Friday, January 27, 2017

Whirling Stars - A Finish

When Angela at soscrappy said in mid-January that she noticed that a LOT of people in her Rainbow Scrap Challenge keep making blocks year after year but not always finishing the quilts, I realized I was one of those people!  I only have participated for two years, but I have two flimsies and one set of blocks.  Well I am happy to announce today that one of the flimsies is now a finished quilt!  This is my first finish of 2017 and one of the goals on my Q1 FAL list which you can see right here.

After Mysore the other day, we met up with John and Brandy for a dog walk around the Sarasota Harbor.  I carried Whirling Stars under my arm because I knew I could get some great shots.
There wasn't much time to fuss, just get the guys to hang onto the three dogs, quick pose the quilt, and snap the photo.  It was pretty windy to boot.  I love how bright the colours are in the Florida sunshine.
Hoping to show the texture here by the water's edge
The dogs love to paddle and swim out for sticks at this spot.  It's so interesting because this is a peninsula that juts out into the harbor, with a cement wall on one side and this beach on the other, where several sailboats are moored.  I'd hoped to get a good shot by the dolphin statues fountain but the wind was too strong.

You get the idea of the west-facing side of the peninsula.  That apartment building was under construction on our first trip here in 2004. Can it really be 13 years this summer since Dayna's fateful trip?

I quilted this with wavy lines in groups of three, between which I quilted a string of beads or bubbles, big pebbles really.  It was fast and fun.  How I adore my Bernina!  She loves any kind of thread, never has an issue with tension.  Only problem is her small throatplate (kinda like her operator's mouth at the dentist, LOL) but this motif was a breeze.  After I did one row of blocks I had the idea (or rather I was already getting bored!) to switch direction with the lines.  So it has a bit of a woven effect. 

I used Gütermann cotton thread to quilt this quilt.  Not.  One.  Break.  How I love their thread.  I went with white across the entire quilt, first time for doing that. I wasn't sure about it on some of the rich purples and deep reds, but it looks just fine!  It was wonderful not to change threads as I often do.
Of course I made the binding scrappy in rainbow ROYGBIV order!  I machine sewed it to the front and then stitched in the ditch from the front to sew down the back.

I spied some Jen Kingwell Gardenvale fabric on sale for $5.38 at Fat Quarter Shop that I thought might just be perfect for the back:
You can see the rainbow binding and the mmm!quilts label here too
The fabric is still there, in a few colourways, and nope I am not an affiliate, just always on the lookout for good backing fabrics in the sale sections.  I did also apply, as I always do, a cloth label with quilt details written upon it:
 Of course I hung the quilt in a tree! That massive banyan from the first picture to be exact:

and this one:

rolled up:


Quilt Stats:
Pattern:  Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2016 Original Design (yes, I plan to write up the pattern)
Size: 48.5 X 60.5 as a flimsy; 46 7/8" X 59.5" after quilting and washing
Fabric:  scraps and leftovers, except for the backing which is Gardenvale "Meg" by Jen Kingwell for Moda
Batting: Pellon Nature's Touch 100% cotton
Quilted: on my Bernina
Threads:  pieced mostly with Gütermann 100% cotton and some Mettler 100% cotton; quilted with Gütermann white 100% cotton

In other news of finishes, I finished my second book of 2017, A Walk Across France by Miles Morland (good), finished watching "The Queen" on Netflix, (loved it) and completed a second quilt project!  I've been pretty productive so far.  I'm 2/3 of the way through season 1 of "Gilmore Girls", two episodes into to Season 1 of "Murdoch Mysteries", and back to finishing season 3 of "Call the Midwife".  Also started season 2 of "Nikita", a show I love and watched a lot of when it aired in the late 90s. It was ahead of its time and is eerily similar to events going on today in the world. So I am definitely watching more TV, as well as reading a bit more.  No knitting yet.  I've started Merle's Door by Ted Kerasote, which has pulled me in immediately.  It's a dog story, another non-fiction.  I've completed 12 designs in the #30quiltdesignschallenge2017.  There will be a second draw this evening for a $15 gift certificate to The Red Hen Shop.  It's not too late to join the group of us.  Here are my latest two:
#11 Oh My Stars! and #12 Raspberry Swing, on the Quiltography for iPad app which is a terrific little app. Those are all my own fabrics I scanned in (take a photo and it adds it to your library of stash)

Be sure to check out Craftsy today and all weekend. They put on a surprise classes sale (hundreds of 'em under $20) and they are also having a big supplies sale this weekend, up to 60% off.  Have you kept up with all seven of "The Midnight Quilt Show" episodes?  Not only great quilts does Angela whip up after the kids are in bed, but she's a hoot to watch! But first, I think I'll take a leedle peek at the supplies...
Bella taking a 'leedle peek' at me as I bent over the last few hand stitches of the binding for second finish of 2017.  She kept reaching through, gently swatting at me.  This is also a sneak peek at a my second DrEAMi! (no wonder I'm behind in birthday quilts)

The first DrEAMi! linkup is tomorrow, Saturday, January 28!  That link explains it more fully if you haven't heard of this yet.  Hope you'll join me, either to link up your distracted moment or squirrel, or to check out some others, or to do both!

