Another Floral Finish

Yippee, skippy!

72" x 91" (I've since cleaned off the smudge that makes that vertical strip look faded and blurry.)

I started these blocks as regular strips-of-three: three 3.5" (raw) floral squares sewn together to make the center strip, then flanked by two 3.5"x9.5" strips of teal. When I ran out of fabric scraps from which I could make full 3.5" squares, I cut 3.5"x any other size and pieced those together to make a 9.5" strip. Sometimes, too, if the piece was 3.5" x 4+", I'd leave the extra length rather than cut it off and throw it out. Here's an example of both types:

Lots of non-3.5"-square scraps sewn together for the horizontal blocks above, three standard 3.5" squares sewn together for the top vertical block on the right.

I tried placing all the blocks in the typical stairstepping configuration of a rail fence, but the lighter blocks all ended up in one corner, like a mistake. So I gave this woven effect a try and rather like the outcome.

I had custody of the green and teal CF!Q legacy stash fabrics over the holidays, so I dove in to find something for the backing.

The bright teal (upper right) is the final length from my stash. There was the ubiquitous Jinny Beyer print, and two cuts of the bright graphic piece ("Wonderlust" by Paula Nadelstern, pattern "Tapestry", 1711). I think the former owner(s?) wanted to do a kaleidoscope quilt, don't you?

Computer plan, followed by the actual back:

Quilting was utilitarian: straight lines up one side of each long rail, down the middle, then up the other side. I started with the floral rails first, quilting them using my rapidly-diminishing cone of King Tut "Nefertiti". This time, however, I tried something different with the threading. I've noticed for some time now that cones tend to twist up on themselves when unwound from the top. So for this project I placed a spool pin on the machine's bobbin winder post . . .

. . . then I pulled down an extra CD storage container/holder (from when I'd buy them 50 and 100 at a time for chorus purposes) and put the cone on that, then put the whole thing on the spool pin so it could rotate freely.

From there I threaded the machine as if this were a regular spool--straight (horizontally) off the cone. It worked a treat--no twisting and snarling of the thread. I wonder why it is we've been fed that nonsense about cones doing better when unwound from above?

For the teal fabrics (and bobbin) I used a new thread I bought recently after a holiday gig. I was in a new town and passed a quilt store between commitments, so popped in when the afternoon was done and bought this thread as a memento of the day. I knew it would be perfect for this quilt. (I threaded it horizontally too.)

It's been very blowy all day so I took advantage of the wind to shoot another view of the quilting:

The binding came from two FQs gifted me from our Magpie Celia's stash. When her daughter reached out to the "nest", I requested any stripes. This was a different type of fabric than I'd've ever bought, both very loosely and very thickly woven:

front                                                              back

The more I worked with it the more I started to question whether it would end up on the quilt at all--those decorative bands made for some very thick seams in places! It didn't surprise me that it would fall in a corner.

I baste the corners down by hand before sewing the entire binding down by machine, so I was able to manipulate that thick section with the care and time necessary. I was pleasantly surprised that only one corner was adversely involved!

Now that this is finished, it's time to pull out the project I committed to back in October and is due at the end of this month: a machine-appliqued block to be made into a wall hanging for the owner of the shop at which the Community First! Quilters meet 7 times a year.

Twelve of us took a block, and I'd be willing to bet twelve of us have waited until this month to pull it out and regret our decision.

A previous wall hanging depicting the community areas and various types of small homes provided to the residents of Community First! Village