guess which one is unintended. Yikes! I'll have to see that I can somewhat limit that trend to the current damage. I was so afraid that the blanket would slim down during progress that I apparently was a bit too zealous at the edges.
Only roughly three and a half months past its deadline, Paula's Princess II Bed quilt is finished. I used IKEA toddler bed linen and a fleece baby blanket for this project.
I threw my back out trying to load laundry into the washer and got to spend the majority of Saturday cuddled up with a hot water bottle while finishing this project.
It feels good to move on to the next one.
Lessons learned:
1.) Piping is not so difficult to make.
2.) Ironing is a good thing.
More impressions on Flickr.
Wow, this is the quickest quilting project so far: I started on September 2 and spent roughly four nights per week working on this. It was quite the hit with the recipient's family.
Hannah was christened this weekend and I am hoping that this quilt will accompany her throughout her life.
Fabric: Moda, Quilt Pink range plus Makower Pink Spray for the backing and vichy checks for the border.
Filled with Freudenberg 100% cotton wadding
Again, Mrs MonkeySuit gave me an idea. She posted a fairly simple quilt, a variation of Crazy Mom Quilts' Quilt in a Day. And I will pick it up while also putting my failed attempts at Repetition to good use.
Yay!
With the binding attached, using a zig zag stitch and a relatively unconventional approach of ironing and pinning down, then zipping around the binding by machine, adding a nice zig-zaggy embellishment, I move on to the last and least favourite job: cleaning up all the loose threads.
Half an evening to go! Delivery scheduled for tomorrow.
There it now sits awaiting the finishing of its binding. We shall see how well that works. It will involve a LOT of pinning, that's for sure.
Two evenings till deadline!
I finished quilting in the ditch and am quite happy with the simplistic results. Considering that not all corners lined up perfectly, the quilting is still relatively even.
I basted the quilt and to my dismay noticed that I have mismeasured the wadding, drat! Now I need to work around this tonight - not that I really have the time for that ... it'll teach me, I hope.
Also, this is my first attempt at quilting in the ditch while using my walking foot. I have noticed that quilting yarn does not appear to be a good choice for this exercise and will switch to regular yarn after I've quilted around all the blocks.
Counting down: 3,5 evenings till delivery!
I've stopped fretting, decided on binding and backing, purchased wadding and am now stalling ... today I'm hoping to get started with attaching the binding to the front and then sandwiching the whole lot in order to bast and get ready for quilting
As mentioned, I started working on a baby quilt with no particular deadline. This is an incredibly stupid idea given that another project needs to be finished by next Thursday night.
I *plan* on making table mats and coasters for the Christmas Season this year - operative work being *plan*.
Also, today my grandfather would have turned 105 today.
Somehow Tiffany is under the impression that I'd make a good quilting instructor and she wants to make a frog quilt. I had seen cute blocks but neglected to save them to "Favourites", sigh:
http://www.paperpanache.com/guests/amobirdfrog.htm
http://www.quiltdesignnw.com/ForKids.htm - scrool further down.
But none of these are the one I saw. Does anybody else have a good link for frog blocks, please?
This time around, I have been relatively good about measuring and cutting and ironing!
Once I assembled each block, I ironed it and pressed the seams this way and that. Then the dreaded lay-outing began again and I noticed that my earlier plan of lighter blocks in the middle column didn't work too well.
But with the help of my "design wall" - two insulating boards taped together and mounted on an easel - I finally arrived at a solid lay-out. It only took me eight attempts ...
The two middle rows have already been sewn together, leaving me to increasingly fret about the border fabric and design.
You will notice that the photos of the lay-outs are not so great in terms of quality. In this case, it actually helped see which blocks are more contrasting than others or lighter or darker. Then again, I want to arrive at a point where I take reasonably good shots of my progress. Not using my phone camera might help with that ;-)
I watched Lipstick Jungle last night and did some sewing. Now I need to re-juggle the lay-out.
Not all seams line up perfectly which I blame on the absence of a non-dull rotary cutter blade a while back. But that way you can tell it's a one-of-a-kind home-made quilt - nothing like some good explaining-away ;-)
many US quilters machine piece and consider paper-piecing complete lunacy! It took me two evenings to assemble all my strips and squares to blocks of 4 strips and one square.
Tonight the fun begins when I have to cut them to size for further assembly. Last time, that didn't go so well.
Next on my mind is the quilting, I think I will just quilt in the ditch and be done with it. Also, binding and wadding are issues. I need to check whether I have enough wadding left for the job and it the fabric I planned on using for the binding will actually match. The backing will probably be some of the large-polka-dot fabric I purchased a while ago.
I'm quite happily crocheting along, usually when my mind is too numb to care about much else than this and a glass of chilled Riesling. I'm making good progress and am pondering a border fabric. This swirly paisley of sorts was picked up on a whim at one of the Traverse City stores recommended by my lovely readers. I'm just not entirely sure whether it matches the pinks stripes ... a good excuse to get some more fabric.
I have been asked about the projected size of this piece and my best answer is: I'll stop when I run out of yarn. I never sat down to calculate width and length and will just have to go with the flow.
I'm plowing ahead full steam these days with projects in all stages:
We did a day trip to Charlevoix, MI, and I stumbled across what is now my favourite quilt shop:
Hearts to Holly
107 Mason St.
Charlevoix, MI 49720
Phone: 231-547-2729
It is a quilter's paradise with a wide selection of fabrics and super-friendly staff. It took a lot of restraint on my part to not just buy up the whole place. Instead I got my first ever jelly roll. And lots of ideas in my head.
