I did it! Goal achieved! Huge thanks to Lisa and Diane for keeping me motivated to finish my Greenhouse quilt and any other phantom quilt alongers out there.
Greenhouse Quilt designed by Elizabeth Hartman. Pieced and quilted by Anita LaHay of Daydreams of Quilts.
I finished my quilt on Saturday and when we took it out for photos after supper it was very windy. There are actually five people behind the quilt holding it against the wind – my husband, son and three neighbourhood kids who were playing nearby.
Ombré 108″ Wideback on the back of the Greenhouse Quilt.
I loved the backing so much that I wrapped it around to the front for binding. As you can see I quilted circular flower heads and leaves on vertical lines on the quilt. The Ombré Spectrum wideback is available in our shop.
Plant themed free motion quilting on the Greenhouse Quilt. Quilted by Anita LaHay.
Prize Winner: The only other person, besides me, to post an assembled quilt top in the #greenhouseqal hashtag was Lisa Taylor so she wins $50 to spend in my shop by default. Congratulations Lisa!
I am thrilled to have my quilt finished and on my bed in time to enjoy for the remainder of the summer and beyond! Thanks for coming by to see my quilt today!
Welcome to week 10 of the Greenhouse Quilt Along! The last row of plants! Hooray!
It can be hard to be motivated to sew during the nice summer weather. In fact, instead of sewing my blocks I am writing this post to you while sitting outside on the deck. 🙂
Here is a bit of motivation for all of us though… look at Lisa’s gorgeous quilt!
Isn’t it fabulous? I can’t wait to have mine finished. My last two rows are cut out and I will be sewing them this week. I’m hoping to have it quilted by next Wednesday too! I have the perfect backing. (Things got a bit crazy busy here the last week of July but I will finish on time!)
Anita’s progress on rows 8 and 9. Pieces cut and labelled.
Post your finished quilt top in the hashtag #greenhouseqal on Instagram by next Wednesday, August 8, 2018 for a chance to win $50 to spend in my shop!
Welcome to week 9 of the Greenhouse Quilt Along! We are so close to being finished. Some of you already are finished!
I’m glad I took this slower route of one row a week because it’s allowed me to work on other projects at the same time. I thought about knocking out the last three rows all at once but that just seemed like work to me. Even though quilting is basically my self-created job now I still want to enjoy it.
These are my Row 7 Plants from last week in my absolute favourite colours! I am looking forward to cutting into the purples today.
Keep working on your rows because these quilts are going to look so fantastic in the end! Thank you for sewing along with me and keeping me on track. Just rows 8 and 9 to go!
Welcome to week 8 of the Greenhouse Quilt Along. I have caught up after I fell a week behind having sewn two rows this past week. My row 7 plants are all cut out with the cacti pieced.
My Row 7 Cacti block.
I made a small mistake when I cut the wrong bottom corner on the large cacti but I’m going to leave it. It’s not a big enough problem to rip the block apart to fix it. This is what comes of sewing in a heat wave. Ha!
This row is made of colours that I love so that makes it more fun for me cutting and piecing the fabrics.
I hope you are coming along with your own Greenhouse Quilt. I saw Diane’s post in the Daydreams of Quilts Facebook group that she is making progress on hers. She and I both seem to sew on the same day. We are getting close to the finish now.
Here we go for the start of week 7 in the Greenhouse Quilt Along!
At this point we are experts at sewing these plant blocks so that’s all good but we may be losing some of our motivation so I am here to cheer you on today! We are getting very close to the end! Keep going! You can do it! (I am also talking to myself here as I have lagged a bit.)
Isn’t this “Kona Acid Green” colour crazy? I kind of love it though! It’s great for plants!
If you need to check the schedule on the main Greenhouse Quilt Along Post click here.
Wow! Week six in the quilt along already! Thank you for quilting along with me and keeping me going on my rows!
A couple of my row four plants from last week. I love the Kona “Green Tea” colour on the bottom of the Prickly plant and those cacti look more prickly with that star print in them.
I finished all my row four plants in one day last Wednesday and then I got distracted with starting up sewing stock for my shop for Christmas. So I am starting off on row five today. I am enjoying posts from Lisa and Diane in the Instagram hashtag #greenhouseqal and a new participant, Sarah, just joined us and shared her fabrics and background cutting in the Daydreams of Quilts Facebook Group.
