Friday, March 17, 2023

Blue times two

 Hello everyone, and happy St. Patrick's Day! Is there green beer in your near future? I can't stand the stuff, but it's my brother's birthday, and he's always loved it. When he was a kid, he thought everyone celebrated his birthday with a fun party. I guess that's a reasonable conclusion. This year, though, I'm feeling a little under the weather so I'll just wave to all you revelers from over here on the sofa.

I have nothing green to show today, but I did finish a couple of fun blue things. I have this pile of quilt tops, see, and it really needs to get smaller. It was easy to quilt some straight lines on smaller things, so that's what I did this week. Check it out:


Well, those look fresh and fun, don't they? This all started with the four blocks in the center of the smaller quilt. I had started another quilt with those blocks, but I got bored and put all the cut pieces away. I pulled it out and repurposed many of the cut pieces into these two quilts.


Let's start with the bigger quilt, shall we? It's not very big at about 44 by 56, but it used up a bunch of those blue print and white squares. It may not be very large, but it is quite cuddly!


For the quilting, I just stitched straight lines on each side of the piecing lines in both directions in a pale blue thread with a walking foot. I have really grown to love that thing. It's simple quilting, but I think it really works.


The front of this quilt may be calming, but there's a party on the back! Check out those happy bees. The fabric is actually a bit brighter than it appears in the picture, and it makes a really fun contrast with the blues on the front. 


The smaller quilt is just about 36 by 36, so a table topper size. It got quilted in a cross hatch, and if you look closely you'll see that I made a measuring error with the lines. Not wanting to rip out quilting, I went ahead and repeated the mistake so that it looks intentional. I marked the lines with a Hera marker, which was pretty unsatisfying. I don't know why, but it was hard to see the lines and made me a bit frustrated. Probably operator error there, don't you think?


This little quilt also has a happy backing! It's a bright green with blue swirls and it works really well with the front.

So hurray! Two more finished pieces out of that pile, done with some pretty simple quilting that was easy to do and fairly relaxing. It feels like a victory to get every piece moved out of there and into the finished pile, that's for sure!

Hope everyone has a great weekend! Good thing St. Patrick's is a Friday this year, isn't it? I'm going to try to figure out what to do with the last remaining pieces from the original quilt, dozens of blue prints hsts. Any suggestions?


Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Brag About Your Beauties, Finished or not Friday, and the Quilting, Patchwork, Applique linkup.

16 comments:

ButterZ said...

Very nice quilts and the blues are pretty. I’m sure you will find something to do with the HST.

Sara said...

The simple quilting really does work well. Both are very pretty. Blue and white is such a fresh clean look, especially when it's those brighter spring shades of blue.

Great job! Hope you are feeling better soon!

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

you must have used up a lot of your blues - feel better soon. I'm with you on the beer - others can have it I can't stand it

Quiltdivajulie said...

I have never been in love with using a Hera marker. Both of your finishes are great - and I am a fan of the either-side-of-the-piecing-line straight line quilting, too. No St Patrick's festivities for us - it is chilly and raining and we're happy to stay home and warm (and safe).

grammajudyb said...

I don’t have good luck with a Hera marker either! I’m sure it’s my old eyes! I try to make chalk or ceramic pencil lines. Or use the added guide bar on my quilting foot. None is perfect, but who needs perfection anyway? It’s handmade and therefore, imperfect!

Jannette said...

I don't suppose that you want to make more HSTs? Maybe add some other colours...

Ivani said...

2 beauties, Mari.
Lovely blues. Great finishes! Congrats.

Astrid said...

Blue and white never fail! Beautiful quilts and congrats on the finishes!

scraphappy said...

Yay for making the stack smaller! Finishes always feel great, no matter the size. Hope you are feeling better soon, sometimes rest is just what is needed.

Alycia~Quiltygirl said...

Two wonderful finishes!!!!
I love blue!!
I really like that straight line quilting - I think it looks cool
feel better soon

MissPat said...

I was also going to suggest using the add on guide to your walking foot for spacing. And you can mark the first line using painters tape. There's lots of ways to use HST, so I'm sure you'll come up with something. Hope you feel better soo.
Pat

JanineMarie said...

These are both so cute, Mari, and perfect for welcoming spring. I'm sorry you've been under the weather, but it's nice to see you had some energy for quilting. I, too, have become attached to my walking foot for stress-free quilting--and I like your mistake on the quilting lines. I use a hera marker, but get frustrated, too, when my lines seem to disappear. A lot of it depends on variations in the light when I'm quilting even though I try to aim a lamp just right. (We won't talk about my old eyesight.) I just saw a quilt made with HSTs on the Quiltfolk website. It's in their section on foundry quilts. I have decided that I just have to make one like it. Maybe it would work for your leftovers. Let me know if you don't see it and I'll send you a link.

Frédérique - Quilting Patchwork Appliqué said...

These are two beautiful finishes, and a simple quilting is fast and fun. Your quilting lines fit perfectly in the center of every blue pieces, and make an interesting pattern, well done ;) Pretty backings, they complete the two quilts beautifully.
Thank you for sharing, and linking up!

Kathleen said...

Laughing about your brother. My brother Patrick always had a bit of notoriety around St Patrick's day. Younger brother Joseph, the baby, of the 5 of us was jealous. St. Joseph's day is the 19th, so we also celebrated that, in a small way, to keep the fights to a minimum.

Both are great finishes. I am doing a tshirt quilt for a friend - someone else made it and didn't quilt through it at all - what the heck was that about??? Anyway, the quilting on either side of the seam line is one of the options, or a serpentine stitch. I like that you replicated your mistake - it looked intentional to me! Great finishes....HSTs keep on giving don't they...no clue what to do but whatever you do will be gorgeous.

piecefulwendy said...

Such happy, satisfying finishes! Do you want to come and finish some of mine??? Ha! For the blue HSTs, are they blue/white? Would they work in a Moda Love quilt?

Bernie Kringel said...

Love both of these Mari - feels so good to use up those bits and pieces, doesn't it? Also liking the two color simplicity of the pieces.

For the Hera marker - check out this quick video. It was super helpful to me - the part about the lighting really works!
https://quiltingjetgirl.com/2020/09/10/tips-for-using-a-hera-marker-video-tutorial/