I whined and complained about fraying, lumps, bumps, and stretching.
When I wrote about piecing Photo Finish last November, I apparently wasn't thrilled with the fabric behavior.
I worried.

This past week my experience with Photo Finish was entirely the opposite as I brought this quilt to its completion.
I smiled.
I took lots of pictures.
I loved the denim-y look and softness.

"What better way than photos would describe this finish?"
I reasoned.

So here is the finish of Photo Finish in photos.

Photo Finish
approximately 585 pieces
58" x 58"

Behind the scenes a Bernina hums.
My third quilt finished by this Bernina will not be the last.

During the quilting process I may have doubted my design decision.

I stitched. I refilled the bobbin.
I stitched. I refilled the bobbin.
I stitched.
I stitched.

Lines. Lines. Lines.

In the end I achieved the look I envisioned.

The design is my own using a jellyroll of Behind the Scenes fabric by Jen Kingwell.

Behind the Scenes
336 pieces
53" x 55"

Immediately after I finished piecing my Pearls quilt, I used some of the scraps to make a Sun and Moon block. It hung unfinished in my sewing room for months before I decided to finish it as an official wall hanging. Unfortunately, after I quilted it and added binding, I didn't like it.
Back to the seam ripper I went, then the machine, and now it is a pillow.

Much much better.
Fits perfectly on the bed in our guest room.

Sun and Moon
16" x 16"

I did it! I managed to quilt my first quilt on my new Bernina!

Bernina and Hey Dot! cooperated well with each other.
 I stuck with simple "in the ditch" quilting, and I am pleased.

Hey Dot! is named after its fabric, a bright and cheerful collection by Brigette Heitland of Zen Chic.
The pattern uses a jellyroll and was created by Keepsake Quilting.



               Fun! I recommend it.

The bright orange back smiles with lots more dots.

Hey Dot!
56" x 56"

It's in the bag!

This bag contains Floret and is ready to be delivered.
As it is truly one of my top favorites, only a sister is allowed to adopt and love this quilt. I can't wait until she has it in her home!

Floret began with a pattern by Corey Yoder of Coriander Quilts.
I love changing an existing pattern and making the end result my own, as you can see from these two photos.
The fabric is by Vanessa Goertzen of Lella Boutique.
Tammy of Three Sisters Longarm Quilting  "frosted" it with Diagonal Plaid, which turned out to be perfect for this quilt.

Floret
87" x 87"

Ever since I made this quilt for my sister C  back in 2013,
I have wanted to make similar green and white one for myself.
I did it!

I found this kit for a quilt called Bamboo Forest from the Fat Quarter Shop using Cluck Cluck Sew's pattern Morning Glory.
As there are no naturally occurring bamboo forests in Northern Indiana, I am naming my quilt Morning Glory, after the pattern.

I will now have my own green and white quilt.

Morning Glory
68" x 78"

My End of the Rainbow quilt top is finished.
I genuinely enjoyed my first experience with purple fabrics,
and I totally fell in love with the scrap details.

The unexpected mix of different fabrics...

The discovery of text within the quilt...

The tiniest of pieces...
(the little green square is less than 1/4 inch)

And the coming together of colors at the main intersections.
(In this photo, the top right angle of the light aqua triangle points to a main intersection.)

These details you need to be up close to see.

But looking from a distance?
You see the rainbow.

End of the Rainbow
75" x 75"

Willy nilly scrappy quilts are usually awful, sometimes okay, but rarely wonderful. I always am on the lookout for those wonderful ones because I have fabric scraps that are too beautiful to throw away.
When Melissa Corry put this picture on the cover of her book Irish Chain Quilts: Contemporary Twists on a Classic Design, I marveled at the success she achieved using scraps, even the tiniest ones, into a controlled and beautiful design.

I took my time contemplating this End of the Rainbow quilt.
The joy of this quilt comes from not only using those beautiful scraps, but the memories I have of making the quilts that produced them.
The quilt indeed is the "end of the rainbow."

 Yet her process of what I call "sew and slice" made me wonder.
That wild? Really?
I decided to try out one block. It seemed to work.
I kept going. It seemed to worked.

Truly I have reduced my box of scraps, even the scraps of the low volume fabrics for the background.

But the purple! I knew this was going to be a problem every step of the way. You see, I have zero purple fabric in my scrap box.
Zero.
How obvious is it that I am not drawn to the color purple.
Perhaps I could make mine without purple by putting extra blocks of each color that I do have.
"No," my husband said, "That will not be a complete rainbow."
I decided he was right and went shopping.

