Finished Or Not Friday: A Whole Lot of Longarming Going On!

I'm pleased to join in this week at Quilty Girl Alycia's for Finished Or Not Friday!  

Some of these projects have been a long time coming so be warned in advance that this will be a very long post!

This past Sunday my DH and I returned from our annual winter trip to visit my MIL in North Carolina.  As always, since my MIL is also a quilter, these trips also function as a bit of a mini quilt retreat.  Even more so this year as my MIL has a new friend from her guild and also has a new "neighbor" who is a former co-worker of hers from here in NY who retired to my MIL's town last year.  I had taught both my MIL and her co-worker to quilt close to twenty years ago now and the woman still has the quilting bug big time!   So needless to say a few quilt shop excursions and a "sew together" session for the four of us happened during our week long stay.

The machines on break while we ate!

My MIL purchased a longarm during the 2023 All Carolinas Shop Hop so each time I visit it is also another chance for me to learn more about using it.  She has a Handi Quilter Moxie on an 8 ft frame with a Pro Stitcher tablet.  

This picture is from around the time she purchased it.

Each visit since she purchased it has presented a different "learning experience" (aka a need to solve problems, LOL!) for both of us.  This time, the big lessons were on achieving proper balanced tension and learning how to adjust both the bobbin and top tension.  

A very handy video on that topic can be seen on You Tube here.  At another point, a call to Handi Quilter's Customer Relations about the thread popping out of the upper tension disks resulted in a very simple solution:  check to see if you need to clean out accumulated lint between the disks!  The good news was that my reward for learning the lessons is that I managed to quilt three quilts!! 

A New Project For A Gift  

The first of those was not one of the aforementioned "old projects" but a new one that was a birthday gift for a friend of mine.  As I had noted in a "To Do Tuesday" post last month,  I owed this friend a memory quilt that we have collaborated on the planning of for a couple of years now and for which I have compiled a stash of fabric.  The problem has been that I consider this a very personal and important project so of course have been furiously procrastinating on getting it perfectly designed before starting it!  

However, my friend and her husband had visited us over the holidays and she offered an out of just making her any quilt since that is what she ultimately wants.  Now, it should be noted that I have made this friend a number of things but they have been smaller projects like a wall hanging to commemorate her cat that passed away, a jewelry roll, a desk mat and two mug rugs (seen here and here).  I had made her husband a quilt back in 2017 because we shared two interests and despite the many things I've made her, I think she was a little jealous of that.  

Since the request made over the holidays released me from the obligation of specifically making a memory quilt, clearly that tempted the Quilt Muses to provide an opening!  Two weeks before we were due to leave on our trip, I happened on the absolutely perfect line of fabric and even better it was on sale!

Image from Annie's Catalog now Annie's Attic

The Annie's Catalog site (recently renamed "Annie's Attic") had sent word of a big sale on Fat Quarter Bundles that they were having.   One of them was for a bundle of flannel FQs from the Henry Glass Fabrics "I Love Sn'Gnomies" line.  My friend is a huge fan of the Gnome decorating trend!  Of course the first thing I thought when I saw a bundle of six FQs was that it was the perfect start for my current favorite fast and easy 9 FQ Disappearing Nine Patch quilt design!  It also doesn't hurt that I also love working with flannel for quilts.  Annie's also had a panel from the line so I picked that up too (the last one they had!)  to start off the backing so now I had the prospect of giving her a two sided quilt!  

Then I found an Etsy vendor with another of the prints from the line deeply discounted and they had just enough to help fill out more of the back and provide another FQ.  Another Etsy vendor carried a number of the prints from the line so I was able to order two more FQs to round out the nine I needed and some yardage to fill out the rest of the backing and for the binding and to have a little extra for stash.

Both my friend and her husband had birthdays (a day apart) coming up while we would be away so with the clock ticking, the plan was to hope everything would arrive quickly enough that I could get this easy to piece quilt done and in the mail before we had to leave.  

Well, at first that was challenged when I realized after I put in the first Etsy order that it wouldn't arrive until we got back from our trip as the vendor was away.  However as luck would have it, an alternate option turned up!  One of the fabrics I had ordered to round out the nine FQ set turned out to be very directional and was cut as a traditional FQ (18" along the lengthwise grain and 22" along the crosswise) but that didn't work for how I wanted to place it in this design.  

Not exactly to scale but how it came vs how I needed it.

