Week 4: 15 Minutes to Stitch

 

It has been below freezing a lot of this week, and although I generally walk unless it is below zero, I took a break this week. We had snow and I didn't want my dog Zeus to slip and slide on the street with his hip trouble. He did not insist on walking, and was happy to spend time out in the back yard. He enjoys the cold.

This means I didn't take a lot of pictures, so I found an old one from 2009.

2022: 15 Minutes to Stitch Week 4

I had a solid week of quilting this week. I made the Project Quilting challenge quilt which I showed you in my last post, Flight. 

The borders I added to Lansing Leaves last week didn't pass quality inspection, so I ripped out a couple of small sections and sewed the entire borders again. I pressed them and sized up the last two borders. I added one, and it didn't pass quality inspection either. It had a tension issue after I refilled the bobbin so it got a second seam too. The last border passed quality inspection, but I was tempted to reinforce it too since all the other ones did.

I am declaring it done, even though I still need to press the last two borders. Since I have the backing and binding fabric chosen (they were in the drawer), I think I will continue on with this quilt so I can get a finish.

15 minute days this week --7 out of 7

15 minute days this year -- 23 out of 23 days

Success rate  = 100%

Linked with:

15 Minutes to Stitch

2022: More Finishes Than Starts

Quilt Reveal: Flight

 

I tried to avoid temptation by not looking to see what the challenge for Project Quilting was for this week. I want to finish a quilt.

But I won a prize from Project Quilting last week, and I accidentally copied and pasted my 15-minutes-to-stitch stats last week without deleting the sentence that said I was working on the Project Quilting challenge. So what else could I do? I had to take a peek to see how hard it would be do do.

The challenge seems easy enough - silhouette. 

“Birds learn how to fly, never knowing where the flight will take them.” -Mark Nepo

 

 I had some black fused fabric left over from the Halloween House quilt when I realized that I didn't need half of the tree that was going to be cut off the edge of the quilt. I could just slap it on some fabric and call it done.

The more I look at the picture above, the more I like it. But I was worried that it would make me look lazy. I wanted to make something where I could be lazy, but not look like I was lazy. I think it would probably require match stick quilting, and I don't want to take the time to do that.

I didn't want to take too much time to look for a background, so I decided to use the scraps from Lansing Leaves. I really like the way the bird looks on this fabric.

Then I realized that the whole piece looked like a kimono. Mary Fons was talking about the time period where quilters made a lot of kimono quilts. Why was there an obsession about kimono quilts? Was there an Olympics in Japan in the 70s, 80s or 90s that started the rage?

I decided to go with the kimono, so I folded it in half and cut so both sides would be somewhat symmetrical. It looks more like a dress than a kimono. Once I decided this was going to be a dress, I liked the bird on the top and not on the skirt part.

I had just thrown the fabric on top of the yellow fabric and I liked how it looked so I sewed it on. My girl is modest so the bottom of her dress needs to be closer to her knees.

To make it quick, I knew I wanted to birth the quilt. So I sandwiched it and sewed all around the shape. If you look carefully, you can see I made a slice where the bird will be since I need it a place to turn it right side out. I love that I could do this because I have a hard time keeping the edges neat when I have to close off an opening.

The batting was exactly the right size, and wasn't big enough to fill the entire quilt, but the missing parts are in the seam allowance so I don't think it will matter.

I had to be careful when turning the quilt right side out to avoid tearing the small cut that I had made, but as you can see, I was able to do it.

 

I poked out the corners, straightened out the opening, and pressed it flat. Here you can see that I had sewn in a piece for the neckline.

 

Finally, I added the bird. I quilted in the ditch, and sewed the bird and sun down.

So far this year, I have started two quilts and have finished two quilts, so although I don't have more finishes than starts yet, I don't have to play any catch up.

Linked with:

Peacock Party

Finished Or Not Friday