OMG! A Glorious Finish!

First of all thank you to Heidi at Red Letter Quilts Sponsoring “OMG A Monthly Goal”. The challenge is to complete a project in one month! Amazing how when you do set a goal you find the ways and means to meet it. This very morning I was up at 5:30 a.m. sewing on the binding and label, the final finishes. Since signing up for the challenge in the first week of February I found a bit of time to free motion quilt almost every day. I have other deadlines (business ones) so I had to find the extra time. Some days it may have been during a break from working on my client’s/employer’s accounting and administrative duties or taking about 30 minutes after working and before dinner to work on it. The biggest chunks of time free motion quilting was done on Sunday afternoons. Confession time – I gave up a lot of facebook time too!!

So to complete February’s quilting project I had to quilt it, bind it and label it, the Heart Swap Block Quilt. We, we being the members of Quilters Passion on Eons, began sewing our 8” blocks in November 2010. The quilt top has been sewn together since 2011, and now completing the quilt in February 2016 has taken over 5 ½ years to finish it. I used an edge to edge design, Covey Stipple created by Mary M. Covey’s collection from “Follow-the Line Quilting Designs” volume 3. It is a 9” border design. I outlined the design on Golden Threads paper and cut enough sheets to cover the size of the quilt. Using the outlined sheet I stacked the other 7 sheets and sewed without using thread in the machine to punch the design in each of them. I hung them on a hangar and pulled a sheet as needed.

I love how the quilt looks with this large size meandering stitch! It has a lot of nice curves and apostrophes that flow. 

The upside of using the Covey Stipple design is that the size is consistent.  I was able to quilt it quicker since it was a larger design. I have a tendency to get too detail when free motion quilting. I am using my domestic Janome Quilters Companion sewing machine which is not a long arm machine.

The downside is tearing away the Golden Threads paper. I used a pair of tweezers to get at some of the tiny pieces that were lodged in with the stitching. Also, my floor was covered in bits of paper and my waste basket needed to be consistently emptied. Would I use the Golden Threads paper again? Yes! because the amount of time to quilt it was reduced significantly!

Here is a close up picture of the block that I made. I love this block pattern!! It was a paper piece pattern.

Partying at:
My Quilt Infatuation
TGIFF - Finish
Crazy Mom Quilts 
Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River


Thank you for visiting and wishing you a great sewing or quilting day!

Taking the Plunge - OMG Monthly Goal

Red Letter Quilts is hosting a Linky Party - OMG One Monthly Goal

Oh how I need something to keep me motivated in order to complete existing projects. OMG fits the bill!

 February will be the first month for me to join OMG and commit to finishing a quilting monthly. I aim to complete my Heart Swap Quilt. Oh what Fun!, and in February where hearts and Valentine's Day go together.

I received the wonderful heart blocks in a group block swap in 2011, and pieced the quilt top in  2012. September 2015 I pieced the backing while at a quilt retreat, and in December 2015 sandwiched the quilt. Also in December, I started the quilt design pattern drawing it on Golden Threads paper. It is a panorama border to border design. Since I ran out of Golden Threads paper the project was held up waiting for the delivery of my order. In the meantime I pieced together my Red Work Winter Twitterings flimsy.

The quilt size is 70 inches x 70 inches with 36 blocks and two borders.

 Wish me well!!  If you need a push or shove to get yourself motivated be sure to connect with Red Letter Quilts. Today is the last day to describe your monthly project. Whew! I noticed it on the last day.

Thank you for visiting and wishing you a great sewing or quilting day!

Winter Twitterings

 
Red and white quilts have always been one of my favorites. And as history would have it, red and white quilts has been a favorite for many others through out the years.  Redwork Winter Twitterings, designed by Pearl Louise Krach, is a pattern that sang to me. The Red Work embroidery designs I followed, but the end design of putting the quilt together has been altered.The most dramatic changes to the pattern are the diamond borders in the center and the square in the square border. Also each red work design was bordered with white on white fabric, a fat quarters bundle that I purchased in Lancaster, PA while on  quilt retreat. Actually most of the red fabric used was purchased in a quilt shop there too. Having added the borders to each Red Work block increased the size of the quilt. Electric quilt assisted me in sizing the square in the square border to fit, as well as the outer border.



















I love the final border with stars and connector blocks. I think the border took the longest to make than the whole quilt itself. Surely my seam ripper got a good work out. I would say 98% of the points didn't get chopped off, but there were a couple where I said "Good Enough" after many attempts of fixing.



Many camera shots added a yellow cast to the white portions of the quilt. The first two pictures are the best ones for showing the actual colors as they appear in person.











Mr. Snowman dressed in his finest with the love of twittering birds, warm scarf, and holly adorned hat with snow on top.

Another camera shot with the quilt on the fence. It was cold outside today but no snow.










Linking up with:

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
My Quilt Infatuation
Lets Bee Social 
Esther's Quilt Blog: WOW 
Linky Tuesday - Free Motion by the River

Thank you for visiting and wishing you a great sewing or quilting day!