Monthly Archives: July 2021

A Little Finish

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This is a quilt top I made as I was working out the details of the Lightening pattern I did for Studio Stitch a while back.

This is only 36″ square, so it will be a quilt for Ronald McDonald House in Winston-Salem, where they use this size for incubator covers.

I quilted this on my domestic sewing machine (a Bernina 550). I did not use the BSR stitch regulator primarily because it is packed somewhere in a moving box, though honestly, I don’t feel the need for it. I quilted a meander because it is fast and easy.

My blogging friend Clair pointed out some time ago that gold thread goes with almost any quilt top, and I’ve found that to be true! This is my favorite gold thread because it does look really gold but it is NOT metallic. (Metallic thread can be a bear to quilt with.)

As always, I used Bottom Line in the bobbin. I love that thread! If you have it in black and white you can blend it with almost any backing, though I have bought a few other colors as well.

And FYI, nobody paid me to say all this, and I bought the thread with my own money, etc, etc.

In case you missed it, here’s the quilt for which this was a practice piece. Last I looked Studio Stitch still had the pattern available free with purchase and even had one bundle of fat quarters left of the fabric.

Thanks for reading, and have a good week!

 

Virtual Design Wall

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I’m making a queen sized quilt from my 100 Tula City Sampler blocks using this design. I made several layouts in EQ8, my design software, and chose this one.I love this layout, but it’s turning out to be a bear to piece!

BTW, I don’t recommend this design particularly. The sashing is waaay too fiddly.

Anyway, I have assembled the top in 4 quarter panels to improve the accuracy of my piecing. Now I’m ready to assemble the panels into a quilt top, but we are still in our rental house so I don’t have much of a design wall.

I thought I would wait until I have a big design wall in the new house, but then I had another thought. I took a picture of each of the quarters, edited them all with Photoshop, and custom printed them so each quarter is 7″ square. The pictures aren’t perfect, but I think they’ll work!

Now I can play with arranging the quarters in various ways. The printed colors aren’t great (I used regular printer paper) but this is going to be much easier than moving 4 big panels around on a big design wall. I may even use this technique again when I have a big design wall available.

I’ll let you know what happens.

Some Finishes

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The random number generator picked comment #3, by Mary Lindberg, as the winner of the book on quilt finishing. I have been unable to contact her. If you read this, Mary, please contact me by 6:00 this evening so I can send your book. If I don’t hear from Mary I’ll ask the random number generator to select someone else.

It seems like I’ve done a lot of quilt-making in 2021, but had little to show for it. Here, at last, are a couple of finishes. These are made using blocks from a batik swap with one of my groups, done during COVID time when we couldn’t get together.

This first one is lap size, made just for fun. It doesn’t have a home yet, but I’m sure it will find one.

Name: Batik Swap One

Size: 66″ x 54″

Blocks by: Jeri, Mary B, Rena, and me

Quilted by: Julia Madison

Here’s the second quilt from swap blocks. This one is twin size, intended for use on one of the bunk beds in the “brothers’ room” at our new house.

Name: Brothers’ Bunk Quilt

Size: Twin

Blocks by: Jeri, Mary B, Rena, and me

Quilted by: Julia Madison

And speaking of the quilter, look at these pretty sunflowers she did on one of the quilts:

Last but not least, here is the latest stack of quilts made by the same group. I’ve been slow to deliver them, but they finally went to Ronald McDonald house this past week.

 

The Rest of the Story

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True confession: The reason I made that shirt a couple of weeks ago was to work out the kinks in the pattern so I could make THIS shirt:

I found this fabric at Studio Stitch a couple of months ago and knew I just HAD to make a summer shirt from it! But of course I didn’t want to risk ruining it, so the first one was a practice piece made from inexpensive fabric. (A sewing teacher a number of years ago encouraged me to make my fitting “muslin” from fabric I could wear so the work wouldn’t be wasted.)

I love this fabric because it reminds me of Japanese summer yukata. I’m pretty sure the sharks are quirky American humor, though.

I wanted little red buttons in the shape of blood drops, but of course there were none to be found. Perhaps it’s just as well. The pin, a vintage James Avery sand dollar, surely is more socially appropriate 😀