friday finish - whit!

Meet Whit!

Whit by Miss Rosie's Quilt Co. is finished! Maybe I should say that it's almost finished. After quilting, it will become a European pillow sham for my bed. To get the correct size for a pillow top, I needed to cut the border strips 2" wider than the pattern. And of course that meant that I needed to buy another 5" of background fabric. Grrrr. Luckily, Donna shipped extra fabric to me in just two days! (I could have joined my leftover fabric strips to get the right length, but I really didn't want to see the seams.) 

Whit measures 26" square. Each Flying Dutchman block is 4". I used Flower Sugar by Lecien - most of it is current season, but I tossed in some older pastel favorites, too. And for extra visual texture, I added 1/8" mini gingham from Riley Blake. I love how it coordinates perfectly with the florals. 

This was a fun quilt to make! Nice little blocks and short border strips. I usually dislike the process of pinning borders, but 26" borders - I can handle that! 

The Another Year of Schnibbles sew along is hosted by A Quilting Life and Pink Pincushion, and you can get all the details about how to join the group here

And now can I start a new quilt? I am dying to cut into my new Christmas fabrics

I'm linking up today with Finish It Up Fridays at Crazy Mom Quilts. 

flying dutchmen

Sixteen Flying Dutchman blocks are done! They're for my Little Bites "Whit" mini quilt. Why is this block called Flying Dutchman, anyway?! Wikipedia says that a Flying Dutchman is a legendary ghost ship that can never make port and is doomed to sail the oceans forever. Maybe this refers to how I felt doomed to make 128 mini flying geese forever?

I'm kidding, of course. The blocks were actually really quick and easy to construct once the geese were completed. There's nothing complicated here. Each block measures 4" finished. I was a little concerned about getting my points to match in the centers but they turned out really nicely.

It took some maniacal focus on Thursday and Friday nights to get these pieced. I spent the early part of last week in Dallas on a business trip - hence, no sewing for three days. This is an annual trip where I train and motivate a group of 75 people to sell my company's products throughout the holidays. It was quite a production, in a hotel ballroom. I had special music, snacks and decor, and I even did a costume change mid-lecture! It was hysterical, but hopefully they all learned something, too. Then I rushed back to NYC to meet with another retailer. So it was a temporary break from my normal life, but sometimes I gotta do the real job!

I'll leave you with a shot of all 16 blocks. They're ready for sashing, cornerstones and a border! A finish is coming soon!