My Happy Place

This was the second quilt I made for the Henry Glass Desire to Inspire Challenge in June.  I ran out of time to get it fully finished by the end of June, but it is done now!  I used up almost every bit of the fabric I had left to make it.

I'm pretty pretty pleased with how this turned out.

I was happy that the seagulls stayed on the beach or in the water, and not overhead for the photo shoot!

The colours are so saturated, aren't they?

Here is the flimsy:

This is based on a pattern in Pam & Nicky Lintott's book, More Layer Cake, Jelly Roll and Charm Quilts

 I got creative with piecing some of the 5" squares, cobbling together strips.

Here I pieced strips of the fabric that separates the blocks on the panel, as well as strips of one of the trees and words fabrics. I was pleased to include the name of the fabric line and almost all of Janet Rae Nesbitt's name in one of the squares!

One of the panel blocks is in the lower left corner of the quilt.  This block led to the name of the quilt.

Bella approved:

I'd set it down on the basement floor as I prepared the binding.  But of course that is an invitation for a kitty to inspect, play (her grey 'mouse' that holds wonderful homegrown catnip from 'Jake' one of my readers - sadly Bella seems to be snobby in that regard too, not too bothered and doesn't go too crazy after nuzzling it, like how??)  Anyhow she loves the backing, brown and blue...

Here it is before washing, on the patio in the shade:

I was pretty pleased with the health of my stash; I knew I wanted a navy blue binding, but when I found this 1/2 yard piece with tiny white stars on from who knows where/when....yesss! Fist pump!

I echoed 3 times in each star centre after ditch-stitching it first. Then I did a 5-pointed star in the very centre.  Was I blown away to find that in the dark green fabric there are the same tiny gold 5-pointed stars!  How did I not see that in all the other projects I made??  In the background squares, I did six different motifs along the wavy lines, separating them with a plain wavy line of quilting.  This covered half of the quilt, so I repeated the pattern once.  I also ditch-stitched every other row to give it stability since it isn't heavily quilted.

Here you see words, a 'pea pod' motif and a double leaf motif. Did I mention how much I love the woven fabrics in this line? You see all three I received in this shot, the gold, the pale blue plaid and the red.  There was not enough of the twill weave ones left.

This row of writing says "lake erie" twice, lower case intentional.  Above it is one of Christina Cameli's motifs, waves and intermitent cursive e's.

The other row of words:

The first row of words says 'sun' and 'warm' and then reverses the order in the repeat; under the leaf motif is a row of intermittent swirls to evoke water.

Little sprinkles of sand kept hopping onto the quilt...ha! which is how you pronounce my name!

Sandra like sand on the beach :-) Sneaked it in among the last row of swirls. 

Here is the back, all flannel; the chocolate brown is scrap from one of Dayna's quilts, which in turn, was scraps from a niece's quilt! It is totally gone now except for one 2" WOF strip.

I made my own label with scraps from the front; I had to unpick the binding a little to sew in my mmm! quilts label, nearly forgot.  The blue flannel was stash, and the leaves flannel is part of a fat quarter I had.

Written with a Pentel gel roller pen.. The handmade label is not supposed to be near the top edge of the quilt; somehow I rotated the back when I took it off the design wall and placed it on my cutting table for writing...Ah well, I actually do prefer this in the end; stars are up in the sky right?!

Sidenote about fabric quality: notice the pilling already on the blue flannel? Although it is a gorgeous mottled blue, I bought this at Fabricland quite a few years ago. It's got a lovely hand and weight and colour.  It compares very well to the brown which is from a quilt shop. However, two things: one, the first wash and it's already pilled, and second, good thing I had a colour catcher in the washer, as it came out quite blue! I know the Henry Glass Fabrics did not bleed at all, because I washed the first quilt I made with them, didn't have a colour catcher in, and even had a cream background for that quilt.

Exactly 4 weeks ago I displayed the fabrics here on this hall table.

I used Gütermann thread to piece the quilt, Fufus rayon for the wavy motifs and ditch-stitching.  It blended so well with all the fabrics.  I used Essential from Connecting Threads for the stars.  I have to say once again how much Avril the Avanté loves this thread. No breaks.  The rayon did from time to time but turning the needle to the '5:30' position instead of the '6:30' (eye straight on) position works like a charm.

Hey! Have you been taking advantage of the terrific summer sale this week at Connecting Threads?  No affiliation, but there have been some screaming good deals much like those in the spring (when I ordered uh...3 separate times...hey I was still state-side, so free shipping with $50.)  Today is up to 50% off wide backing fabrics.  They have extremely good shipping rates and DRUM ROLL OMG I JUST CHECKED: FREE to Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom with a $75 order.  I knew about Canada, because I've taken advantage of that, but did not realize they did this for the other two!

One last lake shot:

Should've taken a video so you could hear the perfect waves sounds...ahhh, happy place indeed.

Oh! Nearly forgot.  What am I reading? That one shot gave you a peek.  Here's a closer look:

I savour the May issue of Quilt Sampler throughout the summer; it's just a 'thing' to slowly soak it up.  I'm re-reading Dragonfly in Amber along with watching Season 2 (I have the last two episodes to watch yet, speaking of soaking it up; just loving it, even if Claire isn't quite 'right' in my mind, looks/body-wise).  Why The Railway Station Man, set in Ireland, is on my 'to read' pile, I don't know, but I am enjoying it and plan to watch the film.

Quilt Stats:
Pattern:  based on a Pam and Nicky Lintott pattern
Size: 43.5" across by 43.25 long ... not square! I wonder if it has to do with the crosswise/lengthwise grain of the flannel on the back? Interesting....
Fabric: scraps and leftover pieces from the Henry Glass Challenge fabrics, "Better at the Lake" by Janet Rae Nesbitt
Batting: Pellon Nature's Touch 100% cotton
Quilted: on my Avanté
Threads: pieced and quilted with Gütermann; quilted with Fufus rayon olive green and Essential #21252 Tea Dyed

Linking up with
Sew Fresh Quilts with Lorna
Scraptastic Tuesday with Nicky and Leanne
My Quilt Infatuation with Kelly
Confessions of a Fabric Addict with Sarah
Crazy Mom Quilts with Amanda Jean