This is another lesson I have learned as I have made this simple quilt design:  you have to pay attention to directional fabrics in relation to where you want to use them when the nine patch is split.  So I had to go back and order more of that particular fabric.  The vendor only had a one yard cut left and it was already in a lot of peoples carts so I snapped it up immediately even though it was way more than I needed.  When it arrived, it turned out the vendor gave me the "End of the Bolt" so a little more than a yard which was great as I was able to both cut the FQ in the orientation I needed and provide enough extra fabric to help fill out the back in place of the first print I ordered that wouldn't arrive in time.

I did get the top and back pieced the day before we left and had then hoped I'd get it quilted right after we arrived in NC so I could mail it from my MIL's and have it arrive at most just a day or two after their birthdays (I had also brought the gift I had for her husband down with me so they could be mailed back together).  Well that didn't happen either due to the aforementioned "tension lessons" I needed to learn.  However, eventually they got resolved and I got the quilt quilted!

I used a "Snowflake" design to quilt this that came in Pro-Stitcher.  

Since I didn't finish everything up until the day before their birthdays and since they live in New Jersey so are actually on the route of our drive back home, I called to ask if they would be home the day we returned and we ended up dropping their gifts off to them as we passed through the state on the way back to The Bronx.  She absolutely loved the quilt so Mission Accomplished!! 

** Now for the "Old Projects" and feel free to take a break or grab a cuppa before continuing! **

Old Project #1:  Beth's Yellowstone Quilt  

I am thrilled to say that I have finally finished my re-creation of the quilt I was immediately taken with after seeing it in the Yellowstone TV show!

If you watched the show, you will remember when Beth Dutton wrapped herself up in it while staying in the homestead cabin with Rip.  It can be seen in the Season 2 Episode 7 called "Resurrection Day" and again in the Season 3 Episode 3 called "An Acceptable Surrender" which is the image I worked from.  If you've never seen the show, you can check out the scene with the quilt  @10:32 in this "Best of Beth & Rip" video on You Tube.  

I soon learned that I wasn't the only one that loved it because there are many, many people on Etsy offering patterns and/or kits for it (just search for "Beth Dutton Yellowstone Quilt"),  people selling finished quilts like it and at least one You Tuber that had hers hanging in the background of her video!  

It's a pretty simple design that I was able to easily draft up in EQ8 to get the fabric requirements for it.  

I had a leg up once I decided to make it since I had stocked a lot of red prints early in 2022 for making a bunch of Red & White Christmas quilts.  The leftovers of that stash provided all that I needed for this one.  Next I found what would ultimately become the backing fabric for it in October that year when my DH and I went camping on the Blue Ridge Parkway in the western part of NC.  We did a portion of the All Carolinas Shop Hop while there since it was an opportunity to go to stores I wouldn't normally get to visit.  

When we visited my MIL for the second half of that trip, I found the perfect fabric for the alternate squares in the "by the pound" sale cubes at the Keepsake Quilting/Pineapple Fabrics outlet as she and I Shop Hopped in the eastern part of the state near her (and unfortunately that outlet has since closed!).  A month later,  I picked a few of the black and white fabrics out of my stash at home and purchased the rest from Etsy vendors.   

When we visited my MIL again in March of 2023 I brought my accumulated "kit" for this along and managed to cut everything out and sew the top together while there.  

On my design wall after I got back home.

At that time, my MIL hadn't seen the show but when she saw my blocks laid out she wanted to make one too, LOL!!  She has since watched the show as well and on our trip there this month and seeing my finished quilt, finally gathered together fabrics for the nine patches for hers.  She had about half of the blocks made up before we left Sunday but still needs to source the fabric she will use for the alternate squares.

 I also always envisioned binding this with a "ticking stripe" and found what I was looking for -- once again from an Etsy source -- later in the year after I had pieced the top.  I debated for a long time after that about how I wanted to quilt this so it never got to the top of the "To Do" pile during the intervening period.  When we began preparing for the trip down this year, I sorted through my projects to consider what to bring with me.  I thought it would be great if I could quilt this in the same place it was pieced and so packed it up to go.  

I wasn't loving any of the pre-programmed stitch patterns in Pro-Stitcher for this and haven't yet had a chance to try doing free-motion on this machine.  So another new longarm lesson happened when I purchased and downloaded a stitch pattern and loaded it onto the Pro-Stitcher tablet.  I found this one that I thought was perfect given the provenance of the quilt:

It loaded up and stitched out without a hitch!

