Three for September: I am pulling out a different WIP to work on every three days this month.
#3 The Jewels in the Curio quilt now has a finished center.
I am not going to claim all my seams are perfectly lined up but they are only a smidge off in some places, not enough to worry about. I am happy with the colors and just love these repro prints in the Jewel Box blocks. The other task for this project was to form a plan for the three borders. I have examined all the precut pieces and leftover light fabrics I have. Jo from Jo's Country Junction designed this quilt for Moda Bakeshop with a 4" finished light inner border, a scrappy squares second border, and a third 2"light border, but used only one background print for her design, where I went scrappy. So there will be some creative cutting and likely additions from the stash to make up the difference. I also got a bunch of square in squares done for GO Four It as a Twofer :)
The #4 selection for Three for September is Sunbonnet Sue Goes to the Orient (applique from Quick Quilts magazine 2005). Poor, poor Sue has been a WIP for soo long. Here's how she looks today:
Goal is to finish up the lantern embroidery, make a quilt sandwich and do some simple quilting. I may add a facing rather than binding as I want to keep the focus on the center. Sue will be a wallhanging at last.
My sister sent me a message that her longarm Pfaff was finally operational and she had quilted 5 Thomas Fire quilts in the last few days, without the thread breaking every four inches as it had been. Yesterday I took over the quilt I'm making for our Uncle Fred and we loaded it onto the machine. This is my version of Bonnie Hunter's Narragansett Blues pattern.
She purchased this Grand Quilter at a quilt show, it was their demo model so was sold at a discount but still not inexpensive! Her landlady kindly let her set it up in the craft room of their house. Here it is with the 10' rails, she has 12'. Kathy guided me through all the steps of loading the quilt and readying the machine.
We ran into some problems with the bobbin thread that took some time to resolve, there was a dull needle to change, and part of the batting folded inside the quilt, but otherwise it was great fun to do.
The quilting is neither the prettiest or perfect on this scrappy quilt, but it is done! I'll use the excess cut off backing for a scrappy binding. This quilt has been more than a year in the making, starting with the four patches as leader-enders for a good long while last year :) I started assembling the quilt in March 2018 and finished the top and backing in June. Hoping to get a photo of Uncle with his quilt in the near future. I've got several other finished tops that will see some longarm action soon!
12 comments:
Your finished top center is beautiful! Who will care what you use as borders? They will be looking at that eye-catching center! :)
Sue will be such a cute little finish.
How fun to get the use of a longarm! You will churn out the finishes now (not like you don't already).
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Fantastic progress!! How did you like working with the long arm? I love that once you have loaded the process of simple quilting bebbs goes quickly. Your uncle will love that quilt
All three are fabulous and I love the fabrics you chose. Denise@fortheloveofgeese
Just lovely quilts--and Orient Sue is so adorable...hugs, Julierose
Great progress on these quilts! I'm so happy your sister was able to get her machine working with her instead of against her. Did she find something in particular that made the thread stop breaking?
Your Sue is adorable!!! The Jewels quilt looks lovely. I believe that when the seams are off by a smidgen, it adds to the warmth and cuddly quality of the quilt :-) I am sure that your uncle will only notice the love and care you put into the quilt and he will enjoy it for a long time.
You always seem to have so much going on. Busy, busy, busy.
Congrats on this wonderful, scrappy finish! And I love the Jewels pattern so much I think it will be one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks for 2019 :)
I need to come here more often...lots of quilty goodness....
Your Jewels center turned out beautifully. You've gotten a lot done, a quilt center, quilting a flimsy and having a plan for the next 3 days. Wow!
How exciting to try your hand at long arm quilting! Had your sister any experience using a long-arm before she bought it? I would so love to have one but alas, as i’ve never tried for more than a few inches I don’t have any idea of how difficult or fun it might be.
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