Finished!

The 50 days of works in progress challenge is finished. From February through late March, I (and a bunch of others on Instagram under #50daywipschallenge) committed to only working on projects that were already started. I thought I should share the results. There is one quilt that I have finished, but I can’t share because it is a gift. Here’s the sneak peak:

I also got two other big quilts finished. I realized that in our current pandemic situation, I was not likely to be able to rent time on a long arm, and have a coach help me with some of the techniques that were beyond my experience (which is everything except simple edge-to-edge quilting or a basic meandering free-motion quilting). So I sent all three large quilts to long arm quilters.

My 100-day transformation quilt was sent to Sesvold Designs. Carmen is a friend from the Friendship Star Quilt Guild. She created a masterpiece, following the diamond shape on the quilt front with exquisite lines of quilting. Just look at the detail:

This quilt was a lot of fun. I started it June 1, 2020 as a block-a-day, 100-day project. I used up all of my strip scraps, and even took scraps from projects I worked on during that 100 days. The back is also special. For Labor Day 2020, my daughter wanted to do some tie dyeing. I decided to try ice dyeing. I had a patterned, white-on-white 108 inch backing that was the wrong color for the project it was intended for, so I decided to dye it. Here’s the result:

Not too bad for a first attempt. Carmen did a great job of lining up the center on the front and back of this extra large (112 x 112 inch) quilt. We are using this on our king-sized bed – the first quilt I have made that my husband and I can sleep under!

The second quilt I finished is a sampler quilt that I started in February, 2017 when the National Quilters Circle issued a block challenge for the Snowy Day Sampler by Andrea at Happy Cloud Creations. Each week a new block pattern was released. I had not made any quilts for about a year and a half and decided this would be a good choice to get me back into quilting. I had blue, purple and teal scraps from other projects, and found the pansy print to tie them together.

The fabrics included scraps from my childrens’ 4H sewing projects, my son and daughter-in-law’s wedding quilt and other quilts I have made. I wanted it queen sized, so I added borders. I loved making the big 16 inch blocks. They went so quickly and the quilt came together easily. After I finished the top, it sat in a box until this spring. I did make a back that lists all of the fabrics and their original use.

When I first learned how to use computerized long arm patterns, I developed an elaborate plan to quilt this, but I was told that it would take me years to gain enough skill to execute it on my own. Fortunately, I found Amanda, at Prairie Folk Quilt Company. Amanda and I have never met in person – I “met” her on Instagram when she hosted a contest for free long-arm quilting. I didn’t win, but I was so impressed with her work, and her comments, that I decided to send this quilt off to her. And I am so glad I did! She was great to work with, asked me a lot of questions about the look I wanted, and even looked at my original design for the quilting and incorporated some of it into her quilting design. I am so happy with how this turned out (and so is my daughter, who claimed it). And she finished it lighting quick. Look at this detail.

All in all, I am pretty happy with what I got done during my 50 days of works-in-progress. And I am very glad I have discovered the joys of collaborating with talented long-arm quilters. Now I am off to working on a new quilt. What are your spring quilting plans?