Looking Glass: A pattern tested - Hop and giveaway

It was a lot of fun testing Looking Glass for Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs. The hardest part of the whole process - choosing fabric. Finally, I settled on Elementary by Sweetwater and decided to make the lap size. This quilt is to be for my youngest little boy, and I think Elementary is a good fit for a young boy and the lap size big enough to take him out of toddler years (I hope:)

Picking sash color was a challenge. Moda Bella Parchment ended up being the final selection. Anything paler just seemed to wash the other colors out - they just seemed so subdued and faded back, if that makes any sense...

Piecing was a breeze. This I attribute to Cheryl's easy to follow piecing instructions. Love, love her ironing diagram. Didn't have to spend any time at all deciding which way or how to iron. Just followed her instructions and the blocks went together easy peasy. As usual, I spent more time arranging blocks than I did piecing, go figure : )

Usually when I do sashing or borders I just attach a strip and trim off the excess. This time, in an effort to do the Looking Glass pattern justice, I decided to do as Cheryl's clear instructions say and measure off my sashing strips the length as my rows. I did chicken out and not cut them to length, but I did mark them. Then I pinned on at intervals and stitched. Guess what? I don't think I have ever had nicer looking sashing. No waviness.at.all.  And each every strip was right on the length mark. Guess I could have cut them to length : ) 

All in all, I couldn't be happier with the Looking Glass quilt pattern by Meadow Mist Designs. Cheryl did an awesome job writing a clear and easy-to-follow pattern. It went together simply and easily, just like a good quilt pattern should without looking like an easy peasy quilt, know what I mean? Now I just need to get a couple more of her patterns. (I didn't realize when I volunteered to test Looking Glass that a couple of Cheryl's patterns have been on my faves list on Etsy for quite a long while : ) Am looking forward to trying a couple of her other patterns. After the holidays my plans are to finsh this quilt and move on to Broken Frames. 

If you would like to make a Looking Glass yourself, you can find the pattern on Etsy or Craftsy on sale thru Friday, December 5.

Ok, now on to blog hop and giveaway details.

The giveaway is open to anyone anywhere and is for a digital copy of the Looking Glass pattern (pdf). The giveaway starts now and will run through Saturday, November 29, with the winner announced on Monday, December 1. If you win and have already purchased the pattern, you will receive a refund of the purchase price.

To enter:

1. Leave a comment, any o' comment.

2. Old and new followers will get an additional entry. Please leave a second comment letting me know you are a follower.

Please note: If you are a no-reply blogger, please include your e-mail address in your comment. If you cannot be reached, you cannot win.

For additional chances to win a free copy of the Looking Glass pattern, visit the others stops on the Blog Hop:

Friday Nov. 21st: Cheryl @ Meadow Mist Designs

Saturday Nov. 22nd: Lin @ Lin's Quilts

Sunday Nov. 23rd: Beth @ Cooking Up Quilts

Monday Nov. 24th: Michelle @ From Bolt to Beauty

Monday Nov. 24th: Anna @ Fresh Dew Drops (me : )

Tuesday Nov. 25th: Chelsea @ Patch the Giraffe
Wednesday Nov. 26th: Shauna @ Shauna's World
Wednesday Nov. 26th: Debbie
Friday Nov. 28th: Shelley @ The Carpenter's Daughter Who Quilts

Thanks for stopping. Hope you enjoyed your look around : )

BIG Finish of 2013: Marmalade "Summer in the Park"

Started with this lovely Marmalade jelly roll and some white yardage cut into 2.5" strips, followed Missouri Star Quilt Company's tutorial for Summer in the Park, and ended up with one of my favorite quilts.

A few new things were tried with this quilt - tube piecing and board basting to name a couple. At first I was excited about basting this way (in brief the top and backing are each rolled onto their own board and then unrolled in sections as you baste with batting layered between). This definitely beats basting on the floor, but I have since tried another method that I think I prefer more; will post about that in the future.

Sorry, no pics of my tube sets. Tube piecing went well; I spent more time laying out my sets than I did sewing them.  (Most time-consuming parts of quilting for me - settling on a pattern and laying blocks out.) I do think I need to be more careful when cutting and take time to check blocks to make sure they don't need squaring up. During the basting process there was a lot of "poof" in the middle of the quilt. Problem was solved with a lot of ironing and steaming, but I definitely need to work on squarer piecing.

Another new attempt with this quilt was with the quilting.  I am so glad that I went with a gutsy decision (on my part) to try something different in the borders. The curves really soften up all the straight lines of this quilt.

At first I wasn't too happy with how inconsistent my walking-foot curves were turning out and how some spots aren't even really curves but more like little "angles," but when I look at it overall I'm thrilled with how the borders turned out. Inspiration for border quilting came from here. Am looking forward to trying a few other new things with the walking foot.

Overall I'm very pleased with how this quilt turned out. Love the colors. Love the borders. Glade I took all that time with color placement.

It's our summer quilt to be used (and it has been used : ) especially for "Book Club" out under the shade tree on warm summer days - our summer in the park : )

Quilt stats:

Started: July 2013

Finished: September 2013 (when I should have been paying more attention to packing for a move but was determined this quilt was not getting moved unfinished : )

Fabric:  Marmalade by Bonnie and Camille for Moda

             Moda Bella solids: White and Aqua
Size:            (to be updated)