Delightful Daisies Finished

 When I started this quilt 11 years ago, I never dreamed it would take this long to finish.

Way back then my mind saw this quilt as quilted to death with tons of feathers and swirls.

She's been pulled out many times over the years.  Each time I would stare at her for a few days trying to come up with the perfect quilt it to death plan.  And then back in storage she would go.  My love for quilted to death quilts is still there, I just lost interest in doing all the hard work.

These days I'm just as happy with light custom quilting.

If you look at the daisies in the pictures above you will see they are not quilted like the one below.  The one below was the first quilted.  This daisy quilting felt too heavy for the large crosshatched background quilting.  A perfectionist would have removed the stitching in this daisy.  I did not, for no other reason than it doesn't bother me that it is different.  It's my quilt and I don't care if one daisy has a little extra quilting. 

The backing was made from scraps of a previous quilt back and Pioneer Woman fabric yardage.

Since the quilt is fun and kind of whimsical, I opted to have a little fun with the label by using a different color thread for each line.  I like it!  It gives the label a little character. 

As for the image below, there's nothing to say other than I love the daisy quilting.

The green striped binding felt like the perfect ending for this quilt.  It makes me so happy to finally have her finished even though it's not exactly what I had planned. 

Pin It

Juggling Quilting Projects Chaos

 The weather in Podunk has been absolutely beautiful the last couple of days.  Sunny and 70 is perfect for opening the windows and doing a little spring cleaning.  And that's exactly what I did for a couple of days. Then I was ready to get back in the Studio and play with some fun spring projects.

As you can see above the Delightful Daisies quilt binding is almost finished.  All that is left to do is hand stitch it to the back of the quilt.  Getting to this point was not easy due to juggling multiple projects and every station of my studio is full of projects.

 The Daisy quilt was quilted and the backing fabric needed to be trimmed but my cutting table was full of HST's needing to be sorted into blocks.  Instead of moving them and possibly messing up the counted HST's I decided to finish the sorting process.

By the way....under the quilt in the picture above is the fabric for the pillow shams I planned to make.  Maybe this weekend the shams and curtains will make into the rotation. 

Back to the cutting table mess.  The HST's on are bonus HST's I've been collecting for many years.  This batch of HST's will be used to make 169 cake stand blocks.

It took about two hours to clear off the cutting table.  The HST's were sorted onto design boards.  Below is (169) sets of (4) matching HST's for the basket handles.

The next board is (169) sets of (2) matching HST's for the base of the basket block.

The last board is a bunch of 3 inch HST's for the basket body.  I still need to make more but can't find my scribble paper with the amount.   I mentioned the amounts in my last blog post so when it comes time to make more I can look there for the number needed instead of counting again.

I stacked the full boards and added them to the works in progress cart.  The cutting table was finally ready to trim the Daisy quilt.  I thought is rolling cart would help me organize my projects better.  And it would if I would stick to the rule of no more than 3 projects in rotation.

Right now, I have 6 projects.

1.  Old Town mystery - top of the cart

2. Cake Stand Quilt - middle of the cart

3.  Bumpkin Baskets - bottom of the cart

4. Pillow shams and curtains - pressing station

5. 2 bucks a block BOM - in a block storage tote(I've only made Jan. blocks)

6. Delightful Daisies - ready for hand stitching the binding

Instead of working out a plan or setting a goal to get back on track with just 3 projects.  I'm going to just let things happen organically.  When I get to them, I get to them.  No muss no fuss.  Quilting is my hobby, not my job.  I like a to be organized but I don't like feeling like I MUST do this before that.  It takes the fun out of quilting. 

I would like to start hand stitching the binding on the Daisy quilt today...sometime.  It's going to be sunny and 75 today.  A great day to be outside prepping the flowerbeds for the soon to sprout spring flowers.  Now there's a plan!

Pin It

Quilting, Sorting and Ignoring

 A lot of quilty goodness is happening out here in Podunk.  The Delightful Daisy quilt is looking pretty cute.  I can't wait to get this girl off the frame and on display.  By my unreliable calculations it should be ready to share here on the blog by next Monday or Tuesday.  I'll blame the quilting design for my slow progress because the quilting is 99% ruler work.  The only free motion quilting is the stems and leaves of the large daisies.  

But let's be honest, this quilt shouldn't even be in the rotation. Remember me setting up a new plan to only have three projects in rotation on this cart.  Maybe I need a cart with more tiers. HAHA!  In order to get closer to my goal, I will be removing the Heart Pops project out of rotation. The one block will be moved to the orphan blocks box because I just don't feel like making the B plan for this project.

