Finally here it is. My finished top. Complete with borders! I seem to stall every time when it comes to borders so this is a big deal. LOL! I enjoyed this project very much and hope Judy will be doing another sometime in the future. I used nickel squares for my pieces so I upped my block size to 14". This makes the finished quilt about 78" X 92". I think, don't have my figures in front of me and I'm too lazy to go up front and check. Anyway a good full-size top. This will be for my oldest niece, Debbie for her birthday next year. Many of the fabrics were from dresses Mama made her when she was a child so I'm hoping it will be a nice memory quilt for her. I've decided all the nieces/nephews get their quilts for their birthdays next year. These will go to a LA to be quilted. I've decided the money I'm saving on fabric and books, and stuff can go to a quilter since it's obvious I'm not going to get them done myself. It's just too hard on my arms and shoulders and back to even think about trying to quilt a large quilt on my little machine.
I mentioned I seem to stall out on borders. So that's what I'm going to focus on this week. I have 4 or 5 tops sitting in my sewing room with the border fabric with them just waiting to be applied. So this afternoon I pulled one and got the borders put on. Not only do I seem to stall at borders I seem to have a problem cutting them lately. I had a LOT of trouble with the borders on the hour-a-day quilt. Doesn't look too bad in the end so I guess that's okay. Then I miscut the final border for the sunflower quilt. I forgot to add the inches from the last border when I was figuring out how long they needed to be. So they were exactly 11" too short! I could have just recut those last borders but then I'm not sure I would have had enough left for the back. Or I could have just sewn another piece of the sunflower fabric in each corner - which I started to do but it would have been really obvious that I'd screwed up. Then I spyed the brown on the cutting table that I had used for the tiny inner border. Well why not just use that as cornerstones! Heck if I hadn'ta told ya'll I messed up ya'll would have probably figured I'd planned it that way all along. :-) I THINK I still have enough of the brown to do the binding. I hadn't planned to use brown in the quilt but I just didn't like the way the sunflower border looked next to the center without a separator. So I was going to use black. But then when I opened the cabinet to get some black my eye fell on my stack of browns. Hhmmmmm, maybe brown would be better with this nice fall quilt. Yep. MUCH nicer looking with the other fabrics than the black was. This is a nice size cuddle quilt. 68"X84". I originally made it for my guilds charity program. But it sure would make a nice fall quilt for the house. So I may have to dig thru my tops and find another one for the guild. 
And I can't leave you without another cat photo. :-) This CAN'T be comfortable! Makes my back hurt just to look at him. But Sam seems content. :-)
26 comments:
Beautiful hour-a-day quilt Nancy!
And yup, animals seem to have a different level of "comfort". Either they're perfectly happy on hard awkward objects, or they demand to royalty and insist on snoozing on our "we need that!" pile of quilts and batting. :)
Hooray for your finish Nancy! The borders really are worth the extra effort. And, your sunflower quilt is looking great too -I like the narrow inner brown border. My summer quilt has funny rectangle cornerstones from where I ran out of fabric - gives the quilt character, I think!
GREAT plan to spend your "saved" money on long arm quilting. That is my current method of finishing my tops right now!
Cheers!
Evelyn
Congratulations on finishing the hour a day quilt. Pat yourself on the back for a job well done!
I can sure sympathise with the Border-Block -- that's where I stall out too. Gee -- when I finally do one it dosn't sem like such a problem, but they can sit and wait for years. The hour-a-day top is beautiful - great memory quilt!
Yeah - both quilts look great. The sunflower border looks just as if it was planned. Sam makes me want to take a nap *s*
I love your quilts - they are both beautiful!
Cats always amaze me with the poses they sleep in. Really makes me wish I was that limber.
It so much fun reading your blog, Nancy. Your thought process as you did the sunflower border is wonderful.
Both quilts are great and the borders couldn't be better. Good work.
Love your cat picture!
way to stick to borders! And you're right, the corner stones look intentional :-)
Nancy, when you get started you really go! I'm having trouble getting started and I'm retired, so no job wearing me out.
That narrow brown border really adds to the sunflower quilt. Sort of lassos the center part and clearly defines the border.
Gorgeous! I love the fence rail colors :)
beautiful quilts!!
wow! I really like your hr/day quilt...very nice! And no, I would never have thought the brown was anything but part of the original plan for the sunflower quilt..it is perfect!
Hey, I am with you about sending out the larger quilts. Yes, it does cost a bit of $$$ but it is worth every dime! The smaller quilts that I can do straight lines (zoomlines) on I do, charity quilts I do...but larger quilts I just can't see any other way to have them done.
BTW, Niles thanks you again for your part in his TATW!
Your hour a day quilt looks great. Mine is getting there!!
What are nickle squares? That is something I have never heard of before.
Good luck on all those borders and congrats on finishing the tops! Good idea to spend your savings on having a few things sent out - I was just thinking of starting a little jar to save up to have three queen size quilts done at some point after the holidays.
Both quilts are great. Spying that brown and using it in the corners is what serendipity is all about! Lots of my good design decisions have come about by things like trying to avoid frog-stitching, or covering up a mistake. =)
well done Nancy! nice finish to the sunflower top and it was an amusing story to hear how those brown cornerstones came to be in it! I must take a photo of our Zoe doing her frog lying down pose...talk about looking uncomfortable! and your hour a day quilt top is going to be such a hit with your neice I am certain.
Your Hour A Day quilt is lovely. Im sure your niece will be happy with it.
What a great idea adding the brown fabric for the cornerstones on your sunflower quilt.
Nancy, love the hour a day quilt. Way to go on the borders.. and kudos for making that your project this week. It will feel good to finish those tops completely..
if you hadn't told us about the borders on the sunflower i WOULD have thought the cornerstones were planned..and brown is perfect.!@
Gosh, both of those quilts are beautiful! Good finish on both of them!
I'm like you about borders. I let quilt tops pile up, and then go on a border mission to get them all done in one weekend. Now I'm stuck on piecing backings. Might tackle that pile next weekend.
Way to go - two finishes. Both quilts are wonderful. I'm so glad that you spend lots of time at your sewing machine!!!!!
Do you suppose Sam would like someone to do a tummy scratch?
So borders are a hang up for you too. Don't you feel good to have two ready to be quilted?
I just know that hanging out with all of you will increase my rate of completion. Thanks for sharing the pictures.
that kitty belly is begging for a rub or scratch!
If you had not told us about the borders on that quilt, we would have thought that you planned it that way since it looks like a natural!
Your hour a day looks terrific too--the colors are a bit softer and feminine for the receipient, it appears.
I like your inspired design on the rail fence quilt. I, too, like to send the larger quilt tops out to be quilted. In fact, I just took one to my quilter on Saturday. /paula
This is the 2nd One Hour quilt I've seen tonight cruising around blogland - I love seeing different versions of the same quilt.
Good for you getting the borders on too. I don't like putting borders on but I'm usually so anxious to finish the top at that point I keep working until I get them done. Of course, some of my favorite quilts are borderless!
Wow Nancy - I leave for the weekend and look at all you accomplish. Well done! Especially with adjusting to your "mistake". For quilters mistakes are often the forerunner of creativity, and result in a quilt much better than what would have been the result without the mistake. Your nieces and nephews will be thrilled.
Love the picture of Sam - cats get themselves in the strangest positions!
Beautiful quilts Nancy! You sure have been busy. Love your quilt-for-an-hour one. Those narrow borders scare me - I finished mine off with a much wider one. The narrow brown border on the Rail Fence contains all that colour beautifully.
Cute cat! My sweetie pie said that it looks like he wants his tummy tickled.
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