October 2017 Finishes

Just like that October is done. There were a few finishes this month, lets take a look.

To start with we have the October Muggamo. Love those glow in the dark ghosties.

I participated in the Sew Much Fun Halloween Blog Hop this year and shared a fun oven mitt pattern.

I also finished and released my newest pattern, The Border Quilt. Love this pattern!

Use LUCKY13 to receive 13% off your entire purchase from my Etsy store. Now through November 13th! Who says 13 isn't lucky?

That's it! It seems like there was more, ha! I did finish a new pattern called Broken Panes, but it will be releasing this month, so I'll share it in November's Finishes post. Though, you've seen it if you follow me on Instagram, if you don't, you're missing out!

Did you accomplish everything you set out to do in October? Share one thing, or more, that you are proud to have accomplished.

Happy Stitching!

Jen

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Linking up with Sarah and her Can I get a Whoop Whoop! 

Linking up with Thank Goodness its Finished Friday!

Binding

I chose one of my test quilts for Pinwheel Pizzazz to finish this week. All it needed was the binding. I have many projects in various stages of construction, but it was easy to pick this one. 1) It's July and this is Patriotic. 2) Because my Etsystore is new I need to add pictures of various color pallets. 3) This is the most important reason; my family is freezing. Apparently I keep it a bit cold in my house and they are dying. I keep telling them, they can add more layers, they do NOT want me taking more off! Well, now they can snuggle under a quilt. In July. In hot, humid MN... I think they are crazy.

I cut my binding 2" by the width of the fabric. I don't use a biased binding. When I finish the quilt with scalloped borders sitting in my "Needs to be quilted" bin mentioned here. I will cut on the bias. for now, this is quick, easy and works for me. 

Not only was this quilt already quilted, it was squared up. Yeah. Just sitting here for a few years waiting on me. Usually I mark my line, stitch my binding and then trim off the excess fabric, but here you see that was already done. I use my walking foot to stitch on the binding, it really helps keep it from bunching and pulling. 

Once that is done, I get to move on to my favorite part. Hand stitching it down. I love hand stitching. It's calm and rhythmic and you can get into a zone, or just watch your favorite shows. And once that last stitch is taken and knotted off, you have a beautiful quilt to cuddle under or gift.

 I usually choose a thread that matches the binding, not the backing. In this case I had to do a two color binding, because I didn't have enough of one color to do the whole thing. I was lucky enough to have 2 matching threads. I also usually do a diagonal seam on my binding strips, but again not having enough fabric had me changing up what I usually do. Not a bad thing, but that seam on top of itself definitely makes it bulky.

And now my family has a beautiful, warm quilt to snuggle under. They won't freeze to death or turn into ice cubes. It was close though...

Happy Stitching!

Jen


Linked up at Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Friday.

First Finish It Friday

Welcome to those coming over from Crazy Mom Quilts. This is my first Link Up, as well as the first time I am participating in Finish It Friday.


The project I chose to complete was a little UFO sitting in my "To Be Quilted" bin, aka 5 gallon Rubbermaid tote. (Yes, I have a 5 gallon tote full of just flimsys waiting to be quilted. Lets not talk about the tote full of UFO's. Shhhhh) But this little patriotic flimsy fits perfectly with the weekend of July 4th. And that means I will have some patriotic decor this year.

This little wall hanging has been waiting almost 10 years to be quilted. Can you imagine? Poor thing. I pieced it when we lived in South Dakota, we moved to MN in 2007... I used the pattern from this book:

Americana Country from Debbie Mumm

Have you ever started your machine quilting, determined to do something different? You make your plan, you stick to the plan, things are looking good...

and then, instead of doing that meandering star pattern you planned, you go right back to your faithful stippling.

I'm not saying that happened to me but it did.

The problem with finishing up a UFO can be finding the right binding. Fortunately, when I opened my fabric bin, there it was, the perfect blue for the binding.

I love this fabric. Love it. I've used it in small doses in other projects and I still have over 2 yards. Love it. I may also have it in red...

The blue also worked with the cute backing fabric I chose. I know you don't get to see the back of a wallhanging/banner, but really, how could I not use this.

It was fun to find this piece and finish it. Now to work on my photo taking skills and presentation.

Happy 4th of July!

Jen