The Rose Quilt is Finally Finished

"If you want to hear the sound of God's laughter, just tell Him your plans."

Quilting

I like to pretend there aren't a bunch of quilt tops waiting to be quilted but cleaning the sewing room out brought them to the surface. No more kidding myself. One is the Rose quilt {last worked on September 2018. Yikes!} Why did this pretty quilt end up stuffed in a dark corner?

Truthfully FOMMWQ {fear of making a mistake while quilting} hit hard. Every idea became much too complicated. Despite my trepidation, the stems were easy - just some FMQ loops...  until running out of green thread. And you know how hard it is to purchase more. Hahaha.

Still, quilting the roses became an ever-larger nightmare. McTavishing seemed like it would make petal-like curves. Great idea but heavy stitching might make the quilt stiff or make it pull oddly if everything else wasn't quilted equally closely. So I warted and worried it to death then gave it a quick burial in the closet. Guilt arose each time it was opened.

Chinese Coins with Roses quilt

This past week it occurred to me that the roses could be an improv challenge. Remember Kaja's flower post? Ok, there are several flowery ideas running through my mind but at the rate I'm going it may be next year before there's time to work on them.  So...

After watching YouTube videos by Karen herself and Leah Day, I found Amy Johnson whose curlicues spoke to me. About the same time I realized the quilting could be spaced further apart. {Too soon old and too late smart.} A few hours practicing the technique with dry erase marker on my vinyl overlay gave me the confidence to begin again.

Photos of these overlays on top of the quilt didn't show well so here they are against the design wall. This is a practice rose.

Larger scale spirals and McTavishing with a marker

The result of facing fear is often the discovery that it's not that difficult. Nike is right. Just Do It!

Detail of quilting the roses

Two sections down; only the background left to fill. Julie's combination of fans and flowers would make a garden of flowers for the roses to emerge from...  and they could use more flowers in their garden. ;-)

In the first attempt petals curved and hopped. Unfortunately, I'm a hopper. My curves get out of control quite easily.

Mixing flowers, spirals, and fans in FMQ

After several iterations, my flower petals are much shorter, more like scallops. And most of my fans turned into spirals. Fans or spirals. Both seems okay. My main takeaway from all the practice is that the flower petals should not overlap. A few peeking through the arcs seems better.

More flowers, spirals, and fans in FMQ

The light blue thread was very hard to see but slowing my speed kept me from crossing quilting lines.  It only took two days to complete the quilting. After a quick wash and dry the quilt crinkled beautifully. {This is why I love Mountain Mist batts. The shrink just enough. Like Goldilocks and the Three Bears.}

There was just enough blue gingham print (not yarn dyed) for the binding. Well, one skinny strip went into the scrap bag.

Gingham binding on
Chinese Coins with Roses quilt

Previous posts:

1. Attempting to Applique the Roses
2. Adding Pieced Roses
3. Strewing Roses
4. Adding Stems and Leaves
5. Top Done

The back is a conglomeration of floral fabrics to echo the pieced ones on front.

Back of Chinese Coins with Roses quilt

Quilt Specifics
Size: 59" x 52"
Design: Chinese Coins with improv pieced roses
Batting: Mountain Mist Cream Rose 100% cotton
Thread: green, red and blue Gutermann 50 wt cotton
Quilting: FMQ loops, spirals, fans, and flowers

Approximate Yardage: 8.5 yd 
(guesstimate because mainly scraps)

Off the Bookshelf

At the library this week I found two, count 'em TWO, new quilt books and snagged both to read. Quilts in the Cotswalds by Kaffe Fassett and Organic Appliqué by Kathy Doughty are thoughtful reads with my morning coffee. I want to return to large scale prints and these both encourage that. Reading about creative methods sparks new ideas of our own {or you can follow their designs.} These books even have coordinating covers.

Enjoy the day, Ann

Chinese Coins with Rabbit Baby Quilt Finished

Spiral quilting is successful. After considering another centered spiral for this quilt, I chose to use concentric circles here. I've done it before. Instructions on how/where I started are at the end of this post from 2015.

