Tag Archives: Berries with Lemon

Finished Nightstand Topper!

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Berries with Lemon Action DONE HPDone and in use, my first A Lovely Year of Finishes finish, the nightstand topper for my son Sec, “Berries with Lemon”!

It all started with his fabric picks and here we are with a functional piece.

Berries with Lemon Front DONE HP

It’s a tiny bit wonky, but it almost perfectly fits his night stand.  I ended up just doing bar tacks at some of the brick intersections by hand.  It’s not going to be washed much (as you can see from the first picture, he doesn’t like putting his water cups on it), so it should hold together just fine.  No, he doesn’t really use the clock for anything.  He claimed it from another room and now it’s his.

The bar tacks were partly because I couldn’t bear to drag out my sewing machine to do the quilting.  I despair of ever being able to sew a consistent, straight line without a struggle.  Good thing I like hand-sewing now, though burying the knots and ends of all of those bar tacks was no fun at all.

Berries with Lemon Back DONE HPI do like the back.  I don’t want to mess it up with a big ugly white label and I’m not sure I can easily match the red for a Spoonflower-printed label, so we’ll see.

But it’s done and getting used, so YAY!

Linking up with ALYoF’s January finish post, just in time.

“Berries with Lemon” Progress

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I didn’t make as much progress on this nightstand topper for my son Sec as I would have liked, but some progress is better than none.  I got the binding sewn on the front.

Berries with Lemon Progress HP

I really, really like the back.  It’s much cooler than the front.  No label yet.  That’ll have to wait for my next Spoonflower order, so it might be some time.  It’s not going anywhere and I’ve documented it here, so I’m not too worried.

Berries with Lemon Progress Back HP

I actually made a bunch of mistakes with this project.

First, I didn’t make the backing significantly bigger than the front on all sides (there was some leeway on the long sides, but none on the short), so spray-basting it all together was a nightmare.  I was afraid that it would shift badly if I machine-quilted it, so I decided to hand quilt it, but I wanted to get the binding on while I had my machine out, so I did that.  It’s a little project, so I think it’ll be fine.  I think I’m only going to tack it all down at the corners of the squares.  Warm and White says you only need to quilt every 10″ and I don’t think it’s going to be washed often, so it’s likely okay.

Berries with Lemon Progress Oops HPSecond, you can see where my machine sewing failed when I was adding the binding.  I sewed too narrow a seam allowance, so it wasn’t hard to fix, just annoying.

I cut everything very carefully, had my (new) walking foot on, and went super-slow.  I’m beginning to think my 1/4″ seam allowance woes aren’t all me, but may be at least partially due to my machine.  I’m going to have to try out a new machine at the quilt shop.  I realized that I’m having no fun at all doing the piecing because I dread the wonky seams.

At this point, I’d rather hand-sew than drag out the machine.  <sigh>  I don’t want anything fancy, just a machine that feeds evenly.  Yes, I just had it serviced.  Argh.

Well, I only have hand-sewing left on this one and then it’s a finish!

“Berries with Lemon” Top is Done!

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Berries with Lemon Top HPHere’s the untrimmed top.  The picture has some weird perspective issues.  I mean, the top’s pretty wonky, but the photo has problems, too.

Berries with Lemon Top Reverse HP

And the back after pressing.  I could not get the seams to stay flat.  This photo’s more true.  I’m not sure how I’m going to quilt it.  probably simply in the ditch.  The back fabric has a big, red and gold all-over pattern, so I’ll match the  thread to the red and hope for the best on the top.

Berries with Lemon Binding HP

Speaking of the back: it’s just about an inch too narrow.  I made a little too much scrappy binding, so I’m going to add the last bit of the blue in the above photo to the back as a stripe.  I think it’ll look good.

I’m going to use Warm and White batting, since that’s what I have on hand.

 

“Berries with Lemon”

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When I was at the fabric store yesterday looking for an older fabric (Pepe in Paris Main White–which they had long ago sold out of) that my son, Prim, saw and loved in a charm pack I was cutting up for hexagons, I ended up filling out my medium blues.  I hope it’s enough, but that’s a post for another day.

Today’s all about my two year old, Sec.  He came with me to the fabric store, and since it was the first Friday of the month, fat quarters were on sale for half off.  Not only that, they had a whole slew of extra FQs for sale aside from the usual display.  I need to go every first Friday.

He immediately started touching stuff while I was looking for blues, but I realized he was trying to take a particular red fat quarter.  I decided to get it for him.  He also wanted another red, and a light blue.  I told him to pick one more, maybe a yellow, and he did:

Sec's Fabrics HP

First, I’m amazed at how true to color this photo is, except for the blue.  Second, he has really good taste.

When we got home, I freaked out about what to make for him from these fabrics.  Four fat quarters (essentially a yard of fabric) isn’t even enough for a new, bigger couch blanket for him and I didn’t want to ruin his color story by adding prints from my meager stash.

The prints are old(er)–only three had selvages.  The top one didn’t, then below that are Magic Vine by Eleanor Burns (which I think I’d bought a FQ of previously), Sand in My Shoes by McKenna Ryan, and Stonehenge Starry Night by Deborah Edwards.  I could have sworn I just saw that last one on clearance online somewhere.  I searched and quickly gave up on ordering more of any of them.  I could go back to the fabric store for more FQs (I think I saw some of each) to make a twin bed quilt for him (he needs two bed quilts since he’s a little kid), but I also like a challenge.

I thought about adding some color-matched FQs and featuring large swaths of each print, since I’d like to get something done for him soon.  I considered making Boho Girl by Amy Smart, but the quilt ends up a weird size (I’d like my twin bed tops to finish at about 74″ x 92″ before quiling) and it isn’t FQ friendly.  Then I thought I’d do a large-scale improv herringbone, with just five long strips of the herringbone and narrow white borders, but that would take a bunch more fabric and wouldn’t be quick.  I’d like Sec see the fabric he chose become something soon so he can make that connection.

Then it hit me.  We just got him a twin bed AND A NIGHTSTAND!  I’ll make him a little quilted topper for the nightstand.  Four FQs is probably enough to make the top, piece the backing, and have some left over for binding.  If not, I can pull a smallish piece of coordinating fabric from my eBayed scraps or use the matching yellow FQ I bought previously, if nothing else.

It took me five hundred words to say: A small quilted nightstand topper, “Berries with Lemon”, using Sec’s fabrics is my January goal for 2015’s A Lovely Year of Finishes.  I’m thinking about doing tumblers, since I’ve never done them before, they seem fairly simple, and they’re not squares.  Alternatively, I’ll do bricks, since I won’t have to match any corners.  Yeah, I think I talked myself into bricks.