for me. Of course, I ought to attempt more, and it's beginning to seem as though exceeding the goal is realistic.

In the last post you saw my Cottage Green, a quilt that was begun on a whim earlier this month. I had a super-pretty green calico print I was so eager to use. With friend Sharon's input, I came up with a complimentary fabrics and a pattern. It is now DONE! Here's a link to the reveal (it was just yesterday).

Just prior to loading on Cottage Green, I quilted one of my older quilt tops. In searching through archives here, I have found details on this quilt's beginnings. I had to time travel all the way back to September of 2012. This post explains my experiment with block sizes and color placement. I've had quite a learning curve over the years.

The quilt from that 2012 post which is draped over the bench is the one that led to this Jacob's Ladder. When making Thrifty, I overdid it with the 4-patch blocks. Big time. I had so many left over that I ended up having enough to make a bonus quilt!

I loaded this quilt on Saturday and removed it before going to bed. So yay! I'm in business with the long arming! (My own business, at this point. I've not branched out to doing quilts for others just yet.)

It was fun getting an old quilt top out of the closet, onto the machine, and quilted. It is now bound and awaiting the final stitching down. I even have my label on it!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Holiday Hand Stitching

We have been on the road a bit this week. To celebrate Thanksgiving with as much family as possible, we left on Tuesday to pick up DD#2 at OU in Athens. From there we headed north to Coshocton, DH's home town, to visit with his dad. We headed home on Wednesday and turned around on Thanksgiving Thursday to go over to Hillsboro to have dinner with all the fixings at my sister's. We also stopped by Grandma's before leaving town. Today has been very relaxed here at home. No great interest in anything at all resembling Black Friday and retail endeavors. Hopefully, tomorrow will be equally stress free.

With all that time on the road and visiting, I usually carry along some hand stitching. It's nice to be able to keep busy, and you know that stitching hands can't be eating hands, so I stay out of the goodies!

I dug through some piles in my sewing room and came across lots of leftovers from recent projects that hadn't been cleaned up. No big surprise there - I rarely clean up after ANY projects! But I decided that I could make some blocks and decide later what to do with them. Here's what I have done so far.

Just like a good turkey feast will leave lots of leftovers, so too, does a lot of quiltmaking! These were all just "parts" that needed to be pulled together - for exactly what remains to be seen, but at least I've got blocks and not piles of miscellaneous scraps.

I have a nice little stack of Kaffe Fassett 9-patches. These are all leftovers from those Great Granny squares I was making earlier in the fall. I made a whole lot of extra 2.5" squares for the express purpose of making these. I love 'em!

After finishing the Thimbleberries 9-Patch Criss Cross, I had partial 9-patches left over, so I put full blocks together, and now have these 2 lovely blocks. What will I do with them? Here's the original post, if you want to see the 9-Patch Criss Cross.

These 2 blocks are leftovers from leftovers. The first time I used this fabric was when I made this strippy quilt in the summer of 2011. Then I pulled out leftovers to make a Great Granny square. Then I made a block that caught my fancy on Pinterest.  So I guess I've delved into this wonderful Breath of Avignon fabric 4 times, now!

And just when you thought you'd seen the last of this Jacob's Ladder fabric, I up and find these renegade blocks that somehow got buried near my sewing machine. I plopped them into the stack of handwork and stitched up yet another block.  The original Jacob's Ladder post can be found here.

 I do love to do handwork, and even today while here at home, I found myself gravitating to that instead of the sewing machine. Very nice; very relaxing.

My thanks for November 23:
I am so thankful for quiet days at home with few pressing matters beyond cleaning up a turkey carcass.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

 

Making Progress

Hey, quilters. I've been sewing. I don't get around to blogging about it as much as I'd like sometimes, but I am sewing and completing projects. Here is the progress on my Jacob's Ladder.

I got to show it to the quilters yesterday when we got together at Terry's house. All I need now are borders. I have a neutral I want to use, but beyond that, I have nothing. I was thinking of a narrow neutral and a wide red, but I might consider a brown for an added bit of interest.

In the mean time, what would you say about winning free fabric for life? I found this contest, and you can enter it, too, by clicking on this link: http://ck.upickem.net/r/A33QYu6fVD7?r=119693

Today, I am off to visit Grandma; DH is coming along to steamvac her carpets. I might have some hand-stitching I can take along with me.

Happy Quilting, Friends!