Maine – A Fun Finish (TGIFF too)

My friend, Sarah is an avid quilter. Come summer, you can find us sewing on her screened in porch.  I brought one or two small projects to finish earlier in the summer, but began working on this quilt for the rest of the summer.  I used some fun strips of fabric that I had a great neutral batik for the background.   The top was loaded on the quilt frame the last day of summer. How did that happen so quickly?  But, there are a few details about making the quilt I would like to share. 

And a welcome to TGIFF! If you are new to my blog I am glad to see you. If you aren’t a new reader, you might notice a refresh. But for all of you, the linky party opens when this blog posts and closes Saturday at midnight. This is an opportunity for you to share you finishes this week – I look forward to seeing what you have been up to!

Making the Quilt

This is the pattern that I used for the quilt. I love that you can make it in different sizes. I chose the 1.5” strips which would make a quilt top that was 25” x 29”.  I added a 2 ½” border around the quilt. Its a fairly simply approach, but you need to be careful about directions of the strip for left – right- up -down angles! If that is challenging for you, I advise batiks. Oh, and she has many states and countries available here (there is a separate store for retail, don’t mistakenly go there – and it looks like there are more patterns there – so she may be making digital versions of all of them).

But, the one thing that slowed me down was I cut strips as I went.  I now know better.  So, if I were to do this again, I would cut the background strips to the size Karen has in the chart and label them.  I would then make a copy of the diagram for my size and label the strips on the pattern.  You can see I did this for the last group….it was very helpful. I blocked out the measurements that were on this picture, but you get the idea.

Now, why did I not do it this way? I was auditioning strips as I went. However, I still could have marked the rows, gathered the strips and then auditioned.

Here you can see I am auditioning border strips. I loved the teal, if I knew it was for me, but it may go to one of the sales in the near future, although I couldn’t easily replicate, as some of the strips are the very last of that fabric. And yes, the tree trunk is a tiny bit wonky…such is life!

I decided to miter the borders, just because I could. The way I do it is to sew to the 1/4″ on each side. I then take to the ironing board and press the strips. I then sew on the line. It works perfect for me. Of course, I trim it all even with the outside edges and give it a nice 1/4″ seam.

And, here is a look at it before I quilted the top!

Quilting

I like the wood grain that the designer used, and tried one I had but it wasn’t my favorite. I could have squished it a bit more. I chose the one on the far right, called “Troubled Seas” from Urban Elemenz. I really liked that is focuses you on the quilt, and not the quilting, but it gives it some motion. I thought about narrow channelled straight line, but didn’t have the time to do that or custom quilting. There are a lot of things I like about this version, the fabrics (especially sea glass and some of the batiks) and the border fabrics. I do wonder about custom quilting and how I would like that. Given these questions, there may be another in my future!

Here it is before binding! I do love the way it turned out. I could have done 5 passes, but it would have been a little intense. I did use a Hobbs Tuscany Silk Blend Batting, it was as leftover piece from something else, and decided I wanted quilting that would keep the wall hanging flat.

And yes, the quilt is bound!

And, there is a label on the back along with a hanging sleeve. Ok, it’s not tacked down as if finish this post at 5:25pm, but in my defense, we had a flu/covid shot clinic, so I had to leave for a little!

Linky Party

Coming Up on the Blog

Baby Quilts
Hugs and Kisses
2 Charity Quilts
Fall Hop

Linking Up

Finished or Not Friday
Favorite Quilt Finish for September
Wednesday Wait Loss

Fabric Stash

Adding in my wall hanging, which happens to be my second finish for the month! It has been awhile since that happened. I know there won’t be a third as we travel next week.

Prior YTD Fabric Used = 48.5 yards
Prior YTD Fabric Bought = 17 yards
Current Month Fabric Used = 6.75 yards
Current Month Fabric Bought = 4 yards
Net Fabric = -34.25 yards!