A Light in the Window

This is a post I have been looking forward to for awhile. I put some projects aside to finish this one up so I could send it off to it's recipient. We all know someone who has lost a loved one suddenly and unexpectedly. My Light in the Window quilt was designed to show love is still in the home after all is said and done.

 This is my new pin basting on the table system. It works pretty well and saves my knees.

       Can you see the "beams of light" in the quilting here?

          A single heart in a window.

          Found this great wide backing at Pineapple Fabrics.

Ready to be shipped. And it has made it to its destination.  I hope it brings love and comfort to its new owner.

A Swoon Worthy Finish

I have finished another quilt. This was one of those quilts that needed making for someone in need. As I have often done when a friend or co-worker has had a great need due to life's circumstances, I decided to dive in and make my friend a quilt. This friend is also my daughter's friend and so my daughter told me what colors would be best for this quilt. So we started with that.

We chose brown and blue. Once I got home from NC, I searched my stash for as much brown and blue as I had. I also had decided on the way home that I wanted to make a Swoon quilt. I had made one years ago, but I wanted to make one with 16 blocks in a smaller block size. Camille has a pattern for Swoon 16, so I went to her shop and bought that.

 Then, once I had the pattern and knew the amounts of fabric, my husband and I headed to our local quilt shop to find more fabrics to supplement my stash.

My husband is very good with selecting fabrics and finding the colors I needed. And as a bonus, he helps me carry all the bolts to the cutting station.

 I spent about four or five days cutting all the pieces for the blocks. I only assembled the first one before I cut all the rest. I stuck it up on my design wall for inspiration.

I wasn't very far into things when the quilting motif presented itself to me. Swirls...lots of swirls.

 Once the blocks were done, we decided that the sashing needed to be blue and I ordered it on line. A Moda marbles shade of blue. After the main quilting was done, I decided to quilt the border in infinity swirls. That is what I call these.

 And when I was almost to the first corner, I had to find a way to turn the corner, so I did this double circle. I like the way it turned out.

I found this extra wide backing at Pineapple Quilts. They sell lots of interesting wide backing fabrics. You can buy by the yard, or you can buy a 3 yard cut for one price. At the time I bought this, I believe they were having a sale on the 3 yard cuts. It is so different that I just knew it was the one.

 Back to the quilt store we went to get a brown for the binding. Once the quilt was all quilted, I knew brown was the choice and I didn't have enough of it left. Gosh, I loved making this quilt.

I used one of my new labels from Dutch label shop and sent this baby out priority mail. It got there super fast and made my heart sing when I knew it had been received. For me that is the best part of the quilt process. It is a hug from across the country. Having been on the receiving end of this just 3 short years ago, I know how it feels. It feels great.
Have a lovely Wednesday my friends.

Big Bed Quilt Check In

So I am checking in on the last day of February to share my big bed quilt progress with you. Here is what we have so far:

 Last fall I started to piece my queen size quilt. I had fabric I loved and found a pattern that would really show it off.

I figured out a layout that would work for all the prints in this quilt and photographed it so I could refer back to it as I went, and I drew a map of the placement as well.

And I ended up with this lovely quilt top. At which point I hit a wall and folded it up and put it away. I knew I would eventually return to it, but when?

And then Rachel rescued it. She proposed a Big Bed Quilt Along. So I decided to join her and get this thing done. Since I had the top finished, I needed a back and I really didn't want to piece it, but all the wide backing I had seen was awful.

Rachel to the rescue again. She has a sponsor called Pineapple Quilts that has LOTS of 108 inch backing fabrics and they are great! So I found one I loved that would go well with this top and ordered a 3 yard chunk.

My goal for February was to get the backing and get this beast pin basted and ready to quilt. I finally did that last week and a wee bit ahead of schedule, I found a thread  and began quilting.

    This green cross weave is the backing I selected and it is perfect for this quilt.

 Here is the top all pinned and ready to go. It took about 3 hours to pin the whole thing and there was furniture moving to accommodate it on the living room floor.

And now here are the first bits of quilting. I chose a variegated thread to quilt with, just for fun. I emailed Rachel to ask advice on the quilting motif and we agreed on this one. It took me most of a day to do the first two rows from top to bottom. I broke a needle and I can't believe how much thread it took for just these two passes.

So if I only do two rows each day I work on it, I have ten days of quilting left. Yeesh that sounds awful, but I am hoping it gets better.  It is very heavy as well and my shoulders can only take so much. So, wish me luck. I know I can get it done.

Talk to you soon.