One finish & one new start

I'm thinking weekly posts might be a better idea for me. It doesn't feel like I'm making enough progress on any quilt to post more than once a week. Part of that is that hand quilting is a slow process. And I enjoy it. But it doesn't leave much to show every few days. 

But I did finish a quilt on Friday. I finished hand sewing the binding down on my Christmas Pocket Change quilt. It was started last year on National Sew A Jelly Roll Day, which was September 16. So it took almost a year to finish. No big deal. If I remember right, I only got half of the quilt top done that Saturday, or maybe not even that. My niece's birthday falls around the third Saturday in September, so it's not a block that day off the calendar so I can sew day. I don't remember when I finished the top, but according to my quilting journal, I basted it at the end of February. And then it sat because I had no idea how to quilt it. I finally got around to it a few weeks ago after I had posted pictures asking for suggestions. I think the modern/asymmetrical design works pretty good for the pattern and fabrics. This one will be a Christmas gift to Danny's aunt who loves to decorate and has a lot of farmhouse vibes and black/white/grey colors going on. I also love that it's not overly Christmasy and that you can only see Christmas fabric on one or two of the fabrics, so it might stay out through Valentine's day. 

I really wanted to use a solid black for the binding, but when I got to Joann's, they didn't have any solid black fabric. Which was weird, but considering all the issues they've been having lately, not all that surprising. So I went with Kona Gotham Grey, which might've been a slightly better choice, but the black would've been sharp. But I had the day off and wanted to get the binding sewn on and didn't want to drive all over town trying to find solid black fabric.  I was briefly considering using the backing fabric, but I thought lining up the plaid for the binding would drive me nuts, plus the plaid not lining up with the backing would also drive me insane. 

I also started another quilt. But this one I'm getting paid for. Not a lot, but the cost of materials plus a little extra. His friend is having a little girl, so I'll be using some leftover fabric from making my Dresden Plate quilt (still not quilted) to make my Child's Play pattern. I'm still working on writing patterns for a few quilts I've designed in hopes of opening an Etsy pattern shop one day. The fabric line is On the Bright Side by Me & My Sister. The line has been out for a while so I had to chose a different background fabric. I managed to get the blocks sewn this weekend, so now it's just sashing to decide on and the outer border.

Until next week, happy quilting!