Strawberry Shortcake Quilt Finish ~ UFO Quilt

Hello Quilty Friends!  After nearly three weeks of blog silence, I’m back! Where did I go? Absolutely nowhere! I’ve been right here in Podunk, buried under a mountain of quilting ideas and plans. Hopping from one project to another, rummaging through fabrics, planning, sorting, sewing, snapping pictures of my progress, and even managing to finish a couple of quilts along the way. I was deep in the quilty zone! This week, I’ll be sharing all the quilty goodness I’ve been up to during my blogging hiatus.

First up is the Strawberry Shortcake quilt.  This quilt top has been waiting to be quilted since April 24, 2012.  

I love everything about quilting...except for the feathers. It’s one of those classic cases where the design looks amazing in your head but turns into a hot mess on the quilt. Sometimes you nail it, and other times you just power through because ripping out stitches is a royal pain in the keester.

The rest of the quilting tickles me pink. I was shooting for a traditional quilting look.  Mission accomplished.

The backing is two pieces of yardage.  The purple is Joann fabric purchased from estate sale years ago. I bought two truckloads of quilting supplies for $200.  The white is not the bright white I normally use.  It's called Kona Bone, sent to me by mistake.  I ordered two bolts of Kona White from MSQC, they sent one White bolt and one Bone bolt.  When I pointed out the mistake, they sent the white bolt free of charge and let me keep the Bone bolt. I'll keep using it for quilt backings.

I discovered some of the pink border fabric hiding in the scrap bin and used it for the label. I named this one Strawberry Twirl way back in 2012 but totally forgot to add the name to the label. Geesh...I suppose I could write in on the label.

 Originally, I planned to use the same solid purple as the inner border for the binding, but I wanted something with a bit more flair. After searching two local quilt shops without success, I decided to check out Walmart's fabric. It felt like fate to find this purple plaid since the quilt top is made from cheap and upcycled fabrics. The purple plaid added a nice pop to the final look.

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Design Wall Monday ~ 5 Inch Cake Stand Blocks

The weekend began with an ambitious goal of tackling 20 blocks. Clearly, that didn’t happen, but hey, no stress, there’s only so much cake one girl can handle!

Sewing these 5-inch Cake Stand blocks is just as tricky as you'd imagine.  There's barely any wiggle room for mistakes or sneaky fixes. Once the quilt is done, those little uh-oh's will probably vanish like crumbs from a cake! 

One of the small annoyances I'm embracing in the quilt is the clash of prints I think don't mix well. Case in point, the bottom right block on the design board. Plaid and stripes together—ugh! But it's staying put, like it or not.  We'll just call it giving the quilt character.

It's the little imperfections that gives a quilt a tale of its own. When this quilt gets passed down, someone will undoubtedly give it a thorough inspection, spotting the flaws and jumping to conclusions. 

For instance, most of the cake stand bases have matching fabrics, but a few don't because I ran out of bonus half square triangles that matched. Instead of stressing over perfect matches, I just went for coordinating colors and declared it good enough.  Anyone inspecting this quilt might assume it’s a mistake on the maker’s part, but you and I both know it’s just sheer laziness on my end.

In other news...

Take a look at my new Zinnia patch, it's like a rainbow exploded! This year was an experiment to see if these beauties could thrive in what can only be described as a weed jungle. Turns out, they're loving it! So, next year’s master plan... double the flowers, double the color!

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Nine Patch UFO = A Quilt Kit

Back in 2014 I had grand plans for a simple nine patch quilt.  For some reason the plan changed. 

Six months later I used some of them to make my Patriotic Picnic quilt.

Then a year after that I started another quilt to use up what I thought was the last of the nine patches.

In January of this year while sorting through the UFO's I found more of the nine patches.  This week a plan has been made to finally use the last of them.  It'll be a simple small quilt using the fabric scraps from the nine patches.  The large floral print will used for the backing.

Sadly, I was three pieces short of making the quilt.  No problem, that's why we have fabric stashes!  I pulled several fabrics to audition.  Only one made the cut.

In my opinion a floral print would have been better since all the other fabrics are florals but in the end the color of this print looked better than any of the other prints I pulled.

Before storing this project away as a quilt kit it was added to the design wall.  It took a bit of shuffling fabrics and patchwork until I was happy with the layout.  Then they were carefully removed from the wall in order from left to right. 

This quilt is small, 58 x 58.  So, it will probably be the next quicky quilt to be finished.  By the way the inspiration for this quilt was Cranberry Chain by Laundry Basket Quilts.  

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Lori Holt Fabric 2 Bucks A Block

 It's time to play catch up.  I'm six months behind on this Lori Holt fabric block of the month from my local quilt shop, Back Door Quilts.  

This block of the month is extra challenging for me since it requires Thangles.  The challenge is all in my head.  Silly reasons like...#1 the cost of Thangles...$7 is not going to break the bank. 

#2  Ripping off the paper...which takes almost no time.

Since I like working with starched fabric it took me a little longer to prep my precut fabrics.

But the magic happened after pinning the papers onto the fabric.  Within 15 minutes they were sewn, cut, papers removed and ready to be sewn into blocks.   WHOA!  That is quick.  I've never timed it before.  So now all I can really complain about is the cost which isn't much for 450 HST's.

  

Piecing the blocks took about 24 hours...HAHA!  I was in no hurry and had several interruptions.  My main goal for the week is getting the quilt on the frame quilted.  So, these blocks are just an added bonus.

There was some leftover fabric.  

I'm assuming it will be used for the sashing and cornerstones of the quilt top.  Below is the quilt shop sample quilt.  My quilt will be bigger because I'm making two blocks a month instead of one.  The yellow squares show are the blocks I've finished.

And here are my finished blocks.  The plan is to catch up before the last block is released in December.  This should be easier now that I've embraced the Thangles.

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