Saturday, March 1, 2014

A Bit Behind

Comments are now closed.  Thanks for entering my blogaversary giveaway!  Winner to be announced soon.

 
February was a very full month--besides my brother's birthday, Valentine's Day, my mother's 75th birthday, finishing the baby quilt, another trip to the hospital ER for me, our anniversary, and the ultra-excitement of the birth of our first grandchild, there was something else that I got a bit behind on.  I'm now caught up on this small Civil War scrap project, which when last shown was only a flimsy: 

Over the last couple of days I got the quilt sandwich pin basted, then promptly unbasted it about an hour later when I decided to use a motif in the plain alternate squares.  This came to me as I was fanning myself during a PSW (personal weather system) and noticed the bird emblem on the pretty Japanese fan I recently bought for said PSWs. Ahem.  Anyway, back to the quilt.

I drew a bird and then used a light box and a Frixion gel pen to transfer my drawing. Then I repinned the quilt sandwich and did some stitch in the ditch and cross-hatching with the walking foot. 

The walking foot worked just fine to stitch the bird with a contrasting thread--I'm lazy, so didn't want to change to the darning foot!


You can see in this photo where I drew corner triangles around the bird.  I decided to stitch those in the same burgundy thread I used for the bird, but changed it up as I stitched.

I showed this to my sister and she said it was too much--instead of flowing around the quilt, the eye stopped on the bird and you didn't see the other elements.  Well, it is a stop sign shape, but that wasn't my intention!  So I unsewed the octagon and told my sister she was right.  But there still wasn't enough quilting of the basic elements for me, so I added more. 

The 9 patch dark squares were fully X'd and the light patches got a "square in a square" design that I marked by scoring.  This meant a LOT of thread burying afterwards, but I think it was a good choice.  I also re-stitched those corner triangles in the cream thread to flesh out the traditional quilting I felt was needed. On to the border...

Hard to see here, but I had fun free motion quilting a sort of trellis design with dark brown thread.  

Or maybe those are L's like Laverne had on her clothes in Laverne and Shirley.  I loved that silly show.  Anyway, I used more leftovers to make the binding, a Collection for A Cause fabric I just love and used as borders on my Caramel Blues quilt.


And here is the finished quilt!  It is about 25" square and all machine sewn and machine quilted, crafted completely from leftovers.  I even stitched together batting scraps for the project!  What do you think?

The other event I didn't mention above was my five year blogiversary, which was February 5th, and I am giving away this little quilt to celebrate!  There are no hoops to jump through, except that I must have a way to contact you if you are not on Blogger--please leave your email address in the comment.  I will leave this giveaway open until Friday, March 7th, at 6 pm Pacific time, and I will ship internationally.  Thank you, dear readers, for sticking with me this last year of scanty blogging!
 

12 comments:

Janet O. said...

It turned out lovely, Annie. I would be thrilled to win it!
I think you made the right choice to get rid of the "Stop Signs" and just quilt the corners, and it is nice how the birds are circling on the quilt.
Good job!!

Lindah said...

the little birds are a great design element. Likewise the quilting design. I have just the place for it. :>

Mary said...

I love the bird design in your quilting. I will have to try that technique sometime. It turned out beautifully!

Lori said...

That quilt is so adorable! Congrats on being a grandma!! He is amazing!
Why have you been to the ER? I must have missed something. I'm so sorry and hope you are on the mend!

Quilter Kathy said...

It's beautiful Annie! I love all the quilting detail you added!
And congrats on being a Grandma...such a wonderful and blessed event for your family!

Chantal said...

What a busy month you had!! and you kept on sewing thru it all!
I have to agree with your sister; glad you got rid of the stop signs. It is now lovely: you did a GREAT job and I would be very happy if I was the winner of such a cutie.
♫ ♪ ♪ Happy Blogaversary and cheers to many, many more years.
Chantal

Joyful Quilter said...

Cute little quilt - the birds add the perfect touch. Happy Blogiversary!

Shay said...

Fabulous quilting Annie- and all found during a PWS you say? I'll have to see if inspiration strikes for me when that's happening!

Kate said...

Very nicely done. I love the little birdie it's a nice touch.

February was a very busy month. Hopefully March will be a bit more restful.

Dogwood Lane Rambles said...

With all the special days you have in February including your new grandson's birthday February will be your banner month from now on. March has turned into our family banner month with 5 birthdays but we don't mind because it means we're surrounded by loved ones. Cove is so precious I hope they live close by so that you can have cuddle time as often as possible.

ozone3 said...

Cute quilt!! Thanks for the chance to win!!

terry said...

Love the quilt. The birds are perfect with their stop sign surrounds - it's like the wind beneath their wings. Congrats on being a granma and your blog aniversary. You sure got a lot in for a short month .... whew.

Terry

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