Too small backing debacle

I made the back wider for the big quilt, but it was dubious whether the length would be okay. I have learned a great lesson today...don't take a quilt if the backing isn't correct! I started as close to the top roller as possible, and began quilting. And quilting, and quilting, and quilting. Oh crap! I got to the last row and the backing was an inch and a half short. The maker is a friend, and I am hoping she will just cut off an inch and bind the thing. I wound the whole quilt back until I could reach the ironing board with it still mounted to the leader. I sewed a long piece of fabric to fit and fused it with batting tape to the too short back. After rolling the entire thing back on the front roller, I realigned the pattern and finished quilting. Egads! That whole gerry-rigged fix took an hour to accomplish. Never again!

Loaded and ready

What seemed like a million years later, all finished.

It is a beautiful quilt, but I'll be happy to see it go home!

Pantro: Swirls and Bubbles

The back looks great. See there pieced column? I guess we needed one the other way, too!

I got a bit of Christmas gift work done, too. Some placemats and bowl cozies. I also finished sewing the blocks for the red and tan quilt and sewed it together. I think it needs a border, but I wonder if I have something that will match okay. That's for tomorrow! We received a tin of cookies from my son today...I hear them calling me.

It needs finishing, but will be a nice gift.

The customer with the steam punk quilt gave me her leftover bits from the quilt, so I made some bowl cozies for a guy who admired the naked girls on the fabric.
I hope his wife thinks its funny, too.

NO, NO, NO!! More too small backings

We took in a couple of Christmas gift quilts as favors to the customers, and promised to get them done in good time for the holiday. Both have too small backings!! AAARRRRGGGGHHH!!! After my doctor appointment (I'm fine!) and a grocery trip, I set to work fixing the backs for quilting.
The first one is a small gingerbread man throw, with more gingerbread men on the back. The back and front exactly the same size. I cut off the 2 1/2 inch strips that were added by the quilt maker to make the backing bigger, and added 6 inches all around of a nice red and black checked fabric from my stash. This added the 5 inches I need for attaching the quilt to the roller bars and to attach the side clamps during quilting. Hopefully, I can finish the quilting when I get home from the guild Christmas party today.

Off to the races with the quilting!

The other quilt was a very honest error. The customer bought wide backing thinking it was 108" wide. It is not. The fabric is 104" wide and will not work either direction for a 102X104" top. She quickly made a strip of leftover blocks, and yesterday, I cut the backing into two pieces, and sewed the pieced strip into the backing. One more seam and I will be ready to quilt that one, too.

The pieces are lined up and pinned together. I just have to sew it up and press the seams.

Meanwhile, the blocks I started over the weekend will languish for a while longer while I do the quilting on the customer projects.

The pieces are all stacked and ready to sew.

Here is a picture of the quilt I am making. I got the little booklet at a shop in Wisconsin last summer.

The weather has turned gray, wet and cold here, so Christmas preparations take place indoors where it is warm and dry. We finished the last of the tree decorating and I wrote the Christmas cards. Everything is wrapped and either under the tree or in boxes ready to send today. Next week, I will switch gears to cookie baking and get that done. Two weeks left to get everything ready!

Yukky weather

Mr Wazoo changed the decorative pots to winter hardy plants. Ornamental cabbages and pansies do very well here over the cold months.

Here, you can see the colors  better on the dogwood decorations.

Santa Street runs right along the driveway so Santa can park the sleigh without hitting a tree!

Our tree is looking good now that it has candy canes and little birds.
Don't you love Christmas?!