Thursday's Sewing Night # 4

Thursday Night is QUILT NIGHT in my house and this week I got a lot “finished”… That is until I bent a needle at 12:30 AM and then immediately remembered what it was I forgot to get the last time I was at the craft store!  So my night was cut short, but it was probably for the better, as I did get some much needed organization done since I couldn’t sew anymore…

So, here’s what I did last night:

FIRST – I finished my QFK (Quilts For Kids) Quilt.  I started this one around the first of the year, and I finally got it done.  I tried a new binding technique called “wrap around binding” because that is exactly what you do.  You leave 1” extra backing material all around the quilt.  Then you fold that 1” in half and iron it well, then you fold that over the front and you have thus “Wrapped” the backing around to the  the front.   Pin it in place and quilt down the Binding.  It worked.  The corners were a little tricky, but I got it done and I don’t think it looks that bad.  I don’t know if I’ll do it again, but hey, if you don’t try it, you can’t knock it…

Finished QFK Quilt (can you see my error??)

Close up of the binding front and back

Binding process

SECOND – I wanted to finish my Mug Rug for the Columbus Modern Quilt Guild Swap… and I almost did, but I did not finish the binding.  I need to do the final part which is to hand stitch down the binding on the front of the quilt.  It was a week for new binding techniques for me.  On this Mug Rug, I decided to add a little flange to the back of the quilt to set off that yellow binding.   Here is the completed Mug Rug (notice the binding still needs to be stitched down)…

The Flanged Binding on the back

I also used a new trick to get my lines straight in my quilting… Frog Tape!

Tape in place and follow the edge of the tape. 

The tape does not leave a residue on the fabric.

And you get nice STRAIGHT lines!!

The Flange Binding went on after the quilting was done…

Then the regular binding… I did not think of the additional layers caused by the Flange or I would have added an 1/8^th of an inch… There are two spots where I am going to be lucky to completely cover the stitching from attaching the Binding.  Next time I will definitely add at least 1/8^th of an inch, maybe a whole 1/4 of an inch.

Then literally as I was stiching the last half inch of binding, my machine made a funny “CLANK” noise, then it rattled, and then it made and even louder clunk.  My needle came up bent big time!  Thank goodness I managed to finish getting the binding on, but it’s also kind of frustrating…  I just cleaned it last week when I was done using it…

139

Hopefully this isn’t indicative of a bigger problem…

Next week is Guild Meeting night, but I plan to get some quilting in when I get back!

Until Next Week, or maybe sooner,

Paul

Thinking of Others Today...

As I was cleaning up from my night of quilting last night (around 1 AM) I heard my PC beep indicating that a FB friend had posted.  I looked over and saw a prayer request for the people of Japan.  I spent the next half hour watching live video of fires and buildings in ruins.  Then the waves started coming in and helicopters were sending video of waves washing dozens of cars off of roads as if they were toys and crushing buildings like they were matchbooks.  It really boggled my mind as I watched the devastation take place right in front of me.

It really bothered me to think that inside of each of those cars was at least one person, likely more.  Inside those buildings there were people thinking they were safe, thinking they had escaped injury from the violent shaking when suddenly the walls came crashing in around them.

My prayers and well wishes go out to everyone touched by this natural disaster, and especially to those who are missing family members, searching in hopes that they will find those they love who are missing.  And even more so to those who will never find their loved ones.

I will post my activities from last night tomorrow.   Right now, I just feel like it is the right thing to do…

Paul

I was Nominated!!

This little quilt blog has gotten some attention in the past few days...

First, I won the drawing from Bonnie Hunt's blog and she linked to my blog on her blog, and I got a bunch of visitors... One of them suggested I be profiled for March Man-ness on Stitchen' Heaven Howdy's site and I got a bunch more visitors.  Now I have more followers than I do posts!  I will work on changing that...

I had a unique "Quilt Week".  I have been very busy at work, but I have managed to do some Quilty things this past week.

Thursday Night I quilted my QFK quilt.  I did a straight line quilt with a spiked stitch pattern.  I will use a new binding technique called "Wrap Around Binding"... I'll post photos when I do it.

That was the only sewing I did, but I did a bunch of cutting... I am preparing to do a very large (92x92) quilt that will require 300 9x3.5 strips.  So I cut a bunch of 3.5 inch strips...

That was my Thursday Night... A little bit o' cutting, and a little bit o' sewing...  Both very simple and not too exciting, but critical to the art nonetheless...

Saturday I did some shopping.  I needed some more blues and reds for the big quilt mentioned above.  I went to one of my favorite little shops Good Wives in Marion Ohio.  It's about an hour away, so I don't get up there very often, but I do stop by when possible.  I made a special trip because they have a LOT of civil war era colors and fabric patterns, perfect for the big quilt project.

These are the reds and blues for the quilt pattern shown below.  I am going to modify this slightly by adding a 1.5" gold stop border around the stars before the blue outer border.  I think the blue border kind of blends into the rest of the quilt and a 1.5" inch strip of gold should do the trick.

Then I stopped at Sew To Speak, a cute little shop filled with modern fabric and BRIGHT colors...  I had my daughter and her sister with me and of course we had to buy some fabric.

I will be using the White with Black Polka Dots as a foundation fabric for a future quilt.  The pink will go nicely with some pinks I have in my stash, and the Kitty Cat will be in Maryaha's quilt very soon.  I also found this Japanese Fabric in a sale bin that I could not resist.  I have no idea what I will do with my yard of this fabric, but I am sure I will figure something out.

And Lastly... I don't know what I got all over my iron, but something red and sticky got on my iron.  I asked around and I was told the best thing to clean an iron is Dritz Hot Iron Cleaner.  As you can see, it worked like a charm!

The Magic Eraser....

Until next time... Or maybe sooner.


And THANK YOU to my new followers.  I welcome your feedback and comments...