Two finishes!

Amazingly enough I finished a baby quilt and a class sample this week! Both were easy and straight forward. I deliberately created space this summer to be teaching-free and I’m trying to get as much done as possible.

I worked really hard on my abstract class this week and I just don’t have time to create a post about that now. I also attended the California State Fair last week and I have a bunch of great photos of mainly art from that. A photo-heavy post takes a lot of time so I’m waiting on that also. And, I’ve promised many of you that I will write about…..shoes!

On to the baby quilt. The grand niece of a woman from my church was born with a genetic abnormality. It truly was a miracle that she was born, and even more so that she was born without many of the difficulties that typically come with the condition. She has had to undergo several treatments and surgeries in the last 18 months and it’s just hard on everyone. She is now 2, but I am calling it a “baby quilt”.

This was made from one of the BEST pre-printed panels ever!

I simply layered it up, outline quilted the petals and stippled the negative space. And it’s so cute! I ordered another 8 yards to have in stock because…..you never know.

I had a boo boo:

Geez, rookie mistake and I’m no rookie.

I fixed the exposed batting by sewing another layer of backing right over the offending area and flipping it over to cover. With this busy print you have to look closely to see the area. Whew!

The backing was a super cute print.

I did not keep track, but I would guess that I was done, including hand finished binding and fixing the mistake, in maybe 7 hours. Pretty good, no?

And, I wanted another class sample for my Straight Line Ruler Work class coming up at AQS Grand Rapids in late August:

I ordered a set of 24 of those blocks on Etsy as “heirloom” and no way they are heirloom. I kept them anyway. I stole one for this sample as I didn’t want to take the time to create a whole new sample.

I use this specific ruler for my straight line ruler work because it is almost foolproof. If you do straight line ruler work with this ruler, you will not go back to your old ruler. It’s the bomb.

Originally I was going to straight line quilt just the center, but once that was done, it got mouthy and demanded I do the border too. Good decision.

Note the addition of a line of triple stitched 12 wt Aurifil inside the block and at the binding. I love love that look!

She got demanding again and asked for her center to be trapunto’d. Given that the quilt was already quilted, that was a big ask.

I had to do it the old fashioned way by slitting the back, stuffing by hand, then repairing the wound.

Now we do this by machine of course, and my maybe-it-will-become-a-course will show you how, IF it ever makes it to the light of day.

Here’s the list of what I’m teaching at Grand Rapids and I invite you to join me:

As to my abstract class, I am dithering between these two images from my backyard:

Whichever I decide to work on, I will be greatly simplifying, reducing, changing it. I am sooooo out of my league! It has been an excellent class (live, online) and Brenda Gael Smith is a superb instructor. She is Australian, and yet the course is offered at a North American friendly time, which was super thoughtful of her.

I’ll be linking up:
Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday