Finished: Begonia

Begonia is finished!  I know this isn't a great picture, but it's the best one I have that shows the whole quilt.

I got the pattern from the Seattle MQG and I loved it.  This is absolutely a pattern I'd make again, and I don't say that very often.  I really like how it turned out and I enjoyed the medallion style of the quilt.  If I had to do it again though I might choose a white background; the light grey didn't quite do it for me.  The Kona colors I used include: quicksilver, splash, nautical, marine, pacific, Malibu, Paris blue, horizon, spa blue, blue, and breeze.

I am going to admit, I made a ton of mistakes with this quilt.  (Through absolutely no fault of the instructions.)  It's been a while so I've forgotten several, but the big ones include realizing I put one of the outer rows on backwards after I had it loaded on the quilter and had just started quilting.  I didn't require a lot of unpicking, but it did take several hours to get back to the same spot.  Then I had started with some cool quilting in the top corners, but by the time I got to the bottom corners I had forgotten and just did some pebbles.  So that was another unload, unpick, and reload.  I wouldn't call myself a perfectionist at all, but these were big enough errors that I wouldn't have been happy with the result if I had left them.

For the quilting, I did a variety of motifs.  In the center I did some straight lines that formed a star.  in the oddly shaped grey sections I added pebbles.  I created some squares and rectangles in the larger grey spaces.  And I skipped all the colored pieces, so they could pop a bit more.

So, while it took much longer than I was hoping, I'm really proud of the end result.

Update Mar 2023

I'm a "little" late with this, as my previous update was last July.  But it's nice to see where I am once in a while to regroup.

Quilts I'm actively working on:

1. Diabetes quilt.  This started out rather boring, and I had a hard time working on it.  However, I've now added my own twist to it and have been enjoying it.  I'm almost ready to put the top together.  Hopefully my math is correct and I have the correct number of little triangles.

2. baby quilt. I had started this for a baby of someone in my Mom's group, but I've only seen her a few times and I'm not going to finish it before the group disbands for summer.  I think I'll put it aside for the next baby.

3. Surprise quilt.  I have the fabric!  There's a few more colors to pull from the closet, but it's ready to start when the Diabetes quilt goes on the quilter.

4. Begonia. This just needs a blog post.  It's mostly written already, but not quite finished.

5. Rebekah's quilt.  This needs a blog post.

Quilts with no progress since last time:

6. Scrap quilt. Last time I wasn't expecting any progress in the next six months; that was correct.  It's still waiting.

7. Fabric from Christmas.  I've finished burying some threads, but have a few more to do along with binding it.  I'm currently using it in it's unfinished state, which has surprisingly made me less motivated to finish it.

8. Trying to fit in - left over triangles. I put this on the quilter and got some done, but then had to take it off.  It might be off for a bit yet, but hopefully not too long.  It's small, so easy to take on and off as needed.

9. Winter quilt.  I thought I'd working on this during the winter and haven't touched it.

10. Temperature quilt.  I need to quilt this.  It's from 2017, so it's rather low on the priority list. 

Quilts I haven't started but don't want to forget

11. Pat's quilt
12. Fractured 2
13. Nephew
14. Christen

Quarter Log Cabins - finished

For 2022 Stash Bee I had asked for some log cabin blocks.  In retrospect, I should have asked for 12" blocks but instead I asked for 16" blocks because I wanted to cut them into quarters.  Long story short I ended up with enough blocks for two baby quilts.  The first one is posted here, and here is the quilt from the second set:

I like how both of them tuned out!  Scrap quilts are so fun.

For quilting I did some squares and rectangles.  I did not quilt over the white squares.

Now, my friend just moved to Miami, so I thought I'd try to be thoughtful and not put any batting in the quilt.  I've done this a few times recently with mixed results.  In hindsight, I should have added the batting.  The thread broke a lot and the quilting quality just wasn't as nice as it normally is.  It makes me really curious as to how the batting can have such an effect on the ease of quilting, but the results are quickly becoming apparent that it's important.

