Come Fly Away With Me?

Today is all about borders. It is due time that I stop procrastinating on my border-less quilts. They are so close to finished; it is time they make their move to the done pile. 

First up: Merry, Merry Snowmen. I’ve sewn on the inner border, and I was going to move forward without any green since I was out and unfortunately the quilt shop was also out. Have no fear, I have found a similar fabric and will be using it in place of the original green. I just felt the quilt needed a hint more green to balance out the reds and neutrals.

 

Since I was able to find a green substitute, I will add a skinny green border and then finish off with my favorite- the red with tiny white polka dots. This will also be my binding. Sweet! One quilt down.

 

Up next is my purple and teal quilt. (I still need to figure out a name for this charmer, because purple and teal quilt will not cut it, any suggestions?) I want a small white border to finish off the points, then flying geese pointing outwards.

 

Remember how I had run out of fabric to repair my last block… I am still running low on fabric I used in this quilt. It is time to dig in my stash and hopefully come up with something that will work. If I’m not back in 5 minutes you might want to send in a rescue team. It is pretty scary in there. 

One of these WIP Weeks just might have to be devoted to reorganizing. We can wait until next year to worry about that though.  

3…2…1… I’m off in search of fabric.

Alright friends I have found a few contenders, time to fly away with the geese.

 

After the flying geese border, I will finish it off with a thicker white border and this quilt can join Merry, Merry, Christmas in the DONE pile!

After a week with little sewing, it feels great to mark unfinished quilts, “DONE”. 

See you at the machine,

•Care
 

**If you like the Merry, Merry Snowmen pattern by Bunny Hill Designs, it is available here.**
 
 

It Isn’t Too Early For a Little Christmas, Right?

I asked my Love if I could put one of the Christmas Trees up last week. I thought it was a simple question, but it was most definitely met with a stern (but loving), “No.” Well okay then, I guess I will go sew on my Christmas quilt while I wait for the world to get on my level.  
Christmas decorations for Halloween should be a thing; although, I really do love fall and Thanksgiving. Having Christmas decorations up before Thanksgiving would not take away from the holiday, but instead it would just add to it. This is all how I felt before I realized putting Christmas decorations up now would mean they would be up for over three months, and at that point they would need dusted. I’m not a fan of dusting, so I will wait until a more applicable time to start decorating. Say, right after the dishes are finished from Thanksgiving dinner. Sounds like a fabulous time to me, only 96 more days to impatiently wait. 

Until then, I will have Christmas cheer with my snowman quilt where nothing needs dusted and no one can tell me “No” to decorating early. Plus, French General fabric is not Christmas fabric and these shapes could be confused for anything. They just look somewhat like snowmen, but that can be our little secret. 

Last weekend I was able to finish sewing the details onto this quilt and the snowmen (or blobs or interesting shapes if we are hiding that this is a Christmas quilt) really came to life. Deciding borders has been a small challenge. After all the time and work it took to complete this quilt, I thought we were for sure working with something King-size or larger. However, I was mistaken and my finished quilt sans borders was about 50” x 54”. My goal is to have a “couch quilt”; I want all of my quilts to be used often and loved well, so this little guy needed a few borders.

About these borders; I picked one fabric, a feather-like design with hints of red and tan, that I loved so I knew it would make an appearance. I also liked the light green that was speckled throughout the quilt and the red with tiny white polka-dot fabric held a place in my heart. Three fabrics—should I use them all?… One?… Two?… Time for an audition. 

I think I have settled with varying sizes of all three fabrics for a pretty good sized border. I believe they will finish the quilt well, and then I will be off to rent the longarm and finish this in time for Christmas. As a procrastinator of epic proportions, I cannot believe this quilt is actually close to finished. Someone remember this because it won’t happen ever again often. 

Hopefully I haven’t spoken too soon…

See you at the machine,

•Care

If you missed working through my appliqué journey for this quilt, check out the last blog post.  It was a journey alright… 🙂 

Also, if you would like to purchase this Bunny Hill Designs pattern (which I love!). You may do so here. 

An Applique Journey

You know the A word?  The one quilters either have a love or hate relationship with but not often anywhere in between.

You guessed it– Appliqué.

Let’s just get this out in the open.  I did not know how to applique before taking a class recently. I have only heard nightmare stories, and I based my opinions on what I had heard.  Some days my opinion is the same, other days I actually enjoy appliqué (…did I just say that?).

I should have started with something simple, but instead I decided to jump into the deep end with a straight jacket on.  Okay, I’m being a little (or a lot) dramatic.  This quilt was a challenge though.

Bunny Hill Designs- Merry, Merry Snowmen

I can’t even remember when we started it, but I have had this quilt by Bunny Hill Designs on and off my design wall too many weeks months to count.  It is time to finish it up seeing as how we only have 99 days until Christmas (!!).  Let’s strap on a jet pack and finish a few things!

Back to the A word… I now know how to applique.  Not only do I know how, I have used the techniques I learned in the class to make THE J QUILT.

For the next few days I am going to work block-by-block to finish this quilt.  Stick around, we might learn something together.

I’ll start with my least finished block.  I am pulling fabric and making decisions on how to construct this one. I was taught how to appliqué using freezer paper and spray adhesive.  I know now that there are other ways which include fusible interfacing.  I will be venturing that direction next time.

I find using the spray adhesive makes my entire sewing room like one of those fly trap sticky ribbons.  Everything sticks to me, I stick to everything, and nothing actually sticks to my block where is it supposed to go—not cool.

However, I have already traced every single piece onto freezer paper and I do not want to spend even longer trying to retrace everything.  I have one block left to place and I will be using spray adhesive.  Wish me luck.

Now that everything is stuck down onto the block (a miracle) I use a satin stitch setting on my machine to sew around the edges.  Nothing too complicated; however, you do want to go slow and pay attention. I also tried different stitch widths and lengths until I reached something I thought looked proportionate for the pieces I was working with.

After gluing everything down, changing threads is probably the most tedious part.  I wanted my thread to match what it was stitching down so there were quite a few color changes happening.

See you at the machine,

•Care

{If you like this pattern and would like to make it yourself you can purchase it here.}