Linking up
Crazy Mom Quilts
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
TGIFF at Faith and Fabric today
soscrappy for her special finished RSC quilts linky on Jan. 31
Scraptastic Tuesday 
Cut and Alter for the Q1 FAL Link Up

29 comments:

  1. Great finish and great scrappy quilt!

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  2. Oh, I love that you chose to break up the wavy lines with the bubbles. It adds a touch of whimsy and is a lovely detail. Congratulations on the finish; I do love that alternating layout you chose to go with.

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  3. This is such a beautiful finish. The colors do look beautiful in the sun. The first thing I noticed was the rainbow binding. It was the perfect finishing touch.

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  4. What an AWESOME Rainbow Scrap Challenge finish!!!

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  5. Yes what an awesome rainbow quilt, I lurve it so much .. and the quilting is superb😀 great pics as always. Hugs from your friend across the water xx

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  6. Wow nice finish. I am not one of those people yet but I do want to make something rainbow. One of these days. Love your photo shoot too.

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  7. Beautiful finish, I love your scrappy stars and I'm always so impressed when people can actually FMQ on a DSM. Straight line quilting is all I can manage and not very well, at that!!

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  8. So much in this post to talk about ! Love the finished quilt , the quilting Suberb as always . Great photos . And the banyan tree ! Fantastic . I keep meaning to watch these yiu tube angela Walters . Must get into that . And the Gilmore girls ? Is it worth my buying the DVDs ? And I'm finally starting knitting the sleeves !

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  9. What a great finish! I love the quilting and the binding, but my favorite thing in this whole post is the sunshine! Send it up this way, could you? :)

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  10. Beautiful cat :) I really like your use of low volume fabrics. I learned about how to view those From Bonnie K Hunter last year quilt along.

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  11. I think your finished quilt is beautiful - and simply love Bella. I too have a fur baby, Zoey, and she loves to "help" me quilt, mainly by inspecting/sitting on any fabrics I happen to lay out or be working on.

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    1. Not sure you'll come back, Joan, but I can't reach you any other way because you are a no-reply blogger (see below for how to fix this). She loves my sewing room as much as I do I think! Thanks for the love on this quilt; I just love it. Who knew out of a bunch of bitty scraps, many decades old, could come this beauty?!

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  12. What a beautiful quilt, Sandra! I LOVE star quilts! Thanks for the inspiration to keep moving on my UFOs!

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  13. Oh just magnificent!!! I'd love to feel that texture!!

    Oh those TREES💓

    Oh Bella ❤❤

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  14. Hurray for a beautiful finish and a beautiful setting to show off your quilt. I really like the layout of the stars and how you used "quieter" colors in the half-stars. Do you use Pellon's Nature Touch much? I came this close to buying some by the yard the other day, and then I read a tag on it that said to soak, squeeze out moisture and air dry before using and that scared me off. Do you do that? I see it didn't shrink much at all for you.

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  15. Oh that looks so good. Look forward to seeing a pattern, the quilting is just lovely and really sets it all off so well.

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  16. Very pretty quilt. I love star quilts. A great scrappy pattern.

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  17. Congrats on your finish and a lovely one too! That big ole Banyan dwarfed your quilt, wow it must be huge!

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  18. Congrats on a beautiful finish. Love your photo shoot shots, very fun to see all the different scenes with the quilt as the focus.

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  19. Well done for getting one finished, so satisfying and it looks awesome!

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  20. This is a gorgeous quilt....and it is a testament to what you can do with scraps....I guess I'll keep saving up my scraps for when I retire....I was thinking of pitching them the other day l.o.l.

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  21. The quilt the picture settings everything about this is beautiful!!! I think your idea of breaking into a different quilt motif in between the lines was spot on.

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  22. Love it. It's so colourful. Am jealous that you have lots of daylight and sun. Please send some to us!!!

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  23. What a great finish - interesting to read that lots of people have blocks but not finished tops. The photo shoot is wonderful - love to see quilts out and about!

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  24. Beautiful finish! I love your scrappy stars.

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    1. Thank you so much Malgorzata! I can't find you because you are a no-reply blogger (see below for how to maybe fix this?) or add your email in with your comment. :-)

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  25. A wonderful scrappy quilt! And some great photos too!

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  26. Whirling stars is beautiful and I'm so glad you finished it! Thanks for linking up to #scraptastictuesday. Now what about that other flimsy??

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I wholeheartedly appreciate you taking the time to leave a comment, as they make my day! I answer every one by personal email. :-) Unless... you are a "no-reply" blogger, which can occur for a few reasons. You can get around that by writing out your email within your comment so that I can answer you.