First Flimsy Finish of 2016

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Back to my regularly scheduled blog post! I have a flimsy finish! Remember all of these?

200 HSTs left over from Jason's quilt. . .

What to do with them?? I was sick of moving them from place to place. Cutting table to ironing board, ironing board to industrial sewing machine (aka catch all drop place for items I don't have time the inclination to put away). I finally put them on my cutting board and started trimming. . . and trimming. . . and trimming. . . on breaks (there were many) I did image searches of HST quilts. . . Have you ever done that??? Ummmm. . . let's just say that's one HUGE rabbit hole!! :) Initially I was going to do a broken chevron layout. But then I came upon this quilt. O.M.G. MUST make and hey, I just happen to have a ton of HSTs!

I'm not going to lie, when I decided I was going to do a quilt like the one shown on the post linked above, I did not realize that there were four stars in the outlying corners of the quilt. . . I thought it was just pretty cool looking random placement . . . happy mistake! Imagine my surprise when I put the one corner up on the wall and saw that star!! LOL I might have clapped and a happy dance might have commenced. . . and my husband, who was home at the time, is even more convinced that I have lost my mind! ;)

Here is the picture I showed a couple of posts ago:

I was pretty excited about it at this point!

At this point I knew one thing, the quilt needed to be bigger. Why? I want to be able to cover up head to toe in a quilt, this one was going to be pretty small, those HSTs finish at 3.5". And then there was the little problem of not having enough HSTs to finish the top. . . I had scraps left of the bundle and had to really be creative and do some scant scant 1/4" seams :) it worked out, I made 20 more and then started playing with the border. Several had suggested extending the gray out to the corners. I had been thinking the same thing! When something works, it works! I 'found' the perfect fabric in a recent purchase from Canton Village, Medium Periwinkle Blue Essex Linen. . . YESS!!!

Ummm. . . YES, YES, YES!!! :) More clapping and a little happy dance ensued!

TIP FOR GETTING ALMOST ALL OF YOUR POINTS 'PERFECT'!
I figured at this point, I could put solid borders on so now to sew this baby together. Yikes! There are lots of seams to match in this top! The going was VERY slow. I pinned AND glued. Both?? Yup, both. Here's how I did it, I put a little Elmer's glue stick glue (any washable glue will do and a little dab will do ya! haha) on the edge of the fabric just before and right up to where the intersection should go (you know, in the point, 1/4' up from the edge. Then I put a pin through the top block exactly where I wanted the seam line to go, put it through the block I had just put glue on at the precise point where I wanted the seam to hit and pressed the blocks together. I did this when I was sewing rows together, not when I was sewing the blocks into rows. Worked like a dream! And yes, had I been seriously anal about getting all of those points absolutely perfect, I would have done the same thing when I was sewing the blocks into rows. Let's be honest, if I did that I'd still be sewing this sucker together and I wanted to get it done. My attention span for this little project was beginning to wane a bit and I'm pattern testing again so I needed to get this finished! And yes, next time I do this I will take pictures along the way. I was so excited about getting this top together I did not take pictures. . .

Still not big enough. . . what to do? Those little pops of orange were really calling to me. . . what about a pop of orange for a border? . . . uh, heck yeah! :)

BAM!

At this point, I debated many things for additional borders. Star blocks. More of the blue (except the corners, those I thought I would continue to extend). . . checkerboard. . . but with what fabric? definitely not enough of the Doe bundle left to do anything around the border. Then the top spoke to me. "I'm finished. I'm small. Get over it." :) Alrighty then! Some more pictures. . . maybe more than some ;)

Enlarge this picture and check out those points! ;)

I decided to try a different place with less direct sun. One of the benefits of a smaller top, more options for hanging for photos! LOL

I have made no secret of the fact that I was not exactly in love with the Doe line when I bought the bundle. . . but I love this top!! :)

And can I just say that I am completely smitten by Essex Linen??? That orange is Essex Linen in Carrot.

And one more full shot in the not direct sun position :)

Can you believe I was able to sew the entire top together without flipping or misplacing one block?? Yeah, me either!! LOL

The top finished at 58" x 64". I'm dealing with it ;) I'm thinking another is in my future, with bigger blocks. . . and rainbow colors? . . . hmmmm..... The other thing that was confirmed in the making of this quilt is that I am a big block girl and I cannot lie! Every time I make a quilt with small blocks I think I will never do it again. . . I have to admit though, I'm pretty happy with how those 'bonus' HSTs grew up!

I finished this flimsy last weekend. I started a new top yesterday. It is a test quilt so you won't be seeing much of it until the big reveal. There are however points that need to be perfect. No really, they do and I'll be using my pin and glue method. I'll take pictures. And I'll post more on the gluing using a pin method. Once the test quilt top is sewn together (will be quick), I'll start quilting this top. I will definitely be sharing that ;)

Linking up with Finish it up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts. SO much inspiration over there!!

So until next time, keep on quilting!!