Design Wall Monday--A High Cotton Finish

After another unexpected blog break, I'm pleased to return to DWM and show a finished quilt.  This is High Cotton, a Kim Diehl design from her Simple Comforts book series, and is lap sized, 54"x 66".  I started this quilt far too long ago and am thrilled to have put the last stitch in the binding this morning, two years later. 

I'm pleased with my efforts to emulate Kim's mix of muted and bright CW repros and included a few zingers. There are more green prints than any other, as green is my favorite color, but I don't think its too much green.

 

Slightly blurry pic but shows the quilting detail well.  I wanted lots of curves to complement all the straight lines.  So happy my LQS now has longarm quilting services.  I chose a tan thread and like how it turned out. 

 

 

The warm gray Paisley print binding I'm happy with too, though it was hard to cut up and dedicate to that end, I love the print so much.  You can see one pieced block in the Paisley fabric peeking out in the bottom center of the pic. 

Similarly, stash was harvested for the quilt backing.  Being a scrappy quilter, I seldom buy large lengths of fabric so pieced backs are common in my quilts. 

The curvy blossoms show up well on this dark green Thimbleberries print I bought on clearance at a local fabric store years ago.  As this quilt is for ME, I'll get to enjoy it for years to come in my own home.  Better get a label made!  See more Design Walls on Judy's Patchwork Times. 

Tuesday's Orts

Tuesday's Orts--bits and bobs of thoughts and events that land here occasionally

• A month went by during which I thought about blogging roughly daily but never seemed to get myself to the computer.  Life has been very busy and it is apparent that is likely to remain so!  We are spending a lot of time dealing with my husband's 97 year old mother's needs and difficulties with worsening dementia, including a number of emergency room visits for falls, fortunately without any significant injuries.  She has caregivers to help now but we still worry a lot.
• I got back the Mystery Quilt from the longarmer and love the Baptist Fan quilting.  Binding I made about two years ago is waiting to be applied.  I need a new name for this quilt!

 I took another quilt in to be done and can't wait to see how High Cotton will look.

• Our MQG Opportunity Quilt is finished.  I volunteered to take over the binding from another member.  This is the first time I have ever finished someone else's binding and it was an odd exercise.  If I had been thinking better, I would have machine finished the darn thing, but instead persevered with hand binding and attaching a hanging sleeve.  Since the hanging sleeve was an afterthought I ended up taking out the stitching I had already done as well as nearly  two sides done by another guild member.  Thankfully it is all done now, has been handed off for photography, and tickets are being sold. 
•  There were more work hours this past month as I filled in some shifts for another employee who was off taking the MCAT for medical school entry.  That is one gnarly test and only the cream of the crop are even asked back for an interview after top tier scoring.  My co-worker was asked back after taking the test last year, but as there are literally thousands of applicants for few openings, he didn't get into a school.  Therefore he decided to retake the test to improve his score and studied intensely again for months.  It will be a while before his results are back and that can't be easy to bear. 
• Quilting-wise, my continuous attempts at focus and progress have upped a tick, with the use of a visual aid: 

I found this at a school supply store, it is magnetic as well as being a white board and came with two types of hangers and some easel thingies so it can stand up.  I'm happy to report that, yes, I did indeed finish all the goals for August.  They only slightly spilled over into September as I finished the backing to Cocoa Baskets on Saturday.  Still need to choose September goals.

• Baby Spam!

This is a photo from last month, when the quilt Mimi made grandson Hunter was at the County Fair (it got a 2nd place!) so he was posed on a different quilt for his monthly update.  Hunter is now 6 months old; a happy, smiley little one and more mellow than his very active older brother. We love them so!

Design Wall Monday--Labor Day

Happy Labor Day!  I hope to spend plenty of time stitching today while my boss pays me :)  On my design floor today is a new baby quilt from leftovers.  

Some of these flying geese are from grandson Cove's baby quilt.  Other prints are leftovers from another baby quilt I made for one of DD Elaine's friends.  The layout I found on Pinterest but cannot give credit or find the pattern as the link dead ended in a bad site with a warning!   But it is simple enough-- the blocks will all be sashed on the left side with a white on white print, then every other block is turned. I drafted it out on graph paper and made a bunch more Fast Geese.

Pairs of flying geese are topped with a third goose in a different pattern.  This is the first go at layout, trying to get the darks evenly distributed. 

I added all the single geese to the pairs but it needed tweaking.  I pulled them apart to simulate the sashing and played switcheroo a bit more. 

I'm liking it so far!  Nearly all of these fabrics came from the Superbuzzy store, which celebrated its 10th anniversary last weekend with a big sale.  The line was very long at the cutting table but my sister and I managed to find some things to buy that didn't need to be cut.  Kathy's now on a jelly roll rampage :) 

I'm off to attach all those single geese to their pairs.

See more Design Walls on Judy's Patchwork Times.