Towards the end of yesterday while I was feeling better I managed to finished binding my “Spools and Dreams” mini quilt.
It looks a little off kilter because of the positioning when I took the picture, but it turned out real nice. All of the edges are straight and that can’t be said for some of the spools in the quilt! I also finished my new Sage Garden quilt and it goes off to the Long Arm today.
Have you ever started and stopped so often on a project that you felt like for every step forward, you took two steps back? That is how my weekend felt while trying to get some of my work finished. It didn’t help that I was also doing some IT work from home as well this weekend.
I did accomplish a lot of what I set out to do, but as I was struggling to finish everything on my unfinished list, I lost my way (became disinterested) in them. This isn’t because they weren’t interesting projects, they just went wrong and at the time I didn’t have the energy to correct them.
Last night I started again with a full head of steam on some fabric that I wanted to do something special with. Wouldn’t you know it, I (once again!!) failed to set the stitch to ¼” and the square came out all wonky. I LOVED the look that I will get once I get it worked out, but fell into a funk and had to put everything away for the night.
The highlight of the weekend though was that I’ve finished the Amish mini quilt, the spool of dreams is quilted and just needs the binding now, and the nursery quilt is ready for the long arm. Hopefully this week will be better for getting things done right the first time and keeping up with my writing. Happy Quilting everyone!!
Work has been very tough on my schedule lately, but I’m back to writing again and have accomplished a lot in the last few days. I’ve wanted to start… okay, I’ve been dying to start a couple of new queen size quilts that I’ve already bought the fabric for. After telling Kay about this, she not so politely said that I really needed to finish my other projects before starting on new ones.
Let’s take stock… I finished my Arbor Lane quilt and even washed it! I needed to deconstruct my “Spools and Dreams” mini and then sew it all back together. I needed to start and finish the hand quilting on the Amish mini quilt and then bind it. I have another Sage Garden quilt that needs to go out to the long arm quilter after I sew the sashing on it and get the backing sewn together. But what I really wanted to do was to start the two new quilts that I had in mind.
My wife’s response was a little like “Eat your vegetables and then you can have desert”. Well, as much as I hated to admit it, she is right. With all of those unfinished projects hanging over my head, I really needed to finish them before I started my new projects. I’m eating my veggies now in anticipation of desert.
Here’s the “Spools and Dreams” mini with the backing fabric I chose…
Okay, so I took the night off… sort of. I have a couple unfinished projects, or more correctly projects that were started and went horribly wrong so I stopped where I was at. I had finished the nursery blanket but havent cut the batting for it yet. I cut out all the white squares for a beautiful blue and white quilt and they are languishing in the closet right now while we talked about our next weekender quilt.
So last night I watched television while doing nothing. I actually felt a little out-of-place and guilty knowing I could have been hand quilting my Amish mini. Have you ever felt guilty for taking a break? I must admit my mind has been on work a lot lately with quite a few projects on my plate. We also have the 4th of July holiday coming up which I have off and my wife is working.
Send me your encouragement and let me know which project I should finish first:
Re-sew the messed up mini, hand quilt the Amish mini, piece the blue quilt, or start a new “quick quilt”. I’d be really interested to have your opinions.
Have you ever wanted to know which product to use only to go through the process of searching and only have a headache and more confusion for your trouble?? When I first started quilting and figured out how to piece my quilt together through trial and error I was finally ready to put the sandwich together. Which batting to use? I went down to the store to find myself inundated with cotton, polyester, cotton/poly, and wool. Which would be best? I couldn’t find an answer, not even after I searched extensively online. No one just came out and said, “this is my favorite!”. So for anyone searching out there, here’s my opinion for what it’s worth…
Warm and Natural 100% cotton batting is the ONLY batting I have used on any of my quilts. Another look into what constitutes GOOD batting makes my head spin. Bearding, loft, composition, and drape… for me it couldn’t be more confusing. When I start to search this topic through numerous hops on the web, after 2 – 3 pages of information the final answer I read about is they don’t have a straight answer. Well, polyester is used for some wall-hangings, but is harder with a higher loft to quilt… blah, blah, blah…
Warm and Natural 100% Cotton
Usually if someone has asked a question or does a web search, they have a specific need in mind. The bulk of what I make are quilts ranging in size from 12” x 12” up to a King size of 100” x 120”. When I ask what batting should I use I not looking for a discourse in batting or a run-thru on the thermal-dynamics of polyester vs. cotton vs. cotton/poly blend. I’m asking about a personal preference, what would you use if this was a quilt you were making for a family member and why would you select that particular batting.
Microsafe Traditional Loft Polyester
I have noticed that there is far fluffier (read “more loft”) batting out there, but MY personal preference is warm and natural 100% cotton because of the weight and feel of it and it may be kind of goofy, but it says natural (no dyes). I’ve made enough quilts now that I am relatively sure it will survive my grandchildren tussling and still keep them warm and that’s good enough for me.
Mountain Mist Traditional Loft Polyester
Now on to thimbles…
I have to qualify my remarks first. I’m a guy and my hands are on the large size, so when picking out a thimble I’m only trying out large ones. So far I’ve tried out thimbles from Dritz, Clover, and Pons & Foster. I’ll give you my impression of each one.
I started out using Fons & Porter brass thimble for my hand quilting and after a while was very pleased with the result. The third day of use however, left me with a green thumb… which is great for gardening, but not so nice when dealing with fabric.
I looked around for an equivalent thimble that kept my finger its natural color and came across the Dritz thimble. This thimble was fantastic and I did a lot of work with it on my Amish swap quilt. Alas… after so much use it was cutting into my cuticle on the back side. I’m not sure if this was due to bad technique, sizing of the thimble, or combination of both. There was enough pain though to prompt my searching for another.
