Ready for hand stitching

Everything is fused to the quilt and ready to go. I know I could do the blanket stitching very quickly on my machine, but I so enjoy the hand stitching. I also love the texture created by using embroidery floss. There are also some stem stitched details to do - stripes and a face for the bumble bee, definition lines for the bear's arms, a happy mouth and eye highlights for his face among other things. I slit some stitching in the blocks so I could tuck the flower stems through to the back - those spots will need to be resewn also once the stems are tacked down.

I love how this looks! I gave it a fall tone for this precious October girl - it was so much fun choosing the leaf fabrics. Of course the flowers had to be purple, as that's the color of the room Lily will share with big sister Sophie.

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Gratitudes:

1. Successful exercise in will power at Momma Made It this morning - no extra fabric came home!

2. Pumpkin Spice Lattes

3. A morning spent with a quilty friend

I like it!

Most of the household tasks were finished without too much trouble. I rolled the first antique quilt onto the dining room table and realized I needed an empty cutting table in order to cut muslin for sleeves. So what was I to do? No choice but to put the borders onto the teddy so I could clear off the table.

The resulting border is wider than called for because I have a 5" stencil of oak leaves and acorns that I want to use on the border. I really love how it turned out! I have traced all the appliqué shapes onto Heat 'n Bond Light - I use the "donut method" so the appliqués are soft instead of stiff. Tomorrow I'll choose fabrics and get all the bonding done. I'll hand stitch the blanket stitches around the appliqué and the rest of the embroidered details as the week progresses - perfect handwork for nap time and watching baseball!

A border quandry

I'm not supposed to be quilting today. I have loads of clean laundry all over the living-dining room waiting to be put away. I have ten of my newly finished UFO's waiting to be put away - I took them to guild Thursday night for the "what I did this summer" show and tell program. Once again I have antique quilts from the End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center to sew sleeves onto in preparation for their October quilt show. I have five days of junk mail to go through. The list goes on.

So what did I do when I got up this morning? I tried choosing borders for Lily's quilt. If you look at the picture of the original you'll see that Crystal Carter used a border stripe for her border. She designed this quilt right after Jinny Beyer burst onto the quilting fabric scene in the early 80's with her collections of border stripes. At that time I had yards and yards of them. Most all of them have been used and what I have left is either not suitable or too little. I have lots and lots of beautiful florals with brown backgrounds - perfect, except that the prints are so large they overwhelm the little bear. I have some cool fall colored striped fabrics, but they are so bright they also overwhelm our teddy. I've lost track of how many fabrics and fabric combinations I've tried. I think I've finally found it, however. I like how this looks. I'm going to let it hang until tomorrow, looking at it many times today while I go about my chores. If it still looks good to me by tomorrow then I'll start cutting. The appliqué laps onto the border so it must be finished before I start embellishing.

Guess I'd better get to work!

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Gratitudes:

1. Fall - my favorite season!

2. Resumption of a regular routine

3. Yummy weight watchers recipes

4. Fiber 1 bars - a cross between a granola and a candy bar and only 2 points!

5. Digital cameras

Ready to sew the blocks together

Are you listening?

Do you listen to your machine when you sew? I was hearing what can only be described as a "popping" sound as I was stitching this morning. I immediately realized that it's been awhile since I changed the needle on the machine. Every new quilt deserves a new needle - they aren't that expensive! You should also change your needle after eight to ten hours of sewing. Dull needles can damage fabric. If you can't remember the last time you changed the needle, then be sure to do it now before you sew another seam.

And since I'm talking about machine care - when did you last remove the throat plate to clean out all the lint? I'll never forget the time a student asked me where she could buy another little felt pad for under the throat plate. Her machine had gone so long without cleaning that she thought all that stuff was a felt pad that was supposed to be there!

Don't forget to treat your machine to a "spa day" once a year also if you sew regularly - that is several times a week. She deserves a good cleaning, oiling and a check of her tension and timing. She will be so much happier and so will you. Don't wait until she breaks down before getting her serviced - you need to care for your machine at least as well as you care for your car!

And now for the picture - I can see a bear staring to emerge , can't you?

Yesterday's efforts

Doesn't look much like a bear yet, does it? These are the blocks I finished yesterday - all of the traditional log cabin blocks in this quilt. They are parts of foot pads, bear and bear tummy, and bear and background.

Making these little 3 1/2" finished blocks is really fun, and not difficult at all. The key is having a good seam allowance marker on your machine - one you can feel with your fingers in addition to seeing with your eyes. Even if you have a 1/4" foot it's not enough for complete accuracy. To set up your machine for truly accurate piecing see my tutorial here and here. Quiltville's Bonnie Hunter - the queen of piecing in my book - recommends this also. If you've never tried it before you'll be amazed at the difference it makes.

Piecing log cabin blocks is fun and goes quickly. I know may people "speed piece" them by sewing the blocks onto a long strip and then trimming after stitching. I've found that this isn't all that accurate unless you use an even feed foot. If you don't the blocks tend to get bigger as you add rounds because the feed dogs pull more of the lower fabric into the block than the upper fabric. This results in blocks that are slightly rounded instead of perfectly square. I find that it's just as fast to precut my strips to the desired length, which helps keep the block square and to size. If you have a good work surface it's easy to lay out all your different strips as you are working, cutting them to size as needed. The picture shows the way I organize mine. This also makes it easier to make truly scrappy blocks. Try it - I think you'll like it!

Now back to task - I'd love to finish lots more blocks today!

It's about time!

Our new granddaughter, Lily Abigail, is due on October 15th. About time I started her quilt, don't you think? Chelsea and Jeremy chose a design from an old That Patchwork Place book I've had for years and years. There isn't a copyright date on the book - how odd! - but I think it's from the early 1990's. I've always loved the quilts in this book; I'm thrilled to finally be making one of them. They chose this very cute teddy bear. A couple minor changes were requested - nothing major.

This is made of log cabin blocks - both traditional and courthouse steps blocks. The unfinished 4" blocks are made from tiny 1" strips, and are not paper pieced! I've pulled lots of golden browns, dark browns, and tans from my stash and have started cutting strips. It's a good think I like making tiny blocks!