February Project - Star Chenille Quilt Completed!

Woohoo! I'm two for two!



The Star Chenille Quilt is finished. And I'm very happy about this, because all of the work I had left to finish it was ... tedious, and I don't have much time for tedious these days. It really is a super easy project to put together, but cutting the fringe, and then washing/drying/delinting/washing/drying/delinting is not the most entertaining of ways to spend an afternoon.

However, if you are looking for a quick project with a big impact - this truly is a great option. The pattern is offered by Back Door Quilts.

The pattern is called "Star Chenille" because it calls for the quilting to be done in a primitive star shape. I used a basic "X" and think it worked out well, too.

You could do this quilt with any combination of colors. Flannels are going to work best, because of the manner in which they fray. If you look at this detail picture of the quilt, you'll see how the edges have frayed and sort of melded together.


It gives what could be a rather boring combination of safe colored plaids a whole new dimension. The overall effect is soft and comfy. One word of warning - you'll get lots of thread stragglers all over when you first wash and dry, and then you have to delint (I used packing tape wrapped around my hand to pull all the extra threads off, rather than a lint roller. I even enlisted the help of my 19 month old son, who thought it was a fantastic game.)

Do you need any further evidence of coziness than my son's initial reaction to his new "blankie?"

January Project - The Christmas Quilt - Complete*!

*If we call the completed top for the Christmas quilt a "completed project."
(You can click on the picture for more detail.)

The truth is: to finish this quilt, I'll need batting and a backing fabric - and I just don't have it in the budget right now to buy either. So I'm calling it done, and giving myself a pass on the technicality.

But I think I was successful - I was able to complete the quilt top. I remembered what I was doing. I discovered that everything I'd learned about piecing a quilt top, well, it's not so much that I remembered it as I realized it's just all still in there. It was like my fingers moved to do things before I could think about the next step. What I did remember was the satisfaction in looking at all of those little pieces of fabric, pulled together to make something beautiful. (Well, I consider it beautiful).

I mentioned, when I introduced the project, that I had chosen a fabric for the lattice (the longer strips surrounding each block) that was proving difficult to cut. My solution? I finally just chose another fabric. Such an obvious solution that it eluded me for 4 1/2 years.

In the end, an enthusiastic thumbs up on this quilt pattern, too. Thimbleberries is always good, and the directions on this quilt are no exception. It went together quickly and rather simply. And it did accomplish what I wanted for this fabric - the overall affect is 100% "Hi! I'm a Christmas Quilt!" The fabric I fell in love with is highlighted, but blended. And I've got my whimsical little Eiffel Towers on display.

As this project *technically* isn't "finished" - you'll be seeing it again. This looks like a project I'll be able to machine quilt myself (I'm not so good at the machine quilting - but this has a lot of straight lines to follow). And I'll add a table runner for the table underneath where the quilt will hang. Or maybe a Christmas tree skirt for the tree I keep imagining I'll put in the foyer and decorate differently than the tree in the living room. I don't know ... it's February already - I guess I have to stop thinking about Christmas for awhile.

On to February's project!

The New Old-Project Project

(Cross Posted)
An off-handed comment from a friend of mine on FB has inspired me this morning. I am declaring the year 2010 (which I love saying, by the way. Try it: Twenty-ten. Twenty-ten. It's good, right?) What was I saying? Oh, right - I'm declaring the year 2010 "The Year Of Finished Projects."

Several years ago, I learned how to quilt. I took to it with a passion and an intensity that only a person with an addictive personality could master. Class after class, technique after technique. Praise from my teachers, "Such a natural!"

Then I moved. And stopped quilting altogether. I'm not even sure why. Oh - wait. Maybe it was the buying-a-house, adopting-a-baby, new-mommy, SAHM-to-a-toddler effect. And what was left - drawers of half-finished, almost finished, barely-started quilting projects. Some of these already have hours and hours of work in them, and there they sit ... in a drawer.

But, 2010 is the year I finish all of these unfinished quilting projects. Why? Because I want the satisfaction. Because I actually would like to be able to hang some of these things up in my home. Because I enjoy quilting. Because I want to be someone who finishes things. And because I spent such a ridiculous amount of money on all of this fabric and those classes and the tools, my much-more-frugal-than-I-used-to-be self can't let this craziness continue.

So, I bring to you, The Year of Finished Projects. Twelve projects. Twelve months. With before and after pictures! And a new blog for a new topic! (Well, at the moment, I have six - but that was just in one drawer, so I'm thinking I've easily got twelve.)