A Lovely Year of Finishes

A Lovely Year of Finishes – March Finishes Party

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Here we are ready to wrap up March, winter has come to an end (finally) and it is now time for Spring. Spring is my all time favorite season because it is a time of new beginnings. We can’t have new beginnings without finishing a few things up first, so show us your finishes!

This month I have been working on my Sew Intertwined Quilt from a QAL that I co-hosted with Jenna from Sew Happy Geek last summer. Here’s a picture in it’s unfinished state – I am still working away on this one and I have a feeling I will be posting my finish on the very last day of the month!

Now it is your turn, show us what you got done!

No worries if you aren’t a blogger, you can link up your finished project from a photo you’ve added to our  flickr group.

Shanna and I are excited to host this monthly link with tons of prizes!

To be eligible for March prizes you must have entered into the goal setting party.

**Please note, this is the same linky on both Shanna’s blog and here, so no need to enter twice ***

And let’s not forget the prizes from our amazing sponsors:

March Prizes Include:

1. A Fat Quarter Bundle from Moda United Notions

*US winner only*

 

2. Choice of $15 or 2 charm packs from Stitch n’ Giggles

 

3. All Dolled Up from Paper Pieces

 

4. $20.00 Gift Certificate from the Quilting Lodge

 

5. $15.00 Gift Certificate from Contemporary Cloth

 

6, 7, & 8 Will get one thread pack of Auriful Thread donated from Aurifil

8 winners will be chosen by Mr. Random for those that post here and the wrap-up linky at the end of the month with a completed finish.

Winners will be chosen shortly after I get home from my family vacation in California – but never fear it should be early April.


March Mid-Month Check In – A Lovely Year of Finishes

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It is the middle of March already – how did that happen? I feel like when I write these posts I am constantly thrown off guard by how much time has passed so quickly!  On with it already, we have spent enough time talking about time!!!

It is the middle of the month and that means Shanna and I would love to see your progress on your Lovely Year of Finishes goal. Mine is progressing nicely, though it has taken a major toll on my hands – even with a large throat machine, it is still hard work shoving a quilt back and forth through the throat!

I still need to trim it up, sew on the binding and bury all the threads. Luckily I have lots of car time starting tomorrow with a 13 hour drive to California!

Now it is your turn! Show us what you’ve been working on.

Remember this is not a mandatory link up, more of a bragging party to show your progress. The party will be open for 7 days. Please make sure you grab a button from the sidebar so we can spread the word!!!

And don’t forget to go check out the flickr group there are super fun things and TON of photos there too.



Quilting Progress and an injury

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I would like to start this post with a heartfelt thank you to the amazing response I got to my post on Friday. I was truly touched by the outpouring of support that you have shown me. Thank you so much. (I apologize for not responding to comments, my hands are screaming bloody murder just from typing this post.)

On a similar note, I definitely pushed it too hard last week trying to get the Sew Intertwined quilting done and binding sewn on before we leave for vacation. I have unwittingly caused an RA flare up in my hands. The pain has been so severe that it has been waking me up at night. This means no sewing for me the last 2 days. At this point I have no idea if it will ease up enough to get my binding on before we leave for vacation – the plan was to bury threads and hand sew the binding in the car as we are planning to drive to California and also have multiple side trips planned – lots of car time. Luckily I have some amazing friends and one offered to do my bee blocks for me for do. Good Stitches for March. Without her help I know I would have fallen down on that commitment because there is no way I could get 3 done by Friday.

In other news, I did push myself and here is my progress. My question to you…is am I done quilting? Before you answer, you should know that I am planning on entering this quilt into our county fair this summer. So I don’t want a judge saying to him/herself, “Why did she stop?”

