Hot Flash, The Quilt is Finally Finished

After over a week of 90 degrees weather, it seems rather timely and appropriate that I finally finished my Hot Flash quilt during this heat wave.  I purchased the Hot Flash fabric by Luella Doss and Andrea Schuster around 2012 and but didn't make a quilt top until several years later.  I've been meaning to finish it for the past several years but it still didn't make it on my 2017 Project List.   Since I was sending some other quilts to Jan, my Long Arm Quilter, I decided to add the Hot Flash Quilt top to get it finished once and for all.

I didn't use a pattern for this quilt; I just let the fabric dictate the design and it helps that I have a penchant for making big block quilts whenever I'm working with wonderful big prints.  Only two rows of this quilt were pieced and the rest of the rows were made with just solid pieces of the two large focus prints. Because of the simple design, the quilt looks like it is a panel or cheater cloth and since I backed it with another print from the collection, it hard to tell which is the front and which is the back so I guess you can say I made a reversible quilt.   I mentioned in my last post that I normally don't back my quilts with fabric from the same line but for this quilt I did--I definitely bought this fabric when it was on sale.  

This is the second of the five quilts which were sent out to be quilted. Jan did a wonderful job with the big organic scroll machine quilting and she used a variegated thread which picked up the different colors in this quilt.

I thought I provide some quilt stats so you can see how simple it was to make this quilt.  All of my measurements are divisible by four which helps to make it an easy design.  It's also a quick quilt to finish, either you do it yourself with straight or organic wavy lines  or send it to your long arm quilter.  I spent more time thinking (also known for me as wasting time) if I was going to quilt it myself but again I am glad I decided to send it to Jan.  

Size:  56" x 72"

Side Borders (A):  8"(finished)

Black & White Sashing (B):  4" x 40" (finished) (there are six rows)

Top & Bottom Rows (C): 8" x 40" (finished)

Rectangles, 2nd & 4th Rows (D): 4" x 8" (finished) each row has 10 patches

Center Row (E): 16" x 40" (finished)

Since the in-law arrangements are almost done at my son's house, I will be leaving this quilt there since my sweet granddaughter, Micah Rose, just loves looking at prints, especially ones with black and white.  I'm thinking her eyes are going to be extra stimulated with the Hot Flash Quilt.

And speaking of Micah Rose, when she was visiting several weeks ago, I started working on her first Halloween Quilt.  I happened to be digging around my studio and found a bundle of Halloween prints by KP Kids/Kari Pearson which I know I purchased over ten years ago.  I just love these prints of bright colors which to me don't seem to be as popular today as they were when I first started quilting.  Since the bundle included a panel which featured Kitty Cats in costumes, I thought this would make a cute quilt for Micah, after all there are four cats in their house, but I wanted to make sure her Mom liked the fabric.  She did.

Again, I made a quilt which looks like cheater cloth but only the left side is a panel, the right side is made with twenty-one, 2-1/2" x 20-1/2" cut strips and the black border is 3-1/2" cut strips (the only print which is not a KP Kids print.

Also, I shouldn't call this a quilt but a coverlet since I decided to only backed it with a piece of purple Minky which I had in my stash.  I wanted to put batting in the middle to make it a quilt but if I had, then I wouldn't have been able to use the Minky.  And the purple Minky looked so pretty against the quilt top.  I'll be mailing this quilt to Micah so she has the whole month of October to enjoy it.

So happy to say that I finished two projects which were unplanned but nevertheless is a finish.  With the end of the year fast approaching, I really need to get some more projects on my list finished.  As for my Minus 100 Yard Challenge, it was looking good but since I'll be taking a workshop with one of my first Quilt Idols, Kaffe Fassett in early October, I had to purchase some new fabrics to prepare for his class.  We need twenty half yard cuts and then some for this class. And that doesn't include the border fabric since he wants to help us decide what the border print should be, therefore, won't be purchased until after the class.  Once the new fabric arrives and other things are added and subtracted, I'll be ready to post an updated tally.  I'm still hoping I'm going to meet my challenge.  And if I don't, I'll just have to say it was Kaffe Fassett's fault which wouldn't be the first time I said this.

Linking up with:

My Quilt Infatuation: Needle and Thread Thursday

Crazy Mom Quilts: Finish It Up Friday

Confessions of a Fabric Addict:  Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?

Busy Hands Quilts:  Finish Or Not Friday

A Twice is Nice November

I like to mention first that I thought I was going to be late with my November post thinking today was December 1st, so imagine my surprise and joy to find that I have an entire day to think and type this post. Usually I draft and type my post under the imagined deadline or the thought that my post is going to disappear into thin year.  While coming up with the title to this post which I like to tie it with my activity for the month, I found there were several things which happened in pairs, combos, duos, twice, double, etc.  There were three Finally Finished quilts and one Flimsy for his month and why they were twofers will be explained in this post.

