Positivity Blooms Finish

This QAL for Positivity Blooms has been so satisfying. It is a collaboration between Bernie at Needle and Foot and Preeti from Sew Preeti Quilts to encourage quilt donations, specifically to Mercy Hospital in Sacramento, California for the Palliative Care Unit, but also to other organizations of our choice. Bernie is our encourager, and Preeti is the designer of two patterns: Positivity Grows (vines/leaves) and Positivity Blooms (flowers with leaves). 

I knew immediately that I needed to make the Blooms version. I'm keeping my donation closer to home. It will go to the Mother and Baby program at Pine Hospital near Grand Rapids, Michigan, to give mothers their own quilty hug during therapeutic treatment for overcoming post-partum depression and other mental health challenges surrounding childbirth. My quilt is smaller than Preeti's pattern to better fit the needs of the program. 

To fit my style and the sizes of my fabric pieces, I made my quilt a little differently than instructed in Preeti's pattern. Instead of using strips, I pieced my leaves with no-tear-off paper foundations, rearranged some of the seams of the blooms, used long strips of cloth for the stems instead of piecing parts of the stems into individual blocks, and widened the borders to the same size as the sashings.

It took me a long time to choose the reds for the blooms. I wanted a bit of contrast but not a lot. 

I had a fat quarter of the orangish red on the left and found the three others at a local shop. 

They were so close to the same color, but I couldn't decide, so I bought all three and then spent way too much time picking the best one using grayscale before finally choosing the viney print for the darker red. 

I had one little unexpected challenge when cutting out the background fabric. I discovered a line of fading through about a half-inch from the fold. It had apparently been on display for awhile near a window with strong light in the store. I needed to cut around those areas so there are some extra seams in the sashings and borders. I knew they'd pretty much disappear into the quilting, but it did take a little longer to cut and piece them. Despite this, the quilt went together fast. I was stuck indoors for several days due to wildfire smoke alerts, so sewing was a good way to pass the time.

I went back to the store when it was time to figure out the backing because i couldn't get a fabric out of my head that I had originally wanted for the background. There hadn't been enough on the bolt for the background, but I knew that addition of another strip of fabric would make it work perfectly well for the back. And then the shop owner brought out a wideback for that extra strip. Oh, yes!. Well, of course they went together--they were from the same designer. 

For the quilting, I made some templates to add detail to the blooms and drew around them with my Chakoner. 

                   Hard to see the chalk lines here unless you enlarge the photo.

Then I quilted them with my walking foot. 

I also drew on some guidelines for veins in the leaves and free-motioned them. After quilting in the ditch along the stems, I free-motion meandered the background. I'm thrilled with the texture. What a difference it makes in that solid fabric.

I had considered quilting the words Bee Balm in fancy cursive in the upper right area of the quilt, but then decided that someone else might associate a different flower name with these blooms so I left them out. Quilting went super fast thanks to two rainy afternoons in a row.

Here's the back.

The binding was made with the leftover reds in the blooms plus the two other red fat quarters. It looks solid, but the subtle patterns do show up nicely in person.

I was so taken with this quilt pattern that I just might have to make one (or a variation) for myself. My living room wall could use a new quilt to replace one that has faded over the years. We'll see....

It turns out the finished quilt was challenge to photograph in the wild. My usual places didn't work well because if I draped it over something, the blooms were cut off. And when I photographed it from afar the color washed out. But I'll show you what I got anyway along with my usual driveway photos while I list the stats...

Cassie (I feel like Cassiopeia and I are on a nickname basis now since she's been my model several times) wasn't too sure about how I draped this.

Pattern Positivity Blooms by Preeti at Sew Preeti Quilts, with some re-sizing and my preferred techniques.

Fabrics Some random pieces and a fat quarter from my supply; the rest are likely from Lori Holt for Riley Blake.

Batting Fairfield 80/20

Thread Piecing: Superior Masterpiece in Granite. Top threads for quilting: Mettler 40/3 cotton quilting in a dark red (not sure of name/number), Mettler Silk Finish cotton in Burnt Olive, Coats and Clark Machine Quilting Cotton in Nugrey. Bobbin thread: Also Coats and Clark in Nugrey. Hand sewing on binding: J and P Coats Dual Duty Hand Quilting in red. 

(Sidenote: This is the first time I've ever used a different color in the bobbin from the top thread. I wasn't sure my machine would like quilting with two colors, but it did great. I wish I had done it before. I'm thinking particularly of a quilt I made earlier this year with a very dark front and light back. It would have looked so much better. Sigh.)

Binding Cut 2 1/2 inches and random scrap pieced. Folded and sewn to finish at 3/8 inch.

Quilt Size Pieced: 48 1/2 by 56 1/2 inches. 

                  Quilted: 47 1/4 by 55 inches.

                   Washed: approximately 45 by 53 inches.

Machines Singer Featherweight for piecing. Singer Treadle 115 for quilting and machine work on binding. 

Signature/date

Freshly laundered, dried and all crinkly on a perfectly sunny day:

I'll be sending this out soon. I'm linking up (on Sunday) with Bernie at Needle and Foot for the final link up for the Positivity QAL. Go check out the other quilts--and check out Preeti's quilts and instructions here, here and here. You just might decide that Positivity Blooms (or Positvity Grows) is in your future, too. Thanks to Bernie and Preeti for a great QAL. I'm also linking up with Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday and with Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop.

Just a reminder: I'm not affiliated with any company, so when I mention products, services, or stores, I'm just documenting what I used or liked.) 

More Positivity Blooms

 Another one-photo post, but there is progress on my Positivity Blooms quilt for the QAL with Bernie at Needle and Foot and Preeti at Sew Preeti Quilts.

Yup, the bathroom was the best place for a photo of the quilt top. Too breezy outside to take one of a flimsy. Disregard all those wrinkles. The light showed every one. At least the towel kind of coordinates. And really, the quilt fits in that space just right. 

I was able to finish this top really quickly thanks to still being indoors because of poor air quality from wildfires way up north. I didn't take any in-progress photos, but if you look closely, you'll see that--again--I didn't quite follow the instructions. I just drew the flowers from the pattern onto a piece of graph paper and made my own draft to reduce a few seam lines.

As you might recall from my last post, this Quilt Along is for a collection of quilts for the palliative care unit of Mercy Hospital in Sacramento, California. The pattern was designed by Preeti, and Bernie is doing the promotions and link ups. My quilt is a bit smaller than Preeti's and I will likely be donating it closer to home. You can read more about the QAL and the collection on either of their websites (posted below). There are two versions of the quilt, one with just vines/leaves and one with flowers. 

I am so appreciative of Bernie and Preeti for encouraging us to make these quilts and spending the time to design and promote them and for giving us a relaxed schedule to make them. My summer has been full of all sorts of activities that don't quite fit with quilting mess, so this has worked well for me. 

Most of my other-than-quilting activities have been fun. But one activity this past week was getting at some long-overdue dusting. I absolutely hate dusting. The dust just comes right back, so it seems like such a waste of time. But the other day, I noticed that the dust lying around had a brown tinge and smelled pretty funky. That must be from all the smoke in the air a few weeks ago. So I got to work and dusted/vacuumed EVERYTHING. I was so proud of myself. The house seemed lighter and brighter--and cleaner! Well, guess what's back as I'm writing this. Needless to say, the house is closed up tight. I do not want to have to do that massive chore again before guests arrive later this week. Hopefully the smoke won't be as thick this time or as long-lasting. Really, it is a smallish thing for me to complain about. I know that weather-related concerns (and climate-change effects) are much worse in other parts of the country right now, and my heart goes out to all who are affected. 

Here's where to check out the links to the QAL:

Mercyful Quilts tab and current link-up for quilt progress this week at Needle and Foot. 

Tab for the schedule of the QAL (You could easily still start this quilt), sponsors, instructions, and Preeti's design and quilts here and here.

I already have the back pieced and the binding made for my quilt. I'll share those when the quilt is finished. Now I have to figure out how to quilt it. I was first thinking of poppies when I chose the colors, but now I think the flowers look more like bee balm. I part of me wants to quilt Bee Balm in fancy script in the big background area above the shortest flower, but maybe it's better to let the recipient decide what the flowers look like. I have a couple weeks to figure it all out before I get back to my machine. 

Time to go link up for the party. I'll be back (I hope) with the finish on August 20. In the meantime, I'm toying with another QAL, although it might be a Quilt Alone Later rather than a Quilt ALong as I'm going to be very late starting. 

If you are sewing a Positivity Quilt, and even if you aren't, I hope your summer sewing has you smiling. 

(Just a reminder: I'm not affiliated with any company, so when I mention products, services, or stores, I'm just documenting what I used or liked.)

 

Positivity Blooms

 Just one quick photo today. Here’s my progress on the QAL going on with Preeti at Sew Preeti Quilts and Bernie at Needle and Foot. 

If you know these women, you know they encourage us to make quilts to donate to special causes. This started as a collection for the Palliative Care Unit of Mercy Hospital in Sacramento, California, and for the last few years Preeti has designed a pattern and Bernie has done the promotion and link ups for the QAL. Quilters may also choose a different organization to donate to if they wish. You can read more about the QAL and collection on either of their websites. 

I’ve started my quilt just a bit late, but as we are having really bad air quality this week from wildfires in our neighbor to the north, I’m making good progress staying indoors and sewing. My quilt will be a bit smaller for a donation to an organization closer to home. I’ve also revised the sewing technique to suit my own style (foundation piecing) but I love the design. There is a choice of just leaves (Positivity Grows) or leaves and flowers (Positivity Blooms--the one I'm making) and even a bonus quilt if you make the quilt following Preeti's technique. 

My leaves are all done. Today I’ll make the stems and sew the blocks together. Maybe even the flowers—it’s that easy! In a later post during the QAL I’ll share how I made my blocks. Right now I need to get back to sewing. 

In the meantime, check out these links to learn more:

Merciful Quilts tab and the link-up for quilt progress this week at Needle and Foot.

The tab at Sew Preeti Quilts for the schedule of the QAL (it goes on most of the summer for nice, easy sewing), sponsors, and instructions, and Preeti's design and quilts here and here. 

Have fun sewing this week and I hope you can breathe easy!

(Just a reminder: I'm not affiliated with any company, so when I mention products, services, or stores I'm just documenting what I used or liked.)