All About Bindings

     Where has the time gone? I meant to post about what I did while sewing at my friends house. That was Tuesday, and it's Saturday already, and I don't even know how tat happened! Oh well. 

     Tuesday at Eleanor's house was all about bindings. I now have 2 quilts at the quilter's waiting to be quilted. My Let's Polka king size quilt, and the Trip Around the World variation that is not yet named. So, the first priority was to make bindings for each of them, so that when they came back I would be ready.

     Next, I added bindings to the pot holders I had previously made; so I could carry them with me and hand stitch them down when ever I had time.

      I had a little time left at Eleanor's, so I sewed some strip groups together for another quilt I have "in the pipeline" More about that one in a future post.

     Since then I have been working on making some more pot holders.

 

    I was planning to sew a couple pairs last night while watching Bonnie Hunter's quilt cam; but I ended up cooking while she was on, and didn't get to my sewing until after she was off. In my scrap organizing, I found a bunch of left over strip sets from quilts that were made years ago. They made piecing for the pot holders interesting and quick! It was a lot of fun playing with them.  I now have 9 pairs sewn, so I now have a good group that only need to have bindings applied. I want to have as many sets as possible done for my 2 October shows. The first of which will be on October 13 and 14.  I figure if I just get the bindings machine sewn on them, and get a few hand stitched to begin with, I can hand sew some of them while I sit in my booth, and in the evenings after the show. I hope to get between 10-20 pairs done.  I do have a couple of pairs completely finished; hand stitching and all.

     That's what I have been up to lately, thanks for stopping by!

A Finished Quilt!, Scrap control, and PotHolders for show

     On my September 13th post I showed a picture of a bunch of strips I was sewing together.  This weekend I got that quilt top finished; and the back too! This is a record for me; although it was only a lap quilt. I have been wanting to try this for a long time. I alternated my cross cuts between square, and rectangular.

     While I was sewing this, I used my solid blocks for "leaders and enders".

     I have also been working on sorting my scraps into bins. The categories I am using are: narrow strips(2 1/2" or less), wide strips, large triangles, small triangles, small bits, medium, large, already sewn together. This last is for leftovers from strip piecing.  The reason I am doing this now, after years of procrastination, is because I want to use them to make some pot holders for the 2 art shows I will be participating in later in the month.

     I can tell this is going to be addictive. I finished 2 pairs yesterday, and have already made 3 more pairs today. Let's see how many pairs I can get together this fall.

     It is getting late, and I am going to a friends house to sew tomorrow, and I still have to figure out which project I will bring to work on. Thanks for stopping by!

Fabric Spaghetti

      I sewed all of my strip #1s to my strip #2s, all of my #3s to my #4s, all of my #5s to my #6s...you get the idea... through #11s and #12s.

     Then, I pressed all of the seams toward the even numbered strips.

     
      I also added a D hanging sleeve to the My Water Lilies quilt to make it ready to ship to The Georgia Quilt Show. The Georgia Quilt Show sent me this link to show how to make the sleeve. tallgrassprariestudio.blogspot.com I was a bit conflicted about this. I always put a hanging sleeve on my quilts, but I usually prefer a flat sleeve  because I think they are nicer when the quilt is on the bed, which it is most often. I guess I can always take it off later. I spent the evening with friends; doing the hand stitching, which made it go much quicker.

     My next task? Sewing 1/2 combos to 3/4 combos, 5/6 combos to 7/8 combos,and 9/10 combos to 11/12 combos.

Thanks for stopping by!

    

Waiting for back fabric, a new project

    I found out today that one of my quilts will hang in the Georgia Quilt show.  

 
    I met with my client last week, and she chose colors to go on the back of the Let's Polka quilt. Now I am waiting for that fabric to get here before I can proceed.

     In the mean time, I have been working on more HSTs for the solid quilt. All of the squares are paired and marked.

     I also have been working on some pieced triangles for the Bird Cage Quilt.

     These will be mixed in with a couple of other types of equilateral triangles in groupings in the blank areas in some of the corners.







     I made these by cutting the central triangles. Then I added a long thin strip.

 

I trimmed the strip after it was sewn to the triangle. Ignore the piece of tape. It is on the ruler for an entirely different project. 

     I even let myself start a new project. I have been wanting to try his for a while. It is going to be similar to a trip around the world, but I want to try something a bit different. I have all of my strips cut.

 

    I have made myself a cheat sheet so I can  remember the order of the colors.

     I got one strip set sewn together to see what it looks like.

         But when you find yourself sewing strips of the same fabric to each other, it is time to give up and go to bed!

Thanks for stopping by!