Saturday, April 29, 2023

From Dawn to Dusk

It is with great pleasure that I present to you, not one but two finished quilts! These qualify for my PHD, Projects Half Done challenge, and this means that every one of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts I have made since joining in 2015 are complete! 

I made these blocks during the RSC2016 year, using a pattern in Kim Schaefer's Cozy Modern Quilts. It's a great book, and I need to make some more quilts from it!

That year Angela's theme was a certain colour with a pop of another. It was fun. As I often do, I worked from a light to a dark within each month's colour. Well, I ended up with 54 blocks, half of them 12" x 12" and half of them 8" x 12". When I started to figure out a layout, near month seven or eight, I realized it was going to be one giant quilt. So I stacked up the blocks all pretty, and decided to let them percolate. From time to time I'd pull them out and have a little think... and nope, couldn't wrap my head around exactly what to do.

Until this year. The year of the use it up, get it made theme. That wasn't my theme for the year, but damn, it feels good when I have done just that, whether it be using a beloved 'saved' fabric or giving away an item. So I came up with two quilts, four blocks by six, one using warm colours

and one cool colours.


That took care of eight colour families, four per quilt. What about the ‘brown with a pop of pink’ blocks? Use them on the back! Three on each quilt. Yasss!

The few outside shots were taken in the rain, wind blowing a gale!

I found this 'Turnowsky' for Quilting Treasures pink and orange clouds print that I'd bought on our last trip to Florida in 2020 in the sale section of my favourite Port Charlotte quilt shop. I knew it would work really well with the colours on the front. 
The gales on Friday nicely flipped a corner over for me!

A few hours of measuring and puzzling got the back together. I layered it with some leftover Hobbs 80/20 Cotton/Wool (love that batting), and quilted it up in no time. I used an all-over jigsaw-shape meander, keeping it fairly large.


I decided upon an Aurifil dusky pink thread for quilting. This was yet another, ooh, I don't know, this is a scrap quilt. Then I smacked myself in the forehead (figuratively) and said, why not? I love these fabrics, I love the memories they evoke, so I am using the good stuff!

Then it was Dusk's turn. Here is another case of 'use it!' for the backing of this quilt. This is left over from a yoga mat bag I made years ago. I loved the Jason Yenter lining fabric so much that I bought a couple of yards of it, thinking I'd use it in a quilt or a bag somewhere. Well, it has sat on my shelves long enough, and yes I love it, and I will love seeing it when I use this quilt! I didn't see it much at all unless I was rifling through the stack of blues! I spent rather a lot of time matching up the motifs for this one. Those on either side of the three blocks are not exact-exact, but the upper 1/4 and lower 2/3 of the quilt is exactly matched.


Funny, when I was binding 'Dawn', I noticed how well the motifs lined up on that backing, but that is an illusion; the motifs are smaller and repeated more often, so they come pretty close to matching, and what isn't matched, the eye will do! There is almost nothing left of either backing fabric, mission accomplished!

I used a pretty variegated turquoise Aurifil for this one. Because it is a scraps and stash quilt, I didn't overthink it, as in worry too much about the light turquoise against the navy and eggplant, and am I glad I didn't; the thread blends really well!


I wanted a contrasting quilting motif, alors, (how can you tell I'm in Three Pines dans ma tête) straight lines it was. Part way down the quilt, I switched it up, going vertically, and then went back to horizontal. Adds interest.

I pulled out my bag of leftover binding strips and had plenty for Dusk, but not enough warm strips for Dawn. Out came my red and pink strips box and it wasn't hard to find several more either 2.25" or that I could cut to that width. I machine bound both quilts, using the same Aurifil threads I used to quilt the quilts.

My beloved Bernina has been in the spa in London for a few weeks. She was long overdue for a cleaning, and had been suddenly just digging in her heels, so I knew something was not right. Long story short, she's been ready for over a week: she got a new motor, and we are driving the 175 km to go pick her up today, Saturday, the day I'm working on this post. The Windsor Bernina tech is not up to snuff in my and others’ humble opinions. In the meantime, the first sewing machine I purchased, my darling 1979 Elna Air Electronic, sewed on the binding for both quilts. Each one got a label: cloth for recording information and my last two satin ones from pack number 3! That means 300 projects since I first started applying my satin ones…



They've both been laundered, and I can't wait to throw them on the couch! I may even take turns using them as my yoga class quilt, or my extra layer on my side of the bed.

This makes two of four finishes I should have by April's end for my PHD. Gulp. I need to pull up my .... UFOs! Still, I am very happy. I have only one top, my 150 Canadian Women, awaiting quilting. We won't discuss the in-progress tops, the not-even-started (USOs - Un-Started Objects) projects... I also have missed a personal goal of publishing one pattern by the end of April. Hopefully, I'll be able to focus on my own stuff a bit more now that the major work for this first third of year, which was Project Quilting, Villa Rosa Designs hop, and the magazine quilt, are complete.


Quilt Stats:
Pattern: Red Rover by Kim Schaefer in Cozy Modern Quilts
Size: 48.5" x 66.5"
Fabric: scraps and stash pieced during RSC 2017
Batting: Dawn: Hobbs' 80/20 Cotton/Wool; Dusk: Pellon Nature's Touch 100% cotton
Backing: Dawn: 'Ternowsky' for Quilting Treasures; Dusk: 'Winter Wonderland' by Jason Yenter for In the Beginning Fabrics
Quilted: on Avril: Dawn: 38 973 stitches; Dusk: 41 924 stitches 
Threads: pieced with various; quilted with Aurifil


15 comments:

  1. How old was your Bernina? Mine, given to daughter, is now over 40 years in age and still going. Guess it might need a check up,My QE 440 is now 13years old, and also do to go off for a clean and check up too.Love all your colour combos, it must be the year of using up stash, I have been making designer bags for older daughter ( not the machine recipient) to sell on NZ Marketplace. No fees, all I have had to buy is some fancy hardware, batting and zippers.!!!

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  2. what a wonderful post. envious of all your creativity. thanks for sharing and am looking forward to more happiness coming through your blog! (-:

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  3. Congrats on two beautiful finishes! It's always fun to finish up the older projects on our UFO lists.

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  4. Oh wow!! those are fabulous - and go you on getting all your RSC quilts done!! I really like the way you used the blocks on these and the contrasting pop of color!!!

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  5. I love that you are using those gorgeous fabrics on the back. I still look at some of my saves and wonder if this is the quilt I will use them on. Made a bag last week and grabbed one of those fabrics for the lining. And it felt good to see it in use. The colors of those RSC blocks are so lovely and I like that you split them between two quilts. I love the straight line quilting on the cool colors. I don't know why I never think to go to the 2.5" strip collection for my bindings. I'll have to make a note and hang it on the end of the sewing machine. Congratulations on your wonderful finishes!!

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  6. I hope your Bernina is home safely and back to working really well. So smart to divide the blocks into warm and cool colors, and I do like that each one was quilted slightly differently. Congratulations on finishing up these two UFOs!

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  7. Lovely finishes. Fun to see the differences and similarities between the warm and cool version. Hooray for UFOs finished and a repaired machine waiting for you!

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  8. I love these. I love seeing an "old friend" pop up as finished. I've always loved this particular project. Good job.

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  9. Congrats on the finishes, it always feels so good to get a UFO, PIG or PHD's done and out of the closet!

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  10. Hi Sandra! Two finishes and fabulous ones at that. Of course, I love the warm colors because what's not to love. But the blues . . . come on, there's turquoise and greens and it's gorgeous, too. So, how do you straight-line sew on a longarm? I know about the channel lock for perfectly straight lines. But what about the other way? Do you stitch them all across, and then advance the quilt and continue on? It seems like that would be hard to do . . . unless you unload the quilt and reload it to channel lock stitch again? I love the look of crosshatch but can't figure out the best way to achieve it on a longarm. Oh, and one last question - where did you purchase your labels? I've been poking around on Etsy . . . and can't seem to find one. Enough of my questions. Happy Sunday to you, my friend. Great job! {{Hugs}} ~smile~ Roseanne

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  11. Lovely to see an old RS challenge is done & dusted & that it turned into 2 great quilts. Will you be sharing it as your Favourite Finish for April? Your photos are gorgeous once again. I'd love to be able to help Roseanne (above) with her longarm dilemmas & how to make her own labels, even though I taught myself over time. BTW, I bought my Bernina in 1994 & still call it my new machine (giggle). Take care & hugs.

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  12. Dawn and Dusk, fabulous quilts, perfect names. Always such great photos! I’m off to finish House #5 and do some straight line quilting on my DSM. It’s a struggle! On Dusk, how far apart are your lines of quilting? Thanks, see you on IG!

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  13. I like your finishes and I love your pelican artwork on the chest.

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  14. Congratulations, Sandra!! Both quilts are fabulous!

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  15. Awesome finishes Sandra! I love how these both turned out! It's great to mark things off that PHD list, isn't it? Thanks for sharing them with us at Monday Musings!

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