Happy Mail!

I received a box of happiness this week from dear reader, Ila. The box contained a fantastic quilt top and another project from “Aunt Ann.” We’ve actually had a lot of rain lately and I haven’t had a chance to take a good photo of the top yet, but it deserved its own post anyway. This is the project.

They are pinwheels! Each triangle is finished with its own bit of batting and the pieces are whip stitched together. The batting looks to be a this flannel blanket.

I hope you can see from these next photos how the blocks are constructed.

The blocks end up looking the same on front and back. How cool is that?

The print in this block reminds me of fried eggs. 😁

These pieces are so soft! I’ll have to ponder where to go with these, but you can bet this project will be finished!

Thank you, Ila! Have a great day everyone!

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Itty Bitty Bow Ties

I cut out some tiny bow ties before I left Michigan. Since I changed my mind about using the hexies for my doll quilt swap, I might use these instead.

They finish at 3 inches.

The blocks are all pieced. Now to decide on a layout. I’m thinking about an alternate plain block.

Have a great day!

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Finish It Up Friday ~ Batiks!

It’s a twofer this week! Two finishes. These were done a while ago, but I didn’t want to share until they had been gifted. The first finish is this table runner.

I experimented a bit with the quilting here. I did one row of a pantograph down the middle and then free handed meandering on either side.

It hardly shows, but it’s something to keep in mind for future projects.

I pulled this purple print out of my stash for the backing.

Here is the second finish. You might remember the story behind these pieces as I wrote about them here and here.

Here is the panto I used.

Have to show the back!

Love that texture. Have a great day!

Posted in Finishes 2021, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Bed and Throw Quilts 2020

At the end of every year, I like to look back at the quilts I’ve finished. I do this over several posts. This is the post where I share the bigger quilts I’ve finished.

Have a great day!

Posted in Bed Quilts, Finishes 2020, Uncategorized | 7 Comments

Flying Geese

I’ve been very drawn to flying geese again lately. I pieced this little top using some of my vintage fabric stash.

Cutting those triangles off grain on the bottom left gave it a wonky look. Since the machine quilting on my trusty little Featherweight went so well on my last two little projects, I decided to give it a go on this one.

The answer is….not good.

Um….yeah….now I have waves to add to my wonk.

The other half looks better. I have no idea what I did differently. The back looks fine.

I’m disappointed, but I’m not going to stress over it. Have a great day!

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Little Improv Finishes

Apparently I have been sewing a lot lately. As such, my blogging and projects are a bit out of sync. I will probably blog twice a day now and then to get things caught up.

So here are my little improv/practice quilting pieces. First my mug rug.

I used a walking foot on my Featherweight to quilt these.

And then the larger piece.

I was quite pleased with the quilting on these. I just wanted to be able to do simple quilting on small pieces.

I was so happy with these, that I started quilting another small top I had made. My luck ran out and the quilting is terrible. More on that in a future post.

Have a great night!

Posted in Art Quilts, Finishes 2021, Improv | 3 Comments

Hanging Quilts

I promised to share photos of my quilt hanger and how it works. Many people asked after I shared this photo.

I actually have several of these.

They are compression hangers. I bought one years ago at Cracker Barrel. The others I’ve picked up at garage sales and thrift shops.

I don’t worry if the quilt is a bit too long or too short. This is how they work. You unscrew the knobs holding the front and back pieces together.

Then you tuck the edge of the quilt in between and tighten the knobs. Voila! So easy to change quilts and no sleeves are needed.

I have found a few other methods that I use as well. This first idea came from Ann Hermès at Notes from the Quilt Lab.

I hung the yard stick with space between the stick and the wall.

Then I used these little clips from IKEA to hang the quilt on the yardstick.

Here is another method, a simple curtain rod with cafe clips.

I’ve already shared that I sometimes also use tiny brass pins. You can find that post here.

Hope this helps! Have a great day!

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A Little Improv

I wanted to try out machine quilting on my Featherweight. I’m very much out of practice using anything,but the long arm. So I decided to play with a little improve using scraps.

This wasn’t working for me. The light is too light.

Still not terribly exciting, but better.

Then I decided to make a mug rug to practice quilting, before my piece to practice quilting….did you get that?

Yeah, I didn’t take any pics of that until I had the binding started. Anyway, the quilting went very well, so I’m forging ahead.

Stay tuned for a couple finishes. Have a good one!

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Finish It Up ~ HRT Top

I finished piecing my half rectangle blocks. I really like this layout, but with all the blocks, it would have finished at 36 by 60 inches.

I played some more and ended up with this.

Better dimensions, not a bad plan.

Yep, much better.

And now it is pieced. I’ll finish this on the long arm when we go back to Michigan.

Have a great day!

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Half Rectangle Blocks

I cut these pieces out last fall using my Accuquilt GO! half rectangle die.

I decided to finally do something with them. I love how well these pieces line up!

Here are half the blocks. I was able to cut 12 each from a Fat Eighth bundle .

This isn’t necessarily the final arrangement. I’m going to have fun playing once I finish sewing all the half rectangle pieces. Time to sew!

Have a great day!

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