Chinese Coins with Rabbit baby quilt (CCXIV)

It much easier to start with a gentle quarter circle starting halfway down one side and then echo quilt along each side than to try to echo from a tight corner. When you look closely, it's obviously not marked. I simply eyeballed a width based on the foot. Those wobbles are not visible in the overall photo and will disappear even more as the quilt is washed, used, and loved to pieces.

Chinese Coins with Rabbit
baby quilt (CCXIV) detail

The back is a collection of blues. Not quite as dull as this photo shows. Again, the narrow border was stitched-in-the-ditch first to keep it nice and straight.

Chinese Coins with Rabbit
baby quilt (CCXIV) back

Here's a closeup of the bunny. The large floral print looks like Spring. It was fun to use fabric that is not realistic. {I'm such a stick-in-the-mud, I usually try to match real items with their real colors.}

Chinese Coins with Rabbit baby quilt (CCXIV)
detail of rabbit and binding

Looking through the binding strips, these yellows worked best. I even pulled some choices from my stash to see if anything worked better but the quilt says, "Enough. Give me a soft, low-key edge, please."

Quilt Details

Size: 41" x 43"

Design: Chinese Coins

Batting: Mountain Mist 100% cotton

Thread: dark and light blue Gutterman 50 wt cotton

Quilting: Stitch in the Ditch and spiral quilting with walking foot

I am still reading St. Clair's The Golden Thread and finished the chapter on Vikings last week. She writes about the longship discovery at Gokstad which I think Kaja visited last year although I can't find her post. She had some great photos.

 Kassia also mentions Ibn Fadlan who I recall from Michael Crichton's novel Eaters of the Dead. The title sounds more gruesome than the book really is. Published in the 70's, it mixes Ibn's journals with the story of Beowulf. I remember the first two chapters were difficult to read as he wrote it in an archaic transcript; however, it then switches to modern language which made it much more easy and interesting. Michael added addendums to his early novels that listed his sources. Oh, how I loved to research those. 

Enjoy the day, Ann

Chinese Coins with Spirals Quilt

Wasting no time, I spiral quilted this Chinese Coins baby quilt. It one went more smoothly due to for repeated {recent} practice.

Spiral Chinese Coins baby quilt (CCXIV)

The quilting enhances the appliqué spirals although it required a few extra pins to keep the fabric flat. Even though I tried, those appliqués stretched the background fabric a bit although those improved with practice, too.

Detail of Spiral Chinese Coins baby quilt (CCXIV)

The back shows off the quilting better. Why is that? It also shows the SID on the inner border.

Back of Spiral Chinese Coins baby quilt (CCXIV)

Any wiggling of narrow borders is extremely noticeable so I always SID those first in a color that matches the border. You can't see it on the front...

Detail of Spiral Chinese Coins baby quilt (CCXIV)

but it's visible on the back.

Detail of back of Spiral Chinese Coins baby quilt (CCXIII)

Can you believe this is the fourteenth Coins quilt I've made in this series? I can't.

Quilt Details

Size: 41" x 42"

Design: Chinese Coins

Batting: Mountain Mist 100% cotton

Thread: Black and variegated yellow Gutterman 50 wt cotton 

Quilting: Stitch in the Ditch and spiral, both with walking foot

Previous posts:

1. The Chinese Coin columns that didn't work and the sashing strips {because this one was made from the narrow columns of the same foundation as the Square Deal baby quilt.}
2. Chinese Coins with Tulips
3. Adding the spirals

Enjoy the day, Ann

A Gifted Deal

Quilted, bound, washed, and dried. These darling blocks made a {fairly} quick quilt for a new baby. It went in the mail and arrived before the new dad's paternity leave ended. Whew!

The Square Deal baby quilt

As frequently happens, I nearly drove myself crazy with the quilting. It needed to keep the quilt together and hold up to rigorous use. Additionally, it needed to be simple with a minimum of starts and stops. Burying threads is such a time consumer.

The inner border is SID with matching thread. This is my usual way to keep the line straight through all the subsequent quilting.

After asking my small group, I determined to try a squared-off spiral. It was a disaster. Not only were my "straight" lines wobbly, they were also too far apart. In desperation I switched to a regular spiral. It didn't seem like it would work well but I was wrong about that, too. It looks great. Yes, those curved lines are wobbly but I bet you can't tell!

