What? Another Friday Finish?

Yes, I did have a finish this week.  It was small -- about 20 x 20" and it was mostly done by hand.  I finished Ellie's Flowers in time to turn it in to Virginia Star Quilt Guild.  It will be displayed with other "Card Challenges" at the Virginia State Fair that runs until Oct. 3, 2022. 

Here's a picture of the finished project.  I'm sorry but I didn't take a picture of the card that was my inspiration.  I will admit it was mostly the concept of flowers in a vase rather than my making it just like the card. 

I hand stitched all of the flowers, leaves and vase to the antique napkin. The napkin came from one of my grandmothers but I don't remember which one.  I made a couple of the flowers 3 dimensional.  Most were sewn with buttonhole stitches with a few whipstitched down. 

After the embroidery was done I hand sewed the lace to the black backing fabric.  Oh my goodness.  I stitched over every square of the first set of holes. Argh... it took forever.  But I felt it was important to get it stitched down evenly so no section would take the brunt of the weight. 

Next was sewing all the edges of the lace down. Those stitches were a bit farther apart. 

Once all that was done it was time to quilt and bind. I tried hand quilting using the big stitch concept.  Um, no, that would have taken me a lot longer than the time I actually had.  And, it didn't look all that good.  So I ripped out the hand stitches and did some machine stitching as seen above. I didn't stitch in the border. I bound it with the same black (that is more of a very dark grey and black mottled fabric.)  And, unlike what I normally do, I hand stitched the binding on the back.  

I added a little pocket on the back to hold the card from Ellie and a little card with the artist statement.  Both will be displayed with the quilt.  I was very pleased with the finished product.  Hopefully Ellie will be attending the Fair with us Saturday afternoon and will be able to see "her" flowers. 

I also have finished all three RSC light blue blocks over the last week or two.  I've also finished three lottery blocks for my retreat the first week of October.  I hope to make two or three more to enter in the drawing. 

Linda asked about the directions for the colorful star blocks.  I checked the info that was sent with our retreat information.  It is called Criss Cross Stars and you can find a You Tube video by Lori Holt here. I was tickled that I had two dies so I could cut these with my Accuquilt Go.  Whoop! Whoop! 

I'm linking up with the following parties: 

Needle and Thread Thursday

Finished or Not Friday

Beauties Pageant 

Soscrappy 

I'll link up to the RSC on Saturday when it is posted.  Take some time to visit these great parties.  You never know what you might see that will get your creativity revved up!  

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie