Monday, April 2, 2018

A Finish






The Friendship Churn Dash is the second quilt I listed to finish for this quarter for the 2018 Finish Along. did simple in the ditch quilting in the blocks and sashing. In the borders, I did feathers; I used black thread on the front and variegated thread on the back and it doesn't really show up at all. All I can say about that is it flattens the border and gives texture and doesn't add any more straight lines. I used black thread top and bobbin when I stitched the sashings and I didn't like the way the straight black stitching looked on the back so I changed to a variegated thread in the bobbin when I quilted the blocks and it blended in much better.


I used a mottled green for the binding and sewed the binding completely by machine. I stitch it to the front in the usual way and then press it toward the binding and then again over the edge to the back. Instead of pinning, I use narrow strips of fusible web to hold it in place making sure I have covered the stitching line. I stitch from the front in the ditch with thread that matches the binding.
Below is a close up of the binding on the back of the quilt. (The pin in the corner is holding up the back of the quilt which is on my design wall for the photo shoot.) Some of my feather quilting shows up so this must be before I changed to the variegated thread again.  Once it was stitched there was no going back and taking it out; black on black is more than. my old eyes are up for.


This  section is across the end of the back back. I think the green binding was a  good choice for the front and back, better than the black I thought I would use.


Be sure you check out the other quilts in the Finish along

Fancy Forest 2018 Finish Along

This is the first quilt I finished for the 2018 Finish Along. I didn't have a photo of the finished quilt because my camera was not working that day. My daughter took one with her phone the day she picked it up; she forgot to send it to me until I reminded her. I finally got it 2 days ago.

This was one of 2 quilts I listed to finish for the first quarter of  the 2018 Finish Along.  You can read a little more about it here. I really love the Elizabeth Hartman pattern and and the finished quilt but I had construction issues with almost all the blocks. This was not the fault of the pattern but my own inclination to not follow the instructions in the order they are written. I also made some cutting errors. Nevertheless, I think it is a great pattern and the quilt was well received.



I did a little more outlining of the bunny ears because or the low contrast with the white fabric and the icy blue "Grunge" background.

I took the easy way out and stitched in the ditch. My arthritic hands are not up to the challenge of free motion quilting.

Be sure you check out all the quilts in the first quarter Finish Along