Halo Medallion Quilt

It is so difficult at times trying to 

keep my halo perfectly centered.

(sigh)

And the same has been true 

as I've worked on my Halo Medallion Quilt,

the BOM available from The Quilt Show.

But, I'm happy to say,

the top is complete

and everything does appear to be perfectly centered.

 92" x92"

 The quilt was designed by

the late Sue Garman.

And working over the course

of the last 12 months, I have come to a few

new realizations. 

1.  Paper Piecing is not my cup of tea.

The entire quilt was presented as a paper piecing project.

I learned early on

 that  I would use that technique only when absolutely necessary,

like with the center medallion and, of course,

the circular flying geese. 

Most of the other borders that were

 pinwheels or hst's I felt I could 

use other methods and be just as accurate.

Isn't it great that there are a variety of 

ways to achieve the same results?

2. Fussy Cutting is not for the Frugal Fabric Cutters

If you can't stand having your

favorite yardage ending up like this skip ahead to #3,

but for those of us who get a burst of excitement and pleasure

out of creating wonderful secondary patterns and designs with the fabric

this is just a natural consequence. 

3. Round and Round We Go

When a quilt is made with a center square and then entirely of borders,

we may not realize how many times you must sew around and around.....

This quilt consists of 19 individual borders beyond the feathered star center.

Do the math

4 sides X 19 borders = 76

That means sewing around the quilt 76 times 

and trying to keep it square!

As the quilt grows so does the amount of time

and the amount of yardage you're wrestling 

with each application.

4.  Floaties are a Life Saver

Okay, that's a good thing at the pool,

but it's also true in quilt making.

Knowing how to figure out the size
 of those floating border strips

between the pieced borders is essential.

Just because the pattern says to cut them a 

particular width and length, we all know

that isn't always right. 

As my quilt grew and grew, I found

I needed to adjust those floaties.

Learning to adapt a pattern keeps

everyone happy and merrily swimming along. 

Each new quilt and stitching project

can give you new insight into what you like

or not like to do.

It can add more tools for your tool belt

as we continue to create the quilts we love.

Both of myself and the quilt are super happy

to be finished.

In fact, I'm simply beaming.

 Until Next Time-

Kyle

Animals on the Savannah

It was a delightful day

when I could finally

introduce my 5 month old grandson,

Weston,

to his quilt.

You can see he's thrilled.

Well, as much as a 5 month old can be.

It was a kit that I had bought

from Fat Quarter Shop.

After some initial issues, 

it went together quickly.

 Check here for the back story if you'd like.

Then it was off to my quilter,

Debi, who did some marvelous custom quilting.

The background around each of the animals is 

a solid.  Look at the quilting she did.

It makes each of the figures pop.

I'm usually not into heavy machine quilting,

but for some reason this just seemed to fit.

I love the pattern variations down the center.

It adds lots of texture to compliment the prints

and the animals.

 Debi did a wonderful job.

The backing was made up 

of all the leftover pieces

 and will be as much fun to look at 

as the front.

I'm thinking this quilt will stay

at Nana's house for awhile.

 It will be a fun place to play

especially with Running Man.

Until Next Time-

Kyle

Quick, Easy, and Sweet

Last week was one of those 

weeks that was super busy

all for good and happy reasons.

Meet Weston Kimani Wolfe

Born May 10

7 lbs. 15 oz.

My 4th grand baby.

****

Stitching and sewing

definitely took a back seat, but

I had recently finished two projects.

First, were the "Sister Quilts" that I made

for my trip to the Netherlands.

The design was from this new book,

Simple Friendship

by Kim Diehl and Jo Morton.

Looking through my stash,  I quickly

chose this border and then easily planned the color

scheme around it.

Vintage browns and pinks always work.

Some simple machine quilting 

and these two quilts were finished 

and ready to share.

Simple Friendship is an excellent book written 

with the idea of exchanging blocks with friends or

easily sewing them yourself.

Both Jo and Kim share their interpretations of the same

blocks and patterns.  It's always interesting 

to see how different that can be.

My second finish was

working on this simple

embroidery while recently flying for a total of 22 hours.

Needless to say,

it didn't take me that long to stitch!

I had purchased the vintage linen towel at 

an antique show a while ago and my friend Becky found

the darling chicks on Pinterest.

I did some crayon tinting

and the embroidery was done with Cosmos

embroidery floss.

Quick, Easy and Sweet all rolled into one.

I'm not sure how Quick and Easy

the week was for my daughter,

but for me 

it was pretty Sweet!

Until Next Time-

Kyle