Finished ! Autumn Nights twin quilt

 As of midnight, January will be OVER !   Hurrah !  and Hallelujah !  

And I have my second finish for the year, 2022 !

 And,more than that, it is the last of my 'brother quilts' !  I have now finished quilts for all 5 brothers, (large lap/twin-size,) and have presented 4.

This one is for my oldest brother, who turned 75 last November, and whom I got to speak to , this past Christmas, for the first time in atleast 43 years.  We have sent cards on birthday/Christmas, for the last 10 years or so,  since we both have November birthdays,  but we were finally reunited via telephone at Christmas.  And an in-person visit is in the plans for the near future !  I hope he'll be surprised and pleased with this quilt, as I've been made to understand that he and his wife quilt together !

  I pieced this top on July 12 of 2020, and it languished in the closet for a year and a half, with no inspiration for quilting it.  It only came out this year because I bought the backing fabric online (with a different possible future quilt in mind), and the color was not at all what I had expected.

 But then I realized that it was an exact color match for this stripe !  

On January 17, 2022, I brought it out while stuck at home after our massive 9-inch snowstorm, and got it thread-basted in my living room.  

I believe that I worked on getting it basted from about 9 in the morning until 6 p.m. with only a break for lunch. 

Being alone, I even had to stand the framed quilt up against the living room wall in order to reach the very center for basting.

Probably starting the next day, January 18, I machine-quilted it on my Jazz 2, sewing machine, using an open-toe applique foot, and pinning every inch-and-a-half or so on these long stripes, to prevent getting tucks. (I finished quilting on January 28, 2022.)

I drew the cables on with a plastic template, and used a shiny thread for effect.  First time quilting with poly thread; found it to be a bit thin, and easy to fray, but it looks beautiful.  I hope it's durable.

The top measured 70" x 83" before quilting, so I imagine that after a good wash and dry it will be slightly smaller than that.  Good for use on a twin bed, I should think. 

I don't have a pattern to share with you all.  It's just something that I made up as I went along.

 

I used Fairfield's 80/20 cotton/poly batting, ordered from Walmart.com.  Essential Cotton 50 wt. thread in Fawn and Amazon, and Glide 40 polyester thread in Bronze.  The sheen on the poly thread is beautifully highlighting the cables in the four corners.  

 Messing around after tying off threads one night, I laid it out on the couch for a look.  It was all I could do not to decide to keep this one for myself as a lovely couch cover !  But didn't want to give it THAT KIND OF WEAR !

So...........what do you think ?   And what in the world shall I get into next ?????????  Keep a look-out !  You know I'll be sure and try to share it with you whatever it may be !

Come on in, FEBRUARY !!!!!!!!!!

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UPDATE:

I mailed this quilt to my brother at the last of March.  When I spoke to him later, he and his wife both were raving over the quilt.  They really liked it, and she said that these were 'just his colors!".  
 

 

Red Squares quilt, FINISHED ! First finish of 2022.

 

Well, this one has had enough pictures of it shared while it was being made, but this time, it is FINISHED.

 The pattern is a repeat of one that I made in neutrals a couple of years ago.  The name I most recall is "Spot in the Middle",........I don't know; even that sounds wrong now.  Anyway, I don't even know what made me start this one except that it is such a simple block, and fun for playing around when you have a few scraps lying around.  Before you know it, you can have an entire quilt top......and it's one of my favorites !  

This one was pieced on my new JukiTL2010Q sewing machine.  I did not have to pin to make the blocks or to sew the rows together.  That machine is a dream piecer, and I ain't hatin' the thread cutter either !

I cut into every red, pink, and slightly purple that caught me eye, and then found that I had to go into oranges and yellows to have enough blocks.  I didn't want a lot of repeats, so two is about the most of any one print that I used.  

 Like the first quilt, I machine-quilted this one about a half-inch away on each side of each main block-to-block seam (using my Jazz  2 machine).  

Then I went back to add hand-quilting inside and outside of each block's center square, and did the borders in a wavy design. I did a fairly big stitch, but this time I just used white regular quilting thread, not a heavier thread as before.  I alternated between putting a circle or a square in the blocks.  

 The fabrics are quilting cottons, the batting is a cotton/poly contribution from Becky King at the senior center, and the back is pieced.   On top, the two lengthwise borders use part of a Kaffe Fassett half-yard bundle that I recently bought with multiple colorways of the fan print....(I had plenty to do all four borders, but didn't want the quilt to look that 'traditional'). The top and  bottom borders are from Walmart Fat Quarters that I LOVED so much when they came out, that I bought about SIX !  Good thing, too !

On the back, the Paris print is a 2 1/2 yard piece that I bought when Paris was THE DECOR, and my granddaughter was doing her bedroom in it.  I never got around to making her a quilt from it.  She's 18 now and onto other things, but if she wants it now, she'll have to wait for THE WILL !

When I brought out the Paris fabric recently, it felt so silky and smooth, and I"m mad about anything with bicycles,

 so I think the coloring of it is what set me on this red path. Of course, being 43 inches wide, I needed to add pieces to the sides, so after a 3/4 inch grey border, I used remnants of a piece that I bought for my mother, (never got to that quilt either),  but used for my daughter's "I beat cancer" quilt.  So this quilt is MINE, and will remind me of the important gals in my life, my mom, my daughter, and my granddaughter.

It finishes approximately 60 inches x 72 inches.....tops my twin bed without an end tuck.  That's perfect for adding an additional layer on these colder nights, and for adding color to the room.