First off, wishing everyone a safe, healthy and happy New Year!
"Gathering A Garden" Finish Recap
Today another "7 Days" quilt-a-thon draws to a close. I had spent the last two days quilting my "Gathering A Garden Is A Snap" quilt with the grid quilting I had drafted back in the summer.
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| It's easier to see it from the back.... |
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| The floral at the top left, a dark purple, a stripe and a batik were all considered. |
I liked them all for different reasons but also felt most took too much attention away from the center. So at first, I was just going to go with the floral that matched the border triangles which had been my inital plan. However, after cutting strips for that, I got a brain storm: how about a flange binding! I auditioned again and settled on using a combination of the dark purple sprigs print and the floral and am very happy with that result!
Surprisingly, a flange binding is really easy to attach being that it is fully done by machine and is attached on the back and finished by stitching it onto the front (I used the Fabric Cafe's tips to do it).
So from the design that originally inspired me all the way back in 2010 (and it looks like it might even still be available).....
....I finally have a finish that I hope to hang in the Spring!
A Twist On Labeling a Quilt
Back in 2022, I had finished this quilt:
I had made it to use up leftover fabrics from this project and to participate in Angela Walters' "Fabulous Feathers" free-motion quilting challenge. At the time I had backed it with a wide back fabric designed by Kim Diehl so hadn't done my usual technique of piecing a label area into the backing. In fact it wasn't until a year or so later that I realized I still needed to decide on a label for it.
Then in 2024 I went to my first Quilt Con and went to a lecture on labels by David Owen Hastings. He had an interesting and new-to-me technique where he prints his labels onto fabric where the label either matches or coordinates with the backing fabrics! I thought that was a cool idea and knowing I had to still label this quilt I wanted to try it.
This quilt has been sitting in my quilt space for months as another of those things it has taken me a while to tackle which made it a prime "7 Days" project! So I took a picture of the backing fabric, imported the image into my wordprocessing program and following his instructions set up the label information to print "on top" of it:
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| The contrast is better close up. |
I had purchased the printable fabric based on his instructions although I could have also used Bubble Jet Set and prepared my own fabric. Given the need to turn this around pretty quickly, I was glad for having the prepared fabric! After printing the text on the fabric sheet, I used my Accuquilt eight inch circle die to cut it out and then followed the package instuctions for rinsing it (to remove excess ink) and letting it dry.
I'd like to try that again if I could be sure that I'd actually finish a project close to the date printed on the label. Something to shoot for this year!
Update: Flannel Rag Pillow
Back in November I talked about making a flannel rag pillow. I had made it up but had been waiting to wash it and "rag it up" to post it to the blog. I finally washed it this week so this what it looked like right after making it up:
And here it is once it's been "ragged up"!
I really like this technique! So of course I just had to go find a book with some rag quilt designs courtesy of a used book sale:
I also hope to make it a habit to make a coordinating pillow to go with flannel quilts whenever I make them. Hmmm, now I am wishing I had more of the fabric I used to make the raffle quilt back in September. If I come across some at a good price, I might just make good on that!
Now on the agenda is to do some decluttering with Karen Brown of "Just Get It Done Quilts".
Yet another way to get a good start on the New Year!
