What?!? July 9th? How did that happen? The quilt show is only one month away! I'd better start finishing some quilts!
And so it began. Quilt Central. One month of focusing and no playing allowed. If I wandered from my goal, I was afraid I'd hear heavy footsteps, and then: "Ma'm, put your hands in the air and step away from that machine." "But officer, I just wanted to try this one block...."
Well, the quilt show launched yesterday,
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| Photo courtesy The Cuddle Quilter To see more, go HERE! |
and I'm pleased to say, I made it. I walked in on Wednesday morning with a laundry basket chuck-a-lucka-full. Never thought to stop and document this in photographs. Even my blogging instincts were quelled while I quilted. And quilted. And quilted. If you know me, you'll understand that I am a very pokey quilter. If it takes you a week, it takes me a month!
I brought ten pieces, but 6 of them were baby to crib size quilts. Only four were of any substantial size. Three were UFOs, only one was new this summer.
This is my new quilt, Preppy the Whale. My goal was to make 72 whales. When I reached 36, I said, "Enough is enough." I sewed them together, then waited for weeks to find just the right backing. The whales are all Free Spirit Solids, but the back is Cotton and Steel.
A winning combination!
Now, I hate to admit this, but by the time I had this all together, I was d-o-n-e! So I called my local long armer, arranged to have it edge to edged (which I'd have done, anyway), and practically threw it at her when I dropped it off! "Take this! I'm sick of working on it!" Lucky for me, her machine was free at that moment and it was returned to me just a few days later! Thanks ever so much, Colleen!
Also included in my laundry basket full of goodies were these two quilts, both UFOs.
This quilt was a 'to go' project 8 years ago. Thought it was time to finish it up! The back is a black batik with yellow to red dots. Very pretty.
Sometimes, what we see in our mind's eye isn't what we get. Such is the case with this quilt. But it still came out okay. Different.
A little tip:
I was cleaning up threads from the back of a finished top....and remembered a suggestion that a quilter had written into a magazine. I cut a little piece of a batting scrap and pinned it to the end of my ironing board. It was a great way to collect all my little thread pieces in one place, eliminating a messy clean up when I was finished!
And last but certainly not least, another scrumptious recipe to share. Sheila made this for our Round Robin Exchange, and I couldn't get enough of it. She was kind enough to send me a link to the recipe.
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| Butternut Squash and Cranberry Quinoa Salad |
36 comments:
Wow Karen, that is impressive and everything looks gorgeous. Thanks also for the delicious sounding recipe :)
Hi Karen,wow love your whale quilt,well done on making so much in time for the quilt show,you sure are clever my friend .
Thankyou for the recipe I will make this one,it looks yummy xx
Wow! What fun quilts! I love the whales. :)
I get what it's like to just be done with a project, but that whale quilt turned out gorgeous!! Tell me you've made up with it :) I hopped over the the FB page, I love seeing all those quilts displayed in the church, it's just beautiful. Our guild has discussed trying to do this, but so far its just not happened.
WOW! You been super busy...and your results are outstanding...the whales are sooooo cute love that one! Good luck keep us posted.
Great quilts! I love your whales. You did fantastic. Good for you for sticking with it.
What a great post Karen enjoyed it very much
Holy WOW girl!!!! No wonder you've been quiet! Love the whales [utterly perfect backing fabric, btw], the flowers, the color dots - oh my that's amazing! Gorgeous quilting as well!
what a lovely set of quilts.... they are really wonderful and you must be so pleased to have them all done now... I'm sure they were much appreciated at the show...
That salad sounds just lovely.... I must try it...
Hugz
Wow. You have been busy. Hope the show is a success.
Fingers crossed for the show Karen. I just love Preppy, and you chose the perfect backing, I'm betting it will be the first to go, thT said the pick up and go quilt with the circles is beautiful, far to lovely to be a UFO. I like the sound of your salad and I think I already have the ingredients. Very healthy. I'll be waiting to find out how it all went. X
Awesome quilts, Karen! Like everyone else, my favourite is the whales :) (72 would have been a HUGE quilt!!)
I am not really one for deadlines, so props to you for everything you did!! Beautiful work and I really love that circle quilt. As well as those whales!!!
All beautiful quilts Karen but my favourite is the circles one. I love the way you have set it off centre. Stunning. xx
So THAT'S why we haven't seen you around! Well done, my friend. I especially love the whales! And you obviously did find the perfect backing. And now I"m going to go check out that recipe. Looks yummy.
