Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Summer!

I am taking advantage of this early morning when 2 of my 3 kids are not down yet to attempt a blog post.  I was quilting, and probably still should be.  Heaven knows in 3 hours when I contemplate doing a little more stitching, it will be near impossible!

Here's the last custom for a while.  It's for a MA lady that has sent me 4 others this winter/spring. They all use many of these same fabrics.  She requested dense stitching.
 The kaleidoscope block can be a pain, dealing with that center point where 8 triangles all come together.  Mostly these did just fine, but every now and then there is a dimple.  It will soften with use.
 This has a Hobbs wool batting, and I chose a medium gray/silver Wonderfil Master Quilter thread.  The thread is a 40wt, but has less sheen than Glide.  It mostly disappears on all but the darkest reds.
 I hope she likes the quilting...
I have started on a pile of nice, stress-free edge to edge quilt tops.  I hope to have 5 of these done in the next 4 weeks.  If anybody needs an edge-to-edge quilted, I do have openings for 4-6 more in August.

During the kids' last week of school, I managed to get the outer borders added to this quilt of mine, but not without a little piecing drama first.  I miscut that 2" green border too narrow, and ended up adding it in 2 pieces.  That is just not how I do things; made me pretty angry!  And I don't want to order fabric right now with our big vacation and all of its expenses looming.  I have resorted to making a 1/4" silk bias piping to attach at this "joint".  So, what should have been a quick and easy 2" border to add by machine, has turned into a fool's paradise of blunders and a dozen+ hours to hand attach the piping.  Live and learn.  I keep telling myself that it will look good.  This quilt has small silk accents in some blocks, so this is right in keeping with what i have already done.
 Here's the newly squared up center star with its appliqued silk dots.
I have been puttering with possible quilting plans too.  This is really one of my favorite parts of the process -- past the trauma of all the sewing blunders, and before reality sets in that it is not quiltable!
And a little more of summer's color...
I am off to the Vermont Quilt Festival tomorrow.  Hoping to see some good quilts!

2 comments:

Vicki W said...

The quilt is going to be spectacular, as your quilts always are! I'm just grateful that you share so much with us. The customer quilt is beautiful too. Have fun at VQF!

Lynette said...

Ugh!! I bet your piping solution will be absolutely gorgeous, though. The last time I made this kind of mistake, the fix-around ended up far better than the original would have been.