Elizabeth Hartman's Neighborhood Pattern / Beauties Pageant 34

You might remember that some Very Bad Things happened the last time I rented my local quilt shop’s longarm. In fact, I had to pull the partially quilted project off the machine and take it home for some unsewing. I’m pleased to report that despite the setback I successfully finished the quilt on my domestic!

I offered only sneak peeks of this quilt previously, but now that it has been gifted, I can give you the full reveal ...

This is Elizabeth Hartman’s Neighborhood pattern, from her book Modern Patchwork. At 45 inches by 60 inches, it’s a modestly sized throw quilt and features a diamond quilting pattern from Jacquie Gering’s Walk. It’s the third quilt I can check off my Finish-A-Long Q2 list.

I spent much more time selecting fabric for this project than I did sewing its 12 oversize blocks. I started by finding the bird fabric, which is from Kate Spain’s Early Bird line, and fussy-cutting the birds to incorporate as many bright colors as I could. I did have to buy a few fat quarters—most of which ended up being from Kate’s other fabric collections—to sew the birdhouses, but I otherwise used stash and scraps on the top and back of this quilt.

Have you encountered this phenomenon, too—when you labor over a fabric pull only to be surprised how quickly the quilt top comes together? 

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The pageant rules are simple:

• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Just a Pouch / Beauties Pageant 33

In a perfect world, my Friday posts are inputted with accompanying pictures the preceding Thursday. In the real world, I am often still proofreading on Friday morning. And in my reality today, I had to write the whole thing, proofread it, and take pictures, which is especially unpleasant because my 8-year-old woke up at 3 o’clock this morning and has yet to return to bed. He is currently jumping around the basement. I, on the other hand, can barely walk, let alone string words together coherently. So please overlook any grammatical errors or jumps in logic. My main goal right now is to stay awake!

With that, I present you my tiny finish for the week. It’s a pouch ...

More specifically, it’s a Lined Drawstring Bag by Jeni Baker of In Color Order. I’ve made this pattern before. I suspect you have, too. This particular bag is one of a pair. In true Twiggy and Opal style (see Jayne’s post along those lines here), I found a fabric combination I liked and couldn’t stop at a single pouch. This bag’s twin was a prize at my guild meeting earlier this week. The version pictured here has no purpose yet, so I think I’ll just admire its beautiful Art Gallery fabrics for the time being.

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The pageant rules are simple:

• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

A Story of Longarming Woe / Beauties Pageant 32

This is an older quilt that features the same quilting design I am using
in my current project.

Apparently, I have confused everyone. The photos accompanying this post are from an old project I finished in 2017. My current project is not done yet.

I bring you a cautionary tale today, dear reader, about the project I’m quilting on my home machine right now. I was planning on finishing this quilt on a longarm. In fact, I scheduled some time at my local quilt shop to rent its Quilt Maker Pro and computerized Prostitcher, but some Very Bad Things transpired while I was there.

This quilt (see a sneak peek here) was supposed to be my third time working with a pantograph on the longarm. I was going to be efficient, people, because in the world of longarm rentals, time is money. I was going to load that machine like a pro, and I decided before I arrived to use a boxy meander quilting design. As I greeted the proprietor that morning, the caffeine from my morning tea had started to kick in, and I was feeling good!

Not quilted on a longarm but still pretty, right?

It took a few hours for things to go off the rails from there.

I did load the machine pretty easily, with only a few minor snafus. The shop owner helped me scale my pantograph and then left to tend to an employee and a notions rep. Meanwhile, a friend from guild appeared in the store, so I set the Prostitcher in motion and walked away from it to talk to her.

When I checked on the machine’s progress, a few minutes later, it was apparent that the aforementioned Very Bad Things were happening. I had forgotten to lock the various bars holding my project in place, so the quilt began to move as soon as the Prostitcher got going. I tried to unpick some of the mess and start things up again, but with a row partially quilted, I ended up taking the quilt off the machine and left for home.

I can honestly say if I had just asked for more help, the day’s events could have been very different. (Darn you, artificially inflated sense of self-confidence and stubborn desire to be independent!)

The project went into time-out for a week until I was ready to deal with it. With Jacquie Gering’s Walk in hand, I am using the same diamond design featured in the project below to quilt it.

Walk is the straight-line quilter’s secret to fancy quilting.

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The pageant rules are simple:

• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter