Showing posts with label Big Blinky Bill Blankie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Big Blinky Bill Blankie. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 1, 2021

Zingy Zinky is a Finally Finished

It’s a great way to start off a new month with a Finally Finish although I was hoping that my Zingy Zinky would have been finished yesterday for an end of the month finish but had a quilting snafu which I will mention later in this post.
Zingy Zinky was one of the flimsies finished last year and I wrote about it briefly in my Flimsy Frenzy February post which I had at that time named it Zingy Zebra. I decided to rename it Zingy Zinky since this is a version of the SlinkyPinky and Blinky Bill Blankie quilts and I had to keep the “inky” as a reference to this series of quilts made up of rectangle strips and squares.
Like the previous quilts in the “inky” series, the strips and squares were cut 4-1/2” from mostly Art Gallery prints in shades of pinks, teals, golds/oranges, black&white and low volume prints.  There are almost forty different prints used in the squares. Instead of using one print for the setting strips, I alternated two prints, an Art Gallery multi-color stripe with a Cotton+Steel Netorious in black which is the reason why Zebra was in the original name for this quilt.
Zingy Zinky measures 56”x76”. The backing is an Alexander Henry print from 2011 which I bought last year from Hobby Lobby and been sitting in the backing vault to be paired with the right top— I think it’s perfect for Zingy Zinky, or should I say the ZZ Top. I used the black Netorious print for the binding.
As mentioned in the beginning of this post about my quilting mishap which I have now filed as “what not to do ever again for machine quilting” is never changed your presser foot setting in the middle of quilting unless you want big time puckering nor does 50 wt. Auril in black give quilting stitches enough definition—I should have used the 40 wt.  I had to rip out 15 rows of quilting just for the presser foot setting mishap and decided to keep using the black Aurifil thread because it would have involved ripping out another 25 rows.
You always have to include a photo of your quilt blowing in the wind.
One last photo before I end this post—Zingy Zinky hanging on the garage door since the Master Quilter was unavailable since he was busy planting his vegetable garden. I just love this pattern, it’s simple and a great way to use up scraps, charm packs or a favorite fabric collection.  I already have another one planned but will have to wait since I don’t want to start any new quilts until I finally finish a few more of the eleven flimsies left over from 2020. Plus, my quilt for the Follow Your Own Path QAL need to be ready for the June 15th Celebration of a Famous Canadian’s Birthday.  This month already seems to be going by fast.

Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Sweet September SewJo

Despite making four trips to the Grandparent House and only spending fourteen days at home, I have five Finally Finished which makes this a very busy and productive month for me.  Apparently when only having a limited schedule for quilting, I can be pretty focused.  The first Finally Finished for September was my Shine Quilt which I posted on September 8th.  My next four quilts were for the Jelly Snowflake QAL, a Dreami, Country Threads Dirty Dozen QAL and a surprise finish; here are the photos with a brief description of each.

Emily, The Darling Dogwood, and I decided since we already did two of the same QALs this year without us knowing that neither one of us was sewing together, we would do a third one together and we decided upon Fat Quarter Shop’s Jelly Snowflake QAL.  You can see Emily’s beautiful interpretation Here.  I have mentioned in previous posts that I consider myself a QAL Escape Artist and Emily seem to have followed in my sew steps, in that, we did the first two blocks as per the pattern and then veered off with our own  finishes. The Jelly Snowflake pattern was beautiful and made great use of jelly roll strips but I wanted to showcase more of the fat quarters of the Stacey Hsu North Pole fabric which I received several years ago in one of the Fat Quarter Shop’s Christmas Sampler Box. That’s all I’m going to say about the Jelly Snowflake pattern and named my quilt Frosty Flake because of the snowmen on some of the prints and because it is my favorite breakfast cereal.  After the top was completed, I immediately knew how I wanted to quilt it with the straight-line diagonal quadrants with red thread.  Frosty Flakes measures 48” square and it’s going to be nice to have a new Christmas quilt to hang up this year.  BTW, I thought that instead of calling myself a QAL Escape Artist, I would give myself a new name or descriptor: Sewing Rose-gue, it seems to better explain how I quilt.


While searching for the red binding for my Frosty Flake Quilt in my red stash, I came across the Watermelon fabric with the matching large red gingham print and immediately knew I had to make something for the darling Granddaughter.  Since I’ve been spending so much time with her, I’ve become quite fond of the CoComelon videos which are fun and addicting to watch. Even when we’re not at the GP House, Hubby and I are humming and singing many of the tunes.  A simple patchwork blankie was made with some fun green prints from the stash and another red print.  I had the perfect shade of a coral pink Minky yardage in the stash and a quilt was made before the next GP visit.  This Blankie measures 40”x56”, which is a nice size for snuggling for one person but I would have made it bigger if I had more of the watermelon and red gingham print.
The month of September also meant a new UFO finish of our #11 for Country Thread’s Dirty Dozen which was my Flea Market Square. The top was made over seven years ago and it seems that during this time, I made a lot of square quilts and some of them I have committed to finishing for this QAL.  I didn’t keep any notes on the making of this quilt and I was able to ascertain that a charm pack of Moda’s Three Sisters Flea Market II was used along with some yardage.  At first I didn’t remember even what fabric line was used but was able to guess after looking at one of the charm squares which had a Paris map and was able to connect it to one of the Flea Market lines.  I was happy that I found the quilt top with the backing and binding safely tucked away together.  
I’ve mentioned in previous posts how I was inspired by Mary Etherington of Country Threads to do straight line quilting on traditional quilts so I thought since I was finishing this quilt as part of her QAL, it would look appropriate for Flea Market Square.  I quilted it with a very pale pink Mettler thread to keep the quilting  quiet and simple. I usually don’t back my quilts with fabric from the same line, partly because of cost and not wanting to waste it especially for a wall hanging, but I must have purchased the plaid when it was on sale because I had three yards of it.  I do love pairing plaids with florals.  Now that this quilt is a Finally Finished, I have a place to hang it on my bedroom wall since I’ve been meaning to replace the current artwork which has been hanging around for over twenty years.  Sad I won’t see the backing, but I’ll know it’s there.

Since I had a day left before the end of September when I wanted to post, I thought I would squeeze out one more Finally Finish with the Big Blinky Bill Blankie. I made the top earlier this year and is one of the flimsy made during my Flimsy Frenzy February.  The top was inspired by my Slinky and Pinky Quilts which is a simple pattern using squares and rectangles.  When I wrote the posts for these quilts, I mentioned I was inspired to make more and keeping the “inky” in the names.  Good Quilt Mentor Sue of PatchworknPlay offer up Blinky Bill which is an Australian Children Book Koala character.  Since I didn’t have any Koala fabrics I thought the next best thing would be to use my stash of Aboriginal prints which have been sitting far too long in the stash with solid squares of Shot Cotton, Peppered Cotton and Aged Muslin.  I thought this top could be a quick Finally Finished if I made a Patchwork Throw by only backing it with my favorite gray Chenille Plush.  It measures 52” x 82” which would make it a throw according to my rules, but since I love alliteration in my quilt names I’m calling it a blankie, thus the name Big Blinky Bill Blankie.  Since Hubby’s name is Bill, this will be his, especially since with the other patchwork throws I made with the plush for the backing, I’m always telling him how wonderful they are for snuggling and napping.  Now he will have his own to find out how true this is.
I still managed to find time to start others projects and keeping up with my 2020 Color Challenge blocks.  I’m calling this a month now and maybe rest for the remaining few hours left.  But no, I still have 1.5 days left before we leave for the GP House again and the studio here is still where I’m the most productive; probably because I don’t have a sweet distraction beckoning me to play with her.