Friday, December 01, 2017

almost finished and some wool garland

Welcome to finish it up Friday and Happy December!
I made serious progress on my gingham quilt this week! I debated rushing through the hand binding just so I could have a finish for today, but then the voice of good reason showed up. (Hurray for that! hahaha!) I decided to slow down and enjoy the process instead. I'm currently 1/4 of the way done stitching the binding to the back. I look forward to snuggling up with it as I finish it this weekend. I love hand binding!
 
(As an aside....I dream of having a stack of 20 quilts sitting in a pile, just waiting to be hand bound, especially as we head into winter. I don't think that will ever happen, as I can't wait to finish quilts! But, doesn't it sound like a nice winter activity to sit down after dinner and have some binding to do every night?? I don't think that would ever get old!)
 
Anyway.....I do have a small finished project to share with you today!
A few years ago my neighbor friend passed along some scraps that her sister-in-law had leftover from making felted wool mittens. Not one to turn down scraps, I adopted them and they sat in my sewing room for quite awhile. I cut circles (freehand, with scissors) out of the wool scraps and they sat in a basket for awhile longer.
Recently, I separated the cool colors from the warm colors and sewed some of them into a garland. It was so quick and easy...once the circles were cut, that is! I used a 50 weight thread from Connecting Threads (because it's nice and thick) and I stitched them together on my sewing machine. I sewed about 6 "blank" stitches between each wool disk. I made a few garlands...one is about 4 yards and one is 4 1/2 yards long. I discovered that might have been a little bit too long, but I guess I can always trim them, right?
I hung one on my mantle and I'm sure I'll find a home for the other one soon. This was such a fun and quick project!
These are ready to stitch up and would be perfect for either Christmas or Valentine's Day. Or both! 

That's it for me today! Do you have a finish to share? If so, please link up. Thank you, as always, for joining me for finish it up Friday! Thanks for stopping by and for reading. I appreciate it so much! Have a great weekend!

 
finish it up Friday, 12/1/17
1. Bambi  55. Kitty Wilkin | Night Quilter  
2. Smiles from Kate  56. tisha @ quiltytherapy  
3. KatyQuilts  57. maggie fellow  
4. La Vida en Patchwork Novembre calendar quilt  58. The Joyful Quilter  
5. Handwrought Quilts  59. Sarah  
6. Logs & Fire  60. Giant Hexagons Quilt Top - Christine  
7. Chuckles Quilt  61. Tumbler UFO  
8. Chris @ The Art of Making Blog  62. Christmas Bells Ornament  
9. Gingerbread Men  63. Strawberry FMQ Quilt Finish  
10. Candi Cane The Wool Collection  64. The Inside Stori  
11. Just Don't Crawl Free Quilt pattern  65. deana  
12. Knit 1, Make 2  66. Izzy @ Dizzy Quilts  
13. On Ringo Lake--Clue 1 ㊌  67. My Imperfect Life  
14. Becca Pouch @ Savor Every Stitch  68. Johnna @ Yellow Bird Stitches  
15. Roseanne @ Home Sewn By Us  69. Deck the Halls Elm Street Quilts  
16. unbeehaved - Free Pattern Friday  70. tubakk - Norway  
17. Cheryl @ Meadow Mist Designs  71. Tanya Quilts in CO  
18. Brooke@SillyMamaQuilts  72. Riot of colour quilt - the lilac cat  
19. Kat & Cat Quilts  73. Free Holiday Quilt Block Series and Giveaway  
20. Janice@Color, Creating and Quilting  74. SPLINTER @ blockMquilts  
21. Stacks of Christmas Charm Square Soup Bowl Cozies  75. Zenia Rene  
22. Molasses: A Finished Quilt  76. Christmas Angel Wall Hanging  
23. Circles - Design 2  77. Gretchen @ Snug Harbor Quilts  
24. Kay's Kwilt  78. Marla@The Quilted Puzzle  
25. Diann@Little Penguin Quilts  79. From My Carolina Home  
26. Allison: Phone case and pot holder  80. Kay Sorensen 2 quilts in 1  
27. Frankie Baldwin  81. Karen @runsewfun  
28. Michelle @ From Bolt to Beauty  82. Treadlestitches Quilting with Schnickelfritz  
29. Alidiza  83. DonnaleeQ  
30. Debbie @ A Quilter's Table  84. Case for Smiles  
31. Quilting is more fun than Housework  85. Suzy Webster  
32. Mari @ The Academic Quilter  86. Terri Faust Quilts  
33. Kathy @ AlliKat Quilts  87. Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts  
34. Slice of Pi Quilts: The View From Here  88. Melanie- Peppermint table runner  
35. Sew Preeti Quilts - Giving Thanks  89. Kim @PersimonDreams  
36. Quilter Kathy  90. 40 things to be happy about  
37. Minecraft quilts - Lindasquiltmania  91. Kathy@KayakQuilting  
38. Joy Letter Pillows @ Creatin' in the Sticks  92. Mary @ Fleur de Lis Quilts  
39. Karen  93. anna  
40. Lily Patch Quilts  94. A Baby Quilt Finish  
41. Michelle's Romantic Tangle  95. Pack Rat With A Plan  
42. Dinosaur Tracks  96. Erica @ Kitchen Table Quilting  
43. T-shirt Rug  97. Pixie Noel Fussy Cut Heart Mug Rug  
44. Sweet Marion Patchwork Queen Quilt  98. AngelaA fall finishes  
45. Simply Color Lucent Queen Quilt  99. Pomada  
46. Ann @ FretNotYourself  100. beth@lovelaughquilt  
47. Shannon @ The Flemings Nine  101. Quiltin Jenny  
48. Give Ideas for Quilters + Giveaway!  102. Andrea @ 3rd Story Workshop  
49. Trish  103. viridian61  
50. JulieBagamary-Stitching  104. Craftartista: Christmas tote bag  
51. Cathy Tomm Forest Friends  105. Scrapbaggers Christmas Quilt Swap 🎄  
52. Julie Bagamary - JOY Label  106. Wendy's Quilts and More  
53. Charm About You - Crossed Orange Peel  107. Janice@singreadsew  
54. Lorna @ Sew Fresh Quilts  

