Random Sampler Is a Finish!

Things always slow down in the fall, that's what I've been telling myself for months. So here we are and it still feels like we are careening from one week right into the next. I ended up in Portland this past weekend and snuck in a little visit to my youngest sister. Did I do any hand work that was prepped and sitting in my bag?

Random Sampler

Um, no. I was too busy trying to keep from shivering half to death. It's usually 10 degrees warmer in Western Oregon than what we deal with here in Eastern Washington, but that cold damp air! Brr...

Can you believe how far we are into November? I keep walking around in a fog just blown away by how close we are to Thanksgiving already! This quilt was one I was absolutely determined to get finished up this year and it's always had an expected Thanksgiving deadline--at least in my mind. Yikes! So, knowing this quilt was so crazy close to a finish, I knuckled down and finally got the binding figured out and all sewn on. Love the leftover binding tote for quilts like this--didn't have to dig into the stash at all and the work is half done already!

So good to have this one finished!

This is definitely one of my oldest unfinished quilt tops. Started sometime in 2012 from one of the first online QAL's I ever joined up with and one that almost got sidelined completely. It got bogged down sometime after most of the original blocks were finished {how to put the puzzle together and have it look good???} and then it was quite awhile before the quilt top itself was finally sewn together. The large applique basket block was an orphan block that just begged to be incorporated into the quilt and I've never regretted that. It helps give the quilt personality! Also, it's good to remember that all through the making of this particular project, I constantly referred to Gwen Marston's 'Liberated Medallion Quilts' book. It's a lovely, wonderful book to have on the shelf if you like to do your own thing.

A little bit of hand quilting on the applique basket...

I still love the calm, cozy colors in this quilt. Somehow that creamy white just helped make the quilt glow instead of  getting overwhelmed by the dark undertones in most fall fabrics. It's a trap I fall into a lot of times, loving these colors but not quite get the balance right. And I adore the use of plaids, something you'll see me gravitate to over and over again. Overall, it just feels like an inviting quilt and that feels like a win.

Love seeing then hanging off the railing....

Because it was such a busy, busy quilt, I ended up machine quilting it in simple vertical lines and then went back and hand quilted the larger basket block with perle cotton. There was one big pucker in the back of the quilt that I tried to think would be okay to ignore. I even took the colored thread off the cone and replaced it with my usual white thread. But no. It was just too bad to wink at. Couldn't leave it be! Ugghh.. Hate having to rewind the other thread and change out the bobbin again and just for a few inches of thread. The funny thing was, somehow I ended up folding another part of the quilt into the 'fix' and then had a horrible mess on my hands. No I did not take a picture because I was just too furious! lol  In the end, I had two fixes {well, actually three after fixing the place where it was caught} and it took lots of extra time that I was sure would have been better spent elsewhere.

But now I can be happy with it and thankfully it washed up beautifully. I'm always bracing myself for red dye issues these days! So glad I went ahead and pushed myself to get this one done by this fall. It's too nice to be sitting folded up in a drawer for years. And yes, I have bounced around a lot this year, from project to project and all different looks and styles. It's all about having different projects in different stages so as to always have something to work on--no matter the crazy things going on in my life. And getting things finished up. Doesn't it feel wonderful to wrap up a years-in-the-making sort of project?