Friday, July 1, 2016

'How Does Your Garden Grow?" A Finished Quilt!

Hello! First, I want to thank everyone for all of the love shown on my last post wherein I shared the quilt I quilted for CiL. I had so much fun quilting it and was so completely honored that Kat would entrust such a beautiful quilt top to me to quilt! Lots of love and time went into piecing the quilt by Kat and her bee mates at Do good Stitches. These ladies did an awesome job! If you want to donate to Kat's CiL program, her block of the month this month is red, white and blue stars! Check out her post for July blocks containing links to lots of free tutorials for various different star blocks. And who doesn't love to make star blocks??

Now, on to today's finish! Remember the Kaffe Fasset flower collage flimsy I showed you when I reviewed Lara's fabulous book "Crafted Applique"? Well it is finished!! Not only finished, finished AND gifted! To my mom, who received it yesterday. Lots of thank yous, it's beautiful, and where should I hang it, it needs to be somewhere that everyone can see it! :) That makes me smile!

First, here are a few process shots. I used mostly Wonderfil 40 Wt rayon thread for the flowers. For the background, I used Aurifil Long Arm Poly and those glitters you see is Superior Threads Glitter in Steel. If you want a good amount of sparkle in your quilt, I cannot recommend this thread highly enough! Not.One.Break when I was quilting!!
I started in the middle and worked my way out. Even though I only used one layer of wool batting in this quilt, it poofed like I had used two. Which is perfect but I also knew that this quilt had three, sometimes four layers of treated fabric which meant there was very little 'give' to the flowers. That meant the potential for tucks was high and I needed to plan accordingly.


See the shine on the background fabric??? Yes, please!! :D
Here I was attempting to figure out binding. I pinned it onto Purple Haze with just the binding peaking out. That works!
Just had to confirm :)
OK, here we go! The finished quilt :) This quilt makes me smile and I know during those long MN winters, it will make mom and all those weary winter survivors visiting her house smile as well!
And one final parting shot :)
I will definitely be making more of these! Because I followed the patterns in the fabric, I could totally go into a zen kind of place while quilting. The hardest part of quilting was picking the thread color!

I have several other finishes to share! June was spent quilting and piecing with very few breaks for much else including blogging and unfortunately visiting and keeping up with my friends. July doesn't look like it is going to be much different in terms of quilts I need to finish. First up on the list is Pixilated Strategy. . . Yes, #1 fan, the quilting will commence today!

I'm linking up with Finish it up Friday! Need inspiration? Crazy Mom Quilts Friday linky party is definitely the place to go!! :)

Until next time, keep on quilting!
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16 comments:

  1. It looks gorgeous! I love the colors in the flowers and they look awesome with all the texture your quilting added. Thanks for linking to the block drive!

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  2. Beautiful, all over, and your Mum will surely love and treasure this so much.

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  3. This is BEAUTIFUL, Judy! Falling in love with the metallic thread you used in the background. With all that quilty texture, I just want to touch it :)

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  4. Oh this is lovely Judy - as you say a sure way to cheer up any winter blues! I am seeing quite a few flower collages around and have started looking at all my vintage floral sheets in a different way!

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  5. Gorgeous piece Judy. It will certainly bring some cheer to your mom and how wonderful she wants to hang it where it will be seen by others.

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  6. So beautiful, there is a lot of love shining through in the quilt you made for your Mum.

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  7. oh isn't it beautiful! I love the use of the sparkle threads (and so good to know about sparkle that doesn't break) - and what a lovely thought, an eternal garden through the winter!

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  8. Looks like you had fun with this one - a really lovely gift too!

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  9. This is so stunning Judy. I love the addition of the metallic thread. I've never been disappointed with any of the threads from Superior. I have some glitter thread of theirs that I'm dying to try! I'm sure your Mom will love this, and make her smile every time she looks at it! What a fantastic gift!

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  10. This is beautiful I love the sparkle thread you used.

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  11. This is so colorful and cherry, Judy. I am excited that it was received so well by your mom and that it will be there for her day in and day out!

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  12. What a fantastic way to use Kaffe fabrics! Such big, juicy flowers. Lucky Mom!

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  13. Not really my thing but hey look at the beautiful texture on background! :) I also love the tiny details on your flowers.

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  14. Judy, I clicked on and blew up every picture so I could see as many of the incredible details in your work as possible. It's utterly amazing! I love all the choices you made and the glitter thread really adds some Wow factor (which there already was in plenty!) Your mom is one lucky duck! I hope you will link this quilt to the never ending Crafted Applique linky party on BuzzinBumble!

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