Tag Archives: a finish

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My son started quilting just about a year ago and finished his third quilt this month in time to gift to his dad. His first two quilts were squares and rectangles, making this one the first time he's sewn half square triangles. He picked his fabrics from his Finish Along winnings from my post about his first quilt, some fabrics he's picked up at the SCVQA guild sale table, and from my stash. His chose his block design, House on the Hill, from Big Book of Quilting, by Michele Morrow Harer.

I cut out all of his pieces. I'm not sure what age I'll feel comfortable letting him use the rotary cutter, but 5 1/2 is not it. ;-)

At this point he pieces independently, sewing at the kids' art table. I press his seams open for him and help him stay organized while he chain pieces.

I love that he chose the turtles for the door and that he wanted to fussy cut the woman to be looking out the window. He decided to rework the pattern a bit to have only one chimney (instead of two).

He had used the walking foot for quilting his first two quilts, but once he had pieced this quilt he decided that he wanted to free motion quilt it. He really wanted loops. Okay, kid. I set up the machine for him to free motion quilt and he practiced a bit on a practice quilt sandwich. Then he went work on his mini. I supervised and assisted as needed.

He started by quilting the ground area, then wanted the lines on the window. I'm most impressed with his loops on the house and his clouds (in variegated thread). He chose blue binding from my leftover binding box and he assisted and supervised me in attaching the binding. Since he chose a (different) variegated thread to attach the binding, I recommended the three-step zigzag for the top stitching. I figured it would be less exact for him than trying to attach it with a straight stitch. The quilt finished at 12 1/2" x 12 1/2".

He's looking forward to showing this one and Rainbow Swift at the January SCVQA meeting.

I'm linking unto Needle & Thread Thursday and Adrienne's 2015 Q4 Finish Along post. See all my Q4 goals here.

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This is my A Lovely Year of Finishes July finish. Since I have a complete inability to have just one goal, I set a primary goal and bonus goals.

The Primary (and ALYoF) Goal

Okay, so it wasn't done by the 4th of July. But it was done in July. And I'm all set for 4th of July 2015! Moreover this completed project was from a UFO that was many years old and abandoned. I had to make two additional blocks from kits I had and piece it together to make the table runner. I haven't free motion quilted anything since April, so it was a nice size project to get back to that. And I'm feeling brilliant for saving myself some time by recording the settings on my machine for FMQ so I turned some dials and was ready to go without any trial and error needed.

Frieda

So naming quilts stresses me out. I have quilts named "My First Quilt" and "The Purple Quilt." Yep. Awesome, huh? I decided I'd ask for some help.

Me: You know what I'm bad at? I'm bad at naming quilts. Will you help me?

The Husband: I don't know what quilts are named.

Me: Anything… okay, go! (I show him a picture of the 4th of July table runner top)

The Husband: Frieda!

I laugh hysterically. For many minutes.

Then I show him examples of other named quilts, Western Kaliedescope and Shattered Rainbow.

He points out that he didn't know that quilts were named things like that and then declares, "I think you gave me a crazy task that I had no idea how to do it and I BSed my way out of it."

It gets better.

Then a few nights later when I was quilting it, The Husband and I were talking and I said something about it being a 4th of July table runner. "Oh! Then that's perfect, Frieda... like Freedom!" he declared. Um... wasn't that what you were thinking originally. "No, it was just the first name I thought of." More hysterics.

By the way, when I showed him the quilt label, he was entertained that I'm actually using the name Frieda. Speaking of the label. I made a cute label using Kelly's Cute and Easy Quilt Labels tutorial. It's awesome. I love it. All my future quilts will have adorable quilt labels. And fun names.

Frieda quilt label

For the binding step, I've switched in the past year to machine binding. This was the first time that I used the tube method of making bias binding. I used this binding calculator as a guide. I think the pro of not needing to stitch a million 3 inch bias seams exceeded the con of needing to cut the length of the binding with scissors after stitching. I'm using a 2 1/4" double bias binding... I prefer the look of a 2", but I find that the extra width is helpful for machine attaching the binding.

Frieda frontthe back of FriedaFrieda detail

 

The Bonus Goals

  • Make party outfits for the kiddos to wear at The Boy's 4th birthday party. Check. The Boy and The Girl were well dressed in their airplane and helicopter attire for the celebration.
  • Create a mug rug (or four) using turned edge machine applique. Ever so slight progress. I cut the fabric for the fronts and backs of these. The applique is intimidating me.
  • Complete step 13 of the mystery quilt. Check. And step 14. And step 15. And step 16. The latest progress on this project can be seen in this post (as well as a peek at a new project).
  • Quilt blocks 3 and 4 from the Building Blocks Quilt Along. Not so much. But I did FMQ some other stuff, so I'm back on the horse, so to say.
  • Wash fabric for use in the Farm to Fabric Challenge. Check. It's washed. Now I need to make haste to make it into a completed quilt that looks vaguely like what I'm picturing in my head.
  • Start visiting quilt shops participating in the Row by Row Experience. Check. Technically, I started. I went to The Intrepid Thread in Milpitas. Their pattern is lovely. Then life got in the way and I haven't been to another participating quilt shop this month. Oops. I have another month to collect rows. We'll see how that goes.

I'm linking up on the July ALYoF Finishes Party and to TGIFF at Quokka Quilts.

I'm linking up to Finish Along Quarter 3 Finish Party. Here is my full list of Q3 Finish Along Goals.