Fabulous Finishes for Friday

What a productive week I've had! Sometimes it seems that my quest for quilting makes me quite restless. Not so much in the way of frustration or lack of peacefulness can make a person restless, but more in knowing that it brings me a joy without end.  I can get lost in all the details and mindless parts of the work, but when something comes to a completion, it makes everything so worthwhile.

This week I have several finishes. I sent out three mug rugs: One to Mother for Mother's Day; one to my Daughter-in-Law; & one to Rex for a Summer Mug Rug Swap. My friend Virginia sent me a number of items from her Mother's estate recently. I already used pieces of fabric from it.

One item is an acrylic ruler for making Dresden Plate blades. I am really loving it. There is more to the assembly than one would think & I do plan to utilize it for more projects. I didn't want to post these until Rex received her swap.

And now I can add to the link above for 2014 finishes. I like all three of these examples, and learned so much by doing them. Mother's is hand quilted, and then the others are finished by machine. Its pretty much the same concept, and just different expressions of the same one.

These are other finishes I've held off on showing because I wanted the swap to be a surprise, were two 12" Christmas block swaps using the Dresden Plate concept. This partner requested blues with cream. Its quite stunning in person, however, silvers in the fabrics make it harder to see in a picture.

The next one for that swap was done in traditional holiday colors. I've decided to send one Dresden Plate in every swap along with the block my partner of the month requests. I need to update that link above to show the blocks I've sent.

Another fab finish for the day is Tony's Mystery Quilt. The borders are on it now, so it can be held for a 2015 finish. It made great use of holiday fabric scraps. That background fabric is actually a very nice print I purchased on sale here in town. I am sure he will enjoy it. I look forward to another adventure in mystery. Many people made this quilt and its amazing how different they all turned out.

The thing that got me stressed, yet again, in my quilting was the bleed factor. I ordered a dark red for the binding on Landi's 4th of July quilt and tossed it in for a pre-wash with one sheet of Color Catcher. This is the horrifying result. The top is almost finished, but I could not bring myself to keep working on it if the reds had any chance of destroying the whites. So I put it in a gentle cycle with FOUR Color Catcher sheets. They had some color in them, but nothing like this one. Believe me, that result brought me unbelievable joy. I will go forward and add the borders to the top and then get it ready to baste later this week.

Even with the various frustrations that come with this or any endeavor, what I know is that when I am able to find my way through them, the satisfaction of success makes it worth doing again, pushing my boundaries, and taking more risks.