Quilts Actually Do Get Finished

I am famous for starting, but not finishing not only quilt projects, but most craft projects. Love to start, but there is always something new and fun to try--- So the old project goes in the dark recesses of my work room closet and the new one gets to be played with for a while. I do not do this in my work life, just my creative life!

BUT - I am trying to change that. As I move through this unemployed state, I am going to finish my UFO's interspersed with job hunting. Doesn't mean I won't start a few new things, but the UFOs are going to go away. In the last 6 weeks or so I have finished one longer term project, one old kit, and one totally new project. Earlier on, I showed the Turning 20 quilts I made for my DS and DD. DD's is FINISHED and on the bed in her dorm (as of today - went back to school today boo hoo!!). It was a BEAR to quilt. The quilt is 80X90 (approximately) and is flannel on both sides. But I did learn a lot about machine quilting a large quilt and I will use on finishing the one for DS - also a Turning 20 type same size, flannel on both sides.

Learnings from Quilting a Large Flannel Quilt on a Home Machine -

1. Make sure you have a lot of space to spread the quilt out to support it while you are working on it. I moved from my small table in my work room to the dining room table upstairs to support the quilt and lessen the drag.
   
2. Decorative Stitches as Quilting - I experimented using the decorative stitches on my machine in some of the blocks. The designs are made to stitch out with no drag on the fabric going through the feed. That is almost impossible with a quilt of this size and weight. The opposite issue occurred when I tried to support the quilt and help the feed process, - it "over- fed" the pattern. It was a very fine line between a drag on the pattern and an over feed. So about 30% of the time I got it right, the rest have some "unique" distortions to the pattern.
3. I would use the decorative stitches on a small quilt in the future, but not a big heavy one
4. Machine Embroidery Quilting - I used the quilting patterns I have in my machine embroidery - I have the Designer Gallery Ineractives for my Babylock Ellageo
   This came out fairly well. I did not stabilize the quilt sandwich and I got some stretching and didn't match the side patterns exactly, but I loved the finished borders. See a close up below.
5. I LOVE the label. I just use my MSWord program, bring in a border clip art pattern, and go to town. No fancy label program. Print it on fabric and off we go!! I put a picture of DD and me from my sister's wedding on the label. Perfect.

Here are the picutures of the finished quilt, some quilting detail and the label.

My Other Two Projects - A old colleague and his wife just had their first child - a baby girl, Lucy, born in June. I picked up two charm packs of Moda Water Garden series and the coordinating yellow fabric for the backing. Did a simple random layout of the charms, and VOILA! a cute baby quilt. I used a double needle with a wavy stitch (built into my machine) and it came out wonderfully. Took a while to get the tension just right so the back had a good zig zag, but I was very pleased in the end. Washed it and shipped it off on Saturday to my friends in Chicago! I hope the baby loves it to pieces!
The final project was a table topper and place mat kit I purchased at least a year ago either at the Lowell (MA) Quilt Festival or the Gathering (Nashua NH). Can't remember. I was going to give them as a gift for a friend, but decided they wouldn't go with anything my friend had in her house. The whole thing went together really easily as everything was PRE CUT!! Loved it.
The manufacturer is
Great Pond Quilts LLC, Campton NH (email louise@greatpondquilts.com, pohne 603-536-0094 http://www.greatpondquilts.com/)
My DMIL saw these the other day and loved them - I know what she is getting for Christmas - she is 83 and doesn't want many things, but has a circular table in her dining room.I am going to try to add to this blog about twice a week.
We'll see how that goes!

Peace
Mary