Out of the Pink

(affiliate links to my fabric designs)

It's not from my WIP list, but it's finished, and just in time for the new baby girl neighbor expected in the next few days.

The quilt front is a Spoonflower panel I designed from a photo I snapped of a butterfly on a delphinium in my garden. The borders around the panel are the closest colors I could find in my scrap stash.

The quilt back is made from about half of a pastel layer cake I bought on sale a few years ago to practice free-hand FMQ dinosaur motifs for the second child of my niece but did not use because I was too chicken. I've since become a little braver and used my longarm Ringo to draw free-hand floral scallops on this quilt. Although I'm trying to use up what I have and not buy anything new, I did find a reasonably priced pastel fat quarter bundle I can use to make that dinosaur quilt one day. But not until after I've finished a few more projects on my WIP list.

I used my quilt extenders (which I made from an ugly fabric in my stash) on the edges of the quilt so I could longarm the entire project without doing the edges on the domestic machine. It takes a few extra steps to do it that way, but I'm glad I did. I think the quilting goes faster that way, and it looks better, in my opinion.

I thought the quilt looked pretty darned cool from underneath when I had to change the bobbin in the longarm.

I used white thread on both the top and the bottom for the quilting. When I first bought Ringo, it had to go back to the shop for a few weeks because it was skipping stitches right out of the box. I think I've finished 12 quilts with it now, and I've noticed the past three or so quilts, it's skipping stitches again. I'm not pleased. But I do still love Ringo and hope it can be serviced, perhaps while I work on a hand-quilting project.

When it began skipping stitches again on this quilt, I would backtrack, then continue on, thinking it wouldn't be too difficult to clip the long stitches, unravel a bit, tie knots and weave in the ends. It took two nights to complete this segment of the project, and it doesn't look too bad now, in my opinion.

I didn't have enough of any pink in my stash for the entire binding, so I alternated strips from two different pinks that both matched the Spoonflower panel. When I was ready to put on the binding, I couldn't find a single spool of pink thread anywhere in my house! I was in literal shock! I've made who knows how many pink quilts for my friends and co-workers who have battled breast cancer. I know I have had tons of pink thread!!!

Then it hit me; while I was teaching my little neighbor to quilt, almost everything she made was pink. We used up all my pink thread, and I didn't even know it!

I looked up pink thread at three of my favorite shops with online ordering. I darn near bought a ton of thread just because there were pretty colors. One of the variegated spools of King Tut at Linda's Electric Quilters reminded me of a spool I bought back in about 2019. I dug around one more time and found it. It's dark pink and maroon, perfect for a valentine project. It also turned out to work pretty well on this binding. Without spending money on thread. Yet... (I might still add to my thread stash. One can never have too much thread, right? And I will need pink in the future. I have a pink WIP!)

If I'm able to keep finishing a quilt each month this year, I will improve my longarm skills. My confidence is growing with each finish, and that's a huge step!

Linking up with Alycia Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

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