A Couple of Projects from a "New" Book

 

I never know what treasures I might find in thrift stores. This book came from my local thrift store and it does have some unique and interesting gift ideas. In addition to patterns/instructions for the gifts, it also has patterns and templates for a number of 10" blocks. Unfortunately, the templates do not have seam allowance included, which I found rather frustrating. But I made a note in the block section of the book to remind me of this. 
My grandson was with me when I bought the book, and as I was perusing it once we got home, we discussed making the quilted shawl for my daughter. She had complained about the office at work being too cold and she was planning on knitting or crocheting a shawl to keep her warm when she's there. Knowing that she was trying to get her career on track and that she likely wouldn't get one done that quickly, I figured I could make this one for her and give it to her for her birthday. 

From the block "library" in the book, I selected the budding rose quilt block, as it looks good on point, something necessary for this project. So, I called the project the Budding Roses Shawl.

The block was a little bit challenging as it involved some "interesting" seams.

I'm not sure what you would call this: a double Y-seam? Or just 2 Y-seams quite close together. 

I edited this photo to show how I did it, lining up the orange seam first, followed by the fuschia and the lime green seams. 
With Damian's help, I chose the colours. Sophia's favourite colour is orange, so I decided on the peach colour for the background. She also likes colours in the teal/aqua family, so that is what I chose for the flowers. And I decided to do the flowers in solid fabrics as it would make choosing gradients of the same colour easier. 
I don't generally like the blocks in my projects to come right to the edges, as the binding often overlaps too much of the block and partially obscures it. So, I opted to add a 1" border with the background fabric. 

I've probably mentioned before that I am trying to use the many quilting pantographs I own that I haven't used before. So for most of my latest projects, that is what I have been doing. However, I couldn't find an unused pantograph that I felt suited this shawl, and opted for Tea Rose, a relatively simple but still very pretty design. Because the shawl has a minky backing, I didn't want to use a denser pantograph like Abstract Rose, which is probably my favourite floral pantograph. 
I'm not entirely thrilled with my block choice in this shawl, but overall, I still think it looks good.
I entered the shawl in the quilted clothing class in my local fair, where it won a first place ribbon. (I'm sure it helped that it didn't have any competition). And my daughter loves her shawl. 
As I was flipping through the pages of the book, I came across a pattern/idea for this Yuletide Stocking. As I knew that there was a Christmas stocking class in the bench show at the local fair, I decided to make one. 

The one in the book wasn't actually quilted, but I opted to do quilt as you go with my stocking. It was a good project to use some of the lace I have in my stash, most of which came from my mother's stash. And I have plenty of Christmas fabric in my stash as well. 

As the back of the stocking was not pieced, I just did diagonal lines for the quilting. Both the front and back were quilted on my domestic machine. 
Again, I was not entirely thrilled with the finished project. Because I added quilt batting, and a muslin faux backing for the quilting, which gave more bulk in the seams, it ended up narrower than I would have liked for a Christmas stocking. And the front didn't end up as pretty as I would have liked. It did, however, win a second place ribbon in the local fair (where it did have competition).