This post is part of the River Pond Quilt Along. You can find more info and the schedule HERE. You can purchase the River Pond pattern HERE. Saying Hello to the Goodbye I have so many emotions as I begin this post. Life is no where near where I thought it would be when the River Pond QAL started. I think it’s safe to say that NOBODY saw this coming. Even with the interruptions and unexpected twists, the last 4+ months have been so much fun working on this pattern with all of you. Thank you for joining me! As we come to the end, I know that not all of us have been able to finish our quilts to the end (waiting until we can go to the store for backing fabric, or to be able to send them to our local quilter, trying to find time to quilt them ourselves, or whatever the reason), the quilt tops are beautiful! I hope that we can each continue to work on them and find joy in the process. As well as love the finished results for many years to come. Our quilts will be a reminder and a keepsake of the strange times we are living in. I find myself mourning the end of this event, as it means closure to the connection we’ve shared. Having a common purpose and goal as we each worked through the quilting process sharing our progress with each other. But I am also a

This post is part of the River Pond Quilt Along. You can find more info and the schedule HERE. You can purchase the River Pond pattern HERE. As we close up this quilt along, I am SO thrilled to spotlight the amazing quilts that everyone made! Everyone did a beautiful job, and it was so fun to go through each of the steps together, from picking colors and fabrics, making the blocks, and completing the quilts. I loved watching the different ideas come together and the variety of quilts that emerged from this single pattern. While there was a bit of a bump in the schedule due to COVID-19 (I learned that it’s a LOT harder to get my blogging in with 6 busy kiddos running around.) I am so proud of everyone’s progress and creativity! Thank you everyone who quilted along with me! I hope you had as much fun as I did! Spotlight Your Makes Now for the BEST part of the QAL! Sharing what everyone made! Here’s a lot of the quilts shared in the From Blank Pages Community group on Facebook. (In no particular order.) River Pond by CJ Jolly River Pond by Rose Jarmey River Pond by Rhonda Williams River Pond by Alex Gau River Pond by Tracy Marshall River Pond by Jan S Kaye River Pond by Madalyn Ferrer-Lind River Pond by Laura Anne Suckow Stuff River Pond by Jan Ryan Ziagos Aren’t these all so gorgeous?!! I am so thrilled with everyone’s progress!

This post is part of the River Pond Quilt Along. You can find more info and the schedule HERE. While this content is directed toward the River Pond QAL, the same concepts can be applied to any quilt that you are making.You can purchase the River Pond pattern HERE. The Finishing Touch Making a quilt can be quite the process. And if you’re anything like me, once I stitch those last few stitches of the binding on, I’m ready to throw it in the wash and call it done! But there’s that one last step that is oh so important but so easily overlooked. The LABEL!! What’s in a Label?? “Are labels really that important?” “I don’t need a label. I’ll remember that I made this, and so will my kids.” “No one is going to care who made this quilt in 50 years.” “I’ll put a label on later…” So many reasons we don’t label our quilts. And yet, they are what turns a quilt into a story. What ties it to a person, a place, and gives a quilt it’s meaning. so… don’t forget to label your quilt!! Label Options So where do we begin?? There are SO many ways you can label your quilt. I’ll share with you some different ideas, and then show you how I do it. 🙂 One idea is to buy quilt labels that you can sew onto your quilt backs. You can have some custom made with all of your details already

This post is part of the River Pond Quilt Along. You can find more info and the schedule HERE. While this content is directed toward the River Pond QAL, the same concepts can be applied to any quilt that you are making. You can purchase the River Pond pattern HERE. Let’s Talk Binding I’m going to get right to the point and let you know that this is hands down my favorite way to bind a quilt! Am I allowed to add someone else’s video on my blog?! I don’t know. But I’m a huge advocate for glue basting and this video changed my quilting. This video is by Sharon Schamber – Perfect Straight Binding. I LOVE glue basting, and even glue baste in my paper piecing – you can find my tutorials HERE on my blog and on YouTube. You can also check out Cristy Fincher (Sharon’s daughter) and learn all the tricks of glue basting. She is a quilting genius and I love her! I will say that I have never starched my fabric, so I don’t do everything in the video, but the glue basting is the absolute best!! If this isn’t you’re thing, then I there are a lot of other tutorials out there too, and especially with quilting, a lot of the process is finding what techniques work best for you! And that’s totally ok! So if you don’t like glue basting, that’s cool! (but you should at least give it a try. heehee.) Adding