Enter the Clover thimble, soft supple leather and a steel coin to protect the finger. This is the MOST comfortable thimble that I’ve used and still use when I want to give my finger a break from the Drizt, but it had a couple of disadvantages for me. The coin is located on the front of the finger and when I’m using the rocking motion for quilting, I can get more stitches per inch if it’s on the top of my finger. The other issue is that at times the needle head will get wedged between the leather and the coin. That can be real annoying when you are on a roll.
The last thimble I’ve purchased seamed like a good idea, it just didn’t work for me though. The top is solid and the body is elastic. It stays glued to my finger without any issue and protect it as well… but without the stiffness of the solid thimble I, once again, had trouble with not enough stitches at a time.
So for now i use a combination of the two thimbles, the dritz with its solid performance until my finger hurts, then the soft leather clover to ease the pain.
That is all I have to say on the subjects of batting and thimbles. I would LOVE to hear everybody’s preferences and opinions.
I originally got this link from http://lazygalquilting.blogspot.com/ and it’s about a book that she suggested and I did end up ordering. If you’re interested in Amish quilts and the history behind them then this book is fantastic.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/B0058M82KA/ref=dp_image_z_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books
I spent most of the weekend working on the Schoolhouse quilt and getting it almost finished, but Sunday I turned my attention back to the Sampler Quilt my wife and I are working on together. I finished the last two blocks and then sewed the panels together. Even though I did a lot of work, I kind of felt out of sorts Sunday and here it is Monday and I’m definitely feeling under the weather.
Today will be spent relaxing and taking it easy, though I might try to finish the binding on the Christmas quilt that I spent so much time hand quilting. That project took so long and it is time to have that completed. When you feel under the weather, do you continue to do projects or just try and relax?
On another note, my daughter finished sewing her blocks together and will finish sewing the panels together this morning. Let her know what you think… This is going to be her very first quilt, she chose the pattern, fabrics, and colors all by herself.
I’ve said before that I work in IT (Information Technology), what that basically means is I sit at a desk and am on the computer a LOT… So yesterday, I was thinking about getting home from work and being able to do more work on the Schoolhouse quilt. One of my commitments however, is to get to the gym at least 3 times a week because, let’s be honest… I am NOT getting enough exercise at work! Some weeks I make it to the gym three times and sometimes just once.
Even though I’m practically desperate to finish those Schoolhouse blocks, I knew it was time for me to get myself to the gym. When I arrived home from work, I had about 30 minutes until my wife would get home as well and change into my workout outfit so we could go to the gym. I quickly changed and then started sewing!! I imagine it was a funny sight when my wife saw her husband in shorts and running shoes on my Viking Sapphire furiously trying to get a little bit more sewing completed before we left. She did laugh by the way.
By the time we arrived back at the house, it was 7:30pm and we had a very nice dinner that we brought home. After dinner I proceeded to spend the next 2 ½ hours getting my blocks put together, ironed, and trimmed. I’m very happy with how they turned out and when I looked at the clock and saw that it was past 10pm I knew that I’d accomplished everything I had wanted. I know the blocks are not perfect, I haven’t quite got the ¼” seam down as much as I’d like to think, but I’m proud nonetheless at how well this quilt is coming together. I still have to sew the sashing on to bring the blocks together and then put on the border. What color should I use for the backing??? I still haven’t decided and would really like some input.
Tonight and tomorrow, I’ll be working on the sampler quilt with my wife to finish the last two blocks and start sewing that quilt top together. I’ll post photos of that tomorrow. I will finish the Schoolhouse quilt top this weekend and hopefully come up with an idea of what to do to the backing by then as well.
Too many projects and not enough time…
How many of us know and have said this exact line?
I have so many open projects right now that I find myself jumping from one to another… currently I have 5 projects and a redesign that I’m having fun with. I am definitely not saying I’m overwhelmed, or maybe I am, but just… happily overwhelmed.
My Christmas quilt that was hand-quilted needs it’s binding finished, I sewed the binding on one side, started hand stitching it down and then moved onto another project.
I made a beautiful Amish mini quilt for a swap group. In the early stages of making the mini, I knew right away I was in love with it. I had misgivings about swapping it, but rather than keeping it for myself and making something else for the swap, I realized that by not sharing what I considered a worthy piece of art, people out in the world would never truly know my efforts, my creative talents or skill level. In the end, I submitted my mini for voting and sent it off to the lucky recipient in Germany. To combat my separation anxiety (Has anyone else felt this way about giving up something they’ve made?) I proceeded to make another immediately. Thus, project number two is sitting in its hoop, mocking me from the end of the couch.
I had cut out all of the pieces for my Amish schoolhouse quilt, then decided I liked another pattern better and am in the process of cutting that down to piece together.
I FINALLY started the center block for my Block of the Month quilt from Joann Fabric called “Arbor Lane” and have to finish that up. All the blocks will be done at that point, but I’ll need to piece it all together… I can hardly wait until this one comes back from the quilters!
I’m helping my daughter piece her very first quilt together and am very excited to see how it turns out. I’ll post one of the squares here so you can see where’s it’s going.
While all of this is going on, my wife was looking through Elm Creek Quilts and came across a really nice looking pattern called a Sampler. We both looked at each other and said… “We could do this!!” It has 12 blocks and she and I have completed 8 of the 12 as of today. This will be the third quilt that we’ve made together.
All in all, I’m very happy with the various projects we have in the works and can’t wait to share them with you. How many are you currently working on?
So after thinking about it for a while I wanted to show the back to show off some of the stitching
Books quilts and sewing 