On the Home Stretch!!

 

As fall begins to look more like itself here in Northeast Ohio (leaves falling, rain, cooler days), I'm vacillating back and forth about whether I'll meet my #quilt21in2021 goal.  One day it feels like I won't make it so why try so hard and the next day, today in fact, I think I might just make it!

Number 15 has been under the needle for the past week and yesterday I finished the border quilting 

so I will bind it this afternoon!  

I've been trying to remember the original motivation for piecing this top so looked through old blogposts but can't find anything.  Perhaps I never shared it?  As I recall, the bright fabrics were leftover strips from another quilt.  And I may have pieced the drunkards path units as curved piecing demos and/or "sew-offs" for other piecing.  

I do remember there wasn't a specific plan and the whimsical nursery rhyme blocks were a serendipitous after thought.

I "echo" quilted the entire top using the 3/4" guide from Sew Steady which is one of my favorite accessories!

There is a total of five rows of stitching around each large unit and I love the way the quilting reinforces the graphics of the piecing design. 

The only glitch occurred when I started the border.  My original intent was "piano key" style straight lines but they looked so weird against the wavy print lines that I ripped the first few lines out and started again using wavy lines.  I was stitching the lines towards me and away from me,  but the tension on the backside was bad when stitching away from myself.  

Happily, the tension issue was quickly solved by working side to side instead.  Usually, my machine has good thread tension but occasionally the tension is poor when going in one stitching direction.  I've learned to sidestep the issue by testing different approaches to the design (clockwise or counterclockwise, side to side, etc.) and then adjusting my stitching plan to eliminate the issue.  

The whole job took seven 45 minute work sessions so once again I found myself wondering "why has this taken so long to do"???

I also "whipped up" a set of six little pumpkin blocks that Sandy Gervais shared on her blog recently and made them into a table runner for the triplets' family plus a big mug rug for my librarian daughter.

The pattern is HERE and my blocks are scrappy all the way.  

The little wall hanging she designed with this block is really cute and on my "to do" list.

I forgot to take a picture of the finished runner but it's really cute, too!!

I've started "big stitch" hand quilting my large EPP blocks (Sharks Dinner BOM) done in 2019.

It will probably be quilt number 19 or 20 when it's finished! 

Using a chenille needle, pearl cotton, and no hoop, the work is going quickly!

It takes 3 to 4 evenings to quilt one block (about 23" square).  That means if I stay on task, all twelve blocks will be quilted by the end of November!

I'm using Quilter's Dream Request cotton batting which is a firm construction and thin so the texture of the quilted sections is soft and supple.  Happily, I like the blocks better quilted than I do unquilted and that's proving to be a good motivation to keep stitching!  I have twelve blocks and at this point I think it will be two lap size throw quilts rather than one large quilt.

I realized this past week, I might be signing up for ZOOM webinars so I can work on my version of the hexagon mystery quilt from Jemima's Creative Quilting.  LOL  I'm using 3/4" hexagons to keep it scaled down and working out of the stash so far.

 I have Parts 1 and 2 stitched together 

and about half of the basting done for Part 3.

Part 4 was just released on Monday so I'm not too far behind.

I'm picking up quilt number 16 from the quilter on Saturday -- wahoo!  Another top is going out to a quilter in early December. And I might layer up number 17 this weekend if I have the right size batting on hand which leaves two quilt tops on the shelf.

AMAZING!!

Success is within sight (as long as I don't get distracted by something cute).

And speaking of something cute!?!

Auntie A (the children's librarian) and I babysat Saturday evening -- look how serious they are about that book!!  Of course, she really knows how to read a book out loud properly!!

We had a good time with them in spite of flunking getting them to bed.

Enjoy your weekend where ever you live -- it's mid-fall or mid-spring -- best times of the year!

Mary