LuLu’s Garden

Do Your Own Thing

The week of March 18-March 24 I had planned on attending a do-your-own-thing retreat at the Woodland Ridge Retreat center. My plans changed, however, when we were given the opportunity to go on a long-awaited trip to our daughter and son-in-law’s restored cabin. The dates for the retreat and the visit to the cabin overlapped. Even though I had really been looking forward to the opportunity to sew to my heart’s-content the trip to the cabin was much more important.

Rather than totally giving up on my desire to overdose on sewing I decided to declare the previously designated retreat week as my in-home sewing palooza. Once I had decided to do that, the BIG question was—-what would I work on? My list of available options was longer than my arm. After much thought I decided to finish a quilt top I had started last summer. The quilt is called LuLu’s Garden.

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LuLu’s Garden by Washboard Quilts
LuLus Garden Quilt Pattern
Fabrics and Pattern for LuLu’s Garden

LuLu’s Garden was designed by Pat Riley and published by Washboard Quilts. I first introduced you to this quilt on September 8, 2017, in a story called Quilt Retreat Day Seven. The project was one of three being considered as my next adventure. Rather than choose this quilt I decided to make my Teacup quilt instead.

My-Teacup-Quilt
My Teacup Quilt Top

After completing the Teacup quilt I found time to cut out the pieces for LuLu’s Garden. LuLu’s Garden had sat idle ever since.

Day One

Now that LuLu’s Garden was chosen I went in search of the tub containing the pattern and fabrics.

LuLus Garden in Tub
Project Tub Containing LuLu’s Garden Parts Department

After opening the tup I briefly read through the instructions for the pattern, then removed the previously cut fabrics. With all of my supplies at hand I began stitching together the 294 pieces.

By the end of the afternoon I was ready to begin assembling the seven rows. Before I could to that I had to shuffle and arrange the blocks into a cohesive arrangement. After photographing several options I decided to go with this one.

LuLus Garden-Arrangement Set
LuLu’s Garden Block Arrangement

Next up…adding the sashing between the blocks and stitching the rows together.

Day Two

Picking up where I had left off I dove right into the process of making the sashing strips for between the blocks and rows.

Sashing Strips for LuLus Garden
Sashing Strips for LuLu’s Garden

From there it was onto row assembly.

Sashing Added to LuLus Garden
Sashing Added to LuLu’s Garden

By the end of day two three of the seven rows were finished.

Day Three

The remaining sashing pieces were added to the last four rows on day three. To finish the quilt top all I had to do was add the outer border.  The strips for the border had already been cut but not stitched together. Before stitching them together, into one long strip, I added 45° cuts to the ends of each fabric strip.

LuLus Garden-Ready ForBorders
LuLu’s Garden Ready For Borders

When all of the border strips were connected I took measurements of my quilt top. The first border to be attached was the sides. I calculated their length by running my tape measure vertically through the center of my top, from the top edge to the bottom. After cutting and attaching those pieces I repeated the same steps for the top and bottom borders. This time I used my tape measure to calculate the distance from side to side by laying it horizontally across the center. The two remaining sections were then attached and with that my LuLu’s Garden quilt top was finished. LuLu’s Garden measures 47”wide x 52 1/2” long.

Here is a peek at LuLu’s Garden.

LuLus Garden Ready for Quilting
LuLu’s Garden Ready for Quilting

My next task is to create a quilt sandwich and apply the longarm quilting.

By the time my LuLu’s Garden quilt top was finished I had chewed up the majority of my sew to my heart’s content week. The remaining days were needed for laundry and packing to go to the log cabin. I had hoped to get a lot more of my sewing projects accomplished but you know how it goes. So many projects, so little time!

Thank You for visiting with me today! I look forward to our next encounter.

Talk with you soon.

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Regatta Quilt is Finished

Roseanne over at Home Sewn By Us has been hosting a QAL that began on January 1, 2018. The pattern called Regatta was designed by Daniela at Block M Quilts. Instructions for the quilt are provided at the above link. This is how the author’s quilt looked when she was finished.