**** Sorry for the crappy pictures, it is 5 pm and I’m still in my jammies and it is also raining, so no going outside.**** (don’t judge the jammies 🙂 it is the weekend and I’ve been sick)

Here is the view of the whole quilt from the front

View from the back. I did a solid muslin backing using 90″ wide fabric so I wouldn’t have any seams. I also did matching thread on the front and the back so you could see the design of the top on the back.

Now my question is about the outside round of blocks. I only quilted the HSTs (the white portions and the prints) and the pink parts of each block, there will be close up pictures below. Do you think I need to quilt the gray and orange sections as well?

Close up of back

I would like to be done for a couple reasons:

  1. I don’t want the quilt to look over worked
  2. My hands are killing me and I’m not sure how much more they can take
  3. I’m running out of time, we leave in 4 days

So…am I done?

How I Quilt My Dresdens

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I have been working diligently the last 3 days on my Sew Intertwined Quilt as part of A Lovely Year of Finishes – it is my goal for March. I have so far finished the center Dresden and I have been working on the middle section of the quilt – I couldn’t do the outside section if I wanted to because…I have no idea how I am going to quilt it yet! I thought I would show you all how I quilted my Dresden, this is by no means the only way, just how I do it.

Here is what my Dresden looks like from the front – you probably can’t tell in this picture but the center I did some pebbling on – the first time I  have done that in a quilt.

I am using the same color for the bobbin that I am for the front. I wanted my quilting to echo the Dresden without actually sewing on the Dresden. I anchored that with my pebbles in the center.

As you can see my echo stitching is fairly even and my points are centered. Here is how I manage that. First I have a 1/4″ walking foot – it is not a must have but it is helpful. If you have a standard quilting foot with a guide, you can also use that to help you achieve the even look that I have here.

You are going to start with a quilting ruler and a removable marker – I used a water soluble pencil by Clover – these remind me of the grease pencils I used to use in the dark room – they are super easy to remove when you are done with your quilting.

Next you will want to extend the lines of the points and the valleys of your Dresden Fans. As you can see in the picture the ruler is lined up to extend the point on the green fan.

You will start your first round of quilting with your foot lined up on the edge of the Dresden, as you reach one of your lines, make sure your needle is in the DOWN position, lift your foot and pivot on the line. Readjust to line up with the edge of the Dresden and quilt to the next drawn line.

As you can see from the pictures above the overall effect is worth all the work. It almost looks like a sunburst from the back. This is also how I achieved the look in the Dresden pillow I made back made in January and blogged about in February.

One last trick about how I quilt. When I am using multiple colored threads I pre-wind all my bobbins and store the thread with bobbin on top underneath my quilting table so that each one is ready and available when I am ready to quilt. It keeps me from having to slow down and search for a bobbin or wind one!

So that’s what I’ve been up to, plugging away on my finish for March. What have you all been up to?

Winners Winners – February Party Winners!

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Can you believe that there were 128 finishes in the month of February – and that doesn’t include Shanna and I? Wow! You are all so amazing! Let’s keep up this momentum, especially since there are 3 more days in the month of March!

So on to last month’s winners!

 1. $20.00 Gift Certificate from the Quilting Lodge

 

 

The winner is Mary from by Mary

2. $15.00 Gift Certificate from Contemporary Cloth

 

 

The winner is Beth from Plum and June

3. Choice of $15 or 2 charm packs from Stitch n’ Giggles

 

 

The winner is Mara from Greco Mara

4. $15.00 Gift Certificate to Fat Quarter Shop

 

 

 

The winner is Vicki from Quilting Lodge

6. Riley Blake Designs – fat quarter bundle {one of their latest lines}

 

The winner is Lisaleh from Modern Balabusta

Shanna and I would like to thank our wonderful sponsors who are adding such a fun element to A Lovely Year of Finishes! Make sure you are visiting them and watching for their wonderful sales and events!

This month’s goal setting party is open til the 7th.  So please make sure to add your link here with me or here with Shanna. You only have to link up with one of us and if you are having issues please email us and we will happily help you link up!

 

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