Saturday, January 26, 2013

The Good, the Bad, and the Pretty

What a day!! 

First, it's really cold here in PA right now.  We had about an inch of new snow last night, but the temps have been in the 0 to 15 range during the days and the nights have been colder, with wind chills down to 20 below.  I'm glad I am a quilter, and can grab an extra quilt to keep warm, but the extra weight makes getting out of bed in the morning a joke, especially after working on some big quilts this week, and my arms are feeling the workouts!  I'll get to those two quilts later. 

Let's start with the BAD!.  Hazel likes to play ball, and usually she's a great catcher.  Today?? She's off her game.  I tossed the ball from my bedroom (upstairs) and she tapped it with her head instead of catching it.  It bounced off the loft rail, and into the book/DVD shelf below.  It knocked down the shelf, broke a picture frame (glass broke) and about 30 movies flew all over.  She doesn't have thumbs, so guess who gets stuck cleaning??  In the meantime, her ball is buried under the DVDs, so she digs until she finds it.  Bigger mess! 

Bad #2.  She starts barking.  She's looking out the front window, so I go to see what's out there.  Yippee!! It's the FedEx guy!  I won a beautiful collection of fabric, so hopefully this is it!  In her excitement, though, she backed into the table next to the couch, and knocked everything off of it, including my phone, camera, and glass of water.  Water landed on the books underneath, on the phone and camera, and on the couch and the quilt on the couch.  Uggh.  Another mess I have to clean.  I think she decided to take a nap for a while.  Maybe she got up on the wrong side of the dog bed?? 

 
The GOOD! Yes, it was the fabric.  It's from Benartex's blog, sewinlovewithfabric.blogspot.com.  It came in the sleigh shaped basket!  I was so happy to see that.  I was hoping, but they said "collection", so I wasn't sure if the basket was included.  And guess what?  It's 32 Fat Quarters!  This is worth over $80!!  Look at this pretty assortment!  Greens, deep reds, golds and creams, with a Christmas theme.  I need to find a great pattern to show off these beauties for a Christmas Quilt for me! 
 
And the PRETTY! 
I'm so excited that I finished the Quilt In A Day's Block Party quilt top for January, Zig A Zag.  This is made with a Viola strip pack from Island Batiks, and some cream strips from Meringue by Timeless Treasures.  I wanted the design to show the zigs, so chose to use creams to help separate them.  I will be quilting this soon.  I love the border fabric, and think it came out so pretty! 
 

Here's a close-up.

 
And two big finishes! 
First, my Double Irish Chain in Timeless Treasures Tonga Batiks for my son.  It's 98 X 118, a huge queen size.  It took over 14 yards of fabric just for the top, and 3 1/2 yards of 110" wide backing fabric, plus a 120 by 120" batting.  It's quite a supstantial weight, too.  I used 6 bobbins in the border quilting alone, and finished up 2 spools of Aurifil in the process.  The pattern is from Quilt In A Day.   I used a stencil in the larger blocks, and just did straight stitching in the blue "chain" sections.  The lighter blue border has a FMQ design, and the dark blue borders have a modified feather.  the Seminole pieced (cream) section on the border has curves in the squares, and a simple meander in the 9 patch corner blocks.  I wish I had a long arm for working on ones like this.  I would have done more quilting.   
 
 
 
This last one I just added the binding to finish it, and sewed on the label.  The blocks were made by many, and the quilt was assembled by Sally, and quilted by Kim.  I'll give more details on this whole project in another post, hopefully soon! 
 
 

 
 
I think it's time to rest.  I washed the quilt that Hazel spilled the water on, and the couch is dry.  Time for a movie, I think, since I rearranged the shelves, lol. 
 
 
 
 


Monday, January 21, 2013

Auction for Operation Homefront

Now's your chance to bid on some great prizes!  Go check them out, and bid.  It's a great way to get some great stuff and help a great cause.  Just don't bid against me! lol



http://www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com/2013/01/quilters-auction-fundraiser-for.html

Friday, January 18, 2013

Mitering a border??

Hi. 

I am working on this Tossed 9 Patch, using Eleanor Burn's Perenials fabric.  I bought the stripe to match the prints in the charm packs, and thought I had enough for a mitered border, one that would make the stripes line up around the quilt, like a frame. 

But I miscalculated.  I wanted to make the borders as wide as possible to use the most of the fabric, and to make the quilt as large as possible.  I'm aiming for twin size.  But I didn't add enough to make the corners come to a point.  You need quite a few extra inches to compensate for 11" borders! 

Notes!  I don't have any more of the stripe wide enough to just piece.  Even the left overs on the sides won't add in enough, should I choose to piece it.  There are also no more charm squares left, although I could purchase one more pack, but we didn't think that would help, since I need what ever pieced block to measure 11 by 16 or so.   I didn't really want to spend more money on this, either. 

Here are some pictures.  I'm about 8" short on each corner, on the top and bottom pieces.  I need the border fabric to spread out, to make it fit.  The only solution I came up with is to put a strippy block that measures 11 1/2 (border width) by 16-17" using the remaining pieces of the border (which are very long, about 2 1/2 yards, since the stripe was along the length) and some of the coordinating 1st border.  What do you think?  Does this look okay?  Any suggestions for different ways to make the border longer? 

 
 
View from the side to the top.
 
 
This was one suggestion, just alternating the pink/stripe fabric.
 
 
Another suggestion was alternating the pink/strip fabric, putting a green stripe in the middle, and doing the others out again.  It does need to be wider than this is showing, and I do want to keep the pink fabrics on the outside, so the stripes are not competing with the border.  The green is just a test strip.  I have to check my stash for other possible greens that would match the charm squares in the quilt a little better. 
 
Please let me know your opinion.  Thanks!