My focus this month has been finishing up that Christmas Wedding Quilt that I have been working on forever. I especially wanted it done in March. It would be an understatement to say I was done! With that said, my other quilty projects have been neglected. Once I mailed off the quilt, I have jumped in with both feet trying to catch up on my other projects.
NEW: Sparkle and Shine Mystery Quilt by Cotton Cuts
While I would love to show you some finished clues here, I don’t have any to show yet. Clue 1 and 2 are here and I am sure 3 will arrive soon. I hope to have more to show you next month with this new Spring 2021 Mystery Quilt.
Are You Game? Mystery Quilt by Cotton Cuts Update
If you remember, I ended up with a large and small quilt (two different colorways) for this Fall 2020 Mystery quilt. I just started sewing the Large clues 7 & 8 in the Large version called Labyrinth.
The Small version in colorway Azul I was able to finish both clues 7&8. Here are those pictures.
Name of the Rose Mystery Quilt by Cotton Cuts Update
No new update on this one. As soon as I get the clues caught up, I will jump back on this one to go to the next step for assembling the center. I believe I am on step 8.
Monthly Color Challenge 2021 by Patterns by Jen
As you can see, I am almost done with February’s yellow block here. That should be finished today. When that is done, I will be taking my March’s orange fabric pull and cutting March. I have three days left to finish sewing this block in time to Linkup with Patterns by Jen.
Placemats, Tablerunners, & Napkins
While I haven’t worked on any of the other projects in this category, it felt good to finish the table runner top intended for use in March. I also swung by and purchased the backing.
In April I hope to quilt the Mini Charm and the Good Morning Mug table runners.
FINISH: Christmas Advent Wedding Quilt (Jan APQ Resolution Project)
I have been working on this quilt since December 2019 and was originally a 25 block scrapalong on Instagram with Marianne Jefferey. She did provide a layout but my quilt isn’t like hers except for the 5×5 with one pieced border. Sometime last year I decided to sash all the blocks alternating between red and white for a candy cane look.
Once that was done, I assembled the top and measured it. I was still lacking a lot to be a full/queen quilt. I probably mulled this problem for a couple of months before I finally gave into having mismatched borders. You are probably wondering what I mean. I didn’t want a SQUARE quilt, so I had to make the top and bottom borders larger than the side borders. Next up was agonizing over the borders. I am working out of my stash since the quilt stores still were not open here in Santa Clara County, California.
Via FaceTime, I went over the possible border fabrics with my daughter who is in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. We settled on this black with silver metallic fabric for the border. I had a set amount of fabric to work into borders so then I made the pieced border. I cut the first border and attached it. Then spent another month piecing the pieced border with a lot of trial and error as well as doing as a leaders and enders project. I didn’t have enough scraps left from the original fabric so I scrounge for things that went with what was already there including throwing in some of the sashing fabric.
At last! The pieced border was done. I remeasured the quilt and realized I had a problem with my originally designed third border. I didn’t have enough fabric. I spent another two weeks hemming and hawing before I mentally said screw it. I figured out how to cut the third border with the fabric I originally had planned (because I wanted the pieced border to appear to float) and reduced the size of these borders which means the final quilt is more the DOUBLE size versus the QUEEN size. I felt so relieved to get it that far, I took the rest of the holidays off.
January 2021 rolls around and now I need to get this monster ironed, layered, and basted. (insert eye roll here). Just one problem. I need a back. I spent another week taking 4 2 yard cuts and turning them into a back (they were the original alternative border fabrics).
Finally I was ready to layer and baste. It took me a complete afternoon to get this puppy spray basted and then I had so many wrinkles that I need to iron it before I started quilting. (Sigh). I spent the next three nights taking my time with ironing this thing so there were no more wrinkles. At last I’m done and there is only a week left in January to get all my stitching in the ditch done (so it doesn’t move later)
February rolls in and I think yes, I can get this monster quilted. I am just doing straight line (sorta). I started and I didn’t like straight line so I started more of a wavyish line. That was too boring so I added a little circle here or there. Then I thought wouldn’t it be cool if I did christmas trees. My first time to try that was the line that was going in the corner. That was harder than I thought so I decided I would just do for corners of sashing and kept doing wavy lines with sporadic surprises. Finally finished quilting the center but it took three weeks of February to do that.
I knew exactly how I was going to quilt the pieced border so I did it next. It turned out just as I imagined. While working on that border I figured out what I was going to use for the inner border which ended up being the wishbone. I should have practiced turning the corner, so the corners are a mess – all four. But I was so happy to be done.
Dang it now it is March! How time flies. So I finish up that inner border and spend another week stalled while I decide on the outer border. I absolutely love the border I finally landed on for this one. I can’t do ribbon candy to save my life, but this variation on ribbon candy fit the theme of the “wedding” quilt along with all the tiny hearts quilted here or there in the center. I thought I had a plan for the corners, but it failed miserably. Better finished than perfect right?!
All that was left before mailing it was to bind it. I am super confident in my binding skills so that only took me two days. Then off to UPS I headed. They wanted to charge $250 to ship it. Finally we settled on a reasonable price of $85. It was mailed St Patty Day in March but has not arrived at it’s new home. I meant to get a picture outside with it before I mailed. It rained for several days before I finally just mailed it. I requested my daughter get a picture of it outside and with the new couple so I could have them. We will see if she honors my request.
Wrap Up
I so don’t want to take 3 months to quilt every quilt. I hate that it takes me so long. With retirement fast approaching in June, the above incident inspired me to make the jump to a true long arm machine. I went to Sacramento to play with several machines this week and asked a TON of questions. I have picked what I want – a 26” Gammil Elevate on a 12 ft frame. I have permisson to go back with one of my quilts to actually quilt the quilt on their demo model in a few weeks before placing my order. I already figured out that I just need to complete 100 quilts for the machine to pay for itself. (Versus Sending out to long armer). I have 20 quilt tops ready to go in my sewing studio right this second. I am not sure but I think I have another 40 tops I could assemble with blocks from sewalongs over the past few years. Stay tuned as I venture forth into a whole new world. To say I am excited is an understatement!
Peggy