This has been a great weekend! On Friday I finished the quilting on the Mabel quilt, trimmed it and sewed the binding on. In the evening, I completed the hand stitching of the binding. To celebrate, Don and I went to a local watering hole and had a fantastic dinner of Famous Wisconsin Fish Fry. I thought of taking a picture of my meal when it arrived, but had forgotten my phone and it looked too good to not just dig in! All of it was washed down with a glass of Farmer's Daughter, a lager-type beer brewed by the local Lucette Brewing Co. If you've never heard of the Famous Wisconsin Fish Fry, let me explain. If you're familiar with it, go pour yourself a glass of your favorite beverage and come back when I've finished my explanation, okay?
Here is Wisconsin, it's tradition for a restaurant to offer a Fish Fry on Friday nights--usually no other night of the week. I think it had to do with the Catholic heritage of the immigrants who settled here. In those days, Catholics were forbidden to eat meat on Friday so, fish became popular. A Fish Fry meal is typically breaded or baked cod or haddock with french fries or sometimes potato pancakes, and cole slaw. At the place we went, they added a small dish of baked beans as well. It's not the most exciting meal, but we Wisconsinites absolutely love it. Don and I decided to have dinner early (for us) and got to the restaurant around 5:30--the place was just about packed !
Anyway, all of that was a digression. The real news is I finished the Mabel quilt! And this morning I stitched on the label and took some pics for your viewing pleasure.
Here's the finished top draped over a couch. It finished up about 60" by 70."
I really like how the two blocks come together in this quilt, both in the block design as well as the 2 different quilting patterns. And I'm especially happy that all the marking lines came out perfectly. Whew!
This is the back. I used a batik fabric that reminded me of pine trees, and that's appropriate since the Tainter family made it's fortune in the logging and lumber industry in the late part of the 19th century.
Since I didn't have quite enough of the pine tree fabric, I added borders of pine cone fabric. This is the fabric I used as background for the colored blocks, but since it's cut into small pieces, you really can't see the pine cones on the front.
In this pic, you can see the cones a little better.
And here's one last look at the border. I'm so happy with all the colors in the border picking up the colors of the blocks. I may hold on to the quilt until guild meeting on March 5th so I can bring it out at show and tell. I think the theater can wait a few more days before I bring it to them.
I also finished the hand quilting on the little embroidered and quilted box I'm making. I'd like to make one for each of my girls but if I do, I'll not do the hand quilting. I'm not very good at it and I dislike how it looks on the inside of the box--which I'll not ever show to you! I think I have a stitch on my machine that mimics hand quilting and I'll try that on the next box. Anyway, here it is, before any of the marking lines are erased.
I have to trim it up to the proper measurements and stitch on the binding., which I can do in a minute or so and have the hand stitching ready for this evening.
In between these projects, I prepared the backing for another throw quilt that I want to have finished up in the next two weeks to take to our friends who helped Dan so much when he needed a place to stay near Madison. I've gone through all my photos and can't find on of the finished top, so tomorrow after I've pinned it up, I'll take one and share with you.
Today, I have to make a run to the grocery store and then I'm in the sewing room the rest of the day, working on Dan's quilt which I would also like to have finished in the next two weeks. Deadlines, ladies--it's what keeps me going and getting things done!
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