1. You can buy the pattern from Tiny Orchard Quilts.
2. I used Tula Pink's Spirit Animal and Kona Snow for the top and binding and Tula Pink
Free Fall wide back fabric in the orchid color way.
3. I custom quilted this top using Superior Thread's So Fine 50 wt in Snow.
4. I used rulers from The Quilted Pineapple.
Things I learned from project:
1. It took around 24 hours of actual quilting time to finish the top and I got pretty bored
with it.
2. It seems like I never have quite the right curve ruler for what I want.
3. I found two areas I'd forgotten to quilt while I was binding. I need to check more
closely as I go along.
4. Even though I took pictures at the beginning, I forgot exactly what I was doing and had
some continuity errors. Write everything down.
5. I used a significant amount of thread with quite a few stops and starts and had a
significant amount of threads to bury when I was finished. In the future, I'd consider
burying threads as I go along. It seems like I think I have everything buried and then I
find more loose ends.
Overall it looks pretty good, but there is definitely room for improvement in my quilting. The pattern itself is great, and very forgiving.
I've started working on my Devil's Tower cross stitch again. I'm finally at the point where it's getting less fussy with the colors.
I am still working on the super ugly quilt. I need to put the outside borders on. The original pattern calls for mitered borders, but I just went with straight for this. It's a fairly large quilt at 72" x 84" once the borders are on. I bought white with black polka dot fabric for the back from JoAnn. They didn't have the yardage I needed, so I have several chunks and the back will have more seams than I'd like, but the price was right. I'm going to quilt it using a Baptist Fan pantograph that I've been wanting to try. I will likely donate this quilt when it's done. The pattern is called Caribbean Nights and was published in Fons & Porter in the January/February 2006 issue. Yup, it's been hanging around for 12 years!
Seriously, what was I thinking with these colors? |
Other than that, I finished painting the closets in the sewing room. I ran out of paint with one coat left in one of the closets! Between the room and the closets, I used about 4.33 gallons.
I have a bunch of projects I need to finish (or start!) as gifts.
We have our state FLL competition this weekend and a school district demonstration one evening next week. We are in the mad rush of final preparation for the competition, but after that things should be smooth sailing for the rest of the year. Maybe I'll actually get my gifts done on time! And hopefully we can get my sewing room done by the new year....
What are you working on?