Finally, A Finished Quilt Project

I've gotten into enjoying making smaller quilts, whether they be for a baby or a child, or for a wall-hanging, or whatever. After taking a rather long break from doing any quilting, I finally got my sewing machine out again this last summer. The main problem until then was, my bobbin winder on the machine quit working. But then ... my son was nice and bought me a little "sidewinder" bobbin winder. Now I'm back in business!


I'm such a traditionalist, I always did piecing by hand. Well, it's how my grandma did it, and I want to be just like her. :) But this summer, I tried piecing by machine, and I have pretty much switched over to that. It's faster, with more consistently even seams. So these last few months, that's the way it's been.


This summer, a lady at church in our quilting group gave me some of these pieces shown here to "do something with." There were all kinds of materials. It's a pattern she made up called "Shards of Glass." The original way to make them ends up with a kind of "sawtooth" effect through the middle of the block.


Well, I saw there were a lot of red-white-and-blue prints, and they seemed to stand out to me, so I decided to put them together in a little quilt. But some pieces had already been joined into the strips, and sometimes the angle went the other way. So I arranged it so it ended up with more of a "zig-zag" effect through the middle of the block.


You can see in the one picture (these pieces on the table) all the other pieces that I can still do something with, but you should see the LIST OF OTHER PROJECTS I have in progress! I'm just glad I can finally mark one "done." With winter coming on, I'll have plenty to keep me happily busy.


So ... (sew? ha ha) ... here is the whole 9 yards (man I'm full of it) of how this quilt got built. In the quilting, I outlined each patchwork piece, then did a "meandering" quilt stitch in the flowery border print.


Pieces being arranged to sew into blocks (red-white-and-blue bunch on the left, others to do something with later on the right):





My sewing table, and the stack of sewn blocks:





The blocks ready to be put together into a top:





Blocks arranged and sewn together:





Border added around the blocks:





Pinning the layers together (top, batting and backing):





Ready to quilt, using a hoop instead of a frame:





Quilting:





Quilting done:





Batting and backing trimmed:





Binding done:





Finished quilt with a view of backing: