A Winner and A finish!

Good Monday morning! We have a winner and we have a finish :) First the winner of the give away I announced on last Monday's post.  Drum Roll Please! The first number the sequence generator provided was number 4 so the winner is Judy at Furball Farm Quilting!! YAY :) Congratulations, I have already sent an e-mail, please send me your snail mail address and I will get the bundle in the mail to you ASAP (I know how impatient I am when I am waiting for fabric grin)!

I just want to say thank you for all of the very sweet comments I got on that post! Makes a girl feel like she can actually quilt!! haha And welcome to all of those who have started to follow!  Hang on, it gets kinda crazy in here! LOL For those of you who may have missed it, I did finish the triangle quilt in time and posted that finish on Friday, go here to find the finished quilt :) Double YAY!!

On to the triple YAY of the day - I finished Fractured Log Cabin Sunday morning! Just in time to get it all washed and crinkly for the photo shoot!  Two finishes in less than 48 hrs! OK, let's be honest, I had not one finish in April so I have to make up for lost time here.  Anyway, you might recall that I did this one QAYG.  First the pics, then I'll tell you all about what I learned including a tip or two that seriously made the process go a little smoother.  Smoother, not faster - QAYG is NOT a time saving technique.  Cool to be sure but definitely not one to choose because you think you are going to save some time.  Hey, I'm all about saving time but some quilts just lend themselves to QAYG.  Now will I just shut up and show the pictures??? grin

I did all straight line quilting on this one, using my Fine Line Rulers.

There kind of was no rhyme or reason as to what got quilted and what didn't :)

I should have used a rock in the middle so it didn't sag... it really does hang straight :)

The backing pieces are all fabrics that I used on the front.  Admission time - I did not intend for the back to look quite like this.... I ended up putting it on the design wall and taking it off several times.  Each time making sure I got the order right but maybe obviously not the orientation and order of the blocks correct for the back.  The first square in the second row should have been switched with the third one in that row.... probably picked up the rows in different order, or put them back up in a different order.  I don't hate it, I think it is fine.  The pink joining strips makes it tolerable... read, there was NO WAY I was going to rip this baby apart after it was washed. . . and no, I didn't really take a good look at the back again until it was hanging there for the photo shoot :)

Kinda like the chair photos :)

This picture is sideways. . . I think it kinda works sideways LOL Sometimes I can get the rotating thing to work and sometimes I can't... It always works in the editing program, looks fine in the file but when I upload it to Blogger. . . this is what I get.

I did my usual binding 'label.' I'll admit, I was having some problems with this - more on that later.

All folded up and ready to go to its new home :)

Quilt Stats:
Finished Size: 62" x 72"
Fabrics:  The binding and joining strips are Kona Pink. . . These fabrics came from my stash and some from Pink Chalk Fabrics - just LOVE that site, some from Stitch-N-Frame (if you are looking for a great sale... Check this place out! KF and company at times for under $7 a yard!!!) and a few from my LQS.  Some of the included fabrics are Carolyn Friedlander Botanics Coleus Curry, Dena Designs Fox Playground Chevron Yellow, Laura Foster Nicholson Lush Harvest Seeds Yellow, Emily Herrick Technicolor Braid Sun and Rain Collection by Timeless Treasures (yellow). Those are all of the fabrics I could readily identify...
Thread: Superior Threads King Tut Sunflower
Batting: Wool
Pattern: Come on, you know me better than that! I just started with two different sized center squares and kept sewing on strips until I got to the size I wanted. . . pattern schmattern haha The blocks (and by blocks I mean the four blocks sewn together to make the full fractured log cabin) finished at 21.5" square.

As I mentioned, I did this quilt QAYG.  I used the QAYG joining method for Narrow Strips from The Quilting Edge.  I deviated some (of course I did!) in that I did not pin. . . I just don't pin unless I am matching those darn HST seams or trying not to lose triangle points. grin I did however cut the back strips at 1 1/4" and the front strips at 2" and that worked well.  When sewing the top strip onto the front of the quilt I did a straight stitch along the very edge of the seam and quite honestly did not worry much about whether I was in the ditch of the seam on the back or not. . . maybe I should but I didn't :) I then did a second seam on the other side of the strip just because I thought it looked better that way.

Now here's the kicker aha moment I had about half way through.  I saw a recent post on From The Blue Chair wherein she talks about using an "edge joining sewing foot" for binding.  I saw that and thought, I gotta get me one of those! But then as I am sewing along doing the top stitches for the joining strips thinking I really really wish I had one of those, the aha moment hit! Awhile back I bought a Stitch in the Ditch walking foot for my Janome. . . not cheap and I had a very strong dislike for it and it went into the "really wish I had spent that money on fabric instead of that useless tool" drawer. I pulled that foot out and guess what?? It worked exactly like Kati said it would!!! WOOHOO! :) Now why hadn't I thought of that sooner?? I still won't be using it for SITD but you can bet that baby will be on my machine when I am sewing on my bindings!

What I did not experience and AHA moment about was how to reduce the drag of the quilt once I started sewing those rows together.  I have a large sewing table - plenty of hold that quilt up to the left side back a little further than where I am sitting and a good amount of space in front of the machine.  The table is butted up against the wall so the quilt never falls off the table.  One would think I would have been good to go. . . not so much once it got beyond the first row joining.  I don't recall struggling as much with my first QAYG experience. . . What do you do to reduce drag? The other thing I thought is that maybe it is time to take my machine in for service... It has been almost a year since I bought it and as I told my mom last night, I have put a lot of miles on it! LOL

As I mentioned under the first backing picture, the layout did not turn out quite as I had planned.  I knew I should probably turn the blocks around and check one last time before I started sewing but I was kind of anxious to get going. . . Note to self, check layout position on the back before sewing!  It is not a disaster.  It looks fine.  It's just not what I had planned.  

So now I find myself without a project!! Oh my! I actually will be sewing together some backings for Kevin the Quilter's QOV block drive.  If you haven't been over there, check it out!  He's got an incredible drive going on over there and the brightness of the generous quilty hearts across the country (and world) are shining very brightly over there! His button is at the top right sidebar on the blog - check out his more recent posts - enough blocks for over 100 quilts! A.MAZ.ING!  Those backings are going to take me all of about an hour to do. . . hmmmm. . . . I have a design in mind, maybe I will do some playing around today and see if I can get some geese to fly straight with points . . . ;)

Linking up with Patchwork Times, Anything Goes Monday being hosted by Bobbins and Bullets, Free Motion By the River, Quilt Story, Freshly Pieced, Sew Fresh Quilts, NTT and Crazy Mom Quilts.  I'm listing them all ;) I likely will have some clues later in the week for what my next project will be!

Until next time, keep on quilting!!