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I decided to join  the QAL when Roseanne first started talking about it late in 2017. Being the rebel that I am I chose to modify the instructions by changing the dimensions as well as the colors of the fabrics.

Updates on my progress were shared via these two posts:

Regatta Quilt Update

Regatta Quilt Progress.

These were the fabrics I chose.

Regatta-Fabric-Selection
Regatta Quilt Fabrics Selected

Now that my quilt is finished I can share photos. My version of the Regatta quilt measures 28 1/2” x 73”. Inside the quilt sandwich is a layer of Warm & Natural batting. The backing is a leftover piece of batik from another quilt. Attached to the back is a sleeve for hanging and a label. I bound the raw edges with a black cotton binding. When deciding how to quilt my item, I looked to the black squares for my inspiration. Seeing them zigzag across the quilt gave me the idea to repeat the squares horizontally by quilting a square swirl across the rows.

Regatta Quilt
Regatta Quilt

Regatta Quilting Closeup
Closeup of Regatta Quilting

Regatta Quilt Slice
A Slice of Regatta

My next photo provides a closeup of the backing as well as the quilting.

Regatta, Backing 1
A View Of The Regatta From The Back

The final photo of my Regatta quilt is one of my favorites because it shows the texture of the quilting. The shadows created by the stitches make the quilting appear three-dimensional.

Regatta, Back 2
Regatta Quilt Texture

My Regatta quilt is now officially DONE! This quilt was a fun and easy project to make. I’m so glad that I decided to participate. The finished quilt will make an awesome addition to my quilt stash.

Thank You so much for visiting today! 😊

Talk with you soon!

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My Window Box

The Birth of a QAL

Window Box is the quilt that started the ball rolling for our current Mystery QAL. Tracy at It’s A T-Sweets Day read my initial post and fell in love with the QAL idea. Together we designed and implemented a new QAL. The rest is history.

A Little Background

My quilt began its journey darn near twenty-one months ago. That’s probably not too unusual for most quilts. Works of Art take time and I think this quilt certainly falls under that definition.

Back in June of 2016 I went on a shopping adventure with a group of ladies. Purchased by each of us was a piece of this fabric.

Challenge Fabric
Challenge Fabric

Jointly we decided to challenge ourselves to create a project using the fabric. The goal was to finish our piece, then gather again in six months for show and tell. Sadly the meeting never took place. In fact, I don’t even know if my traveling companions made something with their fabric.

My Commitment

I was determined to follow-through on my commitment. I searched my quilting books looking for a suitable pattern until I found the Window Box in a publication called Color Shuffle: New Quilts from Karla Alexander.

Getting Started

With my pattern selected it was time to pull fabrics. From my stash I found an abundance of possible candidates. After narrowing down my options I got to work slicing and shuffling, then stitching them together.

The process from piles of fabric to finished quilt top took six months.

I finished the top while on a sewing retreat during the summer of 2017. The completed top waited patiently to be quilted until mid December.

The Finished Quilt

I had so much fun when I finally had the opportunity to quilt it. Using a brightly colored, variegated thread I stitched a straight-line geometric pattern.

I’m so thrilled to reveal my quilt. Please enjoy the following photos.

Window-Box-Quilt
Window Box Quilt

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Window Box Closeup # 1

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Window Box Closeup # 2

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Window Box Closeup # 3

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Window Box Closeup # 4

Window-Box-Quilt-Backing
Window Box Quilt Backing & Label

As you can tell by the volume of photos I am head-over-heals in love with my quilt. I’m so glad I decided to use the fabric color combinations that I chose. I’m also very, very thrilled with the quilting. I just can’t say enough about how pleased I am with the finished product.

The Inspiration

How cool that this Window Box quilt has been the inspiration for another QAL. Even more exciting is the fact that I am not the only one participating and actually making something this time. 🙂

On to the next reveal!

Thank You!

Thank You so much for sharing your time with me! I always look forward to our visits. Talk with you soon!

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