Sunday, November 29, 2009

Please don't look at the back!!


Well, I finished piecing the top but please don't look at the back. You know, I have a quarter inch foot and I measure with a host of quilting rulers........I can't believe what a variance there was each time I cut and sewed pieces together. My mentor Lisa would be shocked and dismayed BUT......................if you don't tell, I may just be able to pull it off because the affect is a success.................may be an optical illusion but ...it works.Thanks Lisa and Nancy for the color advice!! Sorry about the camera wire in the corner. Today I had a proud moment in my motherhood career. My daughter Vanessa had a "premier event experience" participating in the annual "second storie indie market 2009".
She has a site on Etsy and has had much
success selling on the internet.......................Today she sold at a craft fair for the first time and we enjoyed watching people purchase her loom woven scarves after viewing, touching and trying on her beautiful creations. Check out her work at http://www.etsy.com/shop/pidgepidge

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Bento Box



Well, I finished the blue quilt-no photo yet cause I have yet to gently wash it-love the way that first wash yields all the puckers!!
I have begun piecing the Red-lover grandson's Christmas present. I am referring to the Bento Box Quilt I am working through the vague directions I have gleaned from several articles and blog posts. Basically it is like a log cabin quilt in that you create a design with fabric strips that are frames around a center square. The trick is that you then slice those 16 inch blocks into quarters and sew THEM together to yield Bento Boxes.
Here is a sneak peak-you can see that I have just folded the three top squares in order to demonstrate the transformation. I need to really press the framed blocks and cut them to square them up for size before I quarter them. That will take time, several trips to the basement where the Rowenta iron lives and precision slicing.
I'm certain that the project would have been easier if I had ordered a pattern........... because my thoughts of random cutting and paring of color failed. I realized that each four block arrangement needs to have the strips arranged with opposite colors when next to the section you will sew them to ..............after the quartering. Not sure if you get it but check out the photo to see that each seam has opposite fabrics.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Light at the end...........



Well, I thought I was well on my way last post................but there is a lot of quilting to do in order to cover an entire quilt top. I finally finished the machine quilting and have made the binding.

Next, I will sew the binding on and I have put in a couple of straight pins to show where the stitches will be and then rolled the folded strip over to show how the finished edge will look. I usually use a "walking foot" to sew the many layers together so that the binding doesn't slip. The walking foot is an
attachment that has "feed dogs" like the ones under the needle plate on the sewing machine. With feed dogs on the bottom and on the top of the fabric, all layers of fabric will move under the needle at the same speed and without sheering away from each other.

SNEAK PEAK AT THE FABRIC FOR THE OTHER GRANDSON'S QUILT!!!