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A Happy Ending for “Happy Ending”

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

“The Quilt is in the Mail”

A package arrived in the mail yesterday. A very exciting package. A quilted quilt!

I could not wait to open the package and see Cindy Anderson’s, of A Quilter’s Corner with Cindy Anderson (inastitchquilting.com), long-arm quilting magic!

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How fast can I get the box open?
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Oh the anticipation, now I have to unwrap it from the enclosed bag!

Before we get to the reveal (don’t scroll down and peek yet!) here is a little background on this quilt.

I found the pattern for this quilt, Happy Ending, in a book I borrowed from my public library – Perfect Quilts for Precut Fabrics by That Patchwork Place. The pattern was designed by Lesley Chaisson. I used a couple packages of pre-cut 5 inch squares (charm packs) and deep blue (Ink) Peppered Cotton, shot cotton to make the quilt.

If interested, you can read these previous posts about the evolution of this quilt: Diving into a quilt (and other stuff) and What’s on the Design Wall and What’s on the Design Wall.

After  removing the quilt from the box, Terry the Quilting Husband (TTQH) and I opened it up and laid it out on our bed to get the full effect of the completed:

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Draped on a king-size bed

My quilt top traveled from Oregon to Wisconsin and returned from Wisconsin as a quilted quilt!

I wish it was completely done and ready for use, but first I have to make and then sew the binding to the edge of the quilt to finish it.

Originally my plan was to use the deep blue shot cotton (main fabric of the quilt) for the binding. TTQH suggested a contrasting color for the binding instead of the dark blue, like an orange or a red fabric.

I like that idea! I found in my stash a reddish-orange Moda fabric that coordinates with the Moda fabric charm squares. I will post more photos when I get the binding put on the Happy Ending quilt. Photos do not do it justice, the geometric designs of Cindy’s long-arm quilting are lovely on my quilt!

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Waiting for the binding to be added

How Do You Trim?

I have a question for the quilters reading: How do you trim the excess batting and fabric off the edges of a quilt that has been long-arm quilted (or domestic machine quilted by you)?

When I began having quilts professionally long-arm quilted, I would use scissors to trim down the quilt. Eventually I moved to using a rotary cutter and a ruler to get a sharp straight edge. This takes a bit of time to complete trimming on a large quilt and I long for the day when I would just use scissors.

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Trimming my quilt after long-arm quilting completed

Rotary cutter and ruler or scissors? How do you trim?

Bonus Content

Inside the box with my quilt from Cindy were a couple extra items that made me smile:

A handmade card (not by Cindy but by another artist) from recycled fabric scraps:2017-04-11_13-30-49_944.jpeg

Scraps left over from the quilt including some fairly thin scraps that I think Cindy was challenging to make something with! (ok true confession – my quilt back was little bit short on one side and Cindy had to do some “remodeling” on my quilt back to make it work):

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And finally – a challenge piece – an embroidered napkin:

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When I saw the napkin, I misunderstood why Cindy sent it. I thought she sent it in support of my post The Napkin Story. However, after chatting with Cindy I discovered she sent it to me as a recycled fabric quilt challenge! She wants to see what I can do with it! (I took it out of my cloth napkin drawer and put it in my studio).

Postscript

I love listening to audiobooks and most of the audiobooks I listen to are borrowed from my public library’s digital download system. You reserve audiobooks just like you would hard copy books (the library is given a limited number of licenses of copies of a digital book they can loan out at one time) and the library e-mails you when the audiobook is available for download. On popular audiobooks, you can wait anywhere from a week to a couple months to get that e-mail.

So I went crazy reserving a bunch of audiobooks a couple of weeks ago when I suddenly ran out of audiobooks to listen – PANIC! Then, yesterday in addition to getting the quilt in the mail, I got an e-mail from my library notifying me that FIVE of the audiobooks I had on hold were available for download:

  • Norse Mythology – Neil Gaiman
  • For Women Only: What You Need to Know About the Inner Lives of Men
    – Shaunti Feldhahn
  • We: A Manifesto for Women Everywhere – Gillian Anderson & Jennifer Nadel (yup, Gillian Anderson of The X-Files fame)
  • Good Omens – Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
  • Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions – Neil Gaiman

The loan period is 21 days, so I need to listen to all books in 21 days or have to go back into the reserve book queue – yikes!

I went ahead and started listening to For Women Only: What You Need to Know About the Inner Lives of Men as I was in the mood to begin with my nonfiction options. Also I previously read Good Omens and several of the short stories in the anthology Smoke and Mirrors are in the Neil Gaiman book I read last year, Trigger Warning. 

The audiobook is very interesting so far! I might share some insights from this book in a future post.

