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 The time has come to officially wrap up Quarter 1 of the Finish-A-Long by announcing the winners and awarding some wonderful prizes from our fantastic sponsors.  We had a whopping 553 finishes for the first quarter of 2019, which is really impressive you guys, keep it up!
Without further ado, here are the winners picked by Random Number Generator for Q1 of the 2019 Finish-A-Long:
The winner's choice of One Large 12 Spool Collection from Aurifil goes to Ann who blogs at Brown Paws Quilting and she finished this gorgeous Summer Sampler quilt that she custom quilted:
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The $80 Gift Certificate from Sew Sweetness goes to Michelle who blogs at From Bolt to Beauty and she finished 11 Jane Market Bags for her children's teachers (here is just one of them):
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The $50 Gift Certificate from Mad About Patchwork goes to Sandra who blogs at Musings of a Menopausal Melon - mmm! Quilts and she finished this lovely cushion/pillow cover:
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The $50 Gift Certificate from Fat Quarter Shop goes to Melinda on IG @mamasan_gerber and she finished this large hexagon pouf:
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The $25 Gift Certificate from Sew Me A Song goes to Melinda who blogs at Quiltn in Wilton and she finished this bright and cheerful child sized quilt:
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The 3 PDF Patterns from Happy Quilting goes to Liz who blogs at Yorkshire Quilter and she finished this beautiful scrappy charity string quilt:
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The 2 PDF Patterns from Charm About You goes to Gretchen who blogs at 120 Blocks and she finished this fantastic Jelly Roll Rug:
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The 2 PDF Patterns from Blossom Heart Quilts go to Janice on IG @tangibleculture and she finished this lovely cross stitch ornament:
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The 6 Month Subscription to Make Modern Magazine goes to Anja who blogs at Anja Quilts and she finished this really fun quilt:
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The 2 PDF Patterns from Bonjour Quilts goes to Jennie who blogs at Jennie's Threads and she finished this gorgeous sampler quilt:
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The $30 Fabric Voucher from Hillstitches goes to Pippa on IG @pippaspatch and she finished this wonderful duel sided table runner:
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There you have it folks, quarter one of the year is officially wrapped up!  Congratulations to all of our winners and a big thanks to everyone that played along so far this year.

 

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The products featured in this post were given to me by Island Batik, AccuQuilt, Hobbs, and Aurifil.

The April challenge was to use the AccuQuilt Ready. Set. GO! to create a 40" to 48" square baby quilt using AccuQuilt Dies. I asked people on Instagram to vote on my fabric selection for this project. I pulled a rainbow of scraps, but then I also liked the green/blue subset. The green/blue palette was the overwhelming winner.

The Ready. Set. GO! collection includes the GO! Qube 8" Mix & Match Block which is a set of 8 dies in a variety of geometric shapes for making 8" finished blocks. I used dies 1, 2, and 4 for cutting all my green and blue squares and triangles as well as my 4 1/2" background squares. I appreciated how fast and easy it was to cut out the pieces for my scrappy project. I look forward to teaching my kids how to use the AccuQuilt, because it's easy enough for them to use (and I currently do all the cutting for their quilts).

I'm drawn to quilts with expansive negative space, like my Island Batik quilt from last April. I used Rice (from the Island Batik Neutral Foundation Basics) for my background and used my favorite design tool for creating my quilt design: graph paper. The cutting was fast and easy. The piecing was fast and easy. I decided to have fun with free motion quilting this one, using a variety of motifs in the different sections of the quilt. I like to take a photo of the quilt top and markup the image with potential quilting motifs on my phone. Here's my initial sketch.

I didn't think too much about how hard the wishbone quilting in the center background sections would be. Given that the width of that section varies from about 6 to 11 inches wide, these are very long wishbones. It started out a little dicey, but overall I'm pleased with the look. In general, I like organic quilting and don't strive for perfection when quilting. Precision sometimes, but not perfection.

This was the first project I used my new free motion quilting foot on and it went very well. I am loving the visibility of the open toe, and the hopping foot went from distracting to "the new normal" pretty quickly. This is a serious step up from the darning foot I've been using to free motion quilt for 7 years! I used 50wt Aurifil Light Grey Turquoise (#2805) from the Pastel collection for my quilting.

