Moonlit Paths- FINISHED!
I am so behind on sharing my projects!
Let's hop back in time for a minute.
The Moonlit Paths mystery quilt-along was in full swing and I was scrambling to complete some baby shower gifts for my husband's best friend and his wife, but I never shared the rest of the journey with you!
Let's see... I think we left off around the middle of June, last year... yikes!
I really liked the format of this quilt-along. It was a weekly pattern release, which kept me excited and engaged, yet wasn't too unrealistic to keep up with. I did the crib sized version, and while there were several sizes to choose from, I felt like this size gave me the perfect amount of work to do each week.
Eventually, the final pattern revealed itself to me (Shelly Cavanna has a very distinct style), and I couldn't wait to get it sewn together.
It's so pretty!
The quilt top turned out beautiful, if not a little bit feminine. I now know that the baby is a boy- and he's going on six months old already! No biggie though... purple is definitely gender neutral, but I guess I was just expecting a girl.
I rented some long arm time at the NWTC Artisan Center this week and got it all quilted up...
Just kidding. It wasn't actually that simple. After three attempts at getting it done on the long-arm, I got frustrated and it sat in a bag for quite a while.
The first time, I chickened out and only did a tiny squiggle. It had been a year since I last long-armed something and I wasn't comfortable just jumping right in, despite finishing another small quilt before loading this one on.
On the second attempt, my warm up quilt sabotaged me and ended up taking two and a half hours to complete.
I LOVE long-arm quilting, but I hate that renting time is A) so expensive and B) very limited. I need more time to get familiar with it to really be comfortable working on an important project. I also feel like I'm always a burden to the studio technician, because she seems to get frustrated at me when I need help. I guess I'll just have to invest in my own someday.
I ended up popping by my mother-in-law's house over the 4th of July weekend and spent three hours on her sit-down longarm getting this thing finished. It's by no means perfect, but at least it's done! By the time I got to the very last block, I was finally feeling relaxed and in the groove. I guess I just need to keep at it and schedule regular visits; I'm sure my MIL wouldn't mind. :)
Lastly, the binding. I don't recall if I had prepared a binding for this quilt or not, and I have no idea what I was originally planning to bind it with. Fortunately, my box of pattern pieces and fabric from this project was still on my shelf, so I dug in and pieced together enough binding to go around the whole thing. Sometimes math is hard. I thought I had measured out enough of the light grey (all of it) to go around the quilt with the addition of my signature little squares of each fabric, but I guess there was just not quite enough. I added in a little bit of the light purple, and I actually really love how it turned out. It kind of highlights one corner of the quilt- which happens to contain the last few blocks I quilted, so they look pretty good- and the color changes are spaced nicely so that it looks intentional.
I plopped down on the couch and put on season 8 of Project Runway, and actually finished hand-stitching the bindings of TWO quilts over the course of two and a half days (including a few breaks for food, exercise, errands, etc.). That's, like... 32 feet of tiny little stitches. My fingers hurt. Cue the old lady from Happy Gilmore... This is hand-made, quality sh*t we're talking, here.
This gorgeous baby quilt, plus a humorous little matching cross stitch I whipped up after visiting the family last October, is ready to be turned over to its owner... just in time for his first birthday!
Let's hop back in time for a minute.
The Moonlit Paths mystery quilt-along was in full swing and I was scrambling to complete some baby shower gifts for my husband's best friend and his wife, but I never shared the rest of the journey with you!
Let's see... I think we left off around the middle of June, last year... yikes!
I really liked the format of this quilt-along. It was a weekly pattern release, which kept me excited and engaged, yet wasn't too unrealistic to keep up with. I did the crib sized version, and while there were several sizes to choose from, I felt like this size gave me the perfect amount of work to do each week.
Eventually, the final pattern revealed itself to me (Shelly Cavanna has a very distinct style), and I couldn't wait to get it sewn together.
 |
| My estimation of the final assembly... which was pretty much spot on. |
It's so pretty!
 |
| Mr. Helpful Cat on the assembled blocks. |
 |
| Skinny purple border... |
 |
| My final quilt top! I added some cute points to my cornerstones to give it an extra special touch. |
The quilt top turned out beautiful, if not a little bit feminine. I now know that the baby is a boy- and he's going on six months old already! No biggie though... purple is definitely gender neutral, but I guess I was just expecting a girl.
I rented some long arm time at the NWTC Artisan Center this week and got it all quilted up...
FAST-FORWARD SEVERAL MONTHS:
Just kidding. It wasn't actually that simple. After three attempts at getting it done on the long-arm, I got frustrated and it sat in a bag for quite a while.
The first time, I chickened out and only did a tiny squiggle. It had been a year since I last long-armed something and I wasn't comfortable just jumping right in, despite finishing another small quilt before loading this one on.
On the second attempt, my warm up quilt sabotaged me and ended up taking two and a half hours to complete.
I LOVE long-arm quilting, but I hate that renting time is A) so expensive and B) very limited. I need more time to get familiar with it to really be comfortable working on an important project. I also feel like I'm always a burden to the studio technician, because she seems to get frustrated at me when I need help. I guess I'll just have to invest in my own someday.
I ended up popping by my mother-in-law's house over the 4th of July weekend and spent three hours on her sit-down longarm getting this thing finished. It's by no means perfect, but at least it's done! By the time I got to the very last block, I was finally feeling relaxed and in the groove. I guess I just need to keep at it and schedule regular visits; I'm sure my MIL wouldn't mind. :)
Lastly, the binding. I don't recall if I had prepared a binding for this quilt or not, and I have no idea what I was originally planning to bind it with. Fortunately, my box of pattern pieces and fabric from this project was still on my shelf, so I dug in and pieced together enough binding to go around the whole thing. Sometimes math is hard. I thought I had measured out enough of the light grey (all of it) to go around the quilt with the addition of my signature little squares of each fabric, but I guess there was just not quite enough. I added in a little bit of the light purple, and I actually really love how it turned out. It kind of highlights one corner of the quilt- which happens to contain the last few blocks I quilted, so they look pretty good- and the color changes are spaced nicely so that it looks intentional.
I plopped down on the couch and put on season 8 of Project Runway, and actually finished hand-stitching the bindings of TWO quilts over the course of two and a half days (including a few breaks for food, exercise, errands, etc.). That's, like... 32 feet of tiny little stitches. My fingers hurt. Cue the old lady from Happy Gilmore... This is hand-made, quality sh*t we're talking, here.
This gorgeous baby quilt, plus a humorous little matching cross stitch I whipped up after visiting the family last October, is ready to be turned over to its owner... just in time for his first birthday!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteVery nice. I Love the colors and the quilting!
Delete