Country Home Quilt Finished

It's a happy Friday and I have a finish to show! The Country Home quilt is finished and ready for action. (Look! I mitered my borders and everything!)

This is the largest finish I have had in a while.  Each of the blocks measures 16", made from the ingenious pattern that Mihaela put together.  She based the design on traditional Romanian needle point.  You can buy the pattern on Craftsy (and you really should.) The blocks are fun, quick, and go together perfectly.

I chose to make the pattern from scraps rather than solids, because as we all know I apparently live in a scrap factory.  It was fun to get away from my normal color scheme (I like blue... a lot) and work with some warm, Fall colors instead.

Everything in the top, except for the muslin sashing between the big blocks and the solid color borders around each block, came out of my scrap bins.  The piano key border came out of my string box. Of course I made too much, so the extras have ended up in String 'Splosion which is being quilted now.

The quilt measure 67"x82", appropriate for a twin bed or a large throw.  It makes me think of cold nights in the mountains and snuggling up in front of a warm fire with hot chocolate, so in the spirit of extra snuggliness I went with flannel for the back.

I found the perfect flannel print with all the right colors and Eastern European looking designs but there was only a yard left on the bolt. That ended up being the center of the back with a nice brown flannel all around it.  I love how the quilting shows up on the back of the quilt.

I used my walking foot to stitch in the ditch of the sashing around the big blocks and anchor everything, then used FMQ on the rest of the quilt. 

I made straight-ish lines in the border, a wishbone in the solid-color borders of each block, and a tight stipple in the scrappy-colored portion of each block.  The quilt has already had its inaugural wash for extra-super krinkliness.

This quilt is waiting for its forever home. For now it is keeping my bed toasty warm through this last bit of winter. Wilson approves of it :)  Don't forget to go check out Mihaela's pattern on Craftsy. It is seriously an excellent pattern, very well written, and reasonably priced.  If you do buy the pattern and make your own versions of this block I'd love to see them!

Enjoy your weekend! Linking up to Finish it Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Quilting, quilting, quilting...

Happy Wednesday!  I am spending my day, as you guessed, quilting the Country Home quilt.  These were the blocks designed by Mihaela based on a Romanian needle point design. The pattern isn't available yet, but as soon as it is I will link to it. 

I made the blocks scrappy then added a scrappy string-pieced border.  I even mitered my corners!  I only used about half of the string border I made on the quilt, so there will be a baby quilt coming in these same colors.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday. Happy quilting!

Snowy WIP Wednesday

Yes, I said snowy! In Texas! Much as I am not looking forward to driving to working in the slush tomorrow it always makes me smile to see flakes falling down.  The cold weather was a perfect excuse to spend Monday and Tuesday inside sewing. 

All my blocks for the scrappy Country Home Quilt are done. This block was designed by Mihaela and the pattern will be out soon.  I am planning some thin sashing and a string-pieced piano key border for this.  I was trying to steer away from my normal blue/green palette and use some fall/warm colors instead.  I really like how it's coming together.

I also worked on quilting the Drunken Circles do. Good Stitches quilt.  I am trying to do a multi-spiral quilting variation on this.  I have spiral quilted before with success but this time it was thwarting me. After some unpicking and re-pinning I swapped my walking foot for a FMQ foot and we're back on track.

I can't wait to show you this one all done!  Linking up to WIP Wednesday.

Mihaela's Country Home blocks

On my design wall this week are some scrappy blocks. These are from a block pattern called "Country Home" which I am testing for Mihaela.  She designed the block based on traditional Romanian pattens.

When the pattern comes out I will be sure to link it here. In the mean while, I am enjoying playing in my scraps and plan to make a whole quilt out of these blocks!

Linking up to Judy's Design Wall Monday.