Detail of the Square Deal baby quilt

The main back fabric was too short and too narrow. A bit of another blue lengthened the base and the last of the border fabric widened it. The spiral shows up so much better on the back.

Back of the Square Deal baby quilt

I've used this design twice before, but it's been a while. The first time on the Neutral String baby quilt and later on Spiderweb 3.  I like it and plan to use it again. Echo quilting is one of the few designs that shows on patterned fabric. Spirals are a version of echos.

Quilt Details

Size: 40" x 40"

Design: Original

Batting: Mountain Mist 100% cotton

Thread: Blue and peach Gutterman 50 wt cotton

Quilting: Stitch in the Ditch and spiral, both with walking foot

Previous posts: 
1. The Chinese Coin columns that didn't work
2. Making HSTs
3. Playing with HSTs
4. Square Deal block
5. Using the extra blocks

I borrowed The Golden Thread by Kassia St. Clair, a collection of stories about fabric through history rather than a history of fabric. Thirteen chapters cover pre-historic cave dwellers through the Space Age astronauts and include several stories, each beginning with a literary quote involving thread or textiles. That alone is worthwhile. Kassia writes fluently and persuasively; she based this book on some of her magazine articles. 

The Golden Thread
by Kassia St. Clair

All in all, The Golden Thread is much more interesting than the news programs so I will be check her other book on color next.

Enjoy the day, Ann

One More Sashed Chinese Coins Baby Quilt

This is not the last of the Chinese Coins from the "top that didn't work" but it's the last of the pastel solids I cut. Why, oh why do I always overcut? These baby quilts are heading to children in different cities so it's {a bit more} acceptable to have similar layouts. Ok, I'll admit it. I gave into temptation to move them out because they are cute, easy, and the right size. Less thinking required.

The inner border is navy, not black, and the border is a fun green and yellow stripe I purchased in abundance because stripes are great for borders and binding. But the quilt looks unfinished.

Chinese Coins with sherbet sashing quilt (CCXIV)

What can I applique on it? What about tulips? The two Coins in the center row with printed tulips gave me the idea. Plus those rows of them looked so good on the first quilt like this. Audrey's Scrappy Tulips is a stellar example of the flowers running through my mind. I almost made them but then wondered if they would clash against the Coins background. Also, the center doesn't bother me as much as the boring border.

What about rabbits instead? Sue Garman designed Bunny Block Sampler, a charming quilt with running hares around the border. Unfortunately my border is too narrow to hold rabbits.

Chinese Coins with sherbet sashing quilt
and an applique rabbit (CCXIV)

Eventually I chose one upright rabbit that fits well in the corner. The template is here. I tried to draw my own rabbit. My folk-art ones are not too bad but they were either too small or too large; I could never get them just right. This one is more realistic and... I'm not an artist. Besides, I wasn't sure if this would work at all.

I traced it on a white print, turned the seams under and machined stitched it with an overlock design. Not too bad for a first attempt. Success built my confidence. I believe I can hand draw my own designs in future. Several ideas are running through my mind. {Breeding like rabbits.} Hooray. Practice with a known design is building my creativity.

Enjoy the day, Ann

Chinese Coins in Yellow Baby Quilt

As I wrote recently, I haven't felt very creative lately; I still don't. Sewing is relaxing but making all the decisions for a new quilt overwhelms me. Working on leftovers, extras, and older projects fits my abilities for now. Plus, they are {finally} moving along. {Go, team, go. On the floor and out the door.}

Case in point: If you recall Chinese Coins XII, made for my co-grandmother, started with columns from a Coin that didn't work. Adding sashing makes a few Coins go a long way so there are still loads of these columns left. As you would expect, I cut several extra WOF solids strips, too. How easy to sew them into another baby quilt.

At the end of last year I had five baby quilts; now they are all gifted. Nothing in the queue and DH's co-workers are still having babies!

This time I pulled the yellows and ochers. The yellow and white stripe sets them off well, especially after  the strong inner border was added. It looks as if these fabric purchases were planned but that is not the case. Buying fabric at one time for a quilt usually is a recipe for disaster for me.

As Audrey wrote recently, it's much better to pull from different years and brands. Making things work that aren't dyed to match gives me so much pleasure. After all, when all the decisions are made, there's nothing else to do but sew them up. That may be why we have so many UFOs. All the creative parts are done and we're left with the chores of sewing, pressing, and trimming.

Chinese Coins in Yellows (CCXIII) baby quilt

However, compared to Chinese Coins XII, this top seems unfinished. It lacks the snappiness the rows of tulips gave the previous quilt. What to do?

The spirals in the border gave me the idea to add spirals in the center. They are black so it was my original choice but when the fabric was laid on the quilt, anyone can see it's too severe. Back to the stash where I pulled this marsala shade of shot cotton. Much improved.

Possible applique fabrics for
Chinese Coins in Yellow (CCXIII) baby quilt

With only a ten-inch WOF, I cut it on the diagonal and made two bias strips to put through bias tape makers of 9- and 12-mm. Pinned on the top, they are much too small and insignificant.

It either needs a larger spiral or many more small spirals. I've never had much luck sewing strips together and putting them through the bias tape maker. They always pooch out where the seams join. Shot cotton is very thin so I decided to try it again but didn't have confidence it would work. Wrong-o. No trouble at all.

One larger spiral of 12-mm bias tape pinned on the quilt scales better.

"This is just a baby quilt," I kept repeating but the tiny spirals looked too ... tiny. Eventually I replaced the narrowest one with new, large 12-mm spiral. Then I left it on the wall for a couple of days.

Chinese Coins in Yellows
with Spirals (CCXIII) baby quilt

I like the mixed spiral sizes {and I liked not having to replace the third} so I sewed each side of the spirals down. The inner end is tucked under the spiral; that wasn't difficult. The outer end had to be turned; that took a while. Obviously I need more practice.

detail of Chinese Coins in Yellows
with Spirals (CCXIII) baby quilt

The thread ends need to be pulled to the back and tied. And look. Those aren't spirals in the border; they're concentric circles. Someone needs new glasses.

Enjoy the day, Ann

Using the Extra Blocks

I didn't intend to reprise The Square Deal so closely but, while clearing up, four sets of HSTs already sewed into nine-patches surfaced. They surprised me so I dug around extensively but didn't find any more. These are the last of this combination and I need several baby quilts. Soonest! So here we are, choosing between two very similar white prints for the center cross: frogs in a pond or sea creatures.

At the last minute I added the squares to make a Churn Dash center again. It makes the center more interesting; however, the inner border is blue {instead of white.} A small change.

Final decision: which print for the outer border? My first thought was the lovely one at the bottom but after looking at the photo, the triangle print floats my boat. Why does it look better? When it was in the box, the colors looked quite different than the center blocks. Viewed through the reducing lens of a camera, it changed appearance somehow. It has a richness the other lacks.

After looking at this photo for a few days, I've decided the scale of the right border relates to the center better than the bottom border. They are nearly the same colors but the slightly larger design on the right gives them more presence. What do you think?

Enjoy the day, Ann

Several Improvs in One

It's been a while but I finally pieced the border of the Square Deal. After swearing I wasn't going to make more blocks... I did. The top needed a few more strong reds and light blues.

The Square Deal quilt top

What's different? Compare the upper right corner of the final version above with the previous {partially sewn} version below. Five blocks were changed out on the top and right. They were lovely blocks but "pushed the envelope" a bit too far in value. The borders were getting muddled. That's always an issue with printed fabrics where several colors coexist. It can add movement or simply cause designs to become lost. Now there are still diffuse areas but also more definition.

EDIT: I reshot and replaced the photo above. The colors were too acid. I still think the photo below has truer colors though.

Previous layout for The Square Deal quilt

Do you notice my crosses became much wider with each set of Xs? The last set is pretty wide indeed. The first ones were so narrow that the seams overlapped after pressing. Guess I loosened up as time went on.

Evaluating this quilt it meets criteria for:

1. Chinese Coins {because those were the original units for the striped triangles} 
2. Two Blocks
3. Red is a Neutral (because I played with several fabrics before deciding red looked best with those striped triangles}

However, this is not exactly what I envisioned as a Red quilt. Here red becomes the foreground while I wanted to use it as a background - more like Cathy's Confetti quilt. So another quilt idea goes on the {increasingly} long "to-be-made" list but it still feels good to combine several challenges into one quilt especially since life intervened several times keeping me from fully participating.

