“Outdoors” top finished

I was able to get this one finished up! Yes, it was a TON of work.

 
 

At least it felt like it to me. The quilt is made up of 14 different blocks.

I needed to make 4 of each of these blocks, so that means 14 different blocks x 4. That makes 56 blocks.

Here are the blocks:

After making all these blocks, what did I think?

I did have opinions about the blocks:

The easiest blocks were the sun blocks (sawtooth star block) with the stripes underneath.

The hardest blocks for me were the mountains ones.

 

But what did I think of this overall top?

I love it! It was definitely a winner!

This is my first Elizabeth Hartman quilt pattern that I’ve finished. It’s the first I’ve ever attempted as well.

:)

For some reason, all these years, I just thought “I am not interested in doing those types of patterns”. However, when I saw this one last year, I fell in love with it and wanted to make it.

I don’t often get that way - though I did get that feeling with the main Prairie Home quilt from the book!

 
 

I went ahead and worked very hard and finished this one up. My husband was out of town in a Central Asia country, so I kept meals very simple and quick.

It was a whole lot of work and I was ready for something easy after this one.

But I didn’t really start working on anything particularly little - just cleaned up my dining room table because I had people coming over for dinner and my husband was coming back his trip.

The original pattern did not have any borders, but I wanted mine big enough for a queen size bed and the original pattern is only 80”x80”. I wanted it closer to 90”+. This ended up about 94”x94”, so a nice sized quilt. I have several this size, and I like them on our bed which is a queen sized bed.

I did not have any Elizabeth Hartman fabrics for this, so I just went to my extensive stash and pulled fabrics as best as I could with her original colors in mind. Of course, I could have changed them to any colors I wanted, but the original quilt is what I fell in love with the delicious blues, greens and oranges, so I wanted to replicate it, but with using what I had.

I did not cut it all at once. For some reason, I don’t work my best that way. I’m not sure, but I’ve got one quilt all cut out completely and it is just sitting in its box. Maybe I got tired of working with it so I needed a break from it since it took so long to cut out.

I find with a quilt like this, I’m actually way more motivated to keep going if I just cut out one or two blocks at a time and make them, and then cut more blocks, make them, and keep going like that. It is as if each little block finishing is its own reward and gives me more impetus to go choose more fabrics and do it again. Then, when I’m about to run out of steam, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, so then the “end” is its own reward.

The hardest part at this point was choosing my borders.

I found a fabric that might have been perfect—but I didn’t have enough. I guess in such a situation, my choices are actually more limited and it actually does help me make the final decision. I did waffle back and forth as to which colors to use - as I preferred that the print went with the theme of the quilt. As such, I found that pine needle print. I cut up all the fabric I had in that print to make the border the size that I made.

I am not sure when I will get this one quilted, but for now I will find a backing and put it with my other tops to be quilted in my long arm room.

Thanks so much for coming along with me on this journey.

Have a great day wherever you are reading this!

Becky Petersen6 Comments