May One Monthly Goal is Done!

As usual, I’m sliding in at the end of the month to finish up my OMG - One Monthly Goal - for May. YAY! And I’m linking up to Patty’s May Finished Goal post over at her blog, Elm Street Quilts. As always, I’m so grateful to her for hosting this great motivational finish party!

My goal was to finish up the quilt I’ve named Stringy Starry Night (with help from Mari - thanks!). It started the month as a bunch of blocks - I think I had sewn 100 of the 120 needed. But I got them pieced, sewn together, basted (what a nightmare THAT was!), quilted and bound. Today Bruce helped by holding up this very heavy quilt so we could snap some pictures.

The basting was a nightmare because I had decided to use flannel instead of batting to keep it lighter weight. The blocks were string pieced on a foundation of 6.5” black squares. So each block was already two layers thick. But I didn’t buy enough flannel. So I sewed what I bought to some baby flannel I had, but it was still only an inch larger than the top in each direction. That was not enough. And I know that because I tried twice to baste it, but kept coming up short in one area or another. Finally. I took it apart and added my old standby, Warm & Plush batting. Weight be damned!

It quilted fine, although I made it easy on myself by using a good-sized stipple. The backing was originally going to be used for a quilt I made last year (Groovy Guitars for Bruce), but I used something else for that. so this multi-colored stripe on black was perfect for this quilt.

The binding is just more of the Kona black (which, along with Kona White, I keep on hand by the bolt). The quilt finished at 60x72”, a nice-sized quilt for winter. It’s going to be a WARM one!  Bruce has already claimed it.

Here’s a close-up of the backing so you can see it better. As usual with a very scrappy project, I just love staring at all the fabrics, taking a stroll down Memory Lane from past quilts and projects.

This quilt is also Goal #4 on my Quarter 2 Finish-Along List for 2019, which is HERE.

I hope you’re all enjoying your Memorial Day (in the US) and/or your Monday in other parts of the world. It is not raining here in the Salt Lake Valley today, although we are expecting more for the rest of the week, on and off. Then it’s supposed to clear up. FINALLY. It’s been a long rainy month that has farmers worried about when they can plant crops. Or if they’re already planted, the crop growth is way behind usual. We had to replant our Armenian cucumbers and may have to replant some potatoes. But everything else is doing ok, although you can practically see the poor plants drumming their fingers leaves, waiting for lots of warmth and sunshine.