It's not finished till you add the label -

There is a whole lot of not finished going on around here, but I finally added the label to this quilt!  I have more labels that need to be sewn on other quilts as well. don't know how I got so far behind, but my dining room is piled up with stacks of quilts that need labels, a couple of quilt sandwiches that need quilting and a few tops that are ready for basting.  It's hard to know where to start when there is so much that needs doing!

I did start taking the binding off one of my old favorites that I'd like to get back on my bed this summer.  I finished this quilt back in 1991, I don't know that my hand quilting will ever be as good as it was when I did this - younger eyes and hands!

This was my first hand quilted bed size quilt.  It was made from a serial pattern in Quilter's Digest and after a seach of my blog it looks as though I have never actually written a post about it!

I can hardly believe this quilt is 27 years old.  I use it regularly, and love how soft and cozy it is.  The backing is a plain muslin, and the binding, unfortunately is a single fold bias binding which is now starting to wear badly on the outside fold.  Luckily I have quite a bit of leftover binding that I have saved all these years so I can replace about half of it. Most of the wear seems to be confined to the top edge of the quilt, which makes sense - that's where it gets handled the most.

I've won a few ribbons on this quilt, including best of show at the local fair.  

There's not much holding it together here!

This is the only binding I've had fail so far - I now mostly use a double fold (or french) binding, cut on the width of the fabric.  Obviously a bias binding can wear out just as well as a straight of grain binding!  

You can see that the fabric has faded a bit.  Not bad because I do use this quilt every summer, and it is washed at least once each year with no special precautions!

I believe the rose color is actually a poly blend.  I purchased all the fabrics at JoAnn's, and the top has held up quite well.  

The quilting is so fine on this quilt.  I think it is the best quilting I have ever done.  I know that it took me about 14 months in all to piece and quilt this (because I wrote this on the back of the quilt - no label, but documented directly on the backing), and I am still in love with the results.  I'm excited to replace the binding and continue to use my favorite quilt - I expect to be using it least another 27 years - and if I have to replace the binding again I think I could use muslin and it would look just fine.

I promise I'll get some more pictures of it when it's finished and write a longer post about it!

Linking up with Myra for Finished or Not Friday!  

And don't forget the final day of Where Flowers Bloom blog hop!

Today - Friday, June 15th

Den syende himmel

QuiltFabrication

Blessings From Our Nest

DesertSky Quilting

Just Because Quilts

Quarter Inch Crafter

Creatin' in the Sticks

Have a wonderful weekend!

It takes a long time to quilt a queen size quilt!

Yes, it does!  This quilt took me quite a bit longer to quilt than it took me to piece the top - but I think it was worth it - beware, more badly lit pictures ahead.

This is on a full (or double) bed.  Isn't it colorful?  I really liked the mix of fabrics in this.  I used a mixed fat quarter bundle and added some vintage fabrics and some fun paisleys.  There are some solid squares, and some really pretty prints in this quilt.  It is available in my Etsy shop.  The piecing is simple, so it's a great price!

I did all the quilting on my Juki - and discovered to my delight that when I had it serviced last month they even got the needle threader working!  Now I am spoiled because it's so easy to thread the needle - I'm so happy I've been telling random people I talk to about!

The back is a scrappy blend of blues and greens - I enjoy making the back of a quilt a little more fun and interesting.

I need to spend some time tomorrow cleaning up the sewing room disaster, and then I want to start getting out my Christmas decorations.  I think I'll work on some of those Farmer's Wife blocks and see how far I can get toward my goal of getting all my blocks done before Christmas. I'm starting to feel in the mood :)

Linking up with Busy Hands Quilts for Finished or Not Friday - join in the fun and see what everyone is working on!

Blue and White Stars - Bloggers Quilt Festival Spring 2015 Home Machine Quilted Quilts

I always look forward to the Bloggers Quilt Festival!  Such a fun way to be able to participate and see some wonderful quilts - my poor husband will really wonder how many quilting blogs can one woman look at this week!  I am entering this in the Home Machine Quilted category since that is one of my favorite things about this quilt.

This quilt began last year as a Project Quilting challenge in 2013 - the challenge was to make a quit in your favorite color with only white added.  I knew right away that I wanted to make a blue and white quilt, and after making the blocks decided that I would rather make this a nice quilt than do a rush job on the quilting to finish by the challenge deadline.  So it took me a little over two years to actually get it finished...I think the wait was worth it!

Each star has a dark blue center made from one of my favorite stash fabrics!  It is a blue celestial print with gold highlights.  So pretty!  Then I added a deep blue for the star points, light blue for the corner squares and a medium blue for the triangles on the setting squares.  The points all came out great, thanks to the use of the Tri-Recs rulers (one of my favorite ruler sets!).  I added the white border, then the quilt waited for a while.  I needed some yardage for blue borders and it took a while to find the right ones that would frame the quilt just the way I wanted it to look.

