Thursday's Sewing Night # 2

Thursday Night – Quilting Night for me…  I started the evening planning on quilting and binding the Quilt For Kids Quilt that I need to finish, and then if time would allow I was going to work on my Mug Rug for the Columbus Modern Quilt Guild Swap.

Quilt For Kids is an organization that gives quilts to kids who are being treated in hospitals long term for cancer, leukemia, etc.  I enjoy doing a quilt when I know it will be going to a little boy or girl who is struggling against some of the meanest, nastiest diseases out there.  This one will probably go to a little girl…

So, I laid it out front and back, cut the batting, and then the phone rang.  I was away from my Quilt for less than 10 seconds when I heard a raucous… I looked and found Frapaccino playing on the quilt.  I wish she appreciated my quilting for the workmanship, but I think she just likes the batting and loose threads!

After preparing it for quilting, I realized I don’t have enough of the thread I wanted to use to do the quilting… So I moved on to my Mug Rug.  Remember this?  Erin’s fabric scraps that she gave me to work with have been transformed into this…

I chose a broken Irish Chain pattern because SHE is IRISH… and it would allow me to utilize the strips of fabric that she had put in her baggie.

Since all I really know about her is that she is Irish, and she made a point of emphasizing that more than once, I chose a bright green for the backing.  I am going to try a new binding method called a Binding Flange.  I found it on Julie Herman’s site Jay Bird Quilts.  I will make the flange out of the dark green and then bind it with the bright yellow.  I laid out the fabrics to see if I like it… I think I do.

And then Last but certainly not Least, I worked on my Block of the Month Block, I am doing a Civil War Era Block of the Month project where I will make two blocks each month for a year.  I am going to try a new method called “Quilt As You Go”, and quilt each block individually and then join them all at the end.  I chose a rustic red stripe and a matching blue strip fabric for the backing.  I will alternate the blocks on the back of the quilt when I finish it.  Now I just need to decide on a quilting pattern.

AND THEN, I was done for the night.  5 hours of quilting left me with this mess to clean up…

Until Next Week… Or maybe sooner…

Paul

Rare Weekend Opportunity to Quilt...

Well, I got a rare opportunity to Quilt over the weekend.  So I broke out my sewing machine, my iron and I worked on Jonathon’s Quilt.  I now have 34 blocks assembled and ready to go.  I managed to achieve my goal of having 5 different fabrics on each block.  AND I managed to have only one block that has two pieces of the same color fabrics (although they are still different fabrics).  Considering I did not truly plan this quilt all out, I was glad that it worked out.

The next big step is squaring each block and then laying it all out and figuring out which blocks to put where.  Jonathon said he’d help with that part, but he “ain’t touching the sewing machine”.

So, here are some pics…

PIECES

More PIECES

Ironing Blocks

 

BLOCKS

Remember last week when I posted a pic of my fabric for a “Mug Rug Swap”?  Well, here is the bag of fabric that I grabbed… Erin supplied the fabric, and what I know about her is this… She LOVES each of these fabrics (with the exception of the dark blue one), she is Irish, and she bought the fortune cookie fabric (Red) while on her honeymoon.  How many of you went fabric shopping on your honeymoon!?

Anyway, I’ll post some shots of what I am doing with her fabric and I’ll add some fabric to the mix.  I know what I am going to do with it, now I just need to figure out what will be the best way to accomplish what I am thinking of doing…

Thursday's Sewing Night # 1

Thursdays are usually my night to sit down at the sewing machine and quilt.  My wife works on Thursday nights, both of the kids who still live at the house have activities on Thursdays and aside from a need to run out and pick up Chyenne, I have the night to myself and I usually use it to quilt.

This week however, I split my free time and attended the Columbus Modern Quilt Guild's monthly meeting.  I was as usual, outnumbered.  The only guy in the room, but the ladies I sat with welcomed me and I enjoyed the evening.  We did a material swap for some "Mug Rugs".  I packed some scraps in a bag, as did everyone else.  We then all then grabbed someone else's bag and committed to making a "Mug Rug" from the other person's scrap material to give to them at the next meeting.  We then met with the person whose materials we picked and the person who picked our material and chatted a little bit to build an idea of what the other person would like.

 My Mug Rug Scrap Bag...

I did get a chance to sew when I got home.  Two weeks ago I took Jonathon and Maryaha to the store and they each picked out 13-15 Fat Quarters of fabric they liked from which I will make each of them a quilt.  Last Thursday I did all of the cutting for Jonathon's Quilt top, and this week I got to sewing it.  Step 1 & 2 complete!  Woo hoo!!!

Chain Piecing Jonathon's Quilt

More next week, or maybe sooner...

Yes, I am a Man, and YES, I Quilt

I am a happily married man, father of three, and I Quilt.

A friend of mine suggested I start a blog about my quilting, and use my blog to share my quilting projects and my experiences. I get a lot of stares when people learn that I quilt, but I truly enjoy it and only wish that I could quilt more than I currently do.

I made my first quilt 18 years ago when my oldest son was born. I started quilting again a little over a year ago when my wife and I wanted to give my oldest son a Graduation Quilt. After finding out how much we were going to be charged, I looked into classes and two classes later, I started making my first quilt in 18 years, a T-Shirt Memory Quilt.

I don't know if anyone will follow this blog or not, but here it goes...