Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Finishing Up With the Mini Cake Stands For the Very Last Time

Every now and then I make a really big quilt top. Like this one. It finished out at 86" x 104"! I'm trying to do better about that, but sometimes a quilt just sort of explodes on me. Either that, or I just don't know when to quit?
Mini Cake Stands a completed quilt top, finally, finally, finally.....
This quilt started out in 2012 with me having a great time playing with green and blue prints, making little cake stand blocks like they were going out of style. Fast forward to a quilt top finish and I was severely deflated by the results of my efforts. Blehhhhh....
Lazy me, it's not ironed yet!
I bundled my quilt top into a drawer and hid it away. And the quilting part? Well, it never seemed to happen even though I'd pull it out occasionally and contemplate the stitching. Something about it was just all wrong. Finally, in January of this year, I made an important decision about the future of this particular quilt. It wasn't worthy of being quilted 'as is', and I sure didn't want to waste these sweet little cake stand blocks! Anyway, shortly after that mind boggling decision, you'd find me ripping my ugly quilt apart with great dedication. It was quite the conversation piece around here, let me tell you!
Mini Cake Stands fading into the background
Deciding how to put it back together was a bit challenging, but I stuck with an old fashioned, utility style look. Hard to go wrong with that! I didn't buy any extra fabric, but raided my stash in order to find the various pink, green and brown prints used for secondary blocks. Then, deep in my cream/lt. tan fabric tote, I stumbled upon the cream and green stripe fabric that I ended up choosing for the setting triangles. It's a bit bland and unexciting really, but every other color I auditioned just made some other color in the quilt start jangling and clashing. Why oh why do I always try to push the boundaries of  specific colors/hues and shades residing comfortably next to each other? lol  {I think we all probably know the answer to that....}
Obviously not going to work....
Oh well. It's a finished quilt top now and one that I'm much happier with, all things considered! On another note, this fabulous book came in the mail from JulieKQuilts! So much inspiration. I just love it!
My giveaway winnings...
Every month she has a Binding Blitz to encourage us slackers to go ahead and finish our quilts for good. Everyone is welcome to join in! And what a sweetheart. She included a little roll of cream fabric strips too! Very fun stuff and you know me, I'm always happy to be a winner. And have an opportunity to play with more fabric!*wink

Oh yeah, for those that may have missed it, my own giveaway is still open until Sunday!

16 comments:

  1. I didn't need any of the books you have in your give away so I have stayed away from it! I think your quilt looks great - you always seem to know what you are doing and if one is not happy with a quilt sometimes you just have to go with your gut and rip! that looks like a great book by the way that you received!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I went back and looked at the original top - this idea is so much better! Those little tiny blocks are way too adorable to leave sitting in a top that isn't making you happy. Now you've hit two of my soft spots - tiny blocks and nine patches - love it!

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's beautiful any way I see it!

    ReplyDelete
  4. It is a lovely quilttop, those little cakestands are adorable! What size are those small blocks? Did you paperpiece them? I really like what you have done to this top, these colors are so 'you'. Had a look at the previous plan and this is so much nicer. Sometimes a quilt just needs time....... like slowcooking in a crockpot :-) !

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh, yes....much better...now those adorable little cake stands aren't lost in the shuffle. And I like the vintage vibe I'm getting from it.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I like it both ways! It is a great nine patch quilt. Perfect summery colors.
    Off to check out your giveaway

    ReplyDelete
  7. HA! I was looking at the photos wondering " I wonder why she doesn't like it..I do! " and then I clicked on the link. Oh, okay..this is the redo! :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. HA! I was looking at the photos wondering " I wonder why she doesn't like it..I do! " and then I clicked on the link. Oh, okay..this is the redo! :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Those are some teensy tiny cake stands. Love them!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I love this quilt Audrey - especially those cute mini baskets. Congratulations on the finish !

    ReplyDelete
  11. I would have done the same thing. When it's not working...you know it. Nice color changes for your quilt, and the addition of the nine patch blocks is a great idea. Now that it's out of the closet (and your head), you can start something new!

    ReplyDelete
  12. These little cake stands are so adorable! I'm so glad you're happy with it now. I look forward to seeing how you quilt when you get to it.

    ReplyDelete
  13. After going back to your link of the previous version, what a transformation! This one just works, beautifully. It's always a great learning process, isn't it. Going through a bit of that right now, with a vintage top I picked up two or three years ago. Looking forward to seeing your cake stands all quilted someday with the added texture giving it yet another dimension.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Nice job on pushing through the challenges and finishing your top!!

    ReplyDelete
  15. It looks a lot better now! Those cake stand blocks were a lot of work and so cute. It was well worth the effort to take it apart and sew it back together another way.

    ReplyDelete
  16. It looks wonderful. I've been playing with the idea of tiny cake stands in dashing. But I only have one. Yours are an inspiration

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for visiting! I love getting comments and always try to respond via email. Please leave an email in the comment to ensure a return reply! {Many of you are popping up as Anonymous for some reason, so I have no idea who it is.} Regardless, I appreciate all the comments and read every single one.