Close to another finish

I found this wall hanging, layered and pin basted, waiting to be quilted. I'm not sure how long it has been a finished top. Maybe 10 years? It probably hasn't been basted that long though.

29 x 29 inches.

I machine quilted a grid in the border, and I think I'll hand quilt the center part. Usually I make the binding when I finish the top, but I couldn't find any for this one. (I keep the bindings together in a drawer with a list of the quilt tops they go with.) It will be a narrow dark green to echo the border around the applique, but the width of the pale blue flange in the border.

My friend had a few leftover blocks from a project, and I really liked the fabrics and colors so she let me have them. I designed the wall hanging around those 12 small blocks, which form the corners of the outer border. I can't remember now if I based the applique design on a carpet or a fabric. I think a carpet. Like I said it's been 10 years (maybe more) since I put this together so the details are a bit fuzzy.

Hanging it up

I washed a wall hanging recently and thought I'd share my method for hanging my little quilts.

Attach a picture hook to a thin piece of wood a little narrower than the quilt.

Slip the board into the sleeve on the back of your quilt with the hangar part facing out.

The nail in the wall will catch the picture hanger through the sleeve fabric. 

I have little boards cut to the size of different wall hangings so I can easily change the quilts around the house.   for the hanging sleeve I always use the instructions in "The Quilter's Pocket Reference". Very easy. Even easier if I'd think to add the sleeve at the same time I was putting on binding.

This wall hanging is from 1999. I used the wrong batting so it's a little too puffy, but otherwise I still like it. A classic pattern helps, doesn't it? I made a larger tumbler version too. Both were completed after taking a Cindy Blackberg class. She used to do a Super Bowl class each year at one of the quilt shops near where I lived in Florida. Great way to spend that Sunday.

I quilted it with perle cotton. That was all the rage at the time. Big stitch quilting, I think they called it. Seems like it's popular again. 

The process

I usually forget to take pictures along the way. This time I didn't! So here's a look at the process of making what will some day become a table topper from this Nancy Crow fabric I had for years and years and finally cut into.

I cut the striped fabric so I could mitre it around a black center square.
I wanted the center unpieced so a vase wouldn't wobble if placed in the center.
The leftover mitred pieces look good made into corner triangles.

Seeing how it looks with more black on the outside. Good.
But the center square is too straight.
How about a wavy black line around the edge?

Using the Ricky Timms method, I layered the black fabric right side up
under the center square so the fabrics overlap a bit.

Then I cut gentle curves through both layers and removed the extra fabric.
Flip the black on top of the tulip fabric and slowly sew the two pieces together.
No need for pins. Go slow and align the fabrics as they reach the needle.

Ta da! A gentle curve that matches the feel of the tulip fabric.

I repeated this again to add the corner triangles.
Now all I have to do is quilt and bind it.