I have finally (FINALLY) finished my friendship braid quilt!!! I'm pretty sure if someone gives you this quilt, you must be the kind of friend who would help someone hide bodies. It was intense!
I all my fabric into chisels using my accuquilt GO! Baby. I had originally intended to do a friendship star but did not pay good enough attention to realize all my fabric would need to be facing the same way through the die cutter. This was a second choice but I think I'm glad I made the mistake when all is said and done.
I used my leftover chisels to make a binding. Since the chisels were 3.5" wide, I used a .5" seam and have a little wider binding. I might try to do a tutorial for the wide binding now that I have figured it out. The internet was ZERO help...if there was a tutorial on it I could not find it.
I used this ricrac fabric by Fig Tree for my backing. I had found it $2 a yard at a quilt shop that went out of business. I am so glad I picked it up!
With quilting, I consulted Teresa Silva at Quilting is My Bliss. She is a long arm quilter by trade but her freestyle designs are amazing to me. She suggested an all over design that included leaves. I looked up the pantograph she mentioned, Groundcover, and tried to mimic it. It is SO NOT PERFECT. How not perfect? Well I was working on this at a craft night and an older woman known for her candor came up and said she can't understand all that (insert archaic racial slur) quilting. She thinks hand quilting is the only way to go. YIKES.
When it's all washed up though, I just love the texture it gave. I wanted to use sage thread but could not find the right color so I picked a dark cream Gutermann.
Even though I would not normally buy these fabrics, I really do love this and am so happy to have it in my house.
I am also happy I challenged myself with something more involved. I felt such accomplishment when I finished this that I immediately started on a king size quilt! It turns out that I really do love quilting still, but I had been stuck in a rut. I think at a certain point, blogging can be somewhat incompatible with really improving your quilting skills. You are told to post all the time or people forget your blog is there...but if you are working on a really long project you don't have much of value to post ( "made 2 more blocks today" .. 41 to go!"). I feel I'm at a crossroads here: build the blog or build my skills. I'm not choosing the blog. At times it will be really boring around here, but I hope you keep checking back...I don't think you will be disappointed. In fact I think things will be worth the wait!
I am also happy I challenged myself with something more involved. I felt such accomplishment when I finished this that I immediately started on a king size quilt! It turns out that I really do love quilting still, but I had been stuck in a rut. I think at a certain point, blogging can be somewhat incompatible with really improving your quilting skills. You are told to post all the time or people forget your blog is there...but if you are working on a really long project you don't have much of value to post ( "made 2 more blocks today" .. 41 to go!"). I feel I'm at a crossroads here: build the blog or build my skills. I'm not choosing the blog. At times it will be really boring around here, but I hope you keep checking back...I don't think you will be disappointed. In fact I think things will be worth the wait!
Definitely worth the wait.
ReplyDeleteI love it! And I think you did a great job with the quilting.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree about quilting vs blogging. I tend to make bigger, more time consuming quilts too, so my blog has never really been that busy. But the end result is much more worth it!
Mary, I think you did a fabulous job! I follow a pantograph for the pattern Ground Cover so I know this was not easy to quilt yourself or on a conventional sewing machine. You did an awesome job and should be very proud! It was definitely worth the wait and I always check your blog! Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteLovely work!
ReplyDeletebecause i am "subscribed" when you blog it pops up and i read it... i read alot of blogs and sitting here, i cant tell you the last time you blogged and i think most people would tell you they arent keeping count. Now there are several blogs im subscribed to that i have learned is full of fluff and stuff. Meaning, not alot of content, they just post alot... and i read titles, if it looks interesting, i read it... so... i feel blog when ya wanna.. quilt when you gotta! have fun mostly.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love this!!! Did you make up the pattern or have something to go by? Did you mention the name of the fabric? I love the back rick rack fabric by fig tree, I think it is perfect! But I really love the front!! Is this going to be in the Moda Bake Shop book? I am so proud of you!!!!
ReplyDeleteI think it is beautiful! Oh, and it is NOT 'not so perfect' it is 'organic'!!!
ReplyDeleteThe new quilt looks GREAT Mary! Love the comment about it going to a friend that would help hide bodies. I know that feeling :-) Some quilts are much harder to let go of than others.
ReplyDeleteLove love this mary, nicely done.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if it is age that leads some people to say whatever pops into their heads or if it has something to do with late-onset-ADHD. I was a hand quilter for decades before I decided that I'd better work on my machine quilting skills if I wanted to finish more of the quilts that were in my head. (Of course, now that I can machine quilt, there are even more quilts in my head!) If someone makes a remark like that to me, my response will be something like, "And how long are you planning to live?" (And I'd hope the rude commenter has a brain that can deal with multiple meanings!)
ReplyDeleteI do understand that hand quilted quilts are likely to last longer. My hope is that making and having more quilts will lead to longer lives for the machine made ones too!
Furthermore, I do wonder how quilters with five or six young children manage to organize their households to run so smoothly that they can spend so much time finishing quilts that they have multiple finishes every week. Right now I'm spending more time quilting than a lot of people, and I certainly don't manage multiple finishes!
I love your quilts. I'm relatively new to quilting, and have gotten frustrated by lots of the simple quilts out there. It's nice to have the option of making an entire quilt in a weekend, but I want to be a master quilter some day and those quilts won't build my skills enough to accomplish that goal. The quilts you create will. Take your time and make great quilts that inspire me to stretch my skills.
ReplyDeleteKymberly, you are a "no reply blogger" so I cannot directly email you back but in case you read this, I wish you the best in becoming a master quilter and thank you for the encouragement!
ReplyDelete