caroline's quilt

The past few weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind of finishing quilts!

Mid-March every year is National Quilting Day.  In years past, when my guild was still a guild, we had a quilt show that weekend, so I spent the day with quilty friends doing quilty things.  The guild, due to the pandemic and other troubles, has folded.  This year, Modern Quilt Studio hosted a quilt along, making their Friends All Around pattern, on National Quilt Day.  (The link takes you to their videos that they recorded from a live stream on that day.)  I saw the pattern and thought it would be beautiful done like theirs in jewel tone colors, so I bought the pattern.  And then worked on talking myself out of making another quilt.

But it just so happened that a coworker was just about to become a grandma a second time (the first grandchild got a whale quilt a few years ago) and originally I had decided I wasn't going to make another quilt.  But you know quilters - we can't miss an opportunity to start a new project, right?  So I pivoted to making it all pink and raided my stash.

Since the blocks are made of four parts, I decided to cut out four blocks - one part from each fabric.  Because I could always turn back at four, right?  It would make a nice dolly quilt if it was too hard or I was able to completely talk myself out of it.

My camera (phone) doesn't want to represent the colors correctly and sadly, the first photo above, with the sun streaming in the window and onto my cutting table, is most accurate.

Four blocks weren't bad.  I mean curves take a bit, but this isn't my first time.  I was a little discouraged that the arcs weren't going to line up perfectly, so maybe this layout will be okay instead?  Maybe I'll make a few more.  Five sounds like a good idea.  Because, again, if I talk myself out of this whole quilt, 9 would make a nice dolly quilt.

(Lily says hi...rather wp3oeir;alf00000000000000)

Ah, this IS a better layout and it's going to be a baby quilt and the recipient (mom and baby) aren't going to know better anyways, right?  (Also, they got better as I went.)

I think it was about this point when the baby was born.  I knew I was cutting it close, but that's okay.

So I guess I'll keep going.  Do I want to do 6x6 or 6x7?  Let's just make a few more and decide later.

(Oh look, all the colors are way dark again.)

(Lily please stop chewing on my thumbs.)

Before I knew it, I had all the blocks made.  I think they take about as long to cut (I used freezer paper templates - as you can see in the first photo - layered about 4 fabrics and pinned and cut multiples, but it's still a lot slower than squares with a rotary cutter!)

Time to fight the cats for a layout.

Lily the 6-pound terror cat for size reference?

Label rows, pick everything up and start working towards the dreaded long seams.  Thankfully, since I sewed the rows left to right, when I got done with making the rows, there were few seams to match.  (I tried my best with the arcs, but some just weren't gonna make it.)  That was a nice surprise.

This felt good to have it done to this point and my pink stash is depleted some.  (Not as much as one would hope, but it never goes that way!)

I raided the stash again and found a pink flannel that had been purchased years ago for another project and never got used.  It was enough, though I was hoping to not have to piece it and did.  Flannels are kinda skinny like that sometimes.  But I had enough and that is the important part.

I took no photos of the back.  Oops!

A short while later, I got it on the longarm.  (You can see the back side of the backing fabric in the lower right corner here.)

And after this, you're just going to have to trust me.  Because while I bound and labelled it, I failed to take a photo of that part.  I have no idea how I managed to forget, but I did.

The quilt was given last week Wednesday to grandma and it turned out that baby, mom, big brother and great grandma all came in to work to visit, so my coworker (grandma) could pass it along right away!

Quilt stats:

Pattern: Friends All Around by Modern Quilt Studio

Size: 42" x 42"

Pieced and quilted by me

My other projects - the 100 day stitch book continues to progress.

Day 80 and end of page 16 - the one I should have had done last Monday but didn't.

Day 81, start of page 17.

Day 82

Day 83

Day 84

Day 85, end of page 17  (There are beads - that's all that's different from the previous day!)

Day 86, start of page 18

Day 87

I'm struggling at this point to force myself to sit down knowing it's just a short bit of stitching.  So I've ended up doing a couple of days at a time.  I guess that's okay, too, right?  At this point I don't want to give up.

And last but not least is the Two Colour Mystery quilt.  This week the clue that gives away the block was given, which means it's no longer a free pattern.  But you get to see the block from me!

We still have the layout to tackle and since there were pressing instructions to press half the blocks going one way and half going another, I'm pretty sure this is not going to be a straight layout.  I'll find out on Thursday!

If you want the pattern, it's now in her etsy shop, called  Half 'N Half.

Cat hammock construction is underway, but I decided to just press and cut all the fabrics I had left, working assembly line style, which gave me nine.  And nine takes a lot of time, so progress is slower than one at a time.

Bramble Blooms is still in time out.  And hasn't gotten much thought this week, but it was a busier week than usual.

Rainbow scrap challenge is on the radar, but hasn't made it to the sewing table yet.

And that was my week.  The hubby has had to switch his hours due to his third shift manager quitting unexpectedly and a third shift team that will not survive well without at least some management presence, so I'll be seeing him home about in time for lunch for the foreseeable future.  (He's planning to replace that manager, but between the skill set desired and being third shift, it may take a bit.  We'll make it work.  We always do.  He's worked all the shifts over the years and we've managed to not kill each other when we're home together too much, so this will be fine, too, just an adjustment.)  So I'd better go get done what I can before he turns up wanting food!

Happy quilting!

Katie

PS No new cat photos this week, though Lily chewing on my plastic thread storage box would have been a great one.  Or Salem on top of the light fixture in the bathroom.  Sadly, my photography skills weren't as quick as the cats.