Friday finishes x 2

Yes, I have TWO finishes today - amazing, feels so good, as both have history.  It is great to get them completed.  I especially enjoyed handstitching the bindings, that final stage when you can take time to enjoy the process of completing.  It is almost sad when you get to the last stitch, as it's farewell to that quilt and on with the next!

So here we have the Flannel Square in a Square quilt with Flying Geese borders which was stitched on to Foundation-by-the-Yard.

All from stash, using up some flannels which must be at least 10 years old, ditto the foundation. Started here, so quite a quick turnaround for me.  It ended up being a fairly easy little project and I didn't agonise too much over which fabric went where - more a case of how big the pieces were and would I have enough...

Anyway I did have enough, and I even had a piece large enough for the backing (with a strip of green pieced in), and I also found I had enough large patches in a pink/tan/navy palette to make another small quilt top (41" x 52") in half-square triangles (5 1/2" block).







































This one isn't finished as I don't have a backing, so it will have to wait a while longer.

The completed Square in Square quilt was small enough (33" x 41") for me to quilt in the ditch around the shapes, as it did involve a fair amount of turning.  However there's not much point doing fancy quilting on flannel as the thread sinks without trace, and a grid of any kind I thought would be a bit heavy.




















The ditch stitching looks quite nice on the back as it echoes the geometry of the front. Lovely sludgy greeny gold Aurifil thread matched the backing perfectly, and I used a green Mettler thread I had in my box for the front.

Even the wadding was from scrap - so a totally stash project: hurray!

The flannel scraps that are left (remarkably there still seem to be quite a few) will be donated elsewhere - I am done with them.  Such a good feeling.

Second finish is the Remembrance quilt I last blogged about here.  Yes, I know that is quite a while ago.



I messed up the quilting and it puckered horribly - I was trying for too close a grid and I think the 80:20 wadding was just too lofty to lie flat and submit.  It has taken me till now to unpick it all, as I had done rather too much before getting the message to start again.  Also the thread colour was such a great match that I could only unpick in good daylight, which has been in short supply this winter.

Once the old stitching was out I found that I actually did not have to re-layer, a slightly surprising but happy discovery.  Less dense quilting was the answer: I ditch-quilted the verticals between the nine-patches and then went across the diagonals of the hourglass blocks and nine-patches.  It's enough, I think.

(In the photo above you can still see the Hera marked crease lines of the original grid - time to put the quilt in the washing machine...).  

So, after all the delay and despondency I am happy with the finish.  

The quilt measures 48" x 59", a good lap size, and it was made with the leftover fabric from the Album quilt I showed you here.  Backing stripe from stash with a bit of green textured solid pieced in.  Another scrap/stash project done: double hurray!

I hope you are able to press on with your projects this weekend, and maybe even enjoy a finish or two?

Linking today to Crazy Mom Quilts: Finish it up Friday - it's lovely to have Amanda Jean back blogging again.  Have a look at her gorgeous Birch Trees quilt.