Monday, March 14, 2016

I'm truly a modern quilter!

Yesterday was a totally insane day. Well no it wasn't - it was normal!

I managed to get a quilt top done that needs a bit of work before it's complete and it is all hand stuff so I can take it with me on the road.   Phew!  Don't worry - I'm posting it on QUILTSocial next week so you'll get to see it.

Never ceases to amaze me how funny little things pop up.  Wait until you see the pictures of that quilt!  I had a good chuckle when I noticed what I had done! As first,  I thought I was losing my mind but the mystery was resolved yesterday.

Then it was on to the next quilt top because it had to be quilted and it had to be done by last night.

So somewhere along the line of becoming a modern quilter, I have this thing in my head that all backgrounds need to be white!  I know that isn't the case, but this is my second quilt with a white background!  At least, this one was a white print, not a white solid and that helped!

Sewing the last seam!
And in case you are wondering why there are pins in there after I keep telling people that I don't pin!  Well, I do pin borders and this was a long long strip with nothing to match up so I had to pin it to keep things straight.

The top was done shortly after lunch. AH!  A bit of breathing room.  Then off to the dog park with the girls. They love the dog park and Little Sammy is getting a bit more adventuresome every time we go there.   However they NEVER play together at the dog park and yet - they love to play together.


Here is a picture of them in the backyard yesterday afternoon. Look at that Lexi go!

Hard at play!
I have to laugh because Lexi will run like a maniac and Little Sammy moves as little as possible.  She's no dummy!!   Anyway - it's fun to watch them.


Time to get back to that quilt.  Found a huge hunk of white batting - I was a bit worried in the morning as I thought maybe I didn't have any. It was bad enough that I had to buy the backing when I could have gotten it from work!   This quilt will become part of my Northcott trunk show.

Loaded the backing, then the top and lastly inserted the batting.  Now I'm ready to go.    Here's another reason to design your quilts in EQ7.  I had a diagram of the quilt which is 60 by 72 and so while having lunch, I doodled my quilting design on the diagram.  Oh wait - I wasn't sure how I was going to quilt it, so while having lunch, I perused several magazines. Found something I liked and then doodled on the diagram.  Downstairs and I was off to the races.

I've never quilted a large quilt with a very dense design, but this was going to be dense as there was a lot of background space to fill.   The more I quilted it, the more I loved it. I was actually very excited to get it off the long arm which doesn't usually happen.  I mean, I'm glad to finish a quilt, but I was truly excited to see this one.

Very dense quilting

Let's just say that when I pulled it off the machine and looked at it, I was STUNNED.   There is a pattern that inadvertently got created and it's amazing.   I'm thrilled to death with the results.  Happy happy happy!!!!!!


Now it does have to be in Colorado by Friday - yes this week.   I waffled on the binding.  What color? and do I apply it by hand or by machine.  I hate the machine sewn bindings!   However this is a wall hanging and I've been known to fuse the binding down.  I wanted this one to be at least a step above that fused binding!   So the sewing machine binding dictated the color of the binding and it is going to be WHITE!!!!   I know - a totally impractical quilt when you have a black dog!

Trust me, as I quilted that quilt yesterday, I had to keep lint rolling the underside of the top.   Only to find a small grease stain on the front - they will just have to photoshop that one out. I don't dare try to spot clean it, although I tried to bleach it and that did reduce the color a bit.

You will see bits and pieces of this quilt - the binding at least next week. But you will have to wait to see the quilt in the magazine.

Loads to get finished today before I leave tomorrow so I better hop to it!!!!

Have a great day despite the rain!

Ciao!!!!

1 comment:

  1. I've never heard of quiltsocial before, but I'm looking forward to seeing your quilt there!
    That quilting pattern is absolutely wonderful!! I bet the full reveal will be amazing. White quilts do tend to show any grease or dirt you might pick up. Do you know where the grease came from? Is it from your machine? Such a bummer!!

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