Saturday, May 17, 2014

Hands 2 Help finish - a finish Friday-ish

I have a quick finish to share with you today.  It has actually been done for a few days.  I was waiting for Friday to link up with all the finish Friday links, but got so busy on Friday that I never had time to sit down and write this post.  That's just the way it goes around here.  Oy vey!

A couple of months ago, I visited the Glendale Annual Quilt Show in Pasadena, CA.  It was a lovely small show, complete with a ton of raffles and door prizes.  I actually won one of the door prizes and it included this quilt kit.

quilt kit turned charity quilt

Now, these fabrics weren't exactly "my style", which I find funny because I am still trying to figure out what my style is!  But, at this point, I find it easier to identify what ISN'T my style, and these fabric weren't.  Since I still needed to make a quilt for the Hands 2 Help charity quilt challenge, it seemed fortuitous that this quilt kit become one of the quilts for the drive.

I even tried using the pattern that came with the kit, but ran into some little execution problems.  First, the kit didn't quite follow the supply list for the pattern.  Also, if you look at the fabrics included, there are a lot of lights, one medium (the yellow) and one bold color (the red).  It didn't seem like this pattern was going to look right with that imbalance.  So, I looked through my stash and added a dark blue to the mix.  Another execution problem came with the piecing.  Despite reading the pattern a couple times before I started, my brain did not take notice of one of the steps.  And as many of you know, once fabric is cut, it is a little hard to make it bigger again.  I made the mistake of cutting all of my pieced strips into units, and I was supposed to leave a few of them long.  DOH!  So I had to improvise a little and arrange the units in a different configuration.  I think it still looks alright...

Hands 2 Help front

For the quilting, I just did some organic chevrons with my walking foot.

Hands 2 Help charity quilt - quilting

And I was able to use that one big cut of the yellow fabric as the back.  It was a tight squeeze, but it worked.

Hands 2 Help back

Have you ever won anything that wasn't your style?  What did you do with it?  Give it to a friend?  Put it away in case your style changes one day?

Thanks for reading today,

Jen


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5 comments:

  1. I also identify easily what is not my style rather than what it is. If I get something I don't like I try to pass it on to someone.

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  2. Great use of an unusual collection of fabric! I find I use 'not my style' fabrics quicker than the ones I love, use them, make something, and pass it on, and go back to stroking the ones I love!

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  3. That was the perfect use for the "not you" kit. I'd do the same, save it for a charity project, unless it was so "ugly" to me that I would hate working on it.

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  4. I totally understand how it is easier to know what isn't our style than what is. I am still working on defining my quilting style is. The lucky person who receives this quilt is lucky indeed.

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  5. The darker blue addition is a good idea. It provides more focus. Style is a funny thing , isn't it. Fabric designed specifically for children can be a bit cutesy and I prefer to use more subtle fabric for the children in my life. That said, this quilt would be loved by anyone who received it.

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