Completed the quilt for my brother

I finished the tying early yesterday then spent most of the rest of the day machine sewing the binding on the front and hand sewing it on the back. It took me a week to do the tying though I didn't work on it two of those days because I ran out of perle cotton.

The backing is in one piece and the color is not quite that bright blue in person, it's a steel blue. I spoke to my brother today and he will be by some day this week.

Hands are the exit of spirit

When the spirit flows from the hands, it is called "labor." From nothing, the hands start to create wonderful works of art. The hands are the exit of the spirit. The movement of the hands embodies human longings and human beings are formed by the work of the hands. The hands create forms that never existed before, and this art of creation is uniquely human. That is, human hands carve an image of the individual out of vacant space. Humans recognize the level of their own spirit by looking at what they have created with their hands. That is, the hands enable the spirit to emerge as works of art, and it will reflect what is in your heart. As a result, what is in your heart shows in your work, and the hands will reflect what level you are, sometimes joyfully, sometimes sadly.

Modified Starred and Feathered

After making 8 of the 6" star blocks I am SOOOOOO done with little triangles already. I modified the next row of stars to be a little more simple, though it still has triangles.

I received the jelly roll of this fabric collection the other day for the log cabin blocks. I'll need to cut them in half to 1 1/4" strips. The log cabin blocks are only 6" so I'll use thin stips.

Pepper Metro Market

Monaluna for Robert Kaufman Fabrics has a collection called Pepper Metro Market that my eldest daughter really likes. She also liked a basket quilt she saw so, I've combined the two.

I don't know the size of the apple graphic on the black background it has but I hope it will fit an apple in each of the black sashing posts. The cherries and apples on white will be around the blocks.

I think I will call this one Baskets of Wishes. The borders around the baskets are in a pattern called Warm Wishes.

Design for Feathered Star

I got one of the feathered stars completed yesterday and it's pretty big, 27". It is quite a bit of work to do just one of them and I planned on four of them?!? I decided to use it as a center medallion instead and this is the design that came to me at work today. I call it Starred and Feathered.

One quilt ready for the frame

I got the borders sewn on last night on the quilt for my brother. It's a time consuming task but careful work now makes it worth it in the end. Isn't that the way in many things, like painting? They say it's all in the prep work.

There are many examples of wavy borders to be found on the net and it's most likely caused by sewing a border onto the edges just by matching the border length to the edge. That's almost guaranteed to make a border that isn't flat. Most instructions I see say to measure across the center of the quilt to get the length of the borders. I don't know about anyone else but when I'm working by myself it's awfully hard to measure across 5 or 6 feet and to make sure that my tape is exactly on one end while I read the measurement on the other end.

After squaring up one side of the border strip I pin it to the center of the quilt that I have carefully laid out, making sure it is square. Pin it to the quilt, matching the edges. Pinning straight down into the carpet helps to keep everything in place while you do the other side if you can.

Very carefully lay the border across the center of the quilt, not pulling or stretching, and gently smooth it. Pin the other side just back from the edge. Either slide a mat under the edge and rotary cut it using or mark the line square with a ruler and use scissors.

Unpin the border and use it to make another one the same length. I fold the border in half and pinch a small crease at the center mark. Do this on the quilt too. Match up the ends and the center and pin the border to the quilt. There will likely be a little fullness to ease in so don't panic if you find that the border is shorter that the quilt edge. Pin them even on the edges and the middle and ease the quilt edge to the same size as the border.

Do the same with the other two sides after sewing on one set of borders and ironing them well.

Feathered Stars

Working on the first of 4 stars for my daughter's quilt. I am so glad there are only 4 of them! These puppies are time intensive and I don't know if I could get one star done in a weekend even. I have all the pieces cut out for the 4 stars except for the feathers, there are 48 pairs per star.

Feathered Star Designs

I've been thinking more about the strips between the stars and having to piece them into 28" strips because the FQs are 22". I thought if I'm going to piece them, then try piecing them with the beige.

I'm about to cut out a few more pieces to do the first star. Heck of a lot of little pieces to do.

Quilt for my Daughter

I asked my daughter to take a look at Fat Quarter Shop and see what fabrics she likes. The Moda Twiggy collection is one she chose and I ordered the 34 FQ set.

I've been thinking about doing a Feathered Star so I designed how to use the 5 color ways. I will probably revize the strips between the stars. The FQs are 22" and the stars are over 27" so I would have to piece the strips. I'm looking at simple star blocks, maybe a two color one, that I can use all around the stars instead.

Log Cabin

This top is about done, just waiting on the border fabric in the dark blue. The fabric is Moda Portobello Market and I use two jelly rolls and 6 fat quarters of just the lights of the collection.

This is such a simple pattern but very effective in how many ways the blocks can be put together. One of my favorites.

Made a quilt with my granddaughter

I've been in Washington state for the last week and I brought with me some charm squares that my granddaughter got at a school fair and fat quarters that I got to go with it. We went to Walmart and got batting, a 130 thread count sheet for the backing, a rotary cutter, mat, and clear 24" ruler.

I was going to do a disappearing nine patch out of it but we just didn't have time. She did some of the sewing after I put a piece of blue painter's tape to mark a 1/4 inch sewing line. Oh... I bought a Brother sewing machine at Walmart too, and an iron!

We layed it out how she wanted it and got it sewed together yesterday evening. Today I did the stitching with the yarn and when she got home from school I showed her how to cut between the stitches and tie each one. I posted the pics on a quilter's message board that I belong to and she is so happy with all the comments from the wonderful ladies there. She wants to do another one!

Ordered a quilting frame

I ordered a quilting frame on Wednesday and I am so excited! It has already shipped and is scheduled for delivery on Friday. I've used a large oval hoop stand since I started quilting and with the new one I won't have to baste the layers together before quilting. I might not be hand quilting every one that I do but it will be great for tying too.

It cost $440 for the Grace FF Z44 Pro quilting frame, a King leader set, 4 side tension bungee clamps, and a daylight swing arm lamp that clamps to the frame. I did searches and comparing and that was a good price for all of them. I got it at Kathy Quilts on eBay. Shipping was only $35 for all of it. I saw other web sites where the shipping alone was $75.

The first quilt I will do on the frame is the one for my brother and I'm going to tie it. I'll have to make a run to JoAnn's on Saturday to get the backing material, batting, and some brown embroidery floss. I have several other tops that need to be done and maybe just to finally get them DONE, I will tie those too. I have one that is tied now but only one edge is bound and I may take it apart and re-do it on the frame. I don't like the yarn that I used on it, it is thin and hard, kind of like string, and I want to use cotton batting instead of the polyester it has now. The Blue Dahlia that I am working on will be hand quilted so if I ever want to enter it in a show it will be worth it.