The only issue I had was that I think I should have sized the pattern to stitch out smaller than I did.  I also could have lined up the pattern better by offsetting the alternate rows so it would have not left as large a gap between the row repeats.  The good news is that I can go back in and fill in those spots with a "barbed wire" motif using my DSM if it really bothers me after I wash the quilt.  But for now, once again "Mission Accomplished"!

Okay (finally) the last one:  Old Project #2: "Dominique" 3 Yard Quilt   

Cool, reporting on this is a two for one!  The quilt pictured below was made pre-blogging so I've never had a chance to share it before.  All the way back in 2008, I made this baby quilt for the then President of the Parent Association in my kids elementary school who gave birth to her third daughter at the end of 2007.  

Apologies for the picture quality these are pre-digital printed pictures.

The other old project I'm sharing today began when I re-organized my stash in the  Summer of 2023 and found a little more than a yard remnant of the yellow fabric used in the border of that baby quilt.  By that year I was a big fan of the Fabric Cafe's "3 Yard Quilt" concept so I immediately wondered if I might find a way to use this "found fabric" to make one.  That opportunity came when a pink fabric I had actually purchased to use to make a 3YQ didn't go as well as I thought with the fabrics I had coordinated it with when I ordered them.  However, when I sat it with the yellow print, I thought there was something there --- a bit busy but there was something!

I took the two fabrics and went shopping in person for something that might work.  It wasn't easy (did I mention these fabrics are a bit "busy"?)!  Eventually I found a floral print I thought I liked.  Okay, it too was really busy but again there was something appealing to me about the three together.  I think it was that each picked up a color of the other, the white background of the floral was a perfect contrast to the other two more medium value prints with bright highlights and each print had a different scale (size and density) of print.  I figured what the heck, why not try it!  

Although Donna Roberts and her daughter Fran Morgan who design the 3YQ patterns always say "any three yards of fabric can make any 3 Yard Quilt",  I am not always convinced that is true.  I do however love watching all of their videos to see what fabrics they combine together.   I will admit though that I don't always think all of their combinations make the most of the design they are applied to.  They are never bad but not always "Wow"!  

So needless to say it took me a long time to choose one of their designs for this busy looking bunch!  Eventually I settled on the "Dominique" pattern from their book "Modern Views" (and note both are also available in digital form).  It was the one design that provided separation between the placement of the floral and the yellow print and I liked that the yellow would be in the outer border like in the original quilt it was used in.  

The top and the perfectly coordinating backing!

This was another quilt top that was made while visiting my MIL and one of two 3 Yard Quilt tops made on our trip there in October 2023.  This is also another quilt where I found the backing during the All Carolina Shop Hop that year!  I brought this back down to NC twice in 2024 but never got to quilt it.  I guess three times is the charm!

Originally I had thought about trying to stitch a block sized pattern in the pink centers and do a border design surrounding them and in the borders.  Yeah right, my longarm skills are no where up to that level of pattern placement yet, LOL!  So I settled for a simple all over pattern.  

And so now another old project has been completed!

Front and back with the label area pieced in.

Now that my looong story is done, I can head back over to Alycia's and see what others have to show for their "Finished Or Not Friday" efforts this week!

Getting Back To Work - Part 1

Despite the plan (there I go making God laugh again!) that when all the recent volunteer obligations had been completed I would get right back to quilting, that has not quite been the case.  First of all, everything STILL hasn't completely finished up yet!  There are final meetings to attend and as Treasurer, I have to close the books for the Parents Association and issue a year-end financial report at the end of this month.  Also as the other things I was involved in have slowed, my DH and I have ramped up our participation in the local community garden that broke ground last fall and has been gearing up during the Spring for its first Summer of plantings.   As a result there have been increasing time diversions there.  However, I am determined to keep my eye on the horizon and work to slowly push myself back to where I want to be -- in front of my machine!!! 

To that end, I've been trying to do a few things although the state of my cutting table is hampering that quite a bit:

One things I wanted to get off of it was a project that has long been on the periphery of my quilt plans:  De-boning Shirts for Quilting.  Last month while I was out looking for new planters for my terrace, my DH and I had started by checking out the local Habitat For Humanity Re-Store shop.  I didn't find any planters but I did score three flannel plaid shirts for $1 each.  I love making flannel quilts, love the idea for re-purposing shirts for quilt fabric as made famous by Bonnie Hunter in her books Scraps and Shirtales I and II.  I haven't often found shirts in previous trips to thirft stores (or at least they have often been more expensive than that) so this time I grabbed them as quick as I could!

