Cardinal Quilt Finished

I have really been sewing my little heart out over here. I am so excited about finishing up a bunch of quilts. I have finished 3 in the last 2 weeks. Here today is the Cardinal Quilt for my sister K. She isn't a computer person, so I can show it here with no worries that she will see it before I mail it to her. (heavy picture warning)

 This is where I started. I knew I wanted wonky stars, but I couldn't seem to get it to work for me.

 I tried several random arrangements and then, I gave up and came up with a more even and symmetrical plan. I thought I wouldn't like it as well, but I was wrong.

 This is the unquilted top. The color of the background is so light, it looks tan here on the deck.

 Here it is all quilted up, though and you can see the pretty pale blue.  The fabric I chose for this, was where I started before I had a design plan. My sister loves cardinals and they remind her of our hometown. She has lived on the west coast for so long now, she forgets about them. Last year she made a trip back east and kept talking about how nice it was to see them and how she missed them.

 So when I saw Laurie Wisbrun's Holiday Sweet Tweets fabric, I knew I had to get some and make her a quilt. This quilt decided it needed lots of quilting.  I started outlining the stars, but quickly saw it needed so much more. It was easy enough to follow the piecing lines to come up with the pattern

 I left the star centers unquilted and I love the way they look. All the crinkles in the background are so wonderful and lend a bit of old fashioned sweetness to this quilt.  I have never put this much quilting into such a small quilt.  I would do it again, but hopefully not too soon.

 This quilt has 17 hours of quilting in it, not including the binding. I gave the borders a softer, rounded quilting design. I used a continuous figure 8.

 The back of the quilt is a chunk of swirly blue I have had forever and some Kate Spain Terrain, along with the last of the Sweet Holiday Tweets.

 I really didn't want to buy more fabric, but I really didn't like my binding options in my stash.

 So I took the quilt to my LQS and found this wonderful stripe. I only had to get a half yard and with tax, it was only $6.  Not too bad.

 See how pretty it looks with the edges?  I think that fabric was just waiting for this quilt to bind.

And now, I just need to box it up and ship it.  Soon. Or I won't want to let it go.  I think my sister will like it.  See you soon with another finish.

Monday, Monday...

It's been kind of slow going over here lately. I've had 15 minutes here and 30 minutes there, and the occasional hour or two. Truth be told, I haven't really pushed too hard to get more time. Sometimes quilts just need to come along in their own sweet time and rushing makes for a less than satisfactory finish.  So here is an update on what I am up to.

 I finally started quilting my Gumdrops quilt from my Sunday Morning Quilts Bee.  The quilting isn't too difficult, really. My machine was having some hiccups though.

 I had to change the needle, the thread broke, the bobbin thread got changed out when I thought that was the issue. I dusted and oiled it and dusted it again. I thought I would never get the lines over the gumdrops done.

 But I did and now am on to the meandering stitching in the white background. So far, so good and no more problems with the machine.

 I decided to use this wonderful chunk of Loulouthi I had been saving (for Lord only knows what) and I didn't want to cut it up. I had made a pillow out of a piece of it awhile back. The size is absolutely perfect for this quilt.

 I am very happy with the way the stitching looks on the back. It doesn't really detract from the wonderful flowery print.

 I saw these on line somewhere and coveted them. When I was at the hardware store yesterday I saw them.  So I grabbed a 6 pack of them. They are a historic limited edition of the original Ball canning jars.

              I am in love with the colors and am looking for items to fill them with.

 This is also in my sewing room now. I finally got some sand and put it in my trifle bowl, which I never used, and put my seashells from my recent visit to the west coast in it.

 I added a few I already had. They were jus sitting in a can and a jar anyway.  I love it.

                                      Another shot of the Ball Jars.

 This is a quilt I have recently started for my youngest sister.  This is Laurie Wisbrun's Holiday Tweets. I wanted to use this because of the Cardinal's in these prints.  It is slow going to figure out the perfect layout. I have long wanted to do stars like this.

I am only using a few prints from the line. My sister is not a computer person, so I know she won't see this, but just in case, my other sister shouldn't show her. It's a surprise.  Hope you have a good day and a great week. I hope to have more progress to show you soon, as I have 3 more quilt tops done and waiting to be quilted.