Another Summer Finish

This one came together relatively quickly and jumped right to the head of the queue.

70" x 90"

Last Summer (or perhaps early Fall) our Fearless Leader Linda ("our" = Community First! Quilters) asked if someone would take home and finish a flimsy that had been donated (one of two). Since I had just made a bunch of backings (and Franken-ed a bunch of batts), I could readily picture an appropriate matching and therefore raised my hand to volunteer.

Both flimsies were created from the "Rustling Leaves Quilt" kits sold by JoAnn's Fabrics back in 2011. The original maker also bought several packages of matching binding. With the flimsy, I brought home some of those packages and all the extra light leafy fabric that had been given to Linda. I don't like square quilts for beds, so I used some of the packaged binding and some of the light fabric to create top and bottom borders on the flimsy.

Yes, in this setting the new borders look like left and right, instead of top and bottom.

While we're on the subject, here's the back:

71" x 86"

It was quilted in an overall leaf stipple ...

... using these threads.

^------Top                     Bobbin----^

I used the packaged binding to bind this quilt (what a concept, neh?) I brought the finished quilt to the January meeting of the Community First! Quilters. (I might not have felt like blogging about it at the time, but I knew I'd want pictures for posterity.)

I had so much of the packaged binding left over that I decided to use it in a string setting I had seen on the Heartstrings group.

Mine isn't as vibrant as Stephanie's, but when you start with a harvest-y middle....

I had enough of this left-over packaged binding fabric (the orange/gold/green bubbles) to make 28 string blocks. I put this project on hold until Linda showed us the other donated flimsy she finished in May.

I had asked Linda to keep any leftover binding for me, but sadly there wasn't any. I thought briefly about trying to find an appropriate brown or green or orange or gold fabric to use for the middle strip of the other 35 blocks I'd need, but could never find anything I liked in the overwhelming CF!Q stash. It finally occurred to me to use the rest of the light leafy fabric instead.

Duh, Carolyn!

I used this fabric as binding as well. There's still plenty left (which is a shame, as it feels quite cheap).

For this string top I chose to try foundation piecing again, but this time I used a much lighter fabric as the base: all the cheap, lightweight poly/cotton fabrics that had been donated in the legacy stashes.

Instead of batting this time, I used large chunks of flannel scraps--trimmings from projects quilted on the long-arms where one of the CF!Q members worked. I backed it with another of last Summer's backings.

The quilting was a combination of my favorite rolling wave through the center strips, straight lines through the center of each striped strip, and undulating lines to and from the center.

I used up two cones (you can see some of the flannel scraps in the upper right corner) ...

^----Top                  Bobbin----^

                                                                 

... then finished up with these:

^----Bobbin          Top----^

This Saturday it'll be given over to Linda and eventually find its way to its forever home with a new resident of Community First! Village.