At some point I need to make a back and baste this top. That's a task for another time.

Enjoy the day, Ann

Medallion Chinese Coins III Quilt Finished

"When I say it's you I like, I'm talking about that... deep part of you that allows you to stand for those things without which humankind cannot survive. Love that conquers hate, peace that rises triumphant over war, and justice that proves more powerful than greed."

~ Fred Rogers ~

While {I'd like to say} quilt designs are rarely reprised or repeated, I've recently completed a second pair of baby/toddler quilts. This pair is even more identical than the previous ones except the sizes vary this time. That makes them a perfect older sibling/new baby gift. Not that there's one on the horizon, but it will come.

Chinese Coins III Medallion quilt with appliqué

Adding appliquéd flowers made these tops into something more special. Remember they were the bottom of the scrap bag. It took both quilts to actually empty the bag that time. The technique is a variation of raw edge appliqué. Check Lara Buccella's book Crafted Appliqué for more information.

Chinese Coins III Medallion quilt
appliqué detail

To make it more like the other medallion, I quilted Baptist Fans again. Free motion quilting is a good change of pace from all the simple walking foot lines I've been doing. And so relaxing.

Chinese Coins III Medallion quilt
Baptist fans FMQ detail

When it was time to bind the quilt I found a pile of orange leftovers in the scrap bag and trimmed them to size. Unfortunately they don't look good on this quilt. They are simply too bright. So...

Chinese Coins III Medallion quilt
with possible bright orange binding

I found a lighter peach remnant in my stash. This shade isn't as bright plus the white design printed on top brings the intensity down further.

Chinese Coins III Medallion quilt
with light peach binding

Here's a view of the back showing the Fans and the quiet binding.

Partial view of back of
Chinese Coins III Medallion quilt

And here's a view of the binding itself with the outer border and parts of the back showing. Yes. This works much better.

Chinese Coins III Medallion quilt binding detail

This pair will go on the stack until two children need them.

Size: 50" x 58"

Pattern: Medallion with Chinese Coin borders and appliqué

Batting: Mountain Mist Cream Rose 100% cotton

Thread: Aurifil 50-wt grey cotton 

Quilting: free motion Baptist fans

Previous posts:

1. Starting the medallion
2. Chinese Coins III top finished
3. Chinese Coins IV finished

Enjoy the day, Ann

Color Study Baby Quilt Gifted

"The real issue in life is not how many blessings we have, but what we do with our blessings. 

Some people have many blessing and hoard them.
Some have few and give everything away." 

~ Fred Rogers ~

________________

I've certainly been on a quilting roll these past few weeks. There's lots of non-sewing stuff to do, too, but I'm incentivized by the number of babies arriving soon. {So much for the plan to have a small stack at the ready. These are heading out as fast as they are finished.} Not that I'm complaining.

The first, larger Color Study was quilted and gifted a couple of months ago to a special friend who shares my love of color. These blocks were the "leftovers"; the extras. Still bright; just enough for a baby/toddler quilt. Only waiting for another person whose heart sings with color. And then...

A young friend is expecting her second baby. Her oldest received Suhavi's Stars and this one almost matches it in cheerful color...

Color Study 2 Chinese Coins baby quilt for a second baby

 especially with the addition of bright orange on the back!

Color Study 2 baby quilt binding and quilting details

My first thought was to bind it in similar bright oranges but they didn't show well with the back. Given all the colors, no binding seemed to work with them all. There are; however, many green and blue fabrics which blended well with this green stripe binding. It looks good against the orange back, too.

Since the idea worked so well last time, I quilted with the same cross-hatching as the first Color Study. Certainly running quilting lines in two directions adds strength; always an important point when the quilt will get so much use.

It arrived just before the baby. Hooray.