Earth Tones: finished

I realized that I needed a semi-quick baby quilt recently.  I know I can always be late with baby quilts, but try to be on time.  For some reason, earth tones kept coming to my mind.  I know they're not all that normal for a baby, but I don't think the baby will really care.  I usually choose colors that I like.  

I found a pattern that looked fun and, bonus, it was super easy.  I saw the quilt first at Quilting By Dawn, although I'm not sure of any further information about the original.  As with most quilts, I figure out sizes and measurements on my own.  I split the colors from the browns.  Based on darkness, I started with the lightest color and darkest brown and alternated color/brown, getting lighter or darker.  I used Kona solids from my stash: Nautical, Sand, Hunter Green, Stone, Teal Blue, Spice, Artichoke, Spice, Waterfall, Eucalyptus, and White.

I did an all-over quilting of seafoam, which is a mix of swirls and pebbles.  It isn't one that I choose very often lately, but it seemed to be perfect for this.

I backed it with a dark green minky and bound it in sateen and it's all set!

Meshing Triangles 2: finished

After Meshing Triangles got into the AQS quilt show in Grand Rapids, I posted the news, along with a picture, on Facebook.  It lead to an old friend reaching out and wondering if I could make a similar one for her prayer space.  This was a fun quilt to make, and I love making quilts for people, so I immediately said yes!

I love how this one came out too.  Trying to figure out how to blend the triangles while making use of what I have on hand and not going crazy is always a fun problem.  For the quilting, I did back and forth in the background and in the triangles I did a back and forths in both triangle colors.  

The photo shoot day was rather windy, but one picture almost turned out ok.  The Kona colors I used include: artichoke, bluegrass, camilla, carrot, Chinese red, corn, cosmos, hibiscus, hunter green, mint, Paris blue, sienna, teal blue, and water.  Eggshell was used for the background.

Lastly, I put a hanging sleeve on the back.  I had used some striped fabric that I had laying around since I knew it was not going to be seen.  What I didn't anticipate is that if I also made a sleeve from said fabric it would be much easier to align than normal!  If I'm expecting to make more hanging sleeves in the future I'm definitely going to do this again because everything stayed lined up.

Finished: Scrap Arrows

 It took several years, but I finally finished the scrap arrows quilt!

It's based off an piece of art in the guest bathroom at my brother's house.  I couldn't make it quite the same because otherwise it would have been too big, but they're obviously related.

I got the blocks from the Scrap Bee in during 2017.

So while I was taking the initial photo shoot for this quilt I noticed an obvious stain on the white.  It didn't wash out.  So I ended up unpicking the quilting, unpicking the piecing from that area, and replacing the piece of fabric.  It's a slightly whiter white, but at the same time if you're not looking for it you can't really tell.  I was annoyed that I needed to do it, but was happy with how the fix turned out.  (It isn't shown below.)

To quilt it I did an all-over swirl in white.  The chevrons were so busy that I didn't need anything special.

Since the front was so scrappy, I decided to use scrap minky for the back too.

Finished: library quilt

 The library quilt is finished!  

I know what you're saying; that doesn't look like it has anything to do with a library!  It's true.  One of the librarians at our local library just had a baby, and I gave it to her.  I was almost on track to finish by the time she was born, but then she came a little early and so I let myself have a little extra time to finish.

The pattern is derived from photos at TheQuiltYarn, although the colors are quite a bit different!  I had gotten the center flowers and the teal at a local quilt shop and I really do love them.  As always, it is backed with minky.  I bound it with a ribbon this time and I did not like the ribbon quality.  I've done it a few other times with ribbons and it's been fine, but this time it was not as good.

For the quilting: I matched the thread color to the fabric color.  It helps hide imperfections, and there are a lot in this quilt!  The green stripes have a back and forth, the blue stripes have an echo, and the squares have arcs in them.  I really thought I had found the arc motif in a book, but I can't find it right now.