One quilt done!

I finished binding the quilt I wanted for my bed. Two more quilts to go! This one is a history of my 20 years of quilting so every time I look at it I think...'I used that fabric in a quilt I made for ...' I realized I have made A LOT of quilts for people I care about.

I am enjoying the memories!

And to feed my current sock knitting addiction, I started a new pair of socks.

I'll give all the details and a better picture when I am done the pair!

This weekend I am hoping to finish a little spring quilt in the hopes that it will please the weather gods and spring will make it's way here!

Happy Stitching!

A Lot of Binding!

I usually quilt my own quilts but with this backlog I sent these ones out. I just picked them up this week so now I have to bind them....that is a lot of binding!

The nine patch on the bottom is first because it is going onto my bed right away! 

I had better go get my needle and thread...

Happy Stitching!

What a Productive Week!

I have no idea where it came from, but it happened! I got things done and what a great feeling it is!

I had been knitting at the beginning of last week. I finished the Diagonal Lace Socks I started at Christmas and the Hemlock Ring Throw I started just two weeks ago!

A close up...can you see the different shading? Sometimes hand dyed wool drives me crazy! But it was so soft and my feet will love them!

I went from my smallest needles (2mm) up to 6.5mm for the throw.

No wonder it took just over a week to knit! It took less knitting time than the socks did!

And yes it is my prerogative to change my mind about the miniature double wedding ring fabrics. Now those beautiful greys and taupes are going to find their way into a mini pineapple (3" blocks) and because I have gone pineapple crazy I am going to make a scrap one with 2" blocks.

And I FINISHED piecing my "History of Ann" 9 patch scrap quilt! Here is a sneak peek of it on the ironing board. Once it is quilted is is going straight onto my bed! I can hardly wait.

And still there is more to tell...

I spent yesterday on my hands and knees basting this quilt. I am 'big stitching' it so I hope it won't take me forever to get it done.

And finally in my mail box this week, a new book and I am in trouble because I need to make every quilt in the book. The question is, which do I do first?

So now I am off to clean up my sewing room before starting something new.

Happy Stitching!

My Quilting History and a Few Tips

Since I began quilting almost 20 years ago I put all my small scraps into a box until one day my box exploded and I had to do something about it. I started cutting up my scraps into 2" squares and then 3 years ago started sewing them into 9 patch blocks. I had no idea what I was going to do with them. This is how it all started...

Recently I figured it out!

I was happily sewing along and looked at my first finished block and oops! Those sashings weren't quite lining up. I am not concerned with being too perfect with this quilt but I did want it a little better than that.

I thought I would share a few tips to get sashings lined up a little better.

Here is my block laid out and ready to sew the long sashings on.

I match the center of the long sashing with the center of the block and pin in place. If I am sewing a long sashing that goes the width of a whole quilt I divide into quarters and pin at each quarter. That way you know your sashing is evenly distributed across. Pin the rest of the sashing and sew.

Now for the second side- I normally would press before starting this, but in this case my sashing was cut 1" wide and I was pressing towards the sashing, so that would create sewing problems.

Line up the sashing to the block, but instead of matching the centers I match the sashings between the blocks and pin. Then sew and press.

Much better!

This quilt has produced a lot of stray threads, probably because of all the handling over the last few years. I had a head smacking light bulb moment- to use my lint brush to pick up those threads off the finished quilt blocks! Why in the world did I never think if that before now?

And my last tip...another duh moment ( 2 in one day...did my brain just start working?)

I have a couple of rulers with a 1/2" added to them and I am always forgetting that and cutting wrong. I am so used to 6", not 6 1/2". In my notions drawer I had some of the ruler highlighter tape and I just put that down at my cutting line and ta-da! No more cutting wrong! You could also use any low tack tape such as painters tape.

I've been thinking about my miniature double wedding ring I want to make and have been looking through my fabrics. A couple of years ago I had bought a fat eighth pack of 'japanese' type taupes and greys. I needed something to add to those for the background. What do you think? It will be very non-traditional but I am liking it.

Back to my sewing room...Happy Stitching!