(Shaunti Feldhahn did also write with her husband Jeff Feldhahn the companion book – For Men Only, Revised and Updated Edition: A Straightforward Guide to the Inner Lives of Women. According to Ms. Feldhahn these books are used as reading requirements in some church-based premarital counseling programs.)

Published by tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Quilter, crafter, obsessive tea drinker and lover of all furry creatures (especially dogs and cats) - join me on my tierneycreates blog as I share stories from "A Crafter's Life".

36 thoughts on “A Happy Ending for “Happy Ending””

  1. Wow great quilting – amazing the actual quilting itself – nothing like plain in the ditch or anything. I am impressed and the the navy blue is great to make the other colours ‘pop’.
    Love the napkin and card too. Good luck with the audio books – I need to get another one soon – it’s been a while since I listened to an audio book – memories of driving to France from the UK, totally enthralled by an audio book, arriving and sitting outside our house there just to finish the end of the story! Lovely post !

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    1. Thanks so much for reading and commenting! The navy blue was a spur of the moment decision (plus I had a bolt of it left over from when I used to have an Etsy shop) but it worked! The original quilt in the pattern photo used light sage green which gave it a completely different feel. Oh yes – road trip with an audiobook – I have those kind of fond memories too – you get totally pulled into the book when you are just focusing on the story and the road ahead!

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  2. I think you’re going to love Good Omens. It’s a very cool take on what fallen angels do in a modern world, and just wait till you meet the Horsemen. No spoilers! 🙂

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  3. I love it! The quilting makes your hard work really shine! I have batting scissors to cut the batting easily from the long arm, but I always use a ruler and rotary cutter to get a final straight edge for binding.

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    1. Batting scissors? See I just learned about another tool I might want – ha! That is great to know that a long-arm quilter such as yourself uses the ruler and rotary cutter too! 🙂

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  5. This quilt is stunning! The quilting is just fab! It’s always nice to get a little special treat with a package (in addition to the quilt, that is!) When I cut my batting, I always use scissors because I am afraid I might slip with the rotary cutter and cut my quilt, Paranoia strikes again!

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    1. Thank you and YES I did once slip with the rotary cutter and took an extra chunk off the quilt edge. It was not too bad and I slowly did a clean up to even it out. Since that experience I go super super slow and I have been fine!

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  6. T: I adore this big beautiful quilt. The long-arm quilting is stunning and unusual. What a wonderful piece. I love the secret quilt challenge napkin. You are so great with color — I can’t wait to see what you do with it!

    My long-armer, the fabulous Ms. G, trims my quilts before she hands them back. And she always sends back the scraps too:)

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  7. Your quilt is GORGEOUS! Love the colors!!! I always enjoy reading your blog so much, you have so much information to share.

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  9. Love that quilt–think I might have loved it before. 🙂 I trim with rotary cutter because it is so much easier to sew the binding to the straighter edge that I get that way.

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  10. The quilt is stunning. You know I love strong contrast and it really shows up here!

    I used to use rotary cutter to trim edges, and sometimes still do. Usually, though, I use scissors. My piecing is pretty straight and flat, so I rarely am trimming to square something up. I do have the longarm, so I cut the front edge right off the frame! Then I unwind the quilt and do the rest of the trimming on the floor usually. (Yes, my floors are big enough, a luxury I don’t take for granted!)

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  11. I can’t imagine cutting/squaring up the quilt with scissors. Definitely rotary cutter and long ruler plus a square ruler to be sure corners are true. Your quilt is really beautiful, and the squares in the quilting design are a perfect touch.

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    1. Thank you and Cindy did a lovely job on the quilting. The quilt had been folded in a box and if I had ironed it before photographing, the lovely quilting would have been even clearer 🙂

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  13. I loved the quilt from the moment I unpacked it and removed it from the box. As I applied the quilting stitches I grew to love it even more. By the time I took it off my longarm machine I was so thrilled with its outcome that I had secretly hoped it were mine to keep. Thank you Tierney for allowing me the privilege of working with your quilt. It was a very enjoyable experience. I’m so glad you enjoyed your card. I hope it finds a special place in your home. I’ll be waiting to see what you do with my challenge fabric. 🤓

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    1. I had it on my lap last night as I worked on sewing down the binding (it is a lot of binding to sew done) – oh I love this quilt and your quilting on it! We’ll see what becomes of the challenge fabric! It great to collaborate with you on the quilt 🙂

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  16. Pingback: Tierney Hogan’s Happy Ending Quilt – A Quilter's Corner with Cindy Anderson

  17. The quilt is beautiful and the quilting Cindy did seems just right for it. Seeing it on her blog, I didn’t realize it was so large. I see you are also a Neil Gaiman fan. If you haven’t read his books for children and teens, you are missing some great adventures. I’m also “slogging through” binding on a very large quilt. It does take forever!

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