As for the Old Town Quilt I'm ignoring it right now but it will stay in the rotation.  A couple more blocks have been made but I'm not seeing any progress on this until after Delightful Daisies is finished. 

What will take the place of Heart Pops?  HST's! A bunch of them.  I've decided to start tackling the THOUSANDS of HST's I've been collecting over the years.  This is my second session of sorting.  The first sorting session of HST's was the bag of 1.5 inch.  It came up short of what was needed for the planned project.  So, I grabbed the bags of 1.75 inch HST's. 

After they were sorted by color, I started sorting by prints and how many I would need of each print.  Oh my, what have I started!  This is going to take forever! But I already have more than what is needed for the quilt.  Yippee! 

The quilt will have 169 blocks.  Each block will need (4) matching hst's and (2) matching hst's.  The singles are extras not needed for the block.  

I bet some of you are wondering what happened to the green gingham project.  Well, the ruffler foot I order was not delivered on time.  As you all know when things get lost in the mail you never know when they will arrive.  So, I carefully folded it up and placed it on the ironing station and that's when I decided to start the HST quilt.  As soon as all the HST's are sorted and carefully placed in the cart of projects the gingham project will be snuck into the rotation.  It's a quick project that should only take a day to make.  Well, that's the plan...HAHA!

Pin It

Loaded, Labeled and Loved!

 Hi Quilty Friends!  I did it! She's on the frame and ready to be quilted.  After 11 yrs this gal is really going to be quilted. SQUEAL!  This quilt has been pulled out of storage so many times over the years.  I would do the quilt stare for days, searching my brain for just the right quilting plan. Then back in storage she would go.  What changed?  Well, it's simple.  I no longer feel the need to quilt a quilt to death.  Just getting it done is good enough.

I'm sure I've mentioned this a few times over the years...I do not like quilting a quilt.  Thirteen years ago, I bought a quilter thinking it would make the quilting process more enjoyable.  It does but I still would rather be doing anything other than quilting.  

If I won the lottery, all my quilts would be sent to a longarmer for custom quilting.  Well, I don't play the lottery so unless a bag of money falls out of the sky, I'm stuck with quilting my own quilts. 

 I'm letting go....every quilt doesn't need to be masterfully quilted.

Sure, from time to time I'm sure I'll take a little more time quilting a quilt when the mood strikes.  Quilting is my therapy.  If it's not making me happy, why do it?

I was thinking that very thing yesterday when making the quilt label.  The quilt top is happy and bright so why not take that theme over to the label.  I played around with ideas of adding borders to the label or piecing a cute block but the best(quickest) I could come up with was different thread colors that match the backing fabric.  It's simple and makes me smile.  

This is what quilting is meant to be.  Happiness!  Even the tiny little blanket stitch makes my little ole heart go pitter-pat.  Maybe the next time I'll get really wild and crazy by using one of those fancy stitches on my machine for sewing the label into place.  This letting go and enjoying the process feels so good!

My playful inner child couldn't be stopped.  She needed more color and whimsy.  Might as well let her play while she's in the mood.  She pulled out a few striped fabrics before deciding on the green stripe for the binding fabric.

She wasted no time getting the binding ready for the quilt.  I like the way this girl thinks.  She knows it's the right amount of inspiration to keep me motivated to finish this quilt as quickly as possible. 

 

Gotta run!  Time to quilt this cutie!

  

Pin It

Delightful Daisies Quilt

 Hey Quilty Friends!  Guess what time it is?  Springtime! The weather here in Podunk for the last few days has felt like Spring with a whopping 60 degrees yesterday.  Today and tomorrow are supposed be about the same.  Since spring is in the air, I thought it would be good time to quilt my Delightful Daisies quilt.  It's been hanging out waiting on me for 11 years!

Did you catch my piecing mistake?  To me the mistake is very noticeable but I've had people tell me they didn't see it until I told them.  The bottom petal of the yellow daisy is wrong.  I knew it before the blocks were assembled into a quilt 11 years ago.  To me it wasn't worth changing and added a little character or whimsy to the quilt.  So, I call it a happy mistake.

The quilting is going to be kept simple.  A 2 inch crosshatching for the background and a little free motion work in the petals, leaves and stems. 

For the backing fabric I've pieced together the leftover fabric from my last quilt and a piece of pretty floral Pioneer Woman fabric.  Today I'll make and attach the label to backing, then get this girl on the frame...Yipee!  It feels good to work on one of my oldest UFO's.

Pin It