Making the hearts

This morning I got 5 of the hearts done and glued to the quilt.  They will be machine appliqued.  The plastic template material is working out really good and gets quicker with each one I do.  That's a good thing since after the 25 large hearts there will be 28 smalls ones and 4 large ones for the corners.

When I did the first heart I decided on the placement and put a dot where the 4 lines meet the template.  To keep all the hearts even I draw diagonal lines on the space and line up the template with the dots/lines.

Outline the top and bottom of the heart template.

Put a line of Elmer's School Glue on the heart.

Place the heart in the outline and iron to set.

One row is ready to sew.

Still working on the Never Ending quilt

Just a little update on the latest quilt.  Still only 4 rows done but they're sewn together with sashing and I'm ready to sew the next 12 blocks together.  Only 12 more sets of HSTs to go!!

I got the 25 large hearts for the spaces between the blocks cut out tonight, all out of different fabrics.  I tried the template material and turned under the seam on one of the hearts.  It's not a totally simple thing to do but it worked pretty good.

Two rows are done!

Finally got the first 24 blocks done and then started on the sashing.  It's looking so pretty and it's coming together good.  I cut 10 more strips of ivory that I will need to complete the side sections on the next 24 blocks and the rest of the sashing, need to figure up how much more to cut off the bolt and get it washed.

The plastic template material has arrive but I haven't tried it yet.  Now that some of the blocks are sewn together I can make sure of the size I want to make the hearts.  I have a little niggling doubt about the hearts.  Is it too cutesy?  Maybe do a 4-petal flower shape instead that is like the four circular-looking corners in the space between the blocks.

Getting bored yet??

This quilt just goes on and on.  I haven't felt like working on it at all the last couple of weeks, just don't seem to make much progress even when I spend all day on it.  I have next week off work and I am going to try and get a majority of it done.  I sewed a few blocks together tonight, a total of 15 are done, which is about a 3rd of them.

I have been looking at pre-cut bias binding and wondering about using that for the border.  It's a little wider than I need but I guess I could cut the pieces to length (I figure on 33" for each loop) and then cut them in half the long way.  The problem is finding the binding in a color that will go with the other greens.  They're a yellowish green.

My cat, that follows me all over the house, went upstairs with me when I did the above photo, then watched me walk back downstairs.  I'm just waiting for the day when she jumps on me from there.

I just saw the judges comments

I didn't see that on the back of the tag on the quilt from the county fair that there were judges comments on it!  I was shaking out a quilt top, the note blew onto the floor, and I finally saw the back of it.  Boy, do I feel dumb for not even looking at it.

The comments were:
Colors, points, piecing - all lovely.
Quilting is awesome A+
Absolutely Beautiful.
Borders are beautiful!
Exquisite - nice use of print for framing.
Back is as beautiful as the front.
Lays nicely - tight binding - good job.

Wow, those are all nice comments.  Makes me happy that others like my work.

So, what quilt was I shaking out?  I'm getting my daughter's quilt ready to put onto the LA frame.  I washed and pieced the backing and when will I ever learn to NOT get a directional print for the backing!?!?  What a pain that is, first to line up the pattern when piecing it, then if I want to have the quilt going vertical instead of horizontal I have to put the seam on the backing going the same way.  I do want the quilt going vertically because I don't want to do some of the motifs sideways.

Speaking of washing the backing, I was concerned about washing this one.  It's bright red with bright white apples and I was afraid that the apples would turn pink.  I read about color catchers but never used them so I found some at the store and tried it.  Wow, it did a great job!  The only thing that turned pink was the two color catchers. 

IRR Round 4 is done

Finally finished!!  I like this one, but I guess I say that about all of them.  :-)

I really hope the owner likes it!

Two sides done today

It's 8:00 PM and I am DONE for the day.  I didn't get to anything other than the IRR quilt, so much for big plans.  There was a lot of adjustments to do on this round.  When I decided on doing the boxes I knew they had to be 7 1/2" square because that is how wide the row needs to be.  I figured that the quilt would be about 52" (center 24", first round 3", second round 5", third round 6" = 52") so I would do 8 blocks on each side (7" finished x 8 = 56) and that I could adjust it as needed by sewing the seam allowance a 1/4" larger when I needed to.  It wouldn't really be noticable that way.

Well, somehow I messed up when I made the blocks and they were 7" UNFINISHED size!  I had to add a half inch so along came the thin strip.  I actually think it looks better than it would have without it.  It puts a border around the previous row, gives it a definate end.

Another adjustment I had to do is that I had to add some strips onto the ends of the strips of sewn blocks because now the whole thing was larger than I had planned.  I discovered that the previous round was 7" instead of 6" finished size, plus my additional strip.

Anyway, after the sides were sewn on it seems to have settled the rest of it down.  It's not as flat as I would like it but I've done what I can to get it straight.  I like how the colors in the outer blocks tie in with the center.