The Quilting's Done!

I'm sorry I can't show you the whole quilt but it's too dark for a good photo.  You'll just have to trust me that it's quilted to every edge and corner (which feels like a huge accomplishment!).  Not only is the quilting finished but the edges are also trimmed, the corners squared, and the binding cut.  I'm ready to sew on the binding tomorrow.  Then I'll measure, photograph, wash & dry it, then measure it again and photograph again.  When I can get good photos I'll post them along with all the details about the quilt such as size, etc. 

Our Easter has been very grey.  I hope you had a Happy Easter if you celebrate Easter.  If you don't, I hope you had a good day being alive!

Linking to March:  A Lovely Year of Finishes at Fiber of All Sorts.  (My original post committing to this goal was here.)


--Nancy.
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One Corner and a Binding - W.i.P. Wednesday

I have just the little corner that's folded over to quilt, about 3 hoop's worth, and a binding to cut, sew, and stitch for this quilt to be finished.  But I have just a few days left in the month to do it if I'm going to accomplish my goal of finishing this quilt in March.  I'm sure I can finish the quilting but I'm not so sure about the binding.  Maybe I can modify my goal....

This quilt is larger than it looks in the photo above.  It's folded into 6ths and is a large twin size quilt.

Speaking of binding....  I'll have to lay it out and audition some fabrics for binding, but in the meantime, I'm considering possibilities.  I think the best option will be to use just one color but the questions are:

1. A scrappy binding or a non-scrappy binding?  Maybe the quilt is already too scrappy (read busy) for a scrappy binding?  Maybe it needs a "quiet" binding?
2. Which color?  Use a color and/or fabric that's already in the quilt or choose a neutral?

I can hardly wait to finish this quilt.  And I will never, ever set a goal to hand quilt a quilt in such a short time!  Never!  (But I may need to remind myself of that.)

I'm linking this post to W.i.P. Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.  Thanks for hosting, Lee.


--Nancy.

P.S.  This is the last time you will see this quilt as a work in progress.  (Hooray!) 

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Children's Garden 6 x 7 Layout - Two More Variations

I decided against the 5 x 7 layout with the scrappy cream sashing for the Children's Garden quilt.  The proportions seemed too out of balance.  I think this 6 x 7 layout looks better.  I'm still playing with fabrics for borders.

Here's my next thought for sashing fabric between the flower blocks and a possible border between the flower blocks and churn dash blocks. 

I think the light green compliments the flowers, leaves, and block backgrounds in the center and is good with the churn dash blocks, too.  But is it too quiet, too dull, too boring?  Would a different color be better?

What about the border?  Brighter red?  Different color altogether?  The dark red has green, blue, and gold in the little paisleys, colors already in the flowers and churn dashes.

My husband suggested I try it without an inner border. 

I think it looks bland this way and needs at least a narrow inner border.  Maybe the red squares could be larger and from the darker red fabric (shown as border in top photo) and the border could be a narrow, cherry red fabric like the small squares.

I also have to consider whether to add an outer border or let the binding act as a narrow border.

Isn't it great how we can lay out our quilts without having to stitch them so we can look at them instead of having to visualize mentally?  I don't visualize very well -- which makes it really difficult when it comes to things like house paint!  It's easy to change the sashing or border on an unstitched quilt but hard to repaint a house.

Perhaps you're wondering how I have time to play with this quilt when I'm trying to finish hand quilting the High Five for Brenna?  My fingers get sore and tired after a few hours and I have to take breaks every so often.  Plus, I think I'm having withdrawals from not sewing.

Thanks for stopping by.
--Nancy.
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Meet: My Mother's Old Black Singer . . .

. . . which is now my old black Singer.

I always assumed Mom received this sewing machine from my father as a wedding gift when they married in 1938, but I never asked and she never said.  I recently discovered that Mom's Singer was made in 1941.  Now I really wish I'd asked her how she came to have it!

I learned to sew on this machine when I was 8 or 9 years old.  I don't remember my mom teaching me how to use it but I remember having free rein with it.  I didn't learn to sew with patterns until I was in my teens but as a kid I remember sewing straight-seam items -- blankets, bags -- for my dolls.  After I graduated from college, Mom and Dad delivered the sewing machine to my apartment.  I was grateful to have it. 