This is a shot of them after de-boning one of them.

After bringing them home, I checked out a video of Bonnie doing a de-boning demonstration at a quilt guild meeting.

I was able to get two of them done before last month ended and over the past couple of weeks finished up the last one as well as four other shirts I had purchased years ago.  As Bonnie points out, it's really amazing how much fabric you can get from even one shirt and with very little waste!

This is a picture of a quilt called "Fragments of the Past" by Lyn Inall that appeared in a wonderful book called "Quiltmakers of Australia: Celebrating the Traditions". 

 

Early in my quilt career, this book was my first introduction to the work of Australian quilters (the book itself was published in 1996).  It wasn't until later that many of the quilters I was introduced to in that book (like Kim McLean, Lee Cleland and Brigitte Giblin among others) became the icons of quilting they are for me now.  

I've always wanted to make this quilt which in the book is made out of re-cycled wool using a block template called "Batwing".  Later when I learned about Bonnie's re-use philosophies, I instead started looking for shirts to re-cycle to make it .  As I said, I didn't find many and certainly not as cheap as Bonnie and others I've read about on the web get them for.  I don't know if the collection I have amassed will actually get made up in this design or if they will get used in one of the other numerous flannel quilt design ideas I've collected. 

At the least I'm glad to finally get the "stash" cut down into more manageable and easily stored pieces.  In the center are all the shirts (most are flannel but a few are regular cotton), on the bottom is a pair of DH's flannel lounge pants that bit the dust and on top some flannel pieces that were on remnant or sale tables.  Don't know when I'll get to work on this but it's exciting to know it's there!

So now, what's next?

Flannel Series Finale (For Now)

So this is the latest installment of the "Flannel Series" and the second finish for 2010. As I noted in the previous post, this was one of two kits I got an email about from Keepsake Quilting. It's called "Triangle Trips" and was designed by Keri Nichols of Mountainpeek Creations. 

As I've said (too many times) before, I love flannel quilts and the first one I made (blogged about here) was made to be a couch snuggle but once I finished it and used it, I would not let it leave my bed! The problem was since it was only lap sized, if both my DH and I tried to use it together, a tug of war ensued. So when this kit came out and it was a generous 84" x 84", I knew I had to make it! 

The more masculine colors were an attraction too -- with all the quilts and flower arrangements I already have in our bedroom, I'm always looking to add a little something that the DH can relate to. I also have to admit that being on what's supposed to be a restrained quilting budget, I am a lot more happy to buy a kit that's bed-sized than one that's lap-sized given the fact that the cost of both tend to be almost the same.

This one was started in January while I was house sitting for my cousin while her house was undergoing an energy audit. Over two days, while workers examined her home's exterior, windows, walls, insulation and appliances and evaluated them for energy efficiency, I cut all the fabric into squares to make the triangle squares and the outer border and then sewed all the triangle pairs together. Back home I laid them out on the bed to organize the layout then sewed up the top. As always once I had the top done it was a long while before I set out to quilt it.

I wasn't sure how I wanted it quilted since I wanted the color rounds to remain the focus and preferred an all-over stitch design in order to get the quilting done fast. My original choice was just to do straight lines but I was afraid that would be too boring. The woodsy colors tempted me to consider doing a pictorial scene across the quilt with a river and mountain peaks, forest animals and a campsite scene but at this stage of my quilting skills, I knew that was an ambitious project that I would likely procrastinate on if I tried to tackle it. Eventually, I came across a "pebble" design at Leah Day's blog "365 Days of Free Motion Quilting". Eliminating the "stream" portion of it, this was a perfect union of something within my immediate abilities that I felt also spoke to the colors and feel of the quilt. A picture of the quilting detail and the backing fabric are below:

The quilting took me longer than expected and I wound up using a lot more thread than anticipated but it gives good texture and a rugged look to the quilt. Once again, the backing fabric was a brushed cotton courtesy of AAA Quilters Supply. My name for the quilt is "Manly Yes, But I Like It Too!" since the back is a flowery contrast to the front (and those of you old enough will remember that as the tag line of the Old Spice commercials from the seventies). I really felt that all this quilting did a lot to improve my control when doing free motion and I am encouraged to get moving on the rest of the quilts I have basted from last year.

