The Official Last Day of Summer - and my Summer Quilt for a Friend is Done!?! Going Through Some Leftovers in the Fridge

Summer Fireplace Quilt for a Friend is Done!

The irony on this is that it's Labor Day - the official last day of summer!  

To re-cap *original posting on this is 8/13/14; a friend of mine has a drafty fireplace - and her family never lights the fireplace either

 so a while back she asked me to make a quilted fireplace screen.  She chose the colors and I chose the pattern

this is the picture

I took before I gave it to her - it's a log cabin variation - I liked that it mimic's flames!

She asked for a summer screen - and in exchange she is going to knit me an Icelandic sweater!

That's a deal!

She wanted it in this color pallet and to use only two colors - I pinched that a tiny bit!  I had the pattern left over from this quilt 

but we agreed on only using the "Flying Geese" unit

I xeroxed the pattern on wash away paper

and away to the sewing machine!  Paper piecing can give you really sharp points - but it doesn't always look that way until the final trimming!

But look how neat and sharp a block can turn out with paper piecing!

Once I've gotten the blocks arranged the way I think she will like them, it's time to sew it all together

I've still got to get the paper out!

There is a debate in the quilting world about whether or not to pre-wash your fabrics.  It's a good idea to do it - this way they won't run once the quilt is made and it's good to get all the stabilizer's out.  On the other hand, sometimes you want those stabilizer's so the fabric is easier to handle.  I didn't pre wash.  It was never going to be on a person or bed and never washed.

 Now I remember about the papers that needed to be washed out!  I didn't dare run it through the machine because if that red ran into that yellow - it'd be curtains!

So I rinsed the quilt in the laundry room sink

Wash away paper my aunt fanny!  This is what it looked like after drying on the line.  It was hard to see that the paper didn't completely wash away from my first attempt when it was wet.  I guess wash away doesn't mean rinse away!  I soaked it in the bathtub and that did the trick.

The screen frame are stretcher bars from the craft store!  It's inexpensive and light weight but I am going to add magnets to this one and to her fireplace for added draft protection.  

I used left over pieces of batting and sewed them together to make her screen size and used up some large scraps of fabric for the backing.

It doesn't matter!  This quilt will not be a family heirloom or even a stadium quilt!

I quilted it "in the ditch" around the perimeter of the geese blocks and attached the quilt to the frame with a staple gun!

but before I started stapling - I tested how centered I got the quilt and secured it temporally in place with push pins!

A safe test before the staples 

come in

Done!

Just in time - well, not for summer officially but it stays plenty hot and summery around here (Washington DC) for a long time still.  Just in time for me to give it to her at our book group meeting on Wednesday.  I am reading  This Is Where I leave You by Jonathan Tropper - and it's a riot!  The subject matter is not funny - a father's passing, and unfaithful wife - but it's written with great humor.  I finished our last book Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen which was also good.  Because of the summer, I moved on to this book and am hoping the group (all three of us) will want to read it too.

Using up some leftovers

In the back of the refrigerator are 2 bottles of Budweiser, 1 Heineken, 2 Sam Adam's and 1 Bass.

It's Labor Day, I finished a project!  Time for a cold one!

Sew on and sew on!
Pam