Saturday, January 10, 2015

First ever FNWF!


Friday Night With Friends, which is hosted at Gone Stitchin' is something I signed up for in January with the hopes I would pull out the long neglected quilting, and many sewing projects I have
accumulating in my totes.

For this time I pulled out the second oldest project which the pattern calls "Pinwheels for Sarah".  Naturally, I had to use completely different fabrics (batiks and such) and went hog wild and ended up using 24 different fabrics to create this topper.

I apologize for the lighting and angle, but will get better shots next month for your OOO and AAHH enjoyment.

This needs to be ironed, I need queen sized batting and to finally get serious about the backing.

For FNWF, the thought was to get this out, see what I needed, give it some ironing and make a plan to get working on it.

Digging around I found that I did have bags of my lovely cotton batting, but for some reason each bag has pieces cut out of it and for the life of me I do not remember what I was doing to make this happen.  Luckily you can never have too much batting...so there is that.

One thing I absolutely love about this piece is how each square is it's own beautiful space.  There is at least one fabric in each square that has gold sparkle, so the quilting thread I will be using is gold.

I'm old school...seriously old school when it comes to quilting and do it all by hand.  No machined stuff for me even if I do love the end result!  It's a pleasant form of torture.

The woman this quilt was intended for saw the topper when it was finished and stated that every fabric used represented a phase of her life.  This means quite a bit to me as she has had a most wonderfully "colorful" life.

You see, she is a nurse and has traveled all over the State of Alaska to remote locations, small villages, towns and cities providing much needed medical assistance.

This quilt would actually be called Pinwheels for Pat since that is her name and not Sarah.
Granted, no sewing was done last night, but the enjoyment of pulling this lovely thing out, unfolding it and digging around for the needed items to work on it was entertaining all by itself.

I love digging in my stash, but when digging with a purpose is difficult when you see other things that you still want to finish!

Here's hoping that next FNWF sees me actually putting needle and thread through some fabric and working a star or two in an evening!

Now back to reading those blogs!  They are so wonderful!

29 comments:

  1. Hello Carla. Glad you enjoyed your first FNWF. Your quilt looks great. Thanks for dropping by my blog. Christine

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    1. My pleasure! I'm currently overwhelmed by all the pretties I've seen and read about this morning....like my beloved cross stitch, so many quilts so little time :D

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  2. Firstly thank you for visiting my blog and leaving a comment :-). What a beautiful quilt top you have there...love those fabrics that you've used :-). Wow, you live in Alaska! To an Aussie like me, that is just so exotic a country, lol. My stepdaughter is on a 2 year working visa to Canada and in a few months time my DH and I are meeting up with her and the 3 of us are doing the famous Inside Passage cruise to Alaska. Most Aussies my age seem to have done this cruise...the in thing to do! Lol

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    1. OH MY GOODNESS!!! PLEASE let me know if you are stopping in Juneau on your cruise and if so, for how long! It would be my absolute pleasure to give you the "tour" of my home. I have done this with others and it is always a thrill every time. You being from Aus, I have questions...soooo many questions! Like I am for you, you too are from an exotic place.

      Thank you so much for the compliment on my quilt topper. It is my hope that this will be finished this year :D

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  3. Digging around is all part of the fun!

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    1. I completely agree! It's fun to find things forgotten and given them love again :D

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  4. Hello Carla. Welcome to your first FNWF. Lovely blocks. Thanks for your lovely comment on my blog xx

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    1. Thank you! and Thank you! and Thank YOU for the lovely eye candy on your blog as well :D

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  5. Welcome to FNWF, lovely blocks. Always satisfying to work on a forgotten project

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  6. You may not have actually done any stitches but you definitely moved a project forward.....and that is what FNwF is all about.

    I also love hand quilting...but since a lot of my projects are for children I do mostly machine quilting for the strength and the speed.

    How do you plan on quilting your quilt?

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    1. Machine quilting for children's quilts is almost a must isn't it? They can be so hard on them and then all the washing that has to happen...I shudder to think of how tattered my "child" quilt is which is in a box in my mother's closet...another thing I'll have to get to.

      I thought I would quilt the stars first as stars to give them the star definition but after that have not decided on how to go about the rest. Slanted lines, horizontal lines, maybe vine patterns down and across the small borders of each square and larger flower and vines down the outside borders...those are the thoughts so far. ALL ideas are welcome!

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  7. Oh I understand the many new starts that tempt when foraging through the stash, it can be quite distracting. Well done on keeping your focus.

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    1. haha, yes...that thing called focus...very difficult when screaming out things like "OH!! That's where this went" or "Strange....don't remember this one..."

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  8. Your quilt is so bright and cheerful, seems many bloggers are looking to finish long time WIPs this year. good luck with the quilting!

    ukcitycrafter@live.co.uk

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    1. Thank you! I will need it since I'll only be working on it one evening per month! It should go pretty fast once I get going, but still need to pick up the batting and backing fabric :D

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  9. I almost forgot you were into quilting as well together with everything else you do...this one is beautiful, I will have to perster either you or Magical with questions about how to do these things :D

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    1. Please do! Magical knows far more than I do, but I think between the both of us we can get you started on some small things to start (like a table runner or handbag) and then get you on to the more complicated patterns...which really aren't that complicated except when things don' t line up properly :D

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    2. Feel free to pester - if I can't explain it then I know where to point you :)

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  10. I made a quilt about five million years ago, still use it too. Yours looks lovely and far more complicated than anything I've done.

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    1. It actually wasn't complicated, it's just the fabrics that make it look tough. I'll show you the actual pattern and you will see how easy it really is :D

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    2. Wot Carla said! It's just squares and half square triangles (which can be done by taking 2 squares of fabric and sewing diagonal lines in one or more direction depending on how many you need and what size, and then cutting them apart)

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  11. Hmm I do not know what happened to the comment I made here - it seems to have disappeared into the nothingness of cyberspace :(

    You really should finish this - it's full of awesomeness!

    Rootling though stash is always so much fun, you never know what you may find - sometimes it seems as if stuff sneaks in while you were not looking as you don't know how something got in there.

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    1. I agree, I SHOULD finish this. It has been 10 years since I made it, so this is the time, right?

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  12. Hello Carla - thanks for dropping by my blog after FNWF - sorry I couldn't reply because you're a 'no-reply' from the Comment you left me.
    What lovely sewing you've done for the time, & good luck with the hand quilting of this one - I admire those who can do it, I've not the patience!

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    1. Weird, I wonder how many "no-reply" comments I've left! thank you for coming on over here to say HI! And thank you for the compliment, it's been ages since I've done any kind of quilting so it must be about time!

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  13. Sorry to be so late in viewing your progress... but January was a nightmare...
    Thanks for joining in... I hope to see you again in this months FNwF. xox

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    1. No worries! There were so many nice comments I really cannot wait to do this again this Friday!

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