Size: 45" x 45"

Pattern: Chinese Coins variation

Batting: Mountain Mist Cream Rose 100% cotton

Thread: Aurifil 50-wt grey cotton 

Quilting: Walking foot grid

Previous post: Sewing the top

A big Thank You to the many hundreds of you who've updated your blogs to the safer https form. So many people have emailed, posted comments, and actually flipped the switch on their blogs. I'm thrilled. Quilters are a strong, kind, and helpful group. You've shown it again with your commitment to helping keep the internet safe for everyone.  🎉🎉

Let's keep the momentum going. Check your sidebar blogs for https and let those quilters know that their blog needs to be switched also. Simply hover over the blog title. If it starts with https, it's safe. If not, it's not.

The next AHIQ invitation is posted. We hope you’ll join us.

Finally: guess who came to dinner? While walking to dinner last night we spied a pair of raccoons playing in the gutter.

A pair of raccoons in the gutter

They quickly hid but then popped out again to see if we'd share. A reminder that wildlife is more adaptable than we think.

Enjoy the day, Ann

A Finish and an Annual Review

Still turning tops into quilts and this is the latest. Hooray. Simple parallel lines using the walking foot always make an effective design on Coins. 

Chinese Coins XI quilt

One of my irrational fears is that the seam will fray or rip. Stitching in the ditch is one way to assuage that, plus it helps stabilize the layers when quilting on a domestic machine. Then I stitch a "presser foot" away from the seam on each side and end by halving the remaining space until it looks right.

Parallel quilting on Chinese Coins XI quilt

I planned to quilt with blue thread until I looked at the back. It's all peach so a change of plan was in order.  There was just enough of the daisies on aqua fabric for binding. It makes a good contrast with the back while also blending with the front.

Binding and backing of Chinese Coins XI quilt

After a couple of days quilting, this one is ready to go.

Quilt Details

Size: 58" x 62"

Design: Chinese Coins

Batting: Mountain Mist Cream Rose 100% cotton

Thread: Peach Gutterman cotton

Quilting: Walking foot parallel lines

Previous posts:

1. Using scraps
2. Top sewn

2018 Review

Finding myself in an extremely prolific "quilt-'em'-up-and-move-'em-out" mode, it's difficult to stop and write a thoughtful post about the past year. One lazy excuse is that finished 2018 quilts already have their own page; however, reflecting on my previous goals versus results helped the last two years... although I seem to ignore goals at will. The tally? Seventeen quilts, one Christmas stocking, and one quilt repair. More were small. {Another goal met.} Nine baby, four toddler/lap size and four full size quilts. 

Looking back, this has been a year of Chinese Coins quilts. The overwhelming reason/excuse is the September workshop for my guild. Deadlines are always an incentive. Paying attention to fabric selection was a goal that is visible in these quilts. It is evident {to me at least} in the original fabric pulls as well as the many columns of colors. I enjoyed those first pulls and then sorting them by values, colors, or arranging them randomly.  

Eight finished quilts were Chinese Coin variations while four spun out of the Bars workshop. Only one was specifically for me. Two Coins are held for future workshops but everything else was gifted or is ready to be. Most of the Coin quilts have a similar arrangement as I worked through iterative examples of the class but a few explore some other ways to use Coins such as Medallions and Stacked Coins.  

Representative sample of 2018 finished quilts 

I drafted the Racetrack quilt and used templates for the Spiderweb but improvised the others. For me that means working in small units and pausing along the way to see what is needed for the next step. Repetition is important and usually some grid-like structures. While I admire wild piecing, it's not what I create. In fact, the past year is mostly one block designs. Scientific Pinwheels is the only one combining two blocks: Coins and pinwheels in two sizes. I think I'll expand my design choices a bit in 2019. 

About half of my 2018 plans were met: smaller quilts, simpler quilting designs, using scraps + recyclables + new fabrics, and paying attention to color selection. A couple of quilts have more details but that effort could be improved. So far, so good. 

On the other hand, none of the listed quilts was finished nor did I write the baseball quilt pattern. My idea was to post it through Craftsy. However, they've been sold and deleted many existing patterns/contributors so that doesn't seem viable. I'll have to find another way to publish - if I ever get it done. Any advice is welcome.

Overall last year's plans are things I want to continue. {Perhaps those WIPs will actually be finished this time around. Ha.} The Square Deal, which started from leftover Coins, is almost ready to be quilted. Considering how much I like borders, I've become lax/lazy with them... they are frequently missing and that needs to change.

