A FINISH--Strings for Candace

 Apparently, it is my new norm to  miss blogging about my finishes.  This one has been done for close to a week.  Actually, it is a near-copy of a former finish.

 A friend was visiting a few weeks ago, and really loved the colors in a little quilt that Marley Jo, my younger cat, has shown a preference for.  Anytime it is spread out on a chair , Marley makes a bee-line to hop up onto it and get comfy.   This is it (the original quilt), below, in 2 photos.  I originally used it as a table-topper, but it turned out to be a wonderful leg-cover this past Winter while I rested in the recliner, watching YouTube videos.  That's when MarleyJo got acquainted with it's yumminess as well !

 

My friend loved the colors and wanted to buy one just like it, but bigger.  I volunteered to make one as a gift.  Well.......I tried, but my strings only went so far in matching the original, so the new one wound up being only an inch or so bigger over all.  I haven't seen her yet to give it to her, and if she doesn't want it because of the size, I'll just keep it .  But it's ready, either way !  (they're both around 38 inches square, and flannel backed.)  So these photos below, and the first 3 photos of this post,  are the newer quilt.

( This is a twin bed. )
The two separate quilts have the exact same amount of blocks.  But, due to the differing arrangement of coloring, the original quilt displays 6 full bright diamonds, and 6 half bright diamonds.  The newer quilt, on the other hand, displays 9 full bright diamonds.  The original has two print borders and two scrappy borders.  The borders on the newer quilt are all scrappy.

I presented the quilt to Candace yesterday, and she was absolutely thrilled !  Her final thought was that it was too beautiful to ONLY be a lap quilt, could she possibly hang it on a wall !  So I took it home and added a sleeve.....and went ahead and finally remembered to label it as well .

MODEST TILES-- basted and ready to be quilted

 I got this one ready a week ago, but have been slow to post, and slow to start the quilting.  

 I moved the furniture around and basted it in my living room.  It's pretty long, calling for my longest boards for pinning out.

I'm not sure what I want to do, hand-quilt, machine-quilt, or a combination of both.

Whatever I choose will really show up on those solid fabric rectangles/tiles, so I'm still thinking it over.

 This is another quilt based on a catalog/magazine cut-outs that I have saved in an "inspiration folder".

More photos to come, hopefully, when the quilt is finished !

FINISH--Twin bed quilt--Twinkling Lights (Triangle Quilt)

 This may or may not be my final finish for 2022, but it is a happy finish indeed.  

This has been my hand-quilting project for the last few months, done with a pretty big stitch and 30 wt. quilting thread from Walmart.  Not sure when I started the quilting, but it wasn't more than a few months, if that.  

All machine-pieced a bit at a time, it stayed on my design wall for quite a while.  To back it, I pieced together a grey print that I had yardage of for YEARS, and a magenta print that I obtained recently.  I don't 'do' collections or name brands generally so I can't tell you who these fabrics were by.   I just look through my stash and am thrilled if I have enough of something to cover the back of a quilt.  But I must say that the grey is the most wonderful feeling fabric that I have worked with in years.  I know that I got a fantastic buy on it from Fabric.com years ago, and it has been a difficult one to match to a quilt.  But this one being for me, I was fine with it, and it goes with the grey in the top, right???????

 Batting is 80/20 cotton/poly, probably Fairfield brand from Walmart, but not sure.  Finished measurements of the quilt are approximately 60 inches by 88 inches.  There are, including one half-square block on back for the label, 662 triangles in the quilt.  

So......Merry Christmas to ME, ...........and a very merry and joyous Christmas to you all, most especially those who live alone.  I hope you have wonderful friends and/or family in your life to show you the love of our savior, Christ Jesus, whom we celebrate at this time !  

Love from Dolly.

FINISH (QUILT) for early June.......it's NOT a RUG ! "Plus Diagonal"

Original design

 When I posted a photo of the top of this quilt when I first finished piecing it, a friend later commented that she loved my rug that she saw a photo of !   That was on Facebook where I didn't take the time to explain what it was.     No........although it would make a luscious rug....believe me, I've walked across it a few times while straightening it out for photos.....it is a twin-size topper quilt.  It lacks a few inches being long enough to tuck at the end of the bed, but it will definitely serve to provide an extra layer of warmth on cold nights !

Finishing (before laundering, which I have yet to do) at approximately 63 inches by 81 inches, I used 5 1/2 inch binding strips in solid navy fabric, to give it a wide binding resembling the edge of a blanket. I really like the look.  Although I sewed the binding down to the back side by hand, I took the time to also go around it once, in the ditch from the front side, by machine, just to make sure the edging was more durable.  I hope for the quilt to be used, either by myself or by someone to whom I gift it.

The purple that you see is an extra mattress lying beneath the top one.  So you can see that the end of the quilt just comes over the edge of an average twin mattress, but isn't long enough to tuck.   But the sides are nice and generously long.

I wanted to get a nice close-up shot of the fabric that makes up the background.  From Walmart, it's like a map of the world.......partial, that is.

This backing fabric was sold on Fabric.com, and was 56 or so inches wide.  Thankfully, I had just the right solid color to match the print for the strip down the middle.

In this photo, you can see a bit of the quilting.  The plus blocks were all quilted in the ditch, including around the little green squares on some of the blocks.  Then I did a large meander in all of the background, finally getting  my Jazz 2 to cooperate for some free-motion quilting.