Twisted Roses

 Hi There!

Where have I been???

What have I been doing???

Well, I've been busy and yet, relaxing and ...

at the same time, I haven't stopped

for a very long time, either!

LOL

These past few days, I've been playing with my "Twister Tool"

and the book that I had purchased,

to make a BIG lapquilt.

I'll be using this as a demo or for possilbe classes, as a trunk show and then, when it gets "retired", it will be gifted to a relative.

*grin*

I decided to use the left over fabrics 

from my friend Elaine's generous gift.

A while back, she had sent me some April Cornell's Decadent Victorian and some other fabrics that matched this line very well.

 For this quilt, I started by making my 4 patch blocks, 

with its outer border.

I don't know HOW many times I read the instructions in the book AND muttered a LOT to myself!  I mean, HONESTLY, 3/4 of a yard would NEVER be enough for all these 4 patch outer borders, right?!??!? 

THANK GOODNESS I had a full YARD of that outer border fabric for the 4 patch blocks!!!

*insert LOUD, THEATRICAL GROAN*

Look closely - it took me possibly 6 times, of picking up the darn book and re-reading it and ....

THEN, it sunk in!!!!

They're calling for THREE and ONE/QUARTER yards of the pinwheel's outer border!!!

Sooooo, I had to make the outer border scrappy-ish.... 

Here's my design wall with the 4 patch blocks...

And here's the finished quilt top,

minus the 2 outer borders around the quilt.

I have this book on how to paper piece different labels.

Gilbert likes a "built-in" label.  In other words, he prefers the label ON the back of the quilt, before he LongArm quilts it.   Me?  Doesn't matter but I'm beginning to like HIS way better 'cause then, I don't hem and haw and the label's ON the quilt, it gets quilted and I don't gotta worry 'bout puttin' that darn label on it!

It's already on there, right?

*grin*

For this quilt, the "house" is the actual label.

Gilbert wrote on the window and on the roof.

Now, sometimes bright ideas aren't always so bright and sometimes they are!

My theme or goal rather, these past couple months is to USE what fabric I've got and STOP buying!

I've culled some older or non-shop quality fabrics and passed them on to someone who doesn't care and is using up what I'm giving her.

I've also culled my quilting magazines and as quilty friends come to visit, I let them select ONE magazine from my box.  The ladies seem to enjoy this and I'm happy to pass my magazines along!

So, when I realized that this fabric was diminishing, I decided to use it all up for the back of the quilt.  And YES, it took longer but I DID enjoy myself AND, without any planning, this quilt has now become reversible!

A "win-win" for sure!

(a section of the back of the quilt)

Forgot to take a final picture but the quilt top and quilt back have now been put away and hopefully will get quilted in January, when Gilbert and Bertha both get a chance to breath.

*grin*

Have a Wonderful Wednesday!

Here, we've got a Wet Wednesday....

Perfect for playing in my Studio!

Rosa