Good Fortune {Finished Quilt}

I am so happy that my version of Bonnie Hunter's Good Fortune mystery quilt is now finished!

I made a scaled down version of last year's mystery quilt -- I made half as many blocks for the center of the quilt -- and then adjusted my borders slightly to fit the size of my quilt.

My mom quilted this for me on her mid-arm. She used a chrysanthemum motif for the quilting.

The backing is a red extra wide backing, I also used this fabric for the binding. I decided to hand stitch the binding on this quilt; I typically prefer to hand finish the binding on pieced borders.

My quilt is a small throw, and will likely spend most of its life in our guest room. 

Quilt stats:
Name: Good Fortune
Pattern: Good Fortune by Bonnie Hunter, modified to a throw size
Fabrics: Scraps
Quilting: Chrysanthemums, quilted by my mom
Techniques used: string piecing, stitch and flip corners, pieced borders
Size: approximately 54" square
Started: November 2018
Finished: July 2019
Future: Guest room throw

Sharing at Let's Bee Social and Needle and Thread Thursday!

Too Hot To Trot {Literally}

Depending on where in the world you live, you might have spent your weekend similar to me: being outside as little as possible and avoiding the awful, oppressive heat and counting down the hours until the cool front moved in.

Saturday I had to make a quick trip down to the quilt shop to drop off quilts for their gallery! We are just so excited that Capital Quilts is carrying some of our favorite HBD patterns and that I am teaching a class there in just two weeks! If you are semi-local, consider coming out for a class on our Ready, Set, Soar Pattern!

While I was there, I picked up a couple cuts of fabric. The top fabric, from Vintage Picnic, will be the binding for my April Showers bee quilt. The other two fabrics were picked from clearance for general stash additions.

I spent the rest of the day working on the bindings of the three quilts that my mom brought back to me from the quilter -- two went to the long armer and one quilt she quilted. One by one, I trimmed each quilt and added the bindings to my Double Delight. Good Fortune, and April Showers quilts.

This was the pile of aftermath on my kitchen table from trimming three quilts. While I bought the navy pear fabric for the April Showers quilts, I used the backing for the binding for both Double Delight (the navy fabric peaking out) and Good Fortune (the red fabric). I hand bound Good Fortune, but the other two quilts were bound completely by machine.

(A quick aside: would you find it helpful for me to write a tutorial about using the backing for binding? Talking about trimming your quilt after quilting to maximize usable fabric? Tell me in the comments!)

So spoiler alert: I have three (t-h-r-e-e!) finished quilts that I will be showing off over the next two weeks! But none today, because the heat was just too much to try to take pictures of them outside.

I had also not yet put away my Jingle Bell Square fabrics, so I decided that I would make whatever units I could make -- not necessarily worrying about making full blocks -- and set them aside for the next time I pull out this project. In sorting my scraps, I found some larger pieces that allowed me to squeeze out *five* more blocks for this project!

Now I have 14 red blocks and 12 green blocks -- a total of 26 out of the 49 that I need to make -- now I have officially crossed the 50% mark!

I have also been keeping up with making my border QSTs and did end up with a few extra block parts:

But, ideally, the rest of this week's blog posts will be dedicated to finishes! It will be so nice to have fewer WIPs on my list -- and we'll see how long I can resist starting a new project!

Sharing at What I Made Monday and Wednesday Wait Loss!

The Border Quilt {Finished Quilt}

In November, I sent off my Border Quilt top with my mom for her to quilt. My intention was always for this to be a gift for my mother-in-law (as these colors are right up her alley!) and having my mom quilt it was really the only way it was going to get done for Christmas.

For the backing, we picked out this gold dot extra wide print. My mom tells me that the bolt says that it is "tan" but it is most certainly a gold toned fabric. Getting the first shot of a quilt on my mom's frame is always exciting!

She quilted a simple stipple all over the quilt. She also was wonderful and volunteered to bind the quilt for me -- she found the perfect blue print in her stash to go with the blues in the quilt.

My mother-in-law was VERY surprised when my parents arrived on Christmas Day and they came with more presents for her! She was beyond thrilled that she has another quilt from me. (This is the third quilt I have given to her, in addition to a tree skirt.)

She said that this will be the perfect quilt for her couch for the "in-between" seasons -- when it is neither baseball season nor the Christmas season.

Many thanks to my husband, who has reached professional status with his quilt holding abilities.

Quilt Stats:
Name: Dianne's Border Quilt
Pattern: The Border Quilt by Patterns by Jen (top was made as part of Jen's QAL!)
Fabrics: Kona Champange for spacer strips, scraps for piecing
Quilting: Meander in off-white by my mom
Size: Approximately 65" x 72"
Started: July 2018
Finished: December 2018

Sharing at Needle and Thread Thursday!