Finally I purchased some clothing patterns and pulled out a few old ones. Finding clothes that fit my more casual lifestyle is difficult and this may be a solution. Ideally I would have clothes that fit in fabrics and colors I prefer. We'll see. 

2019 Plans

1. Write it up: baseball quilt pattern.

2. Keep them moving: quilt tops and finish several WIPs.

3. Consider: border, stars, and medallions.

4. Continue combinations: recycled + scraps + new fabrics; traditional + improvisational + original designs.

5. Sew some clothes.

Enjoy the day, Ann

A Finish in the Nick of Time

It's gotten cold regularly since Thanksgiving. Funny how that happens. I recognize the air cooling but don't need extra layers until... Bam! It's freezing. Now the bed has an extra winter quilt, my sweaters are front and center of the drawers, and I'm sipping hot tea throughout the day. However, one hardy hummingbird shows up at the feeder several times a day. He must use so much energy in this cold weather.

I've secretly been planning this quilt for the other grandmother of my our darling granddaughter. And finally, it's done. And gifted. Just in time for Christmas. Hooray.

Chinese Coins XII quilt with tulips

Once it was quilted I had some trouble choosing the binding. Green? Blue? I really liked the mottled blue and white {left side} but it's a stripe. Sewing it next to the striped border didn't seem right. Also, while there are busy {and older} prints among the Coins, the  borders and sashing are more crisp. Oddly enough, the blue stripe is only a year or two old; one of the newest prints in this group. So it's not the age of the fabric but rather the style.

The same applies for the busy green prints on top and right. They are just too busy.

Binding choices

The green leftover binding at the top looks best. Some of the greens inside the quilt are a bit more chartreuse but this matches the outer border stripe. The length is a bit short so one of the other greens was added.

I started the back with the center fabric in the spring colors MFG {my fellow grandmother} likes. It matches the purple and blue sashing on the front. There wasn't quite enough {as usual} and this older shirting plaid was the only thing that seemed to blend. It came from the NYC garment district a decade ago. The hues don't work with the front very well but this can just be a two-sided quilt. Aren't they all?

Chinese Coins XII quilt back

Any of those busy binding choices would have worked better with the back but the front is the star. The back will just have to clash a bit.

Spiral and loop quilting detail on Chinese Coins XII

Quilting designs added more fun. Spirals, leaves, loops, and fans. 

Free motion quilting fans, loops, and leaves on Chinese Coins XII

I {sort of} matched the thread with the fabric: peach and yellow were closely matched, light blue thread for blue and purple, green on the border.

FMQ on Chinese Coins XII quilt shows better after washing

These Coins were part of my final push to empty the scrap bag. One top worked very well but the next did not, so I cannibalized those strings, surrounded them with solid sashing, added tulip fabric for fun and ended up with this charmer. Much better.

Quilt Details

Size: 40" x 42"

Design: Chinese Coins

Batting: Mountain Mist Blue Ribbon100% cotton

Thread: blue and yellowAurifil 50/2 cotton, peach and green Gutermann cotton 

Quilting: walking foot SID and FMQ motifs

FMQ on Chinese Coins XII shows better after washing

Christmas Stocking for G3

The newest Christmas stocking is almost complete. Oriental Trading Company had some darling glass beads screaming my name. My idea is to add the same one to each "family group." {DH, my offspring and I will get the Owls. Dibs.} BTW, the grandchildren are numbered here so G3 is my third.

Glass beads from Oriental Trading Company

My goodness! I wish my kids' stockings were as adorable as the ones my grandchildren are receiving. {Although they looked like the "bees' knees" when I made them. It just shows my beading and bling-ing skills improved over the years.}

Special items like these are only readily available with the advent of the internet. I've no idea what local shops might carry them now or who did in the past. Finding something seemed very random; you had to be walking by a store and it caught  your eye. Once you became proficient in the craft or recipe or whatever, you knew where to get the supplies but it seemed harder for novices to even realize they needed better supplies.

Isn't that what happens with any new endeavor? When we first try knitting or quilting or any other craft, the toughest part is finding good quality materials. Or even finding the materials at all. The internet has made it much easier to source them. Now we can search by photos, too. What a wonderful world and an exciting time to be alive.

With peace and goodwill to all.

Enjoy the day, Ann