I chose Hobbs Heirloom Premium cotton batting. The 45" x 60" size crib batting was perfect for my 40" x 40" quilt.

In the end, the quilt reminds me a bit of nautical signal flags, though that wasn't at all my inspiration. I'm toying with making another version in warm colors for my May project, though I'll likely decide to do something else

I had nearly enough of my remnant Rice binding from my Fortune Teller quilt and added scraps from the cut off edges of my quilt backing to lengthen the binding. A little hard to see in the photo above, but the two blue and green sections of binding are on the upper right and lower left corners of the quilt.

 

Please visit the other Island Batik Ambassadors to see their AccuQuilt Ready. Set. GO! Challenge Baby Quilts from this month.

I'm linking up to Needle and Thread Thursday and TGIFF.

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Lots of little things got finished last quarter. Some of them very little. I had fun working on challenge quilts/projects, making up 8 of my 10 finishes. I also participated in Ebony Love's Winter session of Finishing School and identified 7 older projects that I would like to finish. I worked on these during the 8 weeks of Finishing School and completed 6 1/2 of my weekly goals. I was thrilled to push those projects along. I'm in the middle of the Spring session of Finishing School and I haven't been nearly as successful on making progress on those WIPs. Fingers crossed I can get a few of my goals done in the second half.

My Q1 finishes:

And onto the lengthy current project list... I've updated it with new photo for most of the projects that I've made recent progress on.

Just Need Binding

  1. Variation of Planned Improv: Scrappy Squares, Wall Hanging. 

Quilting In Progress

  1. Very Hungry Caterpillar Twin Quilt

Finished Quilt Tops

  1. Scattered Squares lap quilt (upcoming pattern). 
  2. Planned Improv: Playing with Angles, class sample Mini Quilt #1. 
  3. Feathered Star... pillow? 
  4. Creative HST 
  5. Island Batik Starstruck lap quilt 
  6. Blogger Bundle baby quilt.

Piecing in Progress

  1. Trinket quilt
  2. Island Batik AccuQuilt Ready Set Go baby quilt challenge
  3. Purple scrap baby quilt
  4. Waterfall quilt.
  5. Beads on a String
  6. Planned Improv: Playing with Angles, class sample Mini Quilt #2.
  7. Planned Improv: Playing with Angles, in Cherrywood Meadow + Indigo.
  8. Tula Pink City Sampler. 
  9. Improv Abstraction, Small Quilt. 
  10. In the Middle quilt, Lap Quilt.
  11. Cotton & Steel (and low volume) HST Quilt, Lap Quilt.
  12. Ocean quilt for my daughter.
  13. Patchwork City Metro Area Quilt.
  14. Swoon Quilt.
  15. Rainbow Chain. The pattern is Autumn Chain from The Bee Hive quilts and IG friends. All blocks complete.
  16. My Floating Squares improv project. (from The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters by Sherri Lynn Wood.)
  17. Rainbow Remix from Rebecca Bryan's class at Quiltcon. Blocks are all done. Next up, the big job of piecing together irregular blocks.
  18. Wonky Cross quilt from Rossie Hutchinson's class at QuiltCon. Rows are all complete.
  19. Quartered Log Cabin quilt from Rossie Hutchinson's class at QuiltCon. 
  20. Purple Royalty quilt. 
  21. La Passacaglia. 
  22. Playing with solids project from Tara Faughnan class. 
  23. R's Waterfall Quilt from Sewing School Quilts

Planning Stage

  1. May Make it Modern Island Batik challenge
  2. June Try It Island Batik challenge
  3. Planned Improv: Scrappy Squares, large scale. Purples are cut out.
  4. Floating Hexagons in Heliotrope and Breeze.
  5. Unnamed in Oasis and Pickle.
  6. Unnamed in grunge and linen neutrals.

Clothing

  1. Blackwood Cardigan in black and white stripe.

 

I'm linking up to Finish-A-Long Q2 goals link up.

Thank you for visiting!