A Three Year Finish

I know we all have them. Those quilts we start, we love and then they get lost along the way. Back in the winter of 2015, while I was at home going through chemotherapy, Rachel, from Stitched In Color had a Clambake quilt along. I had always wanted to make one, but it seemed too difficult to me. Rachel's method was a quilt as you go method. That I could do, I thought. This was before the fatigue got really bad, so I started the process.

I cut out all the clam shells I would need. It was to be a neutral row and then a colorful row. I went completely scrappy. I did get all the clam shells traced and cut. I think it took about a week. Then I chose my backing and started sewing. I think I got 3 rows done out of 34 rows needed. I tried to keep going, but I just didn't want to do it. I didn't want to do anything.

Fast forward to 2018. I decided to make this the year that quilt got finished. I pressed the edges with starch and then pinned each row and sewed them on. It took 3-4 weeks but now I am proud to say it's done.

 I was able to use so many fun and favorite pieces of fabric. I used some 5 inch charm squares.

 Here is the whole thing. It is a nice lap size quilt. I made the binding from the leftover pieces of the backing that I trimmed off when it was done.

 And this is the back. I don't remember the name of this fabric, but I love the shade of blue.

Not the most perfect stitching lines, but who cares, it's just for me. This makes me feel so happy to see it done. It reminds me that I came through to the other side.

Now my next project to quilt is a queen size bed quilt. I am trying to decide how I want to quilt it, so I hung it on the design wall to look at for awhile. I bought an extra wide backing fabric from Pineapple quilts. They have the biggest selection of wide backing fabrics I have seen yet. It arrived today, so now I can pin baste it as soon as I decide how to quilt it.

This is the top, on my bed. It is the free Cobblestone pattern I got from Fat Quarter Shop. So, linear quilting or curves? I think not too dense, to keep it soft and because I want to get it done this year. I am willing to entertain any ideas you have.
Talk to you soon.

Some Friday Finishes

I sew. A lot. But I also like to crochet. I do not knit, but my daughter does. In fact, my first finish is an afghan she knit for me.

 I had bought her a kit for this from Knit Picks about 4 years ago for Christmas. She knit it up and then, I liked it so well, she bought the yarn to make another for me as a Christmas gift. It was all done except the crocheted edge when I went to visit her in August, so I offered to bring it home and crochet the black edge. And now its done. Beautiful.

 This second afghan I crocheted. I began it in 2014 right after I was diagnosed with cancer. I thought I could work on it while I underwent treatment. The pattern is from Lucy at Attic 24 blog. It's called Neat Ripple. It was easy to get started, but hard to keep going and finish. I used Blue Sky cotton yarn.

It's a bit heavier than some other yarns, but I love it and now it is finished too. Hope it cools off soon so we can use them.
My other  finishes for this week are sewing finishes. First, I finished piecing the Cobblestone quilt for my queen size bed.

 I used mostly Improv fabrics by Amy Friend. I love the colors and the basic patterns. I added a couple of other fabrics to the mix just to fill it out.

 It went together pretty quickly, and now I just have to find a backing and figure out how to quilt the thing. There is lots of wide open space here, and I am thinking something with curves.

 Then there is this little cutie. This is the Lucy Tunic by Shwin Designs. This is such a cute pattern and so easy to make. It probably took me about 4 hours to stitch it up. It is designed to be worn over a pair of pants, or shorts, or leggings. You could even pair it with a skirt or dress. Add a long sleeve tee shirt and there you go!

 It criss crosses in the front and is awaiting two button holes and buttons. The cap sleeves have two tiny pleats which help it be eased in, but also add a bit of style to it.

 This is the inside. You can make this as a lined tunic, or you can make it reversible. I am choosing reversible, because two for one? yes please! Also, one thing you can't see is the pockets in the side seams. On both sides and for both fabrics so even if you turn it inside out, you have pockets!

I think Miss N will look sassy in this. She already has a pair of navy leggings and a navy long sleeved tee shirt. Got one more of these in the works too. Next week another big box of goodies is going out, this time to my middle daughter. Once she gets it I will share everything here. Have a great weekend! Linking up with Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Fabric Pull

How do you do a fabric pull? Do you start with a focus fabric, or a specific line of fabrics? I have done things both ways, or just a couple of favorites that look good together and then I try to flesh it out. I am wanting to make another large bed size quilt for my queen size bed...because I am crazy. I haven't chosen a pattern yet, so maybe that's going to mess me up here. The one thing I know is that I want to use a particular line of fabric, Improv by Amy Friend.

I won a fat quarter bundle of some of the fabrics from Benartex a couple of months ago and as soon as it arrived, I got on line and ordered some of the other prints in the collection. I don't have the whole collection, but there were some prints I truly didn't like as well as others.

This is the original collection that I started with. The colors here are pretty true. It's a very sunny day so I tried to stay out of the sun so they wouldn't wash out. Some of these are fat quarters and the ones I bought are half yards.

Now the fun...I tried to pull from my stash some things to go with these beauties. Tell me what you think:

 Here they are all lined up together. I think with these additions there is plenty for a queen size quilt.

 I love this dark plum color with the pale pink daisies right next to the raspberry colored fabrics. The centers of the daisies are almost the color of the raspberry fabric.

 Next, I added in the green-ish with dots, the golden tan squares and the grey gingham with the tiny dots. In this picture the first fabric looks much more green than it is and the squares look a bit washed out. So hard to get true colors sometimes.

 The other fabric I would like to use, but it may be too bold for this, is the text fabric. It is black print on cream. What do you think?

So here is the whole line up. Now I need a pattern to show these off to their best advantage. Please tell me in the comments what you think of the additions to the original line. Also, I would love to have any suggestions you might have for a pattern. Thanks in advance for your help.

Sunday Stash #26-Singing the Blues

Well, I kinda went a bit nuts this week, but wait til you see this. Quilt in a day was having a big sale on blues. There were about 8-9 pages of blue fabrics and some were $3 a yard. Yes, $3!!! So I thought, let's just take a little look. And I found such great stuff. I bought 4 different fabrics and I bought 2 yards of each, thinking of backs for quilts mostly, but really, at those prices, how could I not. So yes, 8 yards of fabric came to me yesterday. Here it is:

 Had to use the flash to get these. No sun here for the last 4-5 days. On the left is a lovely blue stripe from the Innocent Crush line by Anna Maria Horner. The right is from Lizzy House's Constellations.

The left one in this photo is Nine Dots by Carrie Nelson for Henry Glass and the left is Cosmopolitan by Michael D'Amore Designs for Benartex. The flash has washed these out a bit. Here is a picture without the flash for comparison:

 Darker, certainly, but a bit more true color. Hope the sun comes back soon. Have a great Sunday. Linking up with Molli Sparkles for Fabric Stash Sunday.