Focused on Finishing

 This week, I'm focused on finishing some quilts! 

That's a good thing!!

As usual, there are deadlines involved -- what would we do without those?!?

I just wandered back through my posts to figure out when I pieced Jessie's Fierce Feathered Star.  I was part of her test team before she released the pattern late in 2016.

You can read my post about it HERE.

It was a great make -- I love the size of it -- 36" square!!

Recently, when a birding friend announced her retirement, I dove into my stash of quilt tops to see if I had anything that might be a good gift for her -- there it was!!  

The bird house print is so delightful -- especially since the birds in it are "true to life".

For some reason, that is very important to me?!?

And better yet, the backing and the binding were ready to go.

Layer and quilt!! 

I chose to do a Baptist Fan quilting design -- since I figured out how to travel through this design with hardly any threads to tie off,  it has been a regular "go-to" quilting solution for me!!

You can visit my post complete with diagrams about how to travel through the motifs HERE.

Since writing that post, I've discovered the Westalee Ruler Foot Echo Guide Disks which make it even easier -- I wrote about using those HERE.

I lost one of my machine quilting gloves this fall -- sure hope it's not stitched to the back of something?  So in a pinch, I grabbed a pair of my lightweight outdoor gloves.

Well, gloves are gloves . . . . . right???

Looks a bit odd, but my arthritic hands love being snuggly warm in them.

The only drawback is that all the stray threads and trimmings cling to them.

I trimmed the finished quilt up yesterday!!

Do you pitch your trimmings or keep them?

Inquiring minds want to know.

I have this predisposition to hoard bits "just in case" but as the era of "downsizing" looms in my future, I'm working to loosen up and let go.

I did keep some of this wad but only for the purpose of tying up downed tree branches and garden trimming for the trash man.

As I finish writing this, the quilt is drying on the rack in the basement.

We had our first snow of the season last night, so it's photo session on the laundry lines has a very pretty backdrop.

Now I'm focused on finishing up a few charity quilts for holiday give aways and my annual sock knitting frenzy is under way.  I've moved my knitting chair to the back windows of the house so I can enjoy this crew who have been flocking to my feeders for the past two weeks -- pine siskins!!

They are a more northern finch that is not common here every year -- the strippy ones in this picture (upper right and lower left birds) co-feeding with the local plainer goldfinches.

Very exciting even though they are burning through finch mix like power vacuums!!

If you are looking for the Fierce Feathered Star pattern, it's a PDF download which you can buy the designer, HERE.  It includes both the 36" star that I made and a 20" star!

Jessie at Threaded Quilting Studio

This finish brings me halfway to my fourth quarter goals for the 2018 Finish Along!!

Yea!!

Mary