Q1 FAL list of things I sure hope to finish

It's time to make my Q1 Finish Along list. We have a wonderful new host for 2015, Adrianne who blogs at On the Windy Side. Adrianne is a talented quilter and a lovely internet friend of mine. I am looking forward to finishing along with her this year.

For anyone new, the FAL is easy to join. Just make a list of some UFOs you want to finish and get out of the sewing room and link it up now. At the end of the quarter, you link up each project you actually do finish from your list. You get encouragement and each qualified finish is an entry into the random draws for prizes from lovely sponsors too.



For Q1 of this year, I am linking up only 3 projects, one per month. After a couple of FAL quarters where I barely finished anything on my very long lists, I think this might be my best strategy. So my first item is to finish the small guitar case with those colourful strips.



This quilt top from my pattern named Consider is next. It actually has a border, different from all in this photo but has been stalled since then.



Last, I want to finish this winter Ocean Waves quilt. I have the top and the back done, all I need it to get batting and quilt and bind it.

I am hoping that I can manage everything on this list, and that you will join in too - over at On the Windy Side with Adrianne.

Best,

Leanne

if you were shopping... #20

Welcome to if you're shopping.... On Fridays I will share with you the news from my sponsors, in case you want to do a little shopping, or even window shopping, this weekend.

Massdrop has bundles of Catnap by Lizzy House on. I may already have bought this drop, I adore this line.

Today, Green Fairy Quilts has jelly rolls on sale for $29.82 and new lines are in, including that one, From Bump to Baby by Gina Martin. 

Mad about Patchwork  is having a Bundle Up Promotion with 20% off all designer bundles until January 31.

Oakshott Fabrics has beautiful free pattern and inspiration booklets using their fantastic shot cottons.

There is still room in Daryl's fabric club at Fabric Spark. These are going to be beautiful monthly bundles.

Southern Fabric has some beautiful fabrics in right now, and of course their sale section continues to be large.

Fluffy Sheep Quilting has beautiful fabrics and bundles.

Becca over at Sew me a Song has put together this huge fat eight bundle of Suzuko Koseki fabrics - its fantastic.

Sew Sisters Quilt Shop has free shipping in Canada this weekend.

The Fat Quarter Shop has a lot of new collections, including all the new Cotton + Steel collections.

Best,

Leanne

Hush - Ta Da! A Scraptastic Tuesday, FAL, and DYQ Finish

I named this quilt Hush - I have to give a lot of credit to my friend Debbie from A Quilter's Table. I was trying to settle on a name as I was uploading my photos into Flickr, she immediately commented on that one above, saying "oh my this is lovely! Love how 'quiet' it is...traditional and modern all at once...". I immediately knew this quilt should be named Hush.

I am so pleased to share a finish today for Scraptastic Tuesday given that most of my scrappy projects are longer term works in progress. Hush is about 45" x 48" after the wash and dry. She is made from many different quilting cottons, mostly scraps. The binding was made from scraps of the block fabrics and some similar ones.



You may recall that I made the blocks that are in Hush as demonstration blocks for the Decipher Your Quilt series that Jess from Elven Garden Quilts and I presented over 2014. 



I pieced the blocks together one night, pulling all the low volume scraps I could find out of my messy scrap bags. I posted about doing that for Scraptastic Tuesday here, and I shared how to do use this approach to improvisationally filling in the background for DYQ, go here.



I decided to quilt Hush with one of my favourite quilting designs, freehand straightish lines placed random widths apart. To jazz up the quilting I used a bright yellow Aurfil 50wt Thread for the top and bobbin.



I had to work to get a good photo showing off the bright yellow. This relatively light weight cotton thread works nicely in my APQS long arm machine but it also sinks into the quilt a fair bit.



The yellow thread warms up the entire quilt top just a little. I sure plan to use less white thread for all over quilting as this is a fun additional effect. I often use different colours of thread on one quilt top, but I wanted to see how quickly I could quilt this one and changing colour slows one down.

The quilting, after I had wound the bobbins, oiled the machine and loaded the quilt, took about 1 hour from start to finish, including bobbin changes and one thread break. I am very pleased with that as I was not rushing the process at all.



The back was pieced using three favourite prints which compliment and work nicely with both the fabrics on the front and the overall feel of the quilt.



Here you can see them a little closer. I am so in love with the fabric from the Paint line on the right.



This quilt changed dramatically with just one wash and dry. In the photo above you can see how flat she was right due to the relatively dense quilting after the binding was added. Also she was quite stiff. If you look at the blue star on the right of the photo, bottom left corner you can see a wrinkle. That is the kind of wrinkles that I see in a stiff quilt with little drape. Now she is so drapey and cuddly, just the kind of quilt you want to wrap up in.



