A Binding for Sunday Morning - Binding Blitz

I do a generally good job of keeping up with binding my quilts as I finish them.  It just takes me a while to get around to choosing and layering a quilt top, then hand quilting it.

This is the first quilt I've finished this year and, therefore, the first quilt I've bound this year.  I'm pleased to be able to participate in Julie's July Binding Blitz at JulieKQuilts.

This quilt is "Sunday Morning."  The perimeter is 316½" around.  The binding strips were cut slightly off-grain at 2" wide.  I folded the strips in half, carefully laid them on the edges of the quilt, stitched ¼" seam, turned the binding to the back, pinned it in place, and hand-stitched it.  It took about 6 hours to sew, but then I'm a slow stitcher.

Because the quilt is scrappy and uses light-colored fabrics, I chose a scrappy binding.  It doesn't call attention to itself nor overpower or detract from the quilt itself.

My last post was about "Sunday Morning" and you can see more photos and read details about the quilt there.

I'm linking this post to Julie's Binding Blitz at JulieKQuilts.  Thank you, Julie.

Thanks for visiting.

--Nancy.
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Good Morning, Sunday Morning!

At long last I can welcome "Sunday Morning" into true quilthood (if there is such a thing).  With top, back, and batting layered and stitched together it's a real quilt!

Both the front and back are scrappy.  My husband likes the back better than the front.  It seemed like a bear to put together but I do rather like it.

From the photos above it looks like I quilted on the diagonal in only one direction but look at the close-up below and you can see a double line of diagonals in both directions.  I used masking tape as a guide to stitch from corner to corner then added a square in the middle of those.  I wasn't too concerned that the center squares were exactly square or exactly centered.  It's a scrap quilt, after all.

I wish I could say I love this quilt.... When I saw the pattern in the book, Sunday Morning, a few years ago I took an inventory of my strings and thought it would be a great quilt to make.  Perhaps if I'd been more particular about the colors I used I might like it more.  I'm not a white-white person.  I like naturals, creams, and tans much better and this quilt has a lot of white.  But it will keep someone warm in the winter.

Details
Timeline to Completion

spring 2012 - quilt begun
 5 Jun 2013 - all blocks laid out
15 Jun 2013 - top stitched
19 Jan 2015 - scrappy back finished
21 Jan 2015 - hand quilting begun
 9 Jul 2015 - quilting finished
17 Jul 2015 - binding stitched
23 Jul 2015 - washed and dried

Batting was Cream Rose 100% cotton

Measurements
74½" x 90"  - top before layering
73½" x 88½" - after quilting
73½" x 88¼" - after binding
72"  x 86¼" - after washing & drying


I'm linking this post to
> Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts 
> WIPS Be Gone Week 31 at A Quilting Reader's Garden
> Creative Goodness Linky Party - July 31st at QuiltShopGal
> Can I get a Whoop Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
> Link a Finish Friday #179 at Richard and Tanya Quilts

Thanks for visiting and, if you leave a comment, thank you for that, too.

I hope you've had a great week!
--Nancy.
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Exuberant Horses - Color Inspiration

Our local zoo has a restored, vintage carousel with beautifully painted horses.  I think the colors and color combinations are bright and exuberant, and that some would make beautiful quilts.
 

Sadly, I didn't take any photos showing whole horses.

This is another image from the zoo that made me think of a quilt, particularly an appliqued quilt.

And then there were the pale flamingos with their creamy eyes and coral feet.  (They weren't interested in posing for photos, hence the incomplete face/head in the photo.)

I often see color combinations for quilts but I sometimes find it difficult to find fabrics like the colors I see.

How about you?  What are the sources of your color inspiration?  Do you ever have trouble finding fabrics for the quilts you imagine?

 --Nancy.
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My First Double Border (with the Poor Photo)

It's a terrible photo (which I'll try to replace) but I'm so excited about having this top ready to quilt I couldn't wait to post.

