A Cathedral Finish

A custom ordered Aqua Cathedral Window Pincushion is now finished and on it's way to Iowa.

Love this color combination even better than I imagined I would.

{{{HUGS}}}

WIP & Sneak Peak

This week I'm working on a couple of Cathedral Window Pincushions. This one is ready to be filled with the crushed walnut shells. There are a couple of little things I don't like about this one and being a bit particular about the details, I'll be making another one of these to see if I can change the things I don't like.

Cathedral Window Pincushion in Aqua

Then it'll be on to cutting up this "Honor & Glory fabric by Whistler Studios for Windham Fabrics." I'm hoping to finish this quilt before the 4th of July, but with a mission trip to Joplin, MO on the schedule I'm not sure that it's a realistic goal at all. Maybe I should just start by setting the end of July as my goal to be finished by.

Honor & Glory Fabric

I'm really excited about this quilt and once again, can hardly wait to see how it turns out!

Blessings & Happy Stitching,

Safari Delight {Finished & Delivered}

"Safari Delight"

The "Safari Delight" Quilt was a graduation gift for one of the young ladies in our church. I started this quilt way back in January, thinking I'd give myself plenty of time to get it finished well in advance of her graduation party. But, as they say, "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry." I worked like a mad woman Friday and Saturday to finish it in time.  I actually took the last stitches just moments before we left the house for the party. Whew! Nothing like cutting it close!

The inspiration pattern came from Better Home & Gardens Special Publication,
"Sew Scrappy Vol. 2"

In the original pattern the small diamonds on either side of the print were a part of the printed fabric. As you can see below the fabric I wanted to use didn't have that kind of a border on it, so I did the next best thing and added Kona Black to either side of the animal print. Originally my plan was to stitch diamonds in gold thread on these black strips. In the end I did stitch the diamonds, but I did them in black instead of gold. I'm sure the gold would have been amazingly beautiful, but I was afraid I wouldn't be able to keep my stitching as perfect as it needed to be to make me happy.

Diamonds on the inner border and feathers in the triangles

The "square in a square" blocks turned out beautiful. I was a bit concerned when I first started these blocks that the colors weren't playing as well together as I wanted, but when it all came together they turned out better than I had imagined. In the inspiration pattern all of the "square in a square" blocks were the same, when I reworked the pattern I added some variety to those blocks. This change gave the quilt a feel of fun and elegance.

I so LOVE how it turned out.

 The last change from the inspiration pattern was to leave off the prairie points from the top and bottom ends. The ironic thing about this change is that originally I had planned to keep all the prairie points, but by Saturday morning the day of the party, I still hadn't managed to get the points stitched on and I was forced into making a decision. The question was did I want to deliver a partially finished quilt that I would have to take back after she opened it. Or did I want to be able to give a quilt that she would be able to immediately enjoy. I went for the later choice.  While the prairie points would have added a nice touch, it's still beautiful without them.

Back of Quilt with Customized Label

 When it came to quilting the animal print I played with two options. The easiest and quickest option was to do an all over stippling stitch. The second option which would take longer, but would enhance the pattern was to outline the designs printed on the fabric. After much contemplation I went with the second option absolutely LOVE how it turned out!

Quilting outlined the animal print designs

Close-up of quilting

Surprise & Joy!

Blessings & Happy Stitching,

Trying a New Technique ~ Diamonds

Preparing to create diamonds on this inner border & hoping for the best

I love it when I'm working on a quilt and I can use it to practice a new technique. Of course the before ever putting needle to quilt, I've practiced on a muslin sandwich. 

One of my favorite quilters is Judi Madsen aka The Green Fairy. Her quilting quality and creativity is absolutely amazing and completely inspiring.

I'm quilting with my regular home machine and Judi is quilting with a longarm quilting machine so there are some differences in procedure to create the designs but, with a few adjustments her designs can be successfully stitched with a regular machine.  For the more complicated designs she has created PDF templates, that can be purchased. One of my favorites is her dragonfly. Adorable!

It was the amazing stitching on this particular quilt which inspired the diamonds I'm adding to the safari quilt.


Blessings & Happy Stitching,

Safari Delight

Today's work in progress consisted of picking out the same seam 4 different times. One of which I didn't actually need to rip apart. UGH!! But finally things have come together in a way that I can accept. Tomorrow the quilting begins. The plan is to stitch diamonds in the sashing to mirror the diamonds in the pieced strips. I'm praying that the quilting tomorrow goes a lot smoother than today did!  Especially considering I only have a few days left to finish this beauty.

 Blessings to All,