Your quilts are fantastic! So glad that you were able to finish them in time. So glad to see them at the show!
You sure did an awesome job on all these quilts. Preppy is so gorgeous! I love it so much. Your to-go quilt is lovely too. Eight years, not bad. But I must say, and I know how you feel about your dark thread on the circle quilt, seriously, it is fabulous, girl! So creative and unique. Proud of you for taking it up a notch and for not settling for easy. I would say that it paid off big time.
Congrats on so many great entries! I love the whale quilt!
I'm so impressed with all your finishes this summer! Wow. I can't help thinking, "This should have been me!" W-a-a-h. But no crying over spilt milk. Your quilts are lovely! I sure like Preppy Whales and that perfect backing! Mwah! But that gray and white background one with circles (did you hand appliqué those?) is the best. Wow-ee! Love it. So modern-looking. Is it your own design? Did you do that gorgeous quilting too? It's definitely show-worthy. So is this the place where you offered your quilts for sale? And did you sell any? I sure hope so!
LOL....you crack me up. Great quilts. Did they let you out on bail??
Wow Karen you put in a mighty effort, how pleased you must have been with your very full basket!
Love the whales, and yes indeed the backing is perfect.
The quilts are all gorgeous. Congrats on all the finishes.
Gosh, Karen, 10 quilts? That's amazing! I love the bright, cheery colors of your quilts. Your color choices look really good against the background fabrics that you chose. That whale fabric was worth waiting for!!
Fabulous finishes! You really did put the pedal to the metal, with gorgeous results. The whales might be my favorite - but I didn't see all of the quilts you made! Congratulations on making the deadline.
P. S. When I had a longarm, I always popped a piece of cotton batting scrap on my shoulder, for all those little thread pick offs and ends! There were plenty of scraps, and it went out when it seemed full. I think Linda Taylor told me about that idea.
Hey, Karen. Those are the most interesting quilt designs I've ever seen. My great grandmother used to be good at knitting quilts, but alas, she's been up in heaven for six years, but we still have been inherited with the project of tying quilts and donating them, or even making one for one of my married siblings' babies. Very interesting. :)
I loved all of your pictures...the whale quilt is awesome!
Amazing how you achieved your goal and on time. Lovely quilts you have created. Delicious salad and thank you for sharing the recipe link. I just made Ina Garten's Roasted Butternut Squash Hummus and it is delicious. Now maybe you can enjoy some Summer. <3
Don't you do a happy CRAZY dance when you score the perfect backing? Your whales and my cows--! It's amazing when we 'go dark' what we can accomplish (and a deadline for me gets me head down butt up... Love that rainbow circles quilt! You can send it my way if you're not keeping it lol. Off to check out the recipe! Looks fab.
Congratulations on so many fabulous finishes for your quilt show. The run up is always hectic. I'm like you, many are older projects that the show itself finally sparked to completion. Thanks for idea to use scrap batting for stray threads - the bane of my life.
Whoa... your super talented at making quilts! Just beautiful work!!!
Oh my goodness, there is so much joy and color in this one post and to think that I am so late to the party - tch tch tch. Pokey quilter??? I am just glad that you are a blogger quilter otherwise we would have never met. Love the orange/yellow blossoms quilt. How I wish I could get close to that quilt and really see the pattern, maybe inhale the fabric and ideally snuggle with it. Since whales are really big (I am told) you are just fine making 36 instead of 72 :-D
What are you talking? I love those circles on b/w background and the quilting is picture perfect.
I am so proud of you Karen! You did it! Your Preppy quilt turned out the cutest in the bunch and I you chose the perfect backing for it. It must have been so fun to walk in with a load of quilts and tops to share!
HAHA, now I see what you mean about the whale quilt. That's how I'm feeling about Ana's Quilt. I. can. not. wait. to be finished with this one! You certainly were productive! That salad looks fantastic! I was looking for a vegetarian recipe to make for dinner tonight and this just might be it!
Quilt shows are such fun but so much work. They do motivate us to finish stuff up, don't they.
Love the whale quilt. I know a young man who'd like it.
My blog reading lately is like your quilting....takes me longer than most. LOL! Wowzer...congrats on all of your finishes. Too funny about the whales. I get it. I'm surprised you didn't drive by your quilter and just throw it out the window. LOLOL! Perfect backing. The quilt display is beautiful.
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