I often try new techniques when I am doing a Charity Quilt. This means that my charity quilts are often not as "nice" as my gift quilts, after all, I know I am not the only person who gets better with practice. I have never felt any guilt over this, as I know that the recipient of said quilt will be grateful either way, and they are most likely not knowledgable about quilts, and won't even notice that points don't match, etc. But today, I had the slightest guilt over short cutting a mistake rather than tearing it apart to redo it.
I know I am not the only person who has done this, but I had to get it off my chest... Enough of that, here's some photos of what I've been up to...
First, I want to share my Finds & Wins...
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| I won this awesome Charm Packs of 1930's prints from a twiddletails give away. |
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| 30 different prints... Now to figure out what to do with them... Any Suggestions? |
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| I found this little four pack of Robert Kaufman prints, and I am thinking a few zippered pouches are in order... |
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| My KONA Solid Swap Treasure. Thank You AnneMarie for organizing this fun swap! |
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| 50 Assorted Zippers... $1.35 + $3.50 shipping = $4.85. For those of you who are mathematically challenged... That's one AWESOME Deal!! |
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| I keep reading how much easier FMQ is if you have a good pair of gloves, so last week when I was buying my new Lawn Mower, I picked up a pair so next time I FMQ, I'll have a pair to try out. For $2.85 I figure I can't go wrong. If I don't like them, they'll be put to their intended use as Gardening Gloves. |
Second, I'm getting Stars and Stripes onto the Long Arm at my LQS (QuiltTrends) on Saturday, so I need to be ready to bind it and finish it when I get home. So, I measured, cut sewed, ironed and rolled my binding material... I am ready to bind!!
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| An 82 x 82 quilt requires a quarter mile of binding... OK, not a quarter mile, but it sure felt like it! |
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| And here it is... 340 inches of binding. All ready to finish Stars & Stripes. And I must say, IT PAYS to search and search for the right binding. I was amazed to find a striped pattern that had the tan, red, blue and the Gold that I used in Stars & Stripes... I could not have ordered a better binding material. It only took me two months to find it!! |
Third, I worked on MaryAnna's quilt a little more. I attached all of the strips, and now it is ready for the border. Hopefully, I'll get to that this weekend... We'll see.
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| Long chain sewing... |
Fourth, I finished my second charity quilt. I'm one behind on my goal of 6 charity quilts this year, so I need to get on the ball and start another one...
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| I NEED to buy some safety pins... I don't know how many times I poked myself! |
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| I used a disappearing ink pen for the first time. It worked very well. I thought about doing this FMQ, but then decided it would look better with some straight line quilting. I am glad I made this choice, as I do like the look. |
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| I love Betsy and all, but her 6 inch throat just isn't large enough! My primary requirement for my next sewing machine is that it MUST have at least a 10 inch throat. |
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| Another TIGHT Squeeze... |
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| I figured since the pen would disappear anyway, I made several marks to remind myself what I was thinking when I got to my sewing machine. |
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| First step of the binding process. It was so late when I got done binding, I forgot to take a few photos. I am going to take it to work and I will shoot some more photos of the FINISHED quilt in good lighting before I send it off to Bama Bound Quilts. |
And Last... I have seen several Selvedge Quilts recently and I have decided that sounds like a cool project, so I got a LARGE jug and I am filling it with selvedges. I have realized that without some help it will be a long time before I have enough for a quilt, so, if YOU would like to keep the selvedges from your next few projects and donate them to the cause, Drop me an email, and I'll let you know where to send them!
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| My Selvedge Bucket... |
Paul
LOVE that binding!!! Definitely worth the long hunt. Oh, and make sure you get the "bent" safety pins. soooooo much nicer to work with when pin-basting quilt layers.
ReplyDeleteLove the 30's charm pack. You can make a double Irish chain quilt with them. Those look lovely in pastels.
ReplyDeleteHey, Paul. trying to comment as anonymous. Let's see how it goes. Your gloves should work great for quilting, but will likely make it hard to thread your machine, or anything else where you're dealing with a single thread. Don't let that discourage you from gloves. There are some that aren't so sticky. MaryAnna's quilt is coming along nicely. And, that blue marker, remember that any heat will set it permanently. Don't ask me how I know. Take care. Lane
ReplyDeletehmmm your 1930's charm pack you should do a hexagon quilt with them! they are sure pretty.
ReplyDeleteCareful-- try those gloves on some fabric you don't care about and make sure they don't bleed color onto your quilts.
ReplyDeleteLove the 30's fabrics-- maybe a reverse 9 patch? And I love the charity quilts.