Finish-A-Long – Page 4 – OccasionalPiece

I’ve had my first finish for March with Once There Was a Snowman. As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, I’m thinking that I’m several months early with this Christmas quilt, rather than 3 months late. It’s all about context, in my life. This was my attempt at being wonky. Not a favorite thing to do, I must admit. I’ve made quilt blocks that are wonky sewing as well, and really, I just can’t find the attraction in all of this sewing random strips together, trimming at weird angles, sewing some more. I wasn’t attracted to it in the first place, but you really can’t judge a process until you’ve done it. So I did it, and can now safely say: not my favorite, as Johnny Depp said in the movie Chocolate, as he instead preferred other kinds of chocolate. Just like I prefer other kinds of assembling a quilt.

But it will be fun to set it out for Christmas and have the house all festive. I used a Kate Spain snowflake-on-red fabric for the backing, piecing it carefully to match the design and so no seam would be apparent.

My quilter zipped out this very cute ornament design for me. I used Superior’s variegated blue King Tut thread for the quilting. In hindsight, maybe white would have been better on top, but that’s the game in quilting, I think. Always learning, always learning.

I have to admit that being a part of the great Finish-A-Long, hosted by Leanne of She Can Quilt really helped motivate me. Now on to the next one!

Update: Original Finish-A-Long post is *here.*

One advantage to being in a group like Leanne’s Finish-A-Long (FAL), is that you have a reason to pull those unfinished projects to the front of the line, rather than letting good solid work be upstaged consistently by the New! and the Fabulous! and the Have You Seen This Fabric Line! sort of business. So the Lollies came out of hibernation.

Lollypop Tree Four.

Lollypop Tree block five.

Lollypop Tree block Six.

So I’ve appliqued six to their background fabric, using the freezer-paper, then invisible thread in top spool method.

I’ve discussed this in buckets of digitial bytes in other posts, but here’s a photo of me going at it. Yes, those are teensy applique pins and when you have about 60 of them on a block (these are huge blocks), it helps that they are small so you are not stabbed to death by pins. I also hang my sweater on the back of the chair, as they have affinity with knitted things–they get caught in the sleeves. I use a 1.0 width zig-zag with a 2.0 length of stitch, with Mono-Poly invisible thread in the top spool (put a netting on it and you will be happier) and Bottom Line thread in the bobbin. I also dial back the upper tension by half, down to 2.2 and use a very slender needle. Both threads are made by Superior Threads.

My student papers don’t come in until Thursday evening, so maybe I can squeak out three more blocks? It takes about an hour to stitch each block, and another 20 minutes to open up the back and take all the freezer paper pieces out. I know I won’t finish the quilt this first quarter of the FAL, but the very fact that I’m sewing on these trees is a benefit of signing up. I’ll be thrilled just to get the blocks done.