The machine sews forward and backward; has adjustable stitch lengths; and sews leather, cotton, and other fabrics.  But it's not thrilled with polyester thread, for some reason.  I usually sew with cotton, cotton/poly, or silk and it sew beautifully.  It has a drop-in bobbin case and a knee pedal.  Knee pedals are so much easier to use than foot pedals, at least for me.  I can get much better control with a knee pedal.  (I've always had a lead foot.)

The machine came to me with a box of attachments, a manual, and a buttonholer.  I've never been able to get the attachments to work as the manual says they should but I keep them in their box and perhaps some day someone will show me how to use them.  I use the manual whenever I have to oil the machine or fix the tension.  It has sweet little detailed drawings telling where and how to oil.

The buttonholer came in this ovalish spaceship sort of plastic box.  I never liked that box.  I found a rectangular, dark green box with a buttonholer at the thrift store and bought it on the off chance it would work with Mom's macine.  It did.  And it had a 5/8" cam which Mom's didn't.  I was getting ready to switch the buttonholer and get rid of the spaceship box when my daughters realized what I had in mind.  They both balked:  "But I love that box!  That's the best thing about the sewing machine," they both said.  (Neither of them sews much....)  So I've kept the spaceship box.

My mother's old black Singer is almost the only machine I've ever used.  I once borrowed a machine while in college.  It had a foot pedal that I could never control and I think the only sewing I did was a quick repair.  I have my mom's second sewing machine, the one she got after she gave me the old black Singer.  It is a Kenmore which I don't like at all.  I also have a slant-needle Featherweight Singer that I bought at an auction for $2.50.  It sews as well as Mom's Singer but the bobbin is not so easy to put in.  I've used it a few times but only when I've had to sew away from home or when the old black Singer needed a tune-up.  And I recently bought the Singer Red Eye which does not yet sew.

My mother's old black Singer is the only sewing machine I've ever wanted.  If it dies before I do, I don't know what I'll do.... 

I'm linking this post to Meet: My Machine! blog hop, hosted by Stacey at The Tilted Quilt and Erin at Sew at Home Mummy.  Thanks, Stacey and Erin.

Happy sewing!
--Nancy.
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Progress on High Five for Brenna - W.i.P. Wednesday

I am sad to report that only one corner of High Five for Brenna is completely quilted.

I'm happy to report that parts of the edges of two sides are completely finished.  Narrow edges on the rest of those two sides plus one more side, along with a wider edge on one side, and 3 corners are awaiting needle and thread.  Quilt, quilt, quilt!

My quilting hoop is 14" across which means I can generally quilt about 12" of that.  It takes me between 1 1/2 and 2 hours to quilt that 12" diameter.  I spend between 4 and 8 hours quilting every day.  It seems like I should be finishing it faster than I am....  Sometimes I stop to try to figure out how many more circles I have to quilt but then I tell myself that I'm wasting time.  Just put the hoop on and keep working.  Still, it's hard on my fingers to quilt so many hours.

Note to self:  over-estimate the time it will take to do any (& every!) project. 

I've noticed that I often under-estimate how long things will take and then find that I'm late for appointments and late getting projects finished.  Maybe age is slowing me down....

I'm linking to
- W.i.P. Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.  Thanks for hosting, Lee.
- A Lovely Year of Finishes mid-month check-in at Fiber of All Sorts.  Thanks, Shanna.


Thanks for visiting.
--Nancy.

Children's Garden, Scrappy 5 x 7 Layout

Thank you, readers, for your thoughts and suggestions about layouts for this quilt.  I appreciate your input.  I discounted this layout at first because the blocks were two different sizes, but then I decided to just see how they looked with the flowers in the middle.  It makes me think of a flower garden.

All the blocks have plaids in them and I thought scrappy borders might work.  I talked to my daughter a little more and learned that the quilt will go in a log cabin in the Children's Garden.  It was then that I rethought the scrappy borders, thinking they might be too modern.  I started searching online for scrap quilts from about the 1860s onward to see what quilters then were using.  So I could see them all together, I pinned them on a pinterest board.  Look what I found.

The blocks are scrappy, sometimes with no two alike, and each quilt uses the same block pattern.  But in nearly all the old scrap quilts I found, the quilter used an additional unifying factor:  the same fabric in the alternate blocks, in the sashing, or in the borders, and sometimes in all three. 

I think Children's Garden needs a similar approach to fit in its environment.  So it's back to the drawing board design wall.  I'm spending odd moments on this quilt (because I have the other quilt to finish) but it's laying in a location where my husband and I can see it as we pass by. 

I'm also going to try a layout with 6 x 7 churn dash blocks.  If I choose the 5 x 7 layout (above) the inner borders on the longer sides will have to be narrower than the borders on the ends and I think it will look odd.  (I know you can't tell that from the photo above.  That's because the borders have taken up more space than they really have.)  The 6 x 7 layout will tend toward the square size but I think the proportions will be better.

If you have thoughts, suggestions, ideas about this quilt, I'd be happy to read them.  Thanks.

Happy quilting to you!
--Nancy.
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Four Corners & Four Sides - W.i.P. Wednesday

It may not look or sound like there's much left to quilt when I say I have four corners and four sides.  But when I lay the quilt out to place the hoop for the next round of quilting it seems like I've only finished a third of the quilt! 

I've been watching videos as I quilt.  No, wait, that's not exactly true.  I've been listening to the dialog in videos as I quilt and glancing up as I pull the needle through the fabric.  It's not the best way to watch videos but so far, I haven't watched one that draws my attention completely away from the quilt.  If I do I'll stop it and watch it when I can give it more attention.  Do you do other things while you do handwork?

When I sometimes see items at the thrift store that I think are overpriced I occasionally comment to whoever's with me, "I think this store has an overinflated estimation of the value of some of their items."  Now I'm thinking:  I had an overinflated estimation of my quilting speed!  I'm pushing myself to quilt, quilt, quilt with the continued hope of finishing the quilting by the end of March.  I don't think I realized how long it really takes to quilt by hand.

I'm linking this post to W.i.P. Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.  Thanks, Lee.

I hope you're making good progress on whatever your project is.

--Nancy.
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Ideas, Please?

Last week my daughter asked me if I could find a quilt at a thrift store for her husband to use at the Children's Garden where he's the horticulturist. I told her I'd look, but I haven't found one.  I haven't been quilting long enough to have a supply on hand to give away but I thought maybe I could make one.  (It doesn't help that he could use it now, but he'll use a quilt whenever he gets one.)  I rummaged around and found these blocks that I made 10 years ago.  The flowers were my first efforts in applique so I could join the Airedale Rescue Quilting Bee.  The others were leftovers from another quilt (which is still waiting to be quilted).

I don't really have time to make a quilt from scratch because of the High Five for Brenna that I'm determined to finish by the end of March, but I thought I might be able to work with one of the sets of blocks above and turn them into a small quilt.  But what to do with them and how?!  It has to be simple, of course.  Alternate plain and pieced or plain and appliqued blocks?  Set them in sashing?  What kind of sashing?  What colors would work for either of these sets of blocks?

The flower blocks will finish at 8 1/2", the churn dash blocks at 7 1/2".  The final quilt can be about baby size.  It's going on a wall so the children won't be bundling themselves up in it or putting it on the ground for a play picnic, but dirty hands will touch it so white/very light may not be the best option.

All ideas appreciated!

By the way, I'm making good progress on the High Five but I'm going to have to push myself to get it finished by the end of March, especially when there are two weeks I won't be able to work on it much (because my daughter will be home one week and I'll be working again the other).  Quilt, quilt, quilt...!

I'm linking this to W.i.P. Wednesday hosted on Freshly Pieced by Claire from Sewing Over Pins.  Thank you, Claire and Lee.

Thanks and take care,
Nancy.
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It's a Sugar Snow!

Isn't it gorgeous?!  I doubt we'll get the 6-8" predicted by the weather forecaster, but I'm thrilled that tonight the snow is falling in large, fluffy flakes and in an hour's time it has more than covered the ground.  This is probably the last snow of the season, the one that will cause the maple sap to run heavy, especially if we have cold nights and warmer days.  It's so beautiful!  I'm ready to be snowed in tomorrow.  I know I'm among the very few who thrill at snow in March.... 

Spring is really just around the corner.  She's playing hide-n-seek with winter.

--Nancy.
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