I've been without a computer for nearly a month.  I thought my old one could be repaired but it couldn't, and then I took time to deliberate about which computer to buy.  Then the company lost the boxes before they ever left the factory.  The computer finally arrived last week and a few days later my computer-geek-friend came over and transferred everything from my old computer to this new one.  It's been a bit of an ordeal but now I'm good to go.

The good thing is that I've spent more time quilting and reading.  (I'll post about books and a local quilt show another day.)  I finished hand quilting "Sunday Morning."  My hope is always to have a new quilt layered and basted before the last one is done but I didn't succeed this time because I didn't have a quilt top ready.

I decided on a narrow red border and a wide brown border for this quilt.  It's the first time I've put two borders on a quilt.  The side borders are narrower than the end borders.  The quilt just seemed to need a little extra length and I felt like the borders worked for the quilt.  At this point I like it a lot.  (Those tan squares remind me of caramels.)

I'm doing simple diagonal quilting using the corner squares as a guide.  I'm not sure what I'll do about the borders but I have time to decide.  (That's probably what I said when I was approaching the finish of "Sunday Morning," too:  I have plenty of time to get another quilt layered and ready to quilt.  Ha!)  Still, I think about the border as I quilt, wondering if continuing the diagonal lines into the borders will be good or whether I should consider a different kind of quilting around the outside of the quilt.

Apologies for the poor photo.  I'll replace it with a better one if I can.  (EDIT:  You can see a better photo at here.

I'm linking this post to WOW at Esther's Blog.

Thanks for visiting.

--Nancy.
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Slow Stitching

"Stitching on the Terrace" by Henri LeBasque

Wishing you a pleasant, relaxed, refreshing Sunday.

--Nancy.

This Week's Work in Progress: Ironing and Organizing

It doesn't look like much now, but it was a stack of fabric -- several dozen washed and cut-apart upcycled shirts -- folded loosely in quarters.  (Most of the fabrics on the top of each stack were the ones I worked on this week.)

I spent two days ironing those shirts.  Ironing takes a lot of time!  I hope I've learned my lesson to keep up with it as the shirts are washed and dried instead of letting them pile up.

I cleaned out and rearranged the closet a few months ago and hadn't gotten around to moving fabric into it.  It's a wide closest -- 10 or 11', but the shelves are only 11" deep.  One side has paper supplies, family history notebooks, and some other things.  This side I will devote to fabric.

But that's not all of my fabric, of course.  I have a bookshelf with mostly fat quarters in it.  (My least favorite color is yellow.  Knowing that you must wonder about that yellow box, and the tall stack of yellow fabric.  I think I ignore that box.  The yellow fabric is the result of a search for cream fabric.  At the store it looks cream, at home it looks yellow.  Sigh.)

For the most part it's neat, but there are a few messy stacks.

When I don't know what to do with a piece of fabric I just put it on the stack.  There are some odd-sized pieces that I can't bring myself to cut but I don't know how I'll use them.  I sometimes have a hard time just passing fabric along.  Do you?

I have more fabric upstairs in an armoire in our bedroom:  some long pieces for backs, more shirt and clothing fabrics, and some short yardage.  They are organized by color in large boxes.  I have so much fabric and I'm such a slow worker.  I'll die before I use half of it! 

As I worked at ironing the fabric I kept thinking about the possibilities of quilts to make.  The more I thought, the more undecided I became.  I think Indecision is the thief of creativity.

I've also been quilting my Sunday Morning.  The more I work on it the less I like it.  I think that's the cycle of my quilting life:  love it, not sure about it, don't like it, think it's okay, love it.  I also laid out the string snowball to think about a border.  As I near the end of quilting Sunday Morning I'll want to have another quilt ready for quilting.

That's been most of my week.  I'm eager to begin another quilt or two but for me it's better if I finish at least one I have in progress.  (Or maybe not.)

I'm linking this post to WOW at Esther's Blog.  Thanks for hosting, Esther.

Happy quilting (or organizing) to you!

--Nancy.