It took me while to decide how I wanted to quilt it as well.  For the inspiration behind much of the quilting I used Angela Walter's book "Free Motion Quilting".  I also drew from Leah Day's website for the sharp stippling I used in the light blue areas.  (See the video here!)  I use a Juki 2001QI for piecing and quilting.  No frame, I just use it on my table - works great for larger quilts, it still gets a little tight in the center, but way better than my old 1979 Kenmore was.

When it was finished being quilted I realized that I didn't have binding for this quilt.  I don't know how many times I have done this, so I am pretty good at improvising!  I had actually thought about using this two colored binding, so was really excited to find just enough of the dark fabric for the strips needed (I had 1 inch to spare after cutting!)  I made it a bit narrower than I had before and it came out perfect.  I love that little pop of the lighter blue, it really frames the quilt nicely.

My favorite thing about this quilt though, is the quilting!  I used Aurifil thread for all of the quilting.  White in the background, a blue/green in the medium areas and a dark blue in the dark sections.  The bubble and swirl design was fun to do and looks great in the diamond shaped center squares.

I was a good girl and buried all my thread tails on this one (I generally just snip them off close to the quilt and don't worry about it)  You can barely see the contrasting threads on the back in this picture, but I love the way they bring out the design on the back of the quilt as well!

It's a nice size for a queen bed - I don't generally make my quilts with a pillow tuck because I prefer pillows on top.  Since I have plenty of quilts for myself (with two new ones in progress!) I am listing this one in my Etsy shop.

Be sure to head on over to the Bloggers Quilt Festival and check out all the other awesome entries!

First quilt finished in 2014

I am really glad to finally have this quilt finished!  I had hoped it would be done earlier, but I'm happy to at least have it done this week.  All of the center is made out of baby clothes!  Lots of stretchy knits, cuddly velours, not to mention cotton prints, corduroys and fleece.  I ended up having to foundation piece it because of the crazy stretchiness of it all, not to mention the various thickness of the different fabrics.  I think it came out beautiful, though and am very happy with the results.  I used a cute soft flannel for the border, and this

quilt is queen size, and very heavy.  It will be nice and warm, not to mention cuddly and soft!

I used a cute little hat to make a nest and appliqued a couple of birds in the blank white square.  I did this because we wanted to feature some birds in the quilt.  They are a little primitive looking, but cute!

I also added a bird to the bottom right border.  This picture shows the backing fabric as well.  I thought it was pretty with the front.  

This shows it on my bed for size.  Nice and large!  I am happy to have it done, and pleased with the results as well!  Here's to more gratifying finishes in 2014!

Spring Cleaning

Though it doesn't feel like spring yet here on the Oregon Coast I've been inspired by Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville to do a little sprucing up for the season.  After all, by the calendar it is spring, and after Easter, so it must be time to get out all the sunny spring household items, right?  But I am sticking with the flannel sheets for a while yet!  I finally am taking off my Christmas Quilt (I know, I know...I intend to make a proper winter quilt soon!) and replacing it with the sunny blue and yellow Round Robin Quilt.

This one was made from an internet swap.  It was a row by row swap, and we each included our own fabrics.  Each participant made a row of 8 inch blocks for each quilt in the same pattern.  My poor box got lost a couple of times, but eventually I got it back with all the lovely rows ready to sew together into a bright and cheery quilt!  Each row is signed by the maker.  My husband thought it was odd to have a quilt with peoples writing on it, but I like remembering all the people who worked on it.  I am no longer in touch with any of them, but it was really fun making the quilt and working on all the other ones that passed through.  I believe that somewhere I have a journal that traveled with it, I should see if I can find it!

This is the first queen size quilt I ever machine quilted, all the previous ones were done by hand.  I used my 1979 Kenmore and it was a super tight fit in those middle strips, but we made it!  All of the white is stippled down, with a bit of outlining, etc in the colored pieces.  The batting is Warm and Natural and I love the old fashioned feel and look of this quilt.  It gets softer and drapier every time I wash it!

It  measures around 88 x 92 inches, a bit small for my current pillow top mattress, but I still love it and enjoy having it on my bed for spring.  The label is getting a bit faded, but I can see that it was started in April of 2002.  It must have been finished before September of 2003 because I showed it at the Sea of Quilts show of that year. 

This is what's on my bed today !  Now I will go document it in my Quilt Album program so that I won't have to try to decipher that faded label again!

Make sure you go to Bonnie's Blog to see everyone else's quilts or to add what you have on your own bed! - What's On Your Bed?