And a bit of quilting serendipity happened too. Just as I finished the work on this, I thought again about how I still needed more guidance on choosing the quilt stitches for my projects. A long time ago, I had put Lee Cleland's "Quilting Makes The Quilt" on my Amazon wish list. Although the book is over ten years old, even used copies of it have always sold at a premium price. Checking in, as luck would have it, someone offered a copy for about $10. Needless to say I snatched it up! 

When it came, I have to say it is a real education in how different choices of stitches and their placement on the top can really effect the look of a quilt.  In the book, Lee quilts the same quilt five different ways (and at the time, made all the tops herself in order to prepare them for the quilting!) to show the different ways to organize the stitching on various quilt tops. It turned out to be a great companion to another book I bought last year, Christine Maraccini's "Machine Quilting Solutions", a more recent book that takes the same approach -- quilting the same quilt three different ways to consider how the quilt stitches chosen and their placement affect the finished project. Lee is also profiled in another of my favorite quilt books (a must purchase after I read it at the library) "Celebrating Traditions: Quiltmakers in Australia".

The good news is that Jacqui at Tallgrass Prairie Studio is gearing up to host another "Spring Finish" quilt-a-long this year. Maybe participating in that will further motivate me to get to all the quilting I need to do.  Also I must get to the House Blocks I promised to do for Victoria's "House Gather" that she will be making into quilts for charity.  The deadline is April 30th so there is till time if you'd also like to contribute blocks.  And as promised in the last post I hope to get back here soon with some ruminations on my quilting "Bucket List".  Whew!  A lot to do!  Thanks for stopping by!

The Flannel Series Continued

Last week I finished my second finish for 2010 and the latest quilt in the "Flannel Series", so as promised in my last post, I wanted to give the details for both projects.  First up is the finished quilt pictured in that post.

It's called "Flying For Cover". I learned about it when Keepsake Quilting sent me an email last October about projects using flannel.  This was one of two quilts offered as a kits. I thought it was a gorgeous quilt, loved the fact that it was in flannel and probably most important, would fulfill two "Bucket List" desires.  You know, the Bucket List -- the list of quilts you want to make before you "kick the bucket"!  

While I plan to do another post about that later, I will say that the two quilts this satisfied for me was doing a strippy quilt and doing a quilt with (a lot of) Flying Geese.  I wasn't able to purchase the actual kit for this though -- at the time I wanted it Keepsake had it on back order for quite awhile.  I was able to find the sashing and border fabrics ("Two In The Bush" by Bonnie Sullivan for Maywood Studios) at EQuilter.com and the flannel tone-on-tones at Fabric.com and then bought the pattern at Keepsake (which was also sold separately from the kit but also can be purchased from the pattern designer's website).  With everything gathered, I was able to put together my own "kit".  Later, the backing fabric came from AAA Quilters Supply another favorite Internet vendor.

Most of the time when I make a quilt, I am also looking to try new techniques.  In this case doing the Flying Geese allowed me to finally get a chance to use what I call "Eleanor Burn's Two Squares" method of making them.  I saw her demonstrate this when she did the "Pioneer Sampler" and the "Underground Railroad Sampler" on her Quilt In A Day TV shows.  If you've never seen her technique check out Mary's post on this blog or go to the Quilt In A Day channel on Quilters TV.com and watch any of the Pioneer Sampler episodes or any other episodes using what Eleanor calls the "Triangle Pieced Rectangle" method. 

Although the finished units can be squared up with a regular ruler, I knew if I ever did a project with a lot of flying geese, using hers would be easier but I hated the fact that you needed a different ruler (sold separately) for each different size geese (actually each ruler makes two sizes).  I resisted buying them until I was able to get her Mini Ruler set on sale. Unfortunately the mini set didn't make the size needed for this pattern so I wound up also buying the Jumbo set.  Once I started making them, I was hooked (it's such an efficient method) and then wanted all the rulers which I wound up buying before I finished this project!  Prior to this my favorite method was the "five squares" method demonstrated here but now this is my favorite.

Another technique I got to try was Sharon Schamber's hand basting technique.  You can watch videos of it here and here.  It was really easy to do although I disagree with her that it's any faster than pin basting.  She says you can baste any size quilt using this method.  However, you should take note that to do a large quilt like a queen or king size will require a couple of long tables to hold the whole top stretched out end to end.  However for this lap size quilt, my cutting table accommodated it just fine.

This method worked really well, in the end I had no puckers on the back and as she notes in her demo it was very easy to remove the basting stitches as I quilted. While I won't give up pin basting (I baste on my cutting table so physically it is not hard), I definitely would use this technique again as well.

