Happy Fabric Flower Garden Finish


Flowers are blooming all over town.  I came across these beautiful poppies last weekend.  Inspiration for a future quilt, perhaps?  But I digress.  On to the crafty endeavor of the Happy Fabric Flower Garden quilt...


So, school ended just over a week ago.  I spent last week covering our high school's credit recovery program, so not quite done with work yet.  Since I signed up for a professional development class this week (Monday through Friday, 8-4 each day...what was I thinking?) I decided that I needed to get down to the business of finishing this quilt before summer "officially" starts. 
I taped the backing fabric to the table and added the low loft batting I'd chosen.  Once I smoothed the top down for the quilt sandwich, I realized that I didn't really need to tape that layer since it was hugging the batting so nicely.  I just smoothed it all out.  Layering on the table like this (a two part process since the table is only big enough for basting half the quilt at a time) has really saved my back and knees.  The days of kneeling on the ground to pin baste are definitely behind me.


The pinning commenced.  A bit of Britbox on the Mac helped pass the time.


Finally, the last pin.  I made it through with only a few pokes to my fingers.  I trimmed the edges a bit and took a break for a day before sewing.



I love straight line stitching on a quilt.  I decided to stitch a quarter inch up and down and then across on either side of the seams.  There were no puckers!  First time!


Just love these colors so much.  This is one vibrant quilt!


 I succumbed to a self-imposed pressure to do some free motion design stitching on the borders.  I wish I'd just done my signature straight line rows around, but I came to that realization too late.  There is a point at which you look at how many tiny stitches would need to be pulled out, and you consider how long it will take to do that, and you know you are past the point of no return.

It was just a twirling design with a random flower thrown in.  I can live with it.

I trimmed all the edges nice and tidy and then cut a 3" strip of violet for the border edging. 

I put the wonder clips to work (love these little guys so much more than pins for stitching up that border!). This is my favorite part of the quilt process.  It's so methodical...the rhythm of the stitching is quite soothing.

 And, voila.  The Happy Fabric Flower Garden quilt is ready to go.  My new favorite.





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