Donuts {Finished Quilt}

Writing about this quilt makes me hungry! I took this quilt top with me to Michigan in August and my mom did some simple meandering on her mid-arm. It's so nice to have this finished!

The grey thread that my mom used has a slight variegation to it which gives another fun dimension to this quilt!

I love looking at this quilt and thinking about where some of the scraps originated! The fish print in the dusty blue block below came from a scrap bag I bought on vacation in Amish country last October.

For the backing, I picked a teal dot extra wide backing fabric. My mom also trimmed the quilt and bound it for me using the same backing fabric.

It's nice to have a few quilts with a slightly more manly feel to them!

And unlike Wednesday when I was fighting the wind with my Quarter Cabin quilt, the weather was cooperative today and I wasn't worried about my quilt blowing away!

Once again, a huge thank you goes to Amanda Jean of Crazy Mom Quilts for including this amazing quilt in your book! I am so happy to have another quilt finished for this year!

Quilt Stats:
Name: Sea Glass Donuts
Pattern: Donuts (the size of your head!) from No Scrap Left Behind by Amanda Jean Nyberg
Size: 90" x 66"
Fabrics: Scraps and Kona Shadow
Quilting: Meandering by my mom
Started: November 2017
Finished: November 2018

Sharing at Brag about your Beauties and Finish it up Friday!

Summer on the Coast {Finished Quilt}

I'll fully admit that there were multiple times where I completely forgot that this quilt top was done and ready to quilt! I finished the top in July 2016 and this quilt was one I designed for a mystery quilt along I hosted. I actually bought the backing fabric for this quilt in July 2017 at the same time I bought the backing fabric for my Meadow quilt and my Green in Bloom quilt.

Here's the quilt top from when I finished it:

This design was inspired by combining a traditional Storm at Sea block with pinwheels. I sent the quilt and backing home with my mom the last time she came to visit with the instructions to "do with it as she pleased." The reason this top sat for so long unquilted and unfinished is that I didn't know how to quilt it so it was probably the right decision to make someone else decide how to quilt it!

Here's the preview pictures my mom posted on Instagram:

The finished quilt is lovely!

The quilting is all different sorts of echoing of the block shapes. The backing is an old Moda print from the Farmer's Market line. I love the diagonal vines -- it makes the binding look fantastic!

This will likely become my new "mobile quilt" -- the quilt that I keep in the car for picnics and other activities!

Quilt Stats:
Name: Summer on the Coast
Pattern: Summer on the Coast (designed by me!)
Fabrics: random stash fabrics (backing/binding is Moda)
Techniques: paper piecing
Quilting: rulerwork echo quilting by my mom
Size: 60 inches square
Started: March 2016
Finished: May 2018

Sharing at Let's Bee Social and Needle and Thread Thursday!

Top Spin {Finished Quilt}

I'm so excited to share this finished quilt with all of you! My Top Spin quilt is done!

I started this quilt in 2016 as a leader and ender project. The pattern is by Melissa Corry for Moda Bake Shop! The original pattern uses 64 blocks for a queen sized quilt and I made 48 blocks for a twin sized quilt.

I took this quilt to Michigan over Christmas and told my mom that she could do whatever she willed with the quilt -- either take it with the next batch to her long arm quilter or quilting it herself on her mid-arm. She decided to quilt it on her mid-arm and practice her ruler quilting and the results are gorgeous!

In the grey background areas she did straight line ruler quilting and in the colored HSTs she did a loopy meander -- this is exactly what I had envisioned for the quilt! The thread she used is actually a variegated grey, which you can see in some of the photos.

The backing is from the HBD Shop and is a plum dot extra wide fabric and my mom also used it for the binding. I really like the purple-y frame around the mostly-grey quilt.

The next person who comes to visit us will get to use this quilt in the guest room!

Quilt Stats:

Name: Scrappy Top Spin

Pattern: Top Spin by Melissa Corry for MBS

Size: 72 x 96

Quilting: loopy meanders and ruler work by my mom on her mid-arm

Started: December 2016

Finished: February 2018

Future: Guest room quilt

Sharing at Finish it up Friday Oh Scrap!, and Needle and Thread Thursday!

Quilted Shoe Quilt

Last week I got a really awesome package from home containing my camera cord, some fabric that I left, and my shoe quilt. My mom free motion quilted it for me and it turned out AMAZING!

The title of this post could also be "My mom is the bomb".

The body of the quilt was quilted with meandering stitches everywhere but the shoes themselves...

...and the borders have a figure 8.

Here's the back:

When my dad saw it finished, he had to call me right away to tell me how cool it looked. My parents are the sweetest.

I got the binding sewn onto the quilt on Thursday and hopefully I'll be able to to hand stitch the binding this week!

Progress has been made on the Civil War quilt hand work...I'll be sharing that soon, I hope!