Thursday, November 21, 2019

Time for a road trip

Today I will be going to Blue Ridge Assisted living to give a trunk show and talk about the changes in quilting over the years. I have one duffle full of old quilts that I have either acquired as a quilt and repaired, or got as a top or blocks and made into a quilt. The other duffle is full of my own quilts, both pieced and appliqué, that use elements of the older quilts, but with contemporary fabrics. The only problem I foresee is holding the quilts up for viewing, as I have one assistant and the quilts are mostly big ones! I will be calling the facility at 9:00 to see if they have someone who can help me get the 'dead body' duffles into the room and , maybe, stay to help hod them. Its a long shot, but worth the effort.
Back up to yesterday when I was in the studio working along on my queue of quilts. The first one was another David Gilliland paper pieced project from the class we had a couple of months ago. You have seen one already, but they are all different because of the maker's color choices. I have one more to do after this one.

The maker used a controlled palette of gray tones accented with black. I like the icy look of this quilt.

The Panto is called Chevron, and I spaced them close together and staggered them to mimic the piecing.

She also had me do the label, sleeve and binding. Here is a peek at how I apply a label into the binding. The security of having the label sewn right into the edge protects the quilt from being stolen at shows. I would be really tough to get off once the binding is sewn around the corner. I finished the hand work on the above project last night while watching the Democratic debates.
 
I loaded two quilts mid-day yesterday and I have started both, and almost finished the one on the Millie. When I get home from my talk, I'll get going again, and probably finish the Panto one. Busy day ahead!!

This beautiful brick and block quilt is being custom done. I'll tell more about it later when I finish the quilting.

I am working the squares with a little flower and the bricks with a leafy motif. There will be two colors used. Every other row will be this melon color, and the others a light turquoise. 

This one will be finished soon!
Gosh, I almost forgot to tell you about the speaker at guild on Tuesday night. Jennie told us all about feet for our machines and what they are for. Oh my! Does she have a bunch of feet!! It boggles my mind what can be done with the proper equipment and makes me want to get a couple of feet to make  my sewing easier. Unfortunately, Bernina feet (for my 770QE) are mondo-expensive. I have to really need one to cough up the $100 to own it. We'll see...

Jennie talked about feet while members passed around the feet and gave them a good look. The giant book on the table next to her machine is a compendium of all the feet for her machine. Yikes! In front of the machine is a large box of feet as well as the smaller boxes with fancy feet in them. It was a great talk, informative and fun.
I pulled out this UFO from my Scan and Cut class, and would like to finish it up for Christmas. One panel left to fuse, and I can get the pieces sewn down and the whole shebang assembled and quilted. I think it will be a good Sunday stitching project, don't you?



Tuesday, November 19, 2019

A big finish and forging ahead

The custom job I have been working on for a couple of weeks is finished. I still can't show it to you. The customer requested I not-it it on the blog. Okay... I can show you the thread changes I used. There were a bunch of them.

This may not be an exciting picture, but it represents the work well.
I also quilted a very large tee shirt quilt for a customer's husband. It has shirts from their kid's sports and activities. What a nice gift!

It is big, at 78 x 110, but not the biggest tee shirt quilt I have quilted.

The local school colors are purple, gold and black. 

Panto: Rounded diamonds.

Houndstooth check flannel on the back. This quilt will be really warm!!
Today is guild, and my friend Gail is doing a trunk show. I'm going to try to get some pictures, but it will be hard since I am am also holding up the quilts! Hopefully, I can talk a friend into taking a few shots during the show for the blog and the newspaper. We'll see. Later on, we will be traveling to Blue Ridge for the evening guild. A full day, for sure!


Sunday, November 17, 2019

A little Christmas detour

Today was a big Christmas prep sewing day! I finished the farm quilt for my daughter, and made six of twelve placemats. The other six have been cut but not bound. It will have to wait. Tomorrow is a big custom quilting day.

Hot off the frame, with the binding attached.
I finished the hand sewing while watching a Christmas movie.

I used a loose swirly panto to keep the quilt soft and cuddly.

Really soft flannel backing.

Six placemats ready for someone's dinner.

Reversible, too!
I did quilt a customer quilt, too. I feel guilty if I don't accomplish something for the business every day.

This was another giant quilt. There have been a lot of them this last couple of weeks!

The quilter made it perfectly flat and square. I love that!
The pattern and colors are lovely, aren't they?
 
Panto: Maple leaves

The simple muslin back really shows the quilting.
I'd better hit the hay! Tomorrow is going to be a custom quilting day. Standing up for eight hours. Oh joy...