Keep going everyone! We’re more than halfway there and these quilts are going to be amazing.
The winner of the Kinder fat quarters from last week is Lisa who not only posted her rows but she almost has her quilt top together! Keep sharing for a chance to win a fat quarter bundle of Shweshwe fabrics from my shop.
This week we are sewing the Row 4 Plants. When this row is finished we will be halfway through the rows! Hooray!
I didn’t get a chance to sew ahead this week so this is actually the Jade Plant from Row 3.
I haven’t sewn ahead this week because I was taken out of the game by a virus my son brought home from school that actually had me bundled up on the couch one afternoon in a quilt with a fever and chills. I did get my five blocks for row 3 finished yesterday though.
I don’t actually know the name of the plant on the right above but it looked like the Jade plant block so I took a photo of them together. I think my Dad knows what it’s called since he gave it to me so I’ll have to ask him.
Halfway Giveaway!
Post your first four rows of plants in the Instagram hashtag #greenhouseqal for a chance to win four fat quarters from Heather Ross’ “Kinder” line!
Week 4 of the Greenhouse Quilt Along already! We’re into the Green row! Hooray! How are you doing with this quilt? I am feeling like mine is going well and am glad to have you quilting along with me.
I like that this row is green and looks like some of my house plants. I also enjoy the deer on some of the Terrarium fabrics. They remind me of my Grandad’s stunning garden. His garden backed onto a golf course with a chain link fence. Deer could sometimes be seen on the golf course and would sometimes hop over the fence to enjoy the garden that he created and that we all loved so much.
Here we go for week 3! This is getting a lot easier now. I think it will be smooth sailing from here on in. Each week we sew the same blocks just with different colours. I am sewing mine into their row as I go too so I can watch my quilt top grow (get it? plants… growing).
This week’s Greenhouse Quilt Along Plants. These are not colours I would normally choose but they are going to be an important part of the overall effect of the quilt.
I am enjoying watching my plant collection grow. I hope you are too! Keep sewing along and we’ll have our quilt tops done before we know it.
This week we are cutting our background fabric and making our plant pots. This way we will be all set to plant our plants in their pots as we quilt along over the next couple of months.
Week 1 Plant Pots and Background
Let’s talk about the background cutting first:
Looking at the cutting list can be quite overwhelming. Take it one step at a time and check off each cut on your list. Watching your check marks line up will help reduce the overwhelm. Splitting up the cutting will help too. I cut the left column of the cutting list one one day and the right column on the next day.
Labeling and organization will be critical here:
Often I skip labeling my fabric pieces but in this quilt I strongly recommend labeling each stack of cuts with the name given in the pattern. You can use Ziplock bags and write your labels on the bag if you want to. I am trying to cut down on how much plastic I am using so I am just keeping them laid out in baskets with sticky notes. (As long as none of my kids get to these all will fine.)
Background fabrics labelled for the Greenhouse Quilt.
Plant Pots:
I followed the instructions and created cutting guides with template plastic. If you don’t have template plastic you could print the two pages with the cutting guides on card stock (or photocopy onto card stock if you have the paper pattern) and cut them out. You will still want to use your acrylic cutting ruler because neither the template plastic nor the card stock will hold up the way an acrylic ruler will to repeated cuts. This is also safer for your fingers.
I am thankful that Elizabeth has allowed for trimming the plant pots to size so there is a little bit of wiggle room when piecing the background pieces to the sides of the pots.
I think it’s a good idea to get all the background cutting and plant pots finished first so we can be finished with that and can put our vertical rows (or columns) together as we go.
What’s coming up?
Next week is vertical row one!
If you get finished your plant pots and you want to work ahead you can get your plant fabrics cut and labelled for row one. If you haven’t already sorted your fabrics into groups according to Elizabeth’s fabric placement guide please go ahead and do that. Visit the main Greenhouse Quilt Along page for information on where to download the fabric placement guide.
Why are we sewing in order of vertical columns?
Originally I thought we would sew one type of plant each week but I felt it would be more difficult to keep the colours and fabrics organized for those of us creating the same colour spectrum as the original quilt. That is why I have decided to organize our quilt along into vertical rows. This way we have less plants to sew each week and a little more time to finish our quilt tops too.
Share your progress:
Are you sewing along? Leave a comment and let me know. Post your plant pots in the hashtag #greenhouseqal on Instagram and/or share your progress in the Daydreams of Quilts Facebook group.