The finished quilt was quilted in a clamshell pattern.  I got that idea from the pattern designer Janet Locey of Henscratch Quilting. In the picture of the quilt on her website, that was what she used and I felt it was doable.  While I have always quilted my own quilts, I am not always confident about doing it before I start.  I started out with the plan to use templates printed on sticky-backed full sheet labels as instructed in the book "One Line At A Time" by Charlotte Warr Anderson, one of the many quilt stitch books I invested in last year.  But after doing two rows across the quilt I felt confident enough to finish the rest of the quilt freehand.  I can't say the clamshells were all even but in the end, the texture on the quilt looked real good.

In the next post I'll detail the latest installment of the Flannel Series.

1st Annual Bloggers Quilt Festival

Welcome to all who are coming from Amy's site to another entry in the Bloggers Quilt Festival! Amy (innovator that she is) at the Park City Girl blog came up with wonderful idea to host a quilt festival for all the quilting bloggers out there. And if you've gotten all the way down the list to me, you know there are ALOT of quilters blogging (or is it bloggers quilting??). Although the title of this post says that it is the first annual festival, I saw on one of her more recent posts that this might become a bi-annual (Fall, Spring) event from here on which would be cool. If you need to link back to her site to access other entries click the button above.

My entry for favorite quilt (right now and the first of my 2008 finishes to be showcased) is this one:

It's called " "Flannel" Point of No Return" . Why is it my favorite? First because it's made of flannel! If a handmade quilt is a hug, a flannel quilt is a double hug! This quilt is as cuddly as it gets. I made it to be a couch quilt (something for the kids to snuggle under while watching TV) but it hasn't left my bed since I finished it. I've heard that a flannel back is also good for keeping your quilt from slipping off the bed so it's utilitarian and cozy!

The second reason this is a favorite is that all the plaid fabrics used here were FREE! When I started quilting back in 2002, I read a tip on the Worldwide Quilting Page that if you were a new quilter, needing to build your stash of fabric cheap and lived in a city with a garment district, you might be able to get fabric that was being discarded by cutting rooms for free. My DH is a UPS driver who at that time delivered in Manhattan (NYC) and was often assigned to the garment district. I asked him to keep a look out for fabric being discarded and his instructions were that as long as it wasn't suit fabric (something I knew he could identify) he was to bring it home and I'd figure out if I could use it.

One day he came home with a giant black garbage bag full of fabric cuts and these beauties were one of the treasures I found in it. They were probably fabric samples since they were all uniformly sized to about a fat quarter, mostly (what I thought were) flannels and a few in straight cottons. At that time I didn't know you could make a quilt in flannel but I had read that plaids were really useful in quilting and thought the range of colors were too good to let go.

Maybe a few months later, I saw an episode of the "Simply Quilts" TV show on HGTV (it was still on then and what got me started with quilting) and Sandy Bonsib gave tips from her book on quilting with flannel. Now I knew these fabrics could definitely go into a quilt. A year later I purchased a back issue of the April '93 American Patchwork & Quilting magazine (the first issue, I believe). The original "Point of No Return" quilt pattern was in it, designed by Country Threads of cotton plaids in reds, greys and blues with a cream background and a red plaid back. I immedately knew this was where these fabrics would be used.

It was another year later when I stumbled upon a flannel fabric sale at a Joann craft store and was able to get the cream flannel and the backing "flannel" for (wait for it) $2.99 a yard! Snapped them up and thought I'd get right to work on it. Instead I cut out ALL the pieces for the blocks (A LOT of triangles), made a few and then put it aside in favor of other projects. Then last year, wanting to fulfill a personal "one quilt finish a month" challenge, I dug all these out, intent on finishing the quilt and did so! Now I am a big fan of flannel backs and while not all projects will get one I've currently got two more quilts in the works that will have them.

Quilt Back and Label

The reason why "flannel" is in quotes is that the only real flannel fabric in this quilt is the cream background. Ms. Bonsib's advice for binding was to use a regular cotton fabric because flannel fabric is stretchy. When I finally went to buy my binding fabric, I really wanted to have flannel right down to the binding. I found a plaid that I liked that was listed as a "brushed cotton" something I thought I had never used before but figured it might work well with flannel.

When it came in the mail, I realized that ALL the plaids AND the backing fabric were also brushed cottons: a flannel texture on front and a regular, flat cotton weave on back. Who knew? But I had already named the quilt so I just added the quotes to keep me honest!

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of the festival!