...and more about the weekend

I couldn't get blogger to take all the pictures I wanted to include in the last post, so I'm continuing here.....

While I was straightening up so my son could actually get to the frame that needs fixing, I discovered a box that a friend had brought me full of......you got it......scrap fabric. Actually, there is even yardage. The bad news is that it is not quilting cotton but drapery and light upholstery type fabrics. Some is awful, some are in little squares, but some is quite pretty. I discovered some lengths of chintz- I have been looking for some chintz at super cheap prices to make leaders for the quilt frame. Yesterday, after discovering this box, I made two sizes of leaders for smaller and lap size quilts, and there is a piece that will make leaders for the full size of the frame, too. Can you see me doing a happy dance??

Some of the pieces in the box were samples about 8 inches square. Some were polished cotton pieces about 11 x 14 with coordinating pieces about 5x14, cut into placemat shapes. These are mostly cutesy bear prints. Anyone have any ideas of what I can do with this non-quilt fabric?

I'm loving these weekends

I just had the third good sewing weekend in a row! Yippee! While I didn't get as much machine time as I might have, things were good in other respects. I've had trouble with my quilting frame getting out of square and vibrating too much. DS#1 came over to take measurements, we bought some lumber and he began working on a solution to my frame problems.

I finished another quilt (was a flimsy) that I was just going to hang in the sewing room for fun - it could be the Stash quilters banner, so many cartoon depictions of hiding and storing stash. I discovered that it is just the right size to use as a shawl and ward off the drafts during this colder time of the year. After Judy L's reminders of the blog ring focus, I must tell that I pieced scraps of batting to use for this quilt, and the binding and backing are both from stash.

I am in the process of finishing another quilt, also a flimsy, which now only needs a label; it should be done tonight. This top was made from stash, except for the background fabric. The backing is pieced from what remained of the fat quarters I used for the blocks on the front. This is my first pieced backing, and I learned something important for the future. I will need to iron seams open if I piece backs, I can see where the quilting boggles a little where it crosses the back seams and seams in the block.

Two more finished...

This weekend I was able to finish my Jo Morton log cabin, which is about 15 inches square. As I mentioned previously, I am not happy with my work on this one, the more I tried, the worse things became. I have a two part mantra for this quilt, repeat it with me "it is a primitive-its supposed to be a little off" and " it is a learning project". I quilted it with a baptist fan, which is a little wobbly on its own- something I digitized but apparently need to find a way to smooth out a bit. I'll also post a picture of the JoMorton Paririe basket again, with some of the quilting (on the back, you can't see it from the front in a photo).

Secondly, for all you cat lovers out there.........My mother has an ancient and venerable Siamese cat that spends its waking hours curled up on her lap. Because it will knead her lap, sometimes with claws out, mother sits with a towel folded up between her legs and the cat. With Amy and Nancy (among others) showing off their cat fabrics, I was inspired to check out what my LQS had. I found a very bright and fun print which I then stitched a batting, sewed and 'birthed' and then quilted some kitty faces randomly spaced. Mom is tickled with it.

I'm tickled to have had time to quilt this weekend. Rainy weekends can be wonderful, if you can lock yourself up with your fabric and machines!

A quilty weekend

I had a quilty weekend this week. Actually, it started before the weekend. Last Tuesday night was my Jo's Little Women Club meeting at my LQS. We shared what we had accomplished on last month's project and began this month's. I had gotten the two previous little tops quilted, so was able to show them at the meeting and then, during the rest of the week I was able to cut and machine sew the bindings, which I finished up while watching TV in the evenings. The teacher for the group had given us each a recent copy of the AQS magazine that has an article on quarter inch bindings. These quilts are small, so they really call for a small binding-but working with that little amount of fabric to turn and stitch is quite a challenge. I may have to redo the first one, I'm not thrilled with sections of it, especially one corner. The second is not perfect, but considerably better.

On Saturday I was able to make my January swap block for an online group. The photo doesn't show that the light design on the black triangles are actually silver/holographic and have wonderful sparkle and movement. In the photo, it just looks white.

Once those were done, I began this months Jo Morton project, which is little log cabins. I think these little blocks take a whole lot more time than bigger ones! I'm beginning to think I could build a real log cabin.....and they would all be wonky!

Forest Jane showed her latest round on her Ostrich. I had mine done early and posted a while back. Mine was done early because it was sooooooo much simpler than Jane's. If you haven't seen her incredible work, go see it! And speaking of Ostrich-Kim must have changed her site, anyone know what's up and if we have to repost our blocks?

Yippee--progress!

I have had a great day. It has been rainy and dismal all day and exceedingly quiet. DH slept very late, I cut mother's hair and put two small quilts on the frame. The smallest one is quilted and awaiting binding, if I can decide on which fabric I want to use. The second is still small at about 32" square, I have two rows left to do on it and then it will be ready for binding. Since I had to take it off the frame to turn it sideways, I figured that was a good place to finish for the day. I haven't taken any photos of them at this stage. I don't think that the quilting will show up enough in a photo, they will still look the same as they did in the flimsy stage. If you look back a few posts (Dec. 3 and Dec. 26), these are both Jo Morton quilts I made in a class at a LQS. I still have so much to learn about using the quilting machine that these aren't perfect, but they will soon be finished and not UFOs!