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.

lulus-garden-pattern.jpg
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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Quilt Retreat Day Seven

Welcome! We are about to start day seven in this nine day adventure. Over the last six posts I’ve been sharing the journey my dog Sadie and I have been taking. We are here, at my little cabin in the woods (LCITW), for a break from everyday life. The goal is to immerse ourselves in the north woods while sewing up a storm. If you have just joined us, you may catch up by following the links at the bottom of this post. Time now to get day seven rolling.

Day Seven

What an awesome change! It didn’t rain last night! This meant Sadie slept peacefully and so did I. Yippee! The clouds have thankfully moved on and the sky is once again a beautiful blue. Nothing like a ray of sunshine to brighten your day!

Before starting my sewing I took time to look at the pile of projects I’ve made during my stay here at my LCITW. I was so impressed–so happy! How wonderful to see completed items rather than stacks of unused fabrics.

A Little Detour

You know how I said yesterday that I was going to start my day sewing on an improv project–well you probably won’t be surprised when I confess that I took a slight detour. Before sitting down to begin I thought I would browse through my tub of projects to see which ones were left. Inside were three items. The first was a kit I bought several years ago from a fabric store that is no longer in business. The pattern is called Lulu’s Garden.

LuLus Garden Quilt Pattern.jpg

The second gem is a pattern from Missouri Star’s Fall Vol, Issue 5, Block magazine. The quilt is called Teacup. I would like to share a photo from the book but I don’t want to infringe on any copyright laws. You will either have to wait until I have mine assembled or follow the link above if you would like to see how it looks.

Teacup Quilt Pattern.jpg

The third little critter is also a kit. Do you detect a theme here? I saw this quilt already assembled and hanging in yet another fabric store. The real reason why I bought the kit is because of the bird fabric. I searched all over the store for the bolt but couldn’t find it. Come to find out it was only available via the kit. I’m really very fond of the other fabrics as well but not so much the quilt pattern they were intended for. Whether or not I will stray and use the fabrics in another way I haven’t decided.

Bird Fabric Quilt.jpg

Which One?

So those were my three options. Want to know which one I chose? The project that led me to establish a new game plan was the Teacup Quilt.

I won’t bore you with all the details but I will share a photo when the quilt top is finished. If you should decide to make this quilt I want to make you aware of a mistake in the pattern. The pattern calls for one package of pre-cut 10″ squares. It should read two. I didn’t realize this until I had my blocks assembled and was in the process of arranging them. If the fabrics I chose were still available I would have purchased more to make the additional blocks. Unfortunately the fabrics are no longer available.

Before Sadie and I turned off the lights I managed to even get the first border added and the fabric strips for the second one cut. By then it was darn near midnight–well past a reasonable bedtime. But who cares!

Catching Up

I mentioned earlier that I would share links to the previous posts. You may find them here: Day One, Day Two, Day Three, Day Four, Day Five, and Day Six.

Thank You

I am so thankful you have chosen to pay a visit. To those that follow my blog on a regular basis I would like to say “THANK YOU!”  A blog without followers would be a waste of time! If you have enjoyed reading my post and are not currently a follower, why not become one. Just enter your email address in the space provided.

I look forward to your return visit!

Cindy Anderson