It's a Finish

Having bought enough backing fabric to finish 5 quilts last week I'm working to get as many of them done as I can over the next month or two.  Here's the first one I've finished with my backing purchases at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show.   

I started this Stack N Whack quilt at a guild class in 2016.  I believe I finished the top in the last 2 or 3 years but darn if I remember exactly when. It is from the book by Bethany Reynolds called Magic Stack N Whack. 

If you don't know the method all of the center motifs came from the same fabric as the border.  You buy a LOT of fabric so you can carefully align the designs exactly on top of each other (if I remember correctly, 8 layers of fabric!) Then you carefully cut the triangles from all 8 layers at once. The motifs look different because of where they were cut in the fabric. 

Hum, the grass goes better with the backing than the front of the quilt.  Honestly, there is a little of the duller green in the grape fabric it just isn't obvious because I chose the brighter green for the quilt. (Looking at the above picture the purple really isn't the right color either. It is what I would call aubergine -- or think of a nice burgundy wine...) 

How about a close up of the quilting? 

This quilting design is called Grapevine by My Creative Stitches.  I bought the design long before I was ready to quilt it.  But when I started last weekend I was all for using another pattern.  This was going to take forever.  (To me forever is over 15 minutes a row or so. This was over 30 minutes.) Ruthie, the long arm, is working really well these days so  I was able to spend the 30 minutes piecing.  Does that count as doing 2 things at once? We did 3 rows on Saturday and 3 on Sunday. Binding got done on Monday. Boom! It was done. 

You can see how I captured a bit of the purple grapes along with some of the pink grapes in this block.

This motif captured more of the red grapes and some leaves with just the little circle of purple in the middle.  It was fun picking where I was going to  cut the fabric and how they looked when sewn together. 

And here are four more motifs close up.  None of my 9 blocks looked the same. On Monday I shared the very beginning quilting here. It turns out  you can't see the quilting in the motifs nor in the border. But it does show wonderfully in the solid green fabric.  I used Omni thread in a light olive green. You can't see the quilting on the back that well either. 

I'll end my quilt love fest with this quilt by sharing the photo I took of the quilt hanging on the back deck. Talk about a photo going rogue! Or maybe just wrong.  The original has a beautiful blue sky, the quilt doesn't look bright green and... wait that roof beside the house on the right doesn't look like a mountain.  I have no idea where this photo went wrong.  I took it just before I took all the photos except the very first one.  Oh well.  At least this gives a better idea of the size. It is 58" x 58". 

I'm linking up to my regular parties.  Please spend some time visiting these link up parties so you can do some serious blog surfing this weekend! 

Needle and Thread Thursday

Finished or Not Friday

Beauties Pageant 

This allowed me to check one item on my to do list off this week.  I've got some more work to do but I am making a nice dent in the list. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

April OMG Finish√√

Yes, I am sneaking in just under the wire on the OMG finish for April.  Check here to see where I was at the beginning of April. My goal as stated was "finishing the blocks and putting them together for my stack N whack quilt."  Um, I may have gotten carried away.  As I remembered the goal I needed to make 6 blocks, put them together and put on whatever borders I decided.   Hum, that isn't exactly what it says though.  Oh well more is good. 

Here's my process after I finished all 9 blocks.  And, yes, it really helped that all the pieces had been cut out in advance.  Blocks were sewn together by Thursday afternoon, yes, just a few days ago.  A friend said I had to include the original fabric in the borders so folks can see what I started with.  It is various colors of grapes with some leaves and vines. I liked the first border of the magenta -- it seems to frame the blocks nicely. 



I'm really happy with the various designs I got in each of my blocks. This really is a fun quilt to make as you never really know what the finished blocks will look like.  

And, now the final picture of the finished top.  I had an epiphany of sorts as I was finishing the top.  We moved into an "active seniors" neighborhood in June and we certainly don't have very much property.  Translate that to not too many decent places to take pictures of my quilts.  I have my studio in our walk out basement.  Hum, I can clean the wrought iron railings and use some clips to hold the quilt... Yes, it worked very nicely despite the breeze and a little shadowing.  

You might notice the rows of houses behind the quilt.  We are very close to our neighbors.  On the other hand, Pat can mow the yard in about 30 minutes compared to 4 hours + in Powhatan.  We've met many of the people who live close by and really enjoy living here.  The tree sticking up behind the quilt is a Korean dogwood that was planted in December. We're happy to see it is leafing out beautifully.  

That's it for me today.  I'm linking up with Elm Street Quilts OMG April Finish linky party.  Stop by to see whose made their goal this month. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

April One Monthly Goal

Another month, another goal. I find this monthly goal very motivating so I will be continuing until I run into a busy month.  So without further ado, April's goal is finishing the blocks and putting them together for my stack N whack quilt.  First, here's the picture from the book of the quilt I'm working on. (Magic Stack N Whack Quilts by Bethany Reynolds. You can click the link to see it on Amazon.) 

And here are my first 3 blocks.  I need to make 6 more blocks, which I think I've already cut out.  Then it is sew, sew, sew.  I keep asking myself why I didn't use the magenta instead of the green.  I think the green goes well with the blocks, I just don't like the color that much.  Sigh. 

So there it is -- make 6 blocks, sew them into rows and then sew the rows together.  I should be able to do that without too much trouble. 

I'm linking up with Elm Street Quilts for the One Monthly Goal linky party, Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication , Let's Be Social at Sew Fresh Quilts and Wow at Esther's Quilt Blog . Wow! That is a lot of listings for me... I usually link up with one or two linky parties.  Enjoy the browsing! 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

Stitching and Traveling

We've come down to our beach house in Nags Head, NC to see how it held up after Hurricane Matthew.  Thankfully it is fine.  We haven't been down here since the end of May because the house has been rented almost the entire summer all the way through October.  It's beautiful weather here this week. 

We went out to dinner at the Black Pelican last night.  Pat took this photo of the beach road -- well what was the beach road and the sand dune before Matthew came to visit two weeks ago. We were here about the same time last year and took nearly the same picture then.  And, yes, dinner was great as always.

                                  

Pat is definitely a morning person and I am definitely a night owl.  He went out to the beach to get these pictures of sunrise this morning.  He captured some spectacular pictures this year. 

And a few minutes later...

I often set up a little sewing area and try to get some piecing done.  Here's what I'm working on this time. I started this in a Stack N Whack class in early September.  I did this block before I left home to make sure the sizes I was cutting were correct.  Today, I finished cutting and then started making the blocks.  I was working around the house also so didn't get as much done as I should have but tomorrow morning I'll try to get a few more blocks done before we do a little shopping.  (Yep, there is a outlet mall not even a mile away...) 

I've also finished one sock.  This yarn is hand dyed burgundy but it sure doesn't look it in the picture. The picture shows some of the variation in the yarn but, honestly, this is a deep burgundy without much variation actually showing.   The yarn is wonderful to work with.  Since this picture was taken I've already gotten about 2" done on the new cuff. 

That's it for me today.  I'm linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday and Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday. I'll link up with Whoop Whoop on Friday.  Take some time to check out some inspiration across the internet. 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

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