Friday Finishes

Hooray! A couple of quilt finishes. First up is a quilt for my daughter's partner. He had a big birthday this year and I thought this design would be perfect for him. I bought a kit a few years ago at a local shop then set it aside. It was intended as a 60'' square wall hanging and I knew the perfect place in their home for it. Unfortunately, they put an equally beautiful piece of art there recently. So, with a little manipulation of the pattern and fussy cutting, the quilt became 60'' x 80''! The pattern is Cadence by Pink Hippo Quilts.

  

I think I'm as in love with the back as I am the front! I used all leftover large pieces.

The quilting was a big hit as well. I used the Dominos pantograph by Patricia E. Ritter:  https://www.urbanelementz.com/dominos.html

Next up is a quilt for a family friend. She inherited the top from her grandmother and didn't know how to go about getting it quilted. I volunteered, then later recognized my folly. I had no idea what to do! I asked experienced longarmers about loading a quilt with curved edges, any pitfalls I may encounter, etc. Mind you, I have a longarm but only do pantograph quilting. I am not good at free-hand and custom quilting. Ugh.

I finally sucked up the courage to start and am very happy with the results. I did a bit of "needle sculpting" as I went along to tame a few bubbles that popped up. Just tucked the fullness under another piece and stitched down with silk thread and a fine needle right before quilting that row. It worked out great and now I'm ready to tackle another vintage quilt that a friend gave me.

Did I mention I already had the perfect backing on hand?

Did I also mention the lesson learned? I decided to buy the binding fabric when the quilt was on the machine and couldn't take it with me. I picked out a blue that I thought would be perfect and made miles of bias binding. Once I stitched the binding on the quilt, though, it looked terrible! It completely took over. 

So, the day before I flew to Iowa to deliver this quilt I went to the store, made only a half-mile of bias binding, and stitched it onto the quilt the morning of my flight.  Much better. It lets the quilt shine instead of screaming, "look at me!" 

The pantograph design is Daisy Border, also by Patricia E. Ritter:
https://www.urbanelementz.com/daisy-border.html. 

These Modified 9-Patch blocks measured 17'' so this was a perfect design to complement the quilt.

Today I'm linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Crazy Mom Quilts, and Busy Hands Quilts.