Farmgirl Vintage All Quilted!

I just finished binding Farmgirl Vintage. So happy about this!  I feel the borders were so much faster to quilt than the individual blocks. I really love the way this quilt turned out. 

This is a close up of the last 3 borders. I had originally thought I would quilt curved swags around the edge of the last border. I marked 5 inch semicircles around the edge of the last border. This measurement made the swags very even around the edge. After marking them, I decided I didn't really like the idea. Instead, I made the semicircle act as the stem for feathers. 

I quilted the feathers and then marked parallel lines from the feathers to the quilt edge. The lines were marked 1 inch apart alternating with 1/4 inch lines. This seemed to complement the feathers the best to me.

I treated each corner with the same 1 inch alternating with 1/4 inch but meeting at the miter all the way to the corner.

And the quilt is complete! I'm starting to sew down the binding. I love this part since it means one project is complete! I'm already getting the backing ready for the next quilt I'll be quilting. That will have to wait until my next post!

Paper Pieced Tulip Blocks

These are the two Tulip Blocks I made for Green Tea and Sweet Beans. They both measure 12 1/2 inches square. I ended up paper piecing these blocks. The directions included too many y-seams so I decided to take matters into my own hands!

I took out my trusty graph paper and drafted the unit that's repeated 4 times for each block. I added extra seams to get rid of the y-seams. You can see them in this picture between the sections labelled B.

I made a master sheet that made up the subunits that I would be paper piecing to make the block. I made 4 copies and cut them out and sewed my fabrics onto them. 

Here are my 4 units ready to be sewn together. 

Here's my tulip!

My 4 units are all ready to be made into a block! So much easier than those pesky y-seams. And so accurate! Graph paper and paper piecing is a great alternative when confronted with y-seams. 

My Mancuso Favorites!

I went to the Mancuso World Quilt Show in Manchester, NH last week. I thought I'd share with you some of my favorites from the show. This quilt is called Fabulous Feathers. It's made by Carol Newsham, New Zealand. It measures 94" X 94". The colors just jumped out at me when I saw this one. 

This is the front and back of  Mont St Michel Memories. Made by Linda S. Schmidt of Dublin, CA. It measures 56" X 79". The back was so gorgeous. You could see all that texture. So impressive!

This is The Three Watchers by Kathryn Harmer Fox of South Africa. It measures 72" X 56".  These wild dogs were made using a technique developed by the quilter. This quilt looked like a painting. I loved all the shading that made the dogs looks so real. So much thread!!

On This Winter Day was made by Nancy J. Prince and Linda French of Orlando, FL. It measures 63" X 84". This looked like a vintage Currier & Ives Christmas card. About 75,000 yards of thread and 7 million stitches created the thread painted designs using 2000 hours of work over 7 years. WOW!!!

This is Golden Peacock by Barbara Mellor of Australia. It measures 37" square. I just love this design. This is an original pattern.

I have more pictures but these are my favorites. Hope you enjoy them!

New Blocks and Quilt Goodies!

These are the Drunkards Path blocks for Green Tea and Sweet Beans quilt. These are so fast since I figured out how to machine piece curves. I don't do all that pinning I've seen on some demonstrations. I start with the large piece on the bottom and smaller piece on top, right sides together. I sew slowly and just make sure the smaller piece is being fed under the foot at the same rate as the larger piece.The seam comes out nice and even. They look pretty nice after a good ironing!

 

This is the Poppie block. I "cheated" by paper piecing it! It has some weird angles but was quite easy to make. 

Here are the goodies I bought when I went to the Mancuso World Quilt New England show. I had a wonderful time! I saw some beautiful quilts and attended a lunch/lecture with Bonnie Dwyer. I have lots of great quilt pictures but will wait until the show is over before I post them. If you ever get a chance to see this show, don't miss it! There are quilts displayed from all over the world. It's one of my favorite shows. Have a wonderful weekend!

My Projects

Like most quilters, I have a few projects going. I'm working on hand piecing these hexagons for the Jen Kingwell quilt, Sweet Tea and Green Beans. Each side measures one inch. I copied the template onto freezer paper which I then ironed to the wrong side of the fabric. I basted the seam allowance down. I need to make 38 total. It will make one block that will measure 15" X 8.5" finished. 

I made these lace socks for the daughter of a friend. She's 4 years old. These socks were nice and quick due to their size. I was thinking of making another pair for my friend so they would have matching socks! 

I thought you'd like to see the progress I've made on the borders of Farmgirl Vintage. I made the circles in the first border. I stitched around each of the red flying geese. I made a little fleur de lis in the light areas of the flying geese. I have 2 sides left. 

This picture shows how I marked little dots on the bottom of the first border. That was to help me to space the circles evenly. The dot at the top of the border was a reminder of where to place the small circles that alternated. It worked very nicely. I read that somewhere so I can't take credit for that little trick!

The borders are going so fast! I've already ordered backing for Arcadia Avenue. That's the next quilt I plan on quilting. I always seem to have 3 quilt tops to quilt. Hoping to get that number to zero!

More Farmgirl Vintage FMQ

I have finally finished the main body of Farmgirl Vintage! I finished free motion quilting the sashing today. While quilting it, I thought it looked okay. I think I like it even more now that it's off the machine and I can look at the whole quilt. 

Here are some closer pictures of the blocks.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my quilting. The texture adds so much to the quilt. I'm really loving it!

Next up, the 4 borders. I'm looking through my books and think I have an idea as to what I'm going to do. I'll post some pictures when I can!

FMQ Video

I thought I'd share a short video with you. I'm free motion quilting the sashing on Farmgirl Vintage. I think the pattern is called wishbone but I've seen other names for it as well. It feel it's a quick and easy pattern to quilt. I've already used this pattern on other quilts I've made. I think it does a nice job of framing the pieced blocks. 

Here's another view of my quilt. It gives you a different perspective on the sashing. I think it does a nice job of highlighting the blocks. Once the sashing is completely quilted, I'll be moving onto the borders. The first border is 1.5 inches wide. I still haven't decided what pattern I'll be using. For now, I'm looking through books trying to get ideas. I'm hoping the right pattern will jump out at me! 

Firenze Bag

I bought a Grab 'n Sew Kit a few years ago. This kit included just about everything needed to make this Firenze bag designed by Pat Bravo. I had to supply my own interfacing. I have a few kits just sitting around and thought it would be nice to work on a small project for a change. 

Here's a peek into the interior of the bag. I would have liked to orient the pockets differently but I didn't have enough fabric. 

The kit also includes this heavy cording for the handles. It took a little while to work them inside the fabric!

But I did it!

Here's one side of the bag after the 2 halves were sewn together. I managed to work in a zipper also. That was the hardest part. I'm more comfortable with zippers than I used to be but they can still be challenging. The zipper was also included in the kit.

I sewed around the edges and turned it inside out. I also added a few rosettes to each side of the bag. The instructions were to sew 5 rosettes to one side of the bag. I had enough fabric for 6 rosettes so I added 3 to each side!

I'm trying to hold off starting another quilt until I finish quilting Farmgirl Vintage. I just don't have the time. I'm trying not to get overwhelmed with too many projects. These little projects are perfect!