A Couple Random Quilt Finishes

Although I've been busy making quilts, I can't show them on my blog yet. They are for a variety of quilting magazines and I need to wait until the issues are published. But I did get two small quilts finished.

The first quilt top is from a book of star quilts by Alex Anderson. I probably made the quilt top in about 2005 or 2006. I made it on a whim, completely from scraps and fat quarters in my stash. Even the backing was pulled from my stash. But it never warranted paying a longarm quilter to quilt it.

Flash forward about ten years when I had a Handi Quilter HQ Avante equipped with Pro-Stitcher for computerized quilting. This became the perfect quilt top to practice digital quilting with Pro-Stitcher. It was the first top I quilted with Pro-Stitcher.

There were a few missteps and boo-boos, but when I looked at it a few weeks ago, I realized the mistakes aren't all that obvious. So I decided to bind it and call it DONE!

My other finish was a Schnibble pattern by Carrie Nelson (aka Miss Rosie's Quilt Co.).

I had previously used this fabric to make a baby quilt for a nephew's new baby (she's now about 10 years' old). I had enough leftover fabric to take it to the Winter Quilt Fest several years ago where I was taking classes from Carrie Nelson. (NOTE: I try to NOT buy new fabric for retreat classes since unfortunately there's often no guarantee that I'll finish the quilt when I get home.)

But, I did finish this one -- at least the quilt top. Then last fall, probably six or seven years after finishing the quilt top, I decided to quilt it. I knew that there would be baby girls born to nieces and nephews that would need a new quilt. (And three babies are due this spring -- one of which we know for sure will be a girl.) So, last week I finally got the binding on the quilt and my mom happily hand-stitched it to the back of the quilt.

Add these two random finishes to the three quilts for magazines I've finished, and my year-to-date quilts number five. Not too bad for the first six weeks of 2018.

Last Finish of 2015

Earlier in 2015 a friend and I stopped at American Quilting in Orem, UT on our way to the US debut of the musical Count of Monte Cristo at Brigham Young University.

While there I picked up a variety of red, green, and white fabrics. They weren't from the same fabric line, but for some reason the fabrics spoke to me at the time.

I didn't wait to make something out of the small group of fabrics. I picked out one of Miss Rosie's (aka Carrie Nelson) Schnibbles patterns that I hadn't made and stitched up the top.

Then, during Christmas week I quilted it up. Often, the choice as to which project I will quilt is determined by whether I already have backing fabric in my stash and don't have to buy something to get the quilt finished. And this quilt fit the bill.

I didn't do anything fancy with the quilting -- just a simple overall design with loops and stars. But it's done! Not sure what its ultimate destiny will be -- I'll probably give it to someone, sometime.

Only about 30 unquilted quilt tops to go.

So How Long Did That Quilt Take to Make?

I'm always fascinated when someone asks me how long a quilt or stitching project took to complete. I don't keep track of how long something takes -- although sometimes I have a pretty good idea if I made the quilt without switching to other projects or letting it become a UFO for a time. And, for the most part, I don't want to know how much time I spent on a quilt!

On Monday I started to gather up the fabrics and scraps for the pink, green and black "Round the Twist" Alex Anderson design (that I'm going to call "Twist and Shout"). (I showed it in an earlier post, but am including it here so you don't have to look for it.)

I realized that I had a lot of 2-inch strips and squares, plus plenty of partial fat quarters left over. Why not use them in a smaller quilt that could either accompany "Twist and Shout" when I give it to some lucky recipient, or save the smaller quilt for the next baby-girl quilt I need.

I decided one of Carrie Nelson's Schnibbles would be a good option -- and eventually settled on "Plan C", which uses 2-inch squares and strips. It is in her book called "Schnibbles Times Two". Although Carrie's pattern was designed for charm squares, I could just use what I had already pre-cut, plus cut some additional pieces as needed.

Here is the result -- which is about 32 inches square.

The funny thing is that it took LONGER to make the small quilt than it took to make the larger twin-sized quilt. Not a lot longer, but still I expected it to work up more quickly than it did. (It took about "a day" -- or rather one late night sewing and the better part of yesterday.)

Then there's my mom's flannel log cabin. What started out as a 20-block quilt (4 X 5) is now a 49-block quilt. Yep, it is now a king-sized quilt that is 98 inches by 98 inches. We laid it out on her bed and it’s going to look great. (This photo was taken before one more row was added at the right, which will be at the bottom of the bed. The stars will be centered on the bed.)

Now the problem is that we bought enough backing for a quilt that is 84 inches by 98 inches – and it just won’t “stretch” for the extra 7 14-inch blocks we added to the bottom. I thought I’d found an extra 3 yards (which is what it would take), but just got e-mail from the shop I ordered it from that indicated they really didn’t have the fabric in stock. I’m going to keep looking, but will probably end up having to piece something else into the backing.

I can’t believe it’s Wednesday already – not to mention the first day of June! This year is nearly half over! Have a great rest of the week.

A Half-Year of Schnibbles

So I missed the "memo" about a Year of Schnibbles. I recently discovered these darling "little quilts" -- and even made my first one before I knew it was quite the rage among quilting bloggers.

I finished this top just before Christmas 2009.

For this quilt I went through my scrap basket and used lots of small scraps. I didn't have enough lights so did have to use a few fabrics from my FQ stash to finish all of the blocks -- but this was a great project for using the miscellaneous pieces that were piling up.

I have since bought many of the other patterns and more than my share of charm packs. So, I'm hoping to make one a month for the next several months. I haven't done much machine quilting, but these are just the right size for me to hone my skills.