I’m participating in Country Threads’ Dirty Dozen QAL and my #1 quilt to finish in November was near and dear to my heart.  The Dogma quilt top was made in 2014, but the Dogma fabric which was an In the Beginning fabric line designed by artist David Hearn was purchased in 2013, which I picked a kit up at Country Threads (a 5-6 hours drive), my first of several visits.  This is when my friendship with Mary Etherington truly started since, besides her, I became acquainted with Susannah, her late, great Goat and other four legged babies.  I called ahead to order a kit, since we were going to stop by on the way to Colorado, which included a pattern but if you know me, I chose instead to make a 42”x46” wall hanging to better showcase the fabrics. I loved the funky and organic prints which seemed to be popular at this time, since I also purchased Hot Flash and Primitiva too and already finished quilts with these fabrics. This quilt has been listed several times on UFO lists during the past years as one I wanted to finish and this year it finally was.

Before I could quilt the top, I had to choose a backing which I could not find anything to my liking in the backing vault and thought I piece one using leftovers from the Dogma stash.  Aren’t these prints wonderful?  However after looking at these prints I decided that another top needed to be made before I could quilt the original Dogma quilt.

Before we left for a Grandparent House visit, I made this top which I called Double Dogma Dare, a sort of tongue-in-cheek name since I was suppose to  be quilting the original Dogma quilt (Dogma One) and thought I could do that plus make the top plus quilt it, but no I was so wrong. More about Double Dogma Dare later.

We came home with less than a week left in the month to finish the Dogma One.

For some reason I thought this was a 54” square top and surprised it was smaller which meant I just need just under 1.5 yards of fabric for the backing which I was able to find a gray/black print in the stash. If I had known this beforehand, maybe I wouldn’t had to look at the Dogma fabric stash and maybe not have been distracted with making Double Dogma Dare. The binding was a print from the fabric line and grid machine quilting was done with black Aurifil thread.

As I was quilting Dogma One, I realized that this was the second quilt I made this year which had the color Teal and was a square, almost the same size; the first one being the Centred, a QAL hosted by Sandra, mmm quilts earlier this year.  When this quilt was finished I mentioned in my post that her cat, Bella, would look so gorgeous laying on this quilt.  I realized by looking at the dog in the center of the dog panel, this could be Sandra’s dog Rufus so I sent this photo to Sandra in a shameless attempt of finally getting my hands on Bella to let her know that I have proper sit mats for both of them when they come for a visit. Sandra, who is onto my Bella attempts, responded she would be happy to send only Rufus once the borders were opened.

Once Dogma One was finished this past Saturday, I started getting Double Dogma Dare ready for quilting. Fortunately, I already pieced a backing with black prints from the stash and took some time in deciding which prints could be sacrificed. It was during this time I realized that stash should not be saved for a maybe future project and should be used now for backing since I could always buy another equally perfect print if and when a project appears. Sadly, this epiphany came after buying fabric for almost twenty-five years. I would like to say that the finally finishing of this quilt was a breeze but it was not. One of the things that I am always afraid of when basting a quilt is that I would have the wrong side facing up  and not realizing this until after I was done pinning.  That didn’t happen but after the backing and batting was clamped down on my big basting table, I realized that the batting was not wide enough so that had to be taken off and a new piece of batting cut. After the backing and batting was clamped down for the second time and the top was then pin basted, it was then I realized I did not lay the backing down evenly on the table so my top extended below the backing so I had to unpin more than 100 safety pins, which my fingers became very sore and restarted the process again. They say three times a charm which almost wasn’t the case because after doing twenty lines of straight line quilt at 2am, I thought the back was just a little too puckered and thought I had to rip out all the stitching. 

Fortunately, I waited until the morning to start ripping because my fresh eyes realized that it was the prints  which made it looked so puckered and quilting the rest of the quilt was a breeze. I used a dark gray Aurifil thread for the machine quilting. As for the binding, I didn’t want to use a print from the Dogma print line (maybe because a Triple Dogma Dare is in my thoughts) since I thought it needed a somewhat solid black and was happy to find a vintage Debbie Mumm skinny line print in black/gray. After spending much time foraging in my black stash, I really have some wonderful prints or as we use to say in my Quilting Shop days, old friends.  Double Dogma Dare measures 64”x80” and is based on Quilting Jetgirl Bundle Buster pattern. This is a wonderful pattern for making big blocks and this is the third quilt I made using this pattern. This pattern is also very versatile being that you can easily change the size of the strips and can be made from yardage as well as fat quarters. The first one was my Kiwi and Mango Tango quilt made last year.

And in case you’re thinking I miscounted, Highland Room is the second quilt I made inspired by the Bundle Buster pattern made this year.

This is the first top I made in 2020 and I used a combination of Violet Craft’s The  Highlands fabric line with Erin McMorris In My Room fabric stash along with a few other lines like Denyse Schmidt and Cotton+Steel. I thought these collection of fabrics which had similar colors went well together.

I especially like the Violet Craft Cat print, in a lovely shade of yellow which Wendy and I would call Citronickle, and wanted to be featured so I modified the Bundle Buster pattern to make this a 56” x 72” quilt.

