"Mercantile" - my first real Lori Holt quilt top finished
Last Monday when my husband headed off to Ukraine to take our friend there, I knew his trip would last a minimum of 10 hours and I had the day to myself to totally decide on mealtime, etc. I figured this would be a wonderful time to take care of this top.
First had to cut apart the blocks. I cut as close to the line as possible.
I decided to go ahead and cut the blocks apart, trim them down to 14.5”, resew them back together and finish up the top. I already had the pieced outer border put together, so I figured it wouldn’t be too hard.
I didn’t have a 14.5” ruler so I used the 15” one I had. I really just measured from the middle line “over” 7.25” inches and trimmed.
And it wasn’t.
Here you can see I lined up the ruler on the 7.25” line and trimmed.
I got an early start since my husband was up and gone by 5 am - I got up at about 6 am, got breakfast and other things and was going strong by 6:30 am.
To make the story short - I was completely finished with the top by 11:11 am. I did work at it hard and it went together well. I didn’t have any real issues, for which I am thankful.
I’m sharing photos throughout this post showing you what I did do.
Once I cut them down, I sewed them back together and had the top done in what felt like no time.
I cut them apart, trimmed them to 14.5” and stacked them up. I had the book (I printed out everything and put it into a notebook) open to me when I was sewing the rows back together and to help me get the top back together relatively quickly and not twisted and turned wrong.
I then cut a new red inner border and put on the pieced outer border.
This red is not actually a Lori Holt but I did try to find a warm-ish red and not a blue-ish one. I at least wanted something that went with the reds in the top.
Then I added the pieced border and then an outer border that was also a low volume print and finished completely with the top.
Here’s another view.
So am I happy with it? You bet I am. I am DELIGHTED!
Here are some close ups of the fabrics.
I used many Lori Holt fabrics, but not only. I just went through my rather extensive shelves and pulled things that seemed like it went with what I was trying to do.
If this top is interesting you to - the pattern is FREE. Yes, it is. Check it out here. You can substitute fabrics as I have. You can still get a similar look to the original - which is here.
So there you are. The link for the Mercantile instructions are here. I did watch some You Tube videos and downloaded the pattern. Since these are pieced blocks, it is not a difficult pattern but it takes a while to do because each block is different.
My sis does have some Lori Holt fabrics which if you like this style, I’d encourage you to get a pack or two just to help you know what will look good on this type of quilt.
My sis has also started selling the newer lines by Lori Holt/Riley Blake and you can get those here. They will be more expensive ($12.50/yard) than some of her fabrics, but maybe a bit less than some other places.
But we also have some wide backs at great prices. I’m kind of kicking myself that I didn’t bring back at least a couple of yards of each of them!!! Don’t make my mistake. At only $20/yard for the 108”, that makes these beauties the equivalent of only $8/yard since I figured 106” of usable fabric x 36” - 3816 square inches of fabric for a single yard of 108” fabric. For the smaller width, I used 42” x 36” and that is 1512 square inches of fabric. When you divide the 3816 by 1512 - you get roughly 2.5. That means you have 2.5x the fabric in a yard of 108” fabric than in the regular 42” width.
Here is what we have in stock at that price. Click on the photo to get the fabric at a great price!
Thanks so much for coming along with me on this journey!
Have a great day wherever you are reading this!
Be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store here!
Feel free to browse the site.