(Cannot add links: Registration/trial expired)

23 comments:

Nicole said...

Love the garland! What a great project.

Pieced Brain Quilt Designs said...

The quilt looks amazing... and the garland is so cool!

Aliceart said...

I love your garland, and am so impressed by the quilting you do on your home machine.

Quilter Kathy said...

3 cheers for slowing down and enjoying the hand stitching!!
ENJOY!

Spangled said...

I made a cute Christmas garland with felt holly leaves and berries. 1 leaf, 1 or 2 berries, repeat. The hardest part was trimming all the leaves!

EM said...

I would love a WINTER full of hand binding! It is is my favorite part of the quilting making. Too bad I'd have to quilt so many quilts to get a winter's full of it.

Love the garland!

Lisa C said...

I really enjoy working with batiks but the hand-binding on the dense fabric really slows me down. But otherwise, I'm like you - I enjoy hand-binding. Makes me feel less guilty about watching tv!

Julie Bagamary said...

Great garland

Lucy | Charm About You said...

I complete agree about binding! It's such a lovely evening sew! I made a similar garland a couple of years ago and it goes on our tree every year and still looks good - well mine wasn't quite so tasteful (it has all the colours) but it goes well with the decoration the kids have made! ;)

Kitty | Night Quilter said...

I've often longed for a stack of binding to do!! It is such a peaceful and calm activity, perfect for a cold winter's night! And I also love your garlands! I made some a few years back with 5-8 circles each, and hung them from the ceiling beams in our kitchen (timberframed house means many wooden beams), simply hanging down from the ceiling. I sewed paper snowflakes at the ends of a few of them, and it created such a magical vibe!! (Just another idea for the next time you find yourself with wool scraps!)

Suzanne said...

It is right and good to savor the stitches and the scraps. Happy, happy, joy, joy!

tisha @ quiltytherapy said...

Enjoy finishing the binding on your quilt.

Home Sewn By Us said...

Hi Amanda,
Oh how I love the colors on your gingham quilt! So pretty - it is a pattern I have often wanted to make but have yet to do so. I love hand binding as well - oh, to have a quilt to work on every night would be fabulous. ~smile~ Roseanne

Karen @runsewfun said...

Oh those red wool circles would make a pretty non-rotting cranberry garland for the tree, wouldn't they?
Last night I sat un-quilting a small baby quilt. Not quite as fun as binding but I gotta admit, not nearly as bad as I was anticipating it would be. I got just past 1/2 way and decided to save the rest for tonight.
Have a great weekend!

Quilting Babcia said...

What a great idea, the felted garland. It would be a fun project to do with the older grands.

Food and Fiber Floozie said...

I would be HAPPY to send you all of my quilts to be hand bound :~)

Nancy @ Grace and Peace Quilting said...

What a brilliant garland idea! And I love your quilting motif. Great job!

Paige said...

I'm still in love with how you quilted the loops in a mirror image. Such a pretty bowl of wool scraps!

Ilana said...

I absolutely love the garland! It's such a fun and creative use of scraps.

farmhousequilter8 said...

I love hand binding in the evening and it also keeps me warm! Paula in KY

beth s said...

That is the perfect garland! Yeah for hand-me-downs and someone else's leftovers!

✾Jamie Lee Cooley✾ said...

That red garland would be perfect to hang I. February! And I have an idea...your readers could send you quilts that need the binding stitched down. I bet you’d have 20 offers within a minute of posting it;) I only bind by machine. It might have something to do with (looking otherwise completely normal) having short sausage-like fingers!

Sandy Panagos said...

A big pile of quilts to stitch binding on sounds good to me. Binding is my favorite part! The garland idea is very interesting! I would never have thought of that. I think it's pretty cool.