Hush really has no top or bottom. She looks nice hanging with the quilting vertical as well. I think this may be my very favourite of the scrappy quilts I have made, as Debbie said, a nice quiet piece, with both a modern and traditional feel all rolled together.

Nicky, my Scraptastic Tuesday partner over at Mrs. Sew and Sow is showing off her progress on her beautiful clamshell quilt today, do check it out here. Next week will be the January Scraptastic Tuesday link up so please plan join us to share a scrappy project, in progress or finished, or ideas of how to use the scrap mountain or deal with it.


Hush is also my second finish for Q4 of the FAL, (my original list is here) and I am off to link her up, just hours before the link closes. Don't forget to get your finishes linked up at Katy's blog, the Littlest Thistle, go here.

And I am going to get my Q1 2015 FAL list sorted this week, as I have a lot of unfinished projects still - having only finished 2 of my list of 10. Adrianne, at On the Windy Side, is our new FAL host for 2015 and she has just opened the link for the Q1 lists here. Despite my poor showing this past quarter, the Finish Along has been helping me to steadily get my old UFOs completed and I sure hope to see you joining in too.

Best,

Leanne

Rumble - Ta Da!

This is Rumble. I though of calling her Pop but she is not quite popping, more of a Rumble I think. She is about 45" by 57" after a wash and dry. There are many different fabrics in her construction, quilting cottons, shot cottons, linens and other interesting fabrics. I am totally smitten with this quilt.



I asked my bee mates in the Free Bee to make me 15" blocks with a small pop of improv and some neutrals in the background. They sent these fantastic blocks  and then I dithered about how to make them into a quilt. I debated adding 4 more blocks, or adding just more neutrals, and in the end I settled on this simple setting with a small linen border. When she was done, I added the dark olive grey cotton binding.



For the quilting, I decided to use my long arm machine and free hand lines. At first I was just going to do some all over matchstick quilting, but as I looked at the quilt on the frame, I decided that each block should have its own treatment.



I repeated the basic quilting designs on more than one block, to ensure some level of continuity in the quilt. For the border, I did a squared off stipple effect, which I think works very nicely with this quilt.



I used a Superior Threads King Tut 50 wt and then an Aurifil 50 wt in light snow and tan. I had a lot of thread breaks quilting this quilt - about an equal number with both brands of thread - clearly it was my technique, not the materials. I practiced starting the quilting mid quilt - wherever the thread had broken - and after the wash you will have to look hard to notice the location of the starts.



The frame of the long arm limits some of the kinds of things you can easily quilt overall on the quilt. But these blocks were a perfect size to allow me to move in any direction without having to roll the quilt back and forth.



I outlined the blocks along their edges. I am getting much better at stitching freehand in the ditch, but I'm not even close to perfect. In fact, although I adore how the quilting looks, it is nothing close to technically perfect. It does not seem to matter on this improv quilt.



I am hoping you want to see all the details, I think this quilt is one of the best overall quilting that I have ever done, despite the lack of technical excellence, thread breaks, wobbles and all. The modern industrial look I strive for is evident.



I left the improv bits unquilted for the most part. They puff up, rumbling to the surface so to speak.



I also have to say I adore the improv nature of these blocks, and the use of so many neutrals.



The photo above is before I washed her. The areas of colour probably look a tiny bit better before the wash because they were not quilted. But the overall quilt improved dramatically with the wash. She was fairly stiff from all that thread and now she has a lovely drape and so much more texture.

The back is pretty simple, a Paris map print and a couple of Suzuko Koseki prints that I love.



A huge thank you to all my  Free Bee bee mates who sent me blocks:

• Marianne - The Quilting Edge
• Krista - Poppyprint
• Lynne - Lily's Quilts
• Nicolette - Dutch Comfort
• John - Quilt Dad
• Krista - Spotted Stones
• Stacey - Peppermint Pinwheels
• Ethne - Flaming Stitches
• Dan - Piece and Press
• Janeth - Toefeather

This quilt is also my first finish from my Q4 FAL list (original list is here). I know, finishing the first project on my list this weekend is a pretty poor showing on the finish side, but oh well, there will be lots of things to put on my Q1 2015 list. If I am quick about it there might be time to finish one more before the Q4 link up ends.

I am going to show off this finish at Aylin's Monday Makers link too.

Best, 

Leanne

My Tutorial for the FAL is over at Katy's today

Check out my Single Fold Binding Tutorial for Q4 of the FAL over at Katy's blog, The Littlest Thistle, today - go here.

Best,

Leanne