Finish It Up Friday | Grey Cat Quilts

Finished – High Tea Quilt

8 05 2015

Feeling slightly accomplished, though I haven’t done much sewing lately.

Over the course of two sessions at Sandi’s home, I quilted High Tea. I used a loopy meander, feeling like this top needed something to soften its very strong lines.

For the backing, I stuck to using stash, and used up the fabrics you see here. Don’t ask me what they are… I know that the print on the right was a Joann’s print, and that I got the other two fabrics on http://www.fabric.com, but no longer recall any other details. These fabrics were just sitting there, because they’re such large prints. I thought they went very well with the quilt top.

Though you can’t see much of it in the photos, the binding is also a Joann’s print, a black and grey stylized floral. I actually hated this print, quite a bit, until I was digging through my stash and realized that it would be perfect for the binding for this project. Luckily, I had just enough of this print to make the binding.

I have to be honest – the goal was to get it done, and get it on the bed, so I didn’t put a lot of thought into quilting it. It’s large enough for my husband and I to sleep under, though I have the feeling he’s going to wrap himself up like a burrito in it.

I attempted to photograph the quilt yesterday, but it was so bright out that the colors got all washed out. While trying to get a decent photo, my son decided to show how much he enjoys my quilts.

When attaching the binding to this top, I decided to try ladder-stitching it in place on the back, and I’m a convert! It’s so clean looking – I’m never going back to my previous method, which was more of an applique stitch.

Now, I’ve got to decide what I want to work on tomorrow. It’s Stitch ‘N’ Bitch Day at Sandi’s, and I would like to work on some piecing… I really should work on something already in progress, rather than starting a new project.

Linking up to crazy mom quilts for Finish It Up Friday. Also linked to Confessions of a Fabricaholic for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?

3xS – Finished!

29 01 2015

I’m sort of on a roll!

I finished 3xS (Stars, Squares, and Scraps)!

I’m enjoying the way some of the squares and HSTs disappear into the backing fabric. There’s unexpected depth to the pattern because of that.

I used Sandi’s mid-arm frame again. As I’ve said previously, I’ve given up on the Janome, and after quilting this top, given up on the Little Gracie II frame entirely. It’s just too limited for what I want to do, for what I’m capable of doing.

Anyway, the details! The entire thing was quilted on Saturday, the 24th. I used a pale aqua-ish thread in the top, and the same light grey Bottom Line in the bobbin. Rather than do an all-over meander again, I got brave decided to play a little. This time, I did three leafed clover shapes in varying sizes. Getting braver yet, I set myself a challenge to echo each of the leaves in one of the clovers, and discovered I could do it with a decent amount of accuracy. I then randomly spaced the echoed clovers through the quilting.

I wasn’t sure how the quilting would show up after washing – I experimented and used a wool batting in this quilt. I’d bought the wool batting with the intention of hand-quilting a different project. However, since this was my January goal for finishes, I figured I ought to just use the wool rather than buying more batting. This particular batting required quilting in every four inches – I didn’t see that as a problem, though I expected this top to take me quite a while to finish quilting.

I can’t tell you what any of the prints in the backing are – I didn’t save the selvage for the lovely print on the left. The purple paisley was a scrap cut from Fat Quarter Shop. The purple floral print was something from Joann’s, and the smallest cut of fabric in the backing was something I bought ages ago and cut the selvage off.

To give this a really strong finish, I used up a yard(ish) of a fabric that had been in my stash for ages. I cut 3″ wide strips, and made sure I left half an inch of batting all around the top’s edges when I trimmed down the batting and backing after quilting. As a result, I’ve got a nice wide, and full, binding on this top.

Linking to A Lovely Year of Finishes, for my January finish!

Also marking this for the 2015 Finish Along! My list of goals is here!

Also linking to Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday and Devoted Quilter for Thank Goodness It’s Finished Friday.

Comments : 12 Comments »
Tags: 3xS, January, Scraps
Categories : 2015 Finish Along, A Lovely Year of Finishes 2015, Completed Quilt, Finish It Up Friday, Quilting

First Finish of 2015!

23 01 2015

I have a completed quilt!

And it feels amazing!

Quilting was done on Sandi’s mid-arm machine – my Janome is being a PITA. I’ve determined I’m just going to sell that beast and invest in an alternate mid-arm machine. The day I was using the frame, Sandi had on hand a medium dark grey for top thread. We dithered a bit on whether or not it would be all right, but I was very much of the mindset that finished was the most important thing.

Once we stepped back and looked at the quilted sandwich (done up in a large, fairly dense meander), we were quite happy. It turned out beautifully!

In keeping with my determination to use up as much stash as possible, this quilt ended up being very scrappy toward the end. For my backing, I used five different prints, three of which were from the same line, Habitat by Jay McCarroll. I had quite a lot of this fabric leftover, due to using it for a swap. I also used two cuts of Urban Garden by Erin McMorris, and a larger cut of a Heather Bailey fabric (Freshcut, I think, but the selvage was long gone).

The binding even proved out to be scrappy. I’d originally been planning on using a strong yellow fabric for the binding. With the backing ending up such a hodgepodge, however, I chose to pull two graphic black and white prints from my stash, and used what was remaining of those two prints to make the binding. It was quite serendipitous, actually. When I’d finished attaching the binding, I only had eight inches left over after. I truly had just enough of those two prints, which was good, because I just eyeballed the yardage I had and said, “Meh, it’ll be enough.”

Our front lawn is chewed up, due to the snow plowing that took place in December, so I couldn’t do my usual overhead shots. I’m sure the neighbors walking their dogs wondered at the crazy lady throwing a quilt over the wood fence.

Marking this for the 2015 Finish Along! My list of goals is here!

Linking to Crazy Mom Quilts, for Finish it Up Friday. Also linking to From Bolt to Beauty, for Thank Goodness It’s Finished Friday. Also linking to Confessions of a Fabric Addict.