Great finds! I love these purples!
How will I ever be able to cut into them so willy nilly?

Since these purples may look a little too perfect, I decided to add a  "borrowed"  lavender gingham scrap from a sister for what I think/hope will be a little sparkle.

I see the End of the Rainbow from here.

You may first notice the successful use of the color orange pieced within the midst of many other colors to make this quilt.
With a closer look you may notice the sewing-themed fabric depicting buttons, pins, scissors, and thread, a fun inclusion.

Yet my favorite part of this quilt is the second border. I have never seen a border pieced in this pattern before, an inventive combination of squares and half square triangles using a combination of high contrast and low contrast fabrics.
It blends perfectly with the squares and triangles of the sashing. So cool.

I would be quite satisfied if I was the designer/maker of the quilt.
I am not.
My contribution was the binding, finishing this quilt for a friend.

I enjoyed binding and taking pictures.
I hope she enjoys the looking and the snuggling!

Three weeks ago I cut red print fabrics for a free pattern called Sister's Choice that I found at fatquartershop.com, an online quilt shop. This block design may be one of my favorites. I made nine.

Sashing and a border for these blocks made a 41" x 41" quilt top.

I am most comfortable with straight line machine quilting on my domestic machine, and this time I changed it up by increasing the number of lines, spacing them less than one half inch apart.

I love the added dimension of these horizontal lines.

In this next picture if you look closely past the cool tulips, the cool tulip shadows, and the dotted border, you will see where I pieced the back.

Sister's Choice
41" x 41"
129 pieces

Well! Hello, Wind!

I did not make this quilt; I only added the binding for a friend of mine.
I decided to photograph and post it here because I was inspired by the gray background and the sixteen patch/postage stamp block variation.
I may need to make one for myself some day.

"Daunting" describes my thoughts of making over a thousand half square triangle blocks for an Ocean Waves quilt.
Yes, but manageable.
To reduce the monotony I rotate between the five steps that it takes to make them.

1. Mark

2. Stitch

3. Cut

4. Press

5. Trim

Taking pictures of the steps makes it fun!
I also take pictures of the box as they accumulate.
It helps me think that I am making progress.

"Slow and steady wins the race," said Tortoise to Hare.

Today's post shares two on-going projects and one finished project.

First, this project box contains enough squares cut from my blues, greens, and light low volume fabrics to make a zillion (give or take a few) half square triangles. Because half square triangles are a bit daunting to make in that amount and because I am not in a hurry, I plan to take my time over the next two years.  Every month or so I will pull this box out and make a few more. Eventually they will be sewn into blocks for an Ocean Waves quilt, a traditional pattern that has been on my list to make for years. Trust me when I say there are two single bed sized quilts in this box. Yes, I believe that eventually I will make two!

This second project box has black fabric cut and ready to make A String of Pearls, a quilt pattern by Melissa Corey, found in her book Irish Chain Quilts: Contemporary Twists on a Classic Design.
As usual, this quilt had me with it's simplicity and minimalism.
Once I actually have the white fabric, this will not take long to make. Need to shop.

Finally, the finished project, Checkerboard Pillow, I made using the scraps from my Voices quilt, pieced in 2015, and quilted in 2016. There were enough leftovers that I could have made another smaller quilt. After planning, cutting, sewing, changing my mind, planning, cutting, sewing, and changing my mind again, I ended up with but one simple pillow.

Simple. Minimal. Yes, it's good.

My husband makes room in his life for driving me to fabric stores. Seriously. Driving to and from our recent ski destination included stops at two fabric stores.
Lucky me!

I stocked up on dots! They go well with another recent acquisition, this Hey Dot jelly roll by Zen Chic.

I began with this pattern called Over and Down Under.

I liked the "woven" look of the strips, but the quilt looked a little too dark and dreary to me.
I wanted ridiculously bright and happy.

Hey Dot
 56" x 56"

My abundant quilt supply readily accommodates quilt donations.
This month I happily donated six quilts.

My church received four pieced tops. Three are pictured here; one of the four, Pottery, I failed to photograph, so I'm showing you a picture of the pattern. My quilt looked fairly similar.

These four tops will be completed and either sold at the Michiana Mennonite Relief Sale or sent overseas for another MCC relief need.

Wrap Them in Love Foundation received two quilts. This organization based in the state of Washington distributes quilts to children worldwide.

I am thrilled that these quilts now have the opportunity to do what they were made to do...keep someone wrapped and warm.