The backing was pieced with a combination In My Room print with a gray and white Waverly print.  Straight line quilting spaced 3/4”apart with a Connecting Thread Essential Stone Thread went well, no problems thanks to the quilting guide on my walking foot.

Here’s another view of the fabrics used in this quilt; loved that I was able to use some Denyse Schmidt’s prints.

The Highland Room quilt is now residing in the darling Granddaughter’s bedroom along with some of the recently finally finished quilts from previous posts.  I was able to use it at our last sleepover which was needed since she doesn’t share the bed quilt very well.

Sorry for this post being so long, but I did mentioned that I also made a Flimsy which is the annual Christmas quilt I used to make for the darling Granddaughter’s house but will now reside at the Grandparents’ house instead.  My plan is to quilt this next.  I’ll also be making a smaller one for the little darling and hers will be a blankie since it will be backed with a leftover plush fabric from Christmas Quilts past.  Two-ing things will continue in December.

Just a little recap of my sewing double in November: two Bundle Buster quilts were a finally finished, two quilts made with Dogma fabrics, two square Teal quilts made this year, a twofer planned for December and also piecing two quilt backs which is a form of torture for me.

Lastly, I wanted to mention that I’ve been blogging for four years now. I’ve been posting only once a month for over a year and was thinking that maybe I should try to post more frequently so I can focus on writing about one quilt instead of several. But then, I found out that Bloglovin is not picking up my posts so maybe Blogland is trying to tell me something. I appreciate those of you who are reading my posts from another source.  I thought it was just me but I read that Quilting Jetgirl is also experiencing Bloglovin problems also. I’m pretty sure it has nothing to do with the two Bundle Buster Quilts I finished this month.  I contacted Bloglovin who did not respond so I guess I will be blogging under the radar if this post does not appear.

Wishing you a safe and healthy December.

Linking up with My Quilt Infatuation

The Primitiva Quilt/Another Quilt Crosses the Finally Finished Line

One of my first posts when I started my blog last year was my disappointment that the Primitiva Quilt which I made in 2015 was still a top after more than a year and wasn't ready for Fall.  It was on my 2017 project list to finally quilt and come October it still was a top and it was bugging me that another Fall would go by with Primitiva still waiting to become a quilt.

I was going to be focused this week by working on projects as planned:

I basted and started hand quilting the Smitten Top

I sewed over fifty blocks for the Splash of Color QAL which Myra from Busy Hands Quilts is hosting(you can read about it here).

And on Wednesday afternoon, before I started quilting the six baby quilts for the Blanket Ministry, I decided to cut the binding I needed and pulled out my die-cutter and the 2.5" strip die.

After that was done, I thought I would cut some more binding while the equipment was out and went to the drawer where I keep fabric set aside for binding and saw the Primitiva fabric. And that's when my best laid plans fell on the wayside because after I was done die-cutting those strips, I was suddenly in the mood to machine quilt the top.  So the backing was sewn, the pin basting quickly done and the decision to quilt organic squiggly (inspired by one of the prints) lines with orange thread came pretty easy  which normally doesn't happen especially when I'm in impromptu mode.

One of the reasons why it took me several years to finally finish this quilt was trying to decide if I should just back it with Minky and call it a Patchwork Coverlet. I'm glad I chose to quilt it instead because the back looks and feels so lush and besides that, what else could I have done with the four yards of backing fabric I already had.  As of right now, I can't seem to locate the rest of the Primitiva fabrics, it's not where I thought I would have put it.

Here are the stats:

Size:        56" x 72"

Blocks:    4" (finished) four patches with 4" x 8" rectangle blocks

Fabric:     Primitiva by Jane Dixon for Andover

Pattern Source:  I'm pretty sure I was inspired by something I saw on Pinterest.

Primitiva is now adorning my dining room table now and am glad that I'll get to enjoy it for at least three weeks before the Winter/Christmas quilts come out.  Hopefully, once I finish quilting the baby quilts, one down with five more to go, my good machine quilting vibes will come back because I still have six more tops on my project list. I should visit my binding drawer again.

An interesting note:  The Primitiva fabric was purchased around the same time I bought Matisse (you can read about it here) by Alexander Henry and Hot Flash (you can read about it here) by Louella Doss (around 2010-11) and you can see similarities with the bright colors and the fun prints.  Also, the three quilts I made from these three fabric lines were all finally finished during 2017 which is a pretty big quilting feat for me.  I love it when I can cross off a quilt, make that three quilts, off my project list.

I won't be posting an updated total for my Minus One Hundred Yard Challenge until I finish the baby quilts for the Blanket Ministry but I can say I've reached my goal; however it's only for a short while because I'm going out today with my Quilt Peep, Carol, to see the Kaffe Fassett Trunk Show at our local quilt shop where I also happen to have a gift certificate.  I'm pretty certain there is going to be some fabric purchases.

Linking up with: My Quilt Infatuation, Thursday Needle and Thread, Crazy Mom's Finish It Up Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop Friday, and Busy Hands Quilts, Finish or Not Friday