Quilting the Strip Twist

Charlie and I took a two-night trip to Stratford, Ontario, to see three plays, so I have been away from quilting for a while. When we are in the car I can knit on the current socks, but no quilting!

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Now that I am home again I have been working on the quilting of the Strip Twist. First I stitched-in-the-ditch through the diagonal lines to hold everything together. Now I am trying to get a "pinwheel" look in the center of these diagonal quadrants.

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I've tried a couple of hearts to fill in the remaining open space, but I'm not sure they are keepers.

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First I need to finish the step I'm ON.

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Sara

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Gratitudes:

Pecan rolls for breakfast

Quiet, rainy day at home

Tigers ahead in the 4th inning

Last Retreat report

This little quilt top was made at a Tessellation Workshop quite a few years ago. I thought I had made up my own personal tesselation, but later I found others had also created it. It had waited for some further developments for some time now.

I took on retreat with me with the idea that I WAS going to find borders at last. At the second quilting shop we visited on retreat I found this black polka-dotted fabric which looked good for the outer border. When I was about to sew it on on Sunday afternoon, it looked too dark. Maybe an inner border would help? There was a piece of the orange stripe lying close-by---serendipity! Now I can get it layered and quilted. Before the end of the month, I hope.

Sara

Gratitudes:
Sue's visit for lunch today with Dianne
Fresh baked bread for two meals
Walking in the dark with Charlie and Zeke after the news

Retreat Accomplishments

My first task was to finish this Baby Steps quilt by ironing it, with a pieced flannel backing, to a fusible bat.

I decided on a freeform zig-zag quilting design, with a largish meander in the border. I had the strips all cut in advance for the binding, so that was relatively quickly finished using the machine-sew-both-sides method.

I spent most of Saturday working on the borders for my "Your Way" mystery, that our Bee is enjoying.

Lots of the other women were also working on this mystery quilt: laying out their blocks or sewing on borders (or one and then the other).
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LuAnn had her blocks out on the floor.

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Sandy D. used Chistmas fabrics.

And Linda was even at the point of quilting hers.








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The quilt tops are amazingly different! Everyone really got into the "Your Way" designation.
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And Saturday was national "Talk Like a Pirate Day"--so our attempts caused laughter as the day went on.

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Sara
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Gratitudes:
DQS7 quilt on my loveseat
Women's Chorus rehearsal last night
Book Group discussion of "The Madonnas of Leningrad"

Doll Quilt Swap #7 received!

I returned from the SpoolSpinner retreat last night, and found this wonderful doll quilt had arrived from Trisha Chubbs in Washington state. WOW! She really did a good job figuring out my special interests. It's black and white and RED, and she used Liberated Piecing.

Look at that two-color binding! Look at that wonderfully wonky log cabin! Look at those cock-eyed flying geese! And the luscious big floral print!

I am thrilled! I have it on the back of one of the loveseats in the living room, the one I am directly facing from my seat at the dining table. I can look at it all the time.

Thank you, Trisha!

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Now the first report from the retreat.

This Strip Twist top from last February received a border. I had nothing I liked in my own stash. We are able to go to two quilt shops near our retreat site, and at the first I found this orange with a pinkish red stripe. Suddenly I saw a lot of orange in this top-- so it became a perfect, and bright fabric for the border. This was a quick project to finish on Friday [after the shopping trip]. Probably this will only now be quilted and get bias binding to be finished.

More retreat news later.

Sara

Gratitudes:

After Thursday's eye injection I regained focused vision by 8 pm

All our meals were provided at the retreat--no cooking for me!

Lots of laughter among the quilters

Labor Weekend #3

The Mom- and Dad-to-be received the bargello baby quilt, along with a lot of other baby loot this afternoon. And their friends had a good time eating and talking.

Hydrangea currently in bloom, quite pink. This was a Mother's Day gift from DD Martha a couple of years ago.

The tall grasses going to "flower", waving so serenely in the breeze.

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Sara

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Gratitudes:

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Listening to a Lutheran preaching on the epistle of Jame

Conversation with old church friends

Hamburgers and ice cream sundaes for supper

Labor Weekend #2

Blocks for the zig-zag baby quilt are sewn together and inner border is added. I need to find a batik for a wider border and the binding--and a flannel back. Say, maybe this could be called "Baby Steps".

I walked around the flower garden in the late afternoon light, and can share with you the white PeeGee hydrangea turning to pink as the temperatures fall at night.

Here is a view of just a little of the Goldenrod in our meadow.

Once again we had dinner on the deck.

This time the corn on the cob was paired with lasagna and raw veggies.
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Sara

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Gratitudes:

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Present ready to go to baby shower tomorrow
Pre-made lasagna made dinner easy

Enjoyed a lot of tennis on TV today

Labor Weekend #1

Salmon and corn on the cob for Friday night dinner on the deck.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Still amazed by the stash reduction

Charlie does a great job cooking dinner

Curtis Granderson -[player for the Detroit Tigers]

Last IBOL boxes, new project

Today I finished filling the Flat Rate boxes I had from the P.O. for Iraqi Bundles of Love. I forgot to take any photos, but here is the evidence that I used my stash.
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THREE totally empty plastic storage boxes! Now what am I going to do with them?


Well, I could pack up some of the piles of fabric and unfinished projects that are all over the bed in the sewing room....


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As I was looking through the boxes of fabric to determine what I was ready to send away for good, I found a couple of small "jelly rolls", only 10 strips each in pastel batiks. So I have started a baby quilt with them and some white-on-white prints.
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It's going to ba another Zig-zag quilt, but this time I'm going to let the zig-zags go diagonally. More interesting I think, and definitely easier to put together--no setting triangles necessary!
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Sara
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Gratitudes:
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Lynne is only bruised from a serious car accident, and NO ONE hurt but her
Article about IBOL in the Honolulu Advertizer (look here) http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009909040369

Baby bargello finished

Last night this quilt was washed and dried, and here it is out on the deck after dinner tonight.

And here it is in the living room, showing the whole thing.

And here is a close-up of one corner.

Today I filled another two boxes for IBOL, this time with mostly worsted weight YARN from never to be completed projects of the past. Thanks to Jo Keena for contributing that argyl fabric and also some Beanie Babies!

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Sara

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Gratitudes:

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So many generous people contributing to this project!

Lovely cool, sunny day at the beginning of September

Peter Seegar special on public TV

Almost done baby quilt

I amazed meself with progress on this bargello baby quilt today.
I finished the quilting in the center.
I decided on a simple wavy line on the borders.
And I got right to work on the binding.

Once again I used the method of sewing the binding to the FRONT,
turning it to the back with lots of close pinning,
and then sew in the ditch on the FRONT again.

The stitching in the ditch is pretty well hidden on the front.
I used a wider binding strip than last time, so there was more to catch on the back. Therefore I didn't totally MISS catching the fold as many times.
But I'm not delighted with the way it looks--a little sloppy.
Maybe the stitching is a little too far from the folded edge.
On the other hand it IS on the BACK. Who is going to look real hard at it?
Well, of course, any quilter would.

Not baby colors as regularly understood. It came out darker than I expected.

Now to wash and dry it.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Pleasant time with the footcare nurses
take-out lasagna for dinner was excellent
lovely orange sky at 8:30 pm