Well, friends, we’re finally here! It’s week 7 of the Prim & Proper Sewalong hosted by The Fat Quarter Shop – and I’m ready to share my finished quilt with you! First, let’s take a look at the last six weeks of progress:
This is the Prim & Proper Quilt by Lori Holt. I used Lori’s Prim fabric line in a bit of a different color story from the original. You can see the original quilt and read my kick off post here. All in all this was a great project. The instructions were really clear. I did pin pin pin to get some seams to match, but in the end it all came out quite lovely. Let’s go ahead and get to it!
There she is, in all her pink glory. I love how it came out (and I’m so pleased I redid those stars)! This one finished at a generous 63.5″ x 75.5″. I used one of Lori Holt’s wide back fabrics (also a Prim fabric) for the backing and her large vintage trim in cloud for the sweet binding detail. I’ve been practicing more and more at machine binding and I think I’m starting to get the hang of it.
Can we take a moment for the beautiful quilting? Y’all know I love working with Nicole of Kwilt It! and she really knocked this one out of the park! I just love the major textural impact of the all-over orange peel design.
All in all, I’m really proud of this quilt. I learned so much along the way and had a blast sewing along with so many other makers. Not to mention how much this sweet pot of flowers has definitely brightened up my snowy day.
As you may recall, I’ve been sewing along with some fantastic sewists and The Fat Quarter Shop on Lori Holt’s Prim & Proper Quilt. This week we’re up to week 6 with the Prim Stars block — maybe my favorite block patten in the whole book.
I’m using the same fabric line, Prim, as the original quilt but in a different color scheme. When I first planned out my quilt, I looked through the whole Prim & Proper booklet for color inspiration. I knew I wanted the border to be pink, so I changed up the red flowers for teal. Without the brown, I opted for a gold flower pot and so on.
When I got to the stars, I thought I’d pull in all of those elements to the cornerstone stars to tie it together. Pink, teal, and gold and away we went.
At this point, I wasn’t sure sure about this choice, but I chose to forge ahead. Word to the wise: at this point, I wasn’t sure I’d like these stars in the quilt. I should have sewn a test block, but I plowed right on through and made all four.
At this point, I thought this block is really pretty but just not quite right. I started piecing the borders (jumping ahead to week 7) to help clear my mind and then I plopped it down in it’s spot.
Nope. This just isn’t it. Too much of something, perhaps? I was honestly pretty frustrated at this point and having a hard time rethinking the colors. So I did what any maker would do. I started another project.
Those little diamonds on the inner star unit just kept calling to me for a good ole’ fussy cut. I had the idea to make a Christmas table runner out of srappy prim star blocks. At first, I was going to do each star with a different background fabric. When I {began to learn something from past experiences} sewed up a test block, I was a little afraid it would be too busy, since the backgrounds I had on hand are pretty busy. I changed course, and used a single background for the whole thing.
As I was putting together fabrics for these blocks, I realized my error with the OG quilt block. It’s all medium and high value fabrics – there is no true “background” to give good contrast. I finished up my Christmas stars and went back to my Prim fabrics, finally. I pulled some different fabric options and settled on keeping the same pink, going with a more muted teal option, and changing out the gold for the white background. Even then, though, I wasn’t sure so I kept on testing. I tried the inner star a couple of ways before finaly picking the final form.
This version follows the fabric placement in the pattern, but I wound up reversing the pink and white in the inner star. It feels like it pops a bit more that way. I sewed up the one test block and plopped it down with the borders to double check that I was satisfied.
Once those stars were done, I went back to the Christmas stars. I’m going to toot my horn here, this is pretty stinking cute. I’m a little nervous about the ricrac in the binding for the Prim & Proper quilt, so I decided to practice it here. I basted it at about an 1/8″ and the bound the runner as usual, nothing to it! Very pleased.
Gosh, those fussy cuts are too much! I’m over the moon.
Don’t worry, I didn’t forget about that little test block version. I hand quilted him up for a super cute mug rug! He’s sitting by my sewing machine now, isn’t this just darling?
All in all, I now feel pretty experienced with making these blocks. I learned a little bit more about putting colors together. I’ll call that a good time.
At work, it honestly feels as though the end of the year is just careening towards me and there is still so much to do. It’s been a host of busy days, so I am making a concerted effort to slow it way down in my personal space. In most years (feels like I’ve been saying that a lot lately, how about you?) I’d be finishing up with work travel and preparing for holiday travel. This year, we’re staying in and enjoying some quiet evenings. I’ve been making slow progress on a few things.
We have embraced the idea of the advent calendar around here, and I’ve got a bit of advent knitting to share. I woke up bright and early on December 1 to cast on my advent socks and open up my other yarn advents.
I’ve been knitting a stripe a day on my advent socks. It’s the slowest I’ve ever knit socks, much less stripey socks, but it’s an enjoyable process seeing the new stripe each day. I’m knitting both socks in tandem, one stripe each day. I’ve really been enjoying cuddling up with Cosi in front of the tree each morning for coffee and a stripe.
As for the other advent knitting, the Woolberry minis are going into a basket until I decide what I want to do with them. The Stress Knits minis are going straight into my other advent project – the Dust of Snow wrap by Helen Stuart of Curious Handmade. I’m holding the yarn with some undyed mohair silk (Lichen & Lace leftovers from one of my sweaters) and I couldn’t be happier.
This is the most process of process knits that I’ve engaged in in a very long time. I am enjoying it so much! The garter pluss the simple pattern is all so soft and sweet. And the way these colors work together, I just can’t. It is so good, it’s honestly a bit tough having to only knit one section a day.
Other than advents, I’ve got my Prim & Proper quilt going. We’re up to week 4 with the flower pot now. I laid the first 4 weeks out together and I have to tell you, I got pretty excited.
As you may recall from my last post, I’m using the same fabric line but recoloring the quilt from the original. This was the first step in seeing some of it together and I am digging it. The golden yellows in this collection are so pretty! The fabric is from the Prim collection by Lori Holt, and this is the first 4 blocks from the Prim & Proper Quilt, also by Lori. There is still a whole month to join in on the sewalong, if you’re interested. It’s been a fun one for sure.
Speaking of Lori Holt, my last slow project to share is the binding of my Quilter’s Cottage quilt. The corners are done now, so hopefully I’ll have a finish to share with you pretty soon!
That’s it for me tonight. I’m all settled in this dark and cold Monday evening with my advent knitting – definitely relishing the quiet and the slow progress of it all.
Whew, the year is just flying by! How are we almost to Thanksgiving? I’ve been working away on holiday gifts, but today I’ve got a fun new project to share. My love of Lori Holt’s quilt designs is well documented, so I had a hard time resisting the new sewalong for Lori’s Prim & Proper Quilt:
Can we just take a moment? I love this sweet nod to tradtition. Cross-stitching was my very first craft and I love the “cross-stitched” border! The quilt is all traditionally pieced and Lori writes very clear patterns, so I am very excited to try my hand at this one.
I am using Prim fabrics and it’s been a lot of fun pulling different combinations. The one thing I can say for sure, is there is going to be a lot of pink in my quilt!
Today is the kick-off for week 1. For my flowers, I opted for these pretty teals with gold centers. My sewing machine supervisor mostly approved, but he kept getting distracted during the process.
That’s it for this week, be sure to stay tuned on Instagram for my progress over the next seven weeks. There are lots of other sewists joining in and I’m already loving their flower blocks. I can’t wait to see this one come together!
Knit 1, Make 2 