It’s been taking me a long time to quilt the Urban Nature quilt.

It’s big.

It’s heavy.

Today was the home stretch.  One row 19 x 95 left to quilt.  Almost there…that’s what I kept telling myself.  Here I am about to quilt the very last corner and remove those last 3 basting pins!  I could barely contain myself.

It’s big.

It’s heavy.

Binding is next, and oh how that scares me!!!  To think that I’ll be working on the outer 1/4 inch edge of the quilt with all the quilt’s weight pulling against me as I sew the binding is really intimidating.  But I’ll have plenty of time to frett about the binding, because I need to put this project on hold while I get a couple others started and completed.  When it rains it pours!

I have been a bit intimidated really freaked out about finishing the Urban Nature quilt top, and that’s why I’ve been busying myself with other projects.  But this week I got the urge to complete this project, and much to my surprise, the quilt top actually came together quite nicely and pretty quickly, especially considering the 95 inch square size.

Then it was on to getting the quilt top ready to quilt.  I decided to do straight line quilting with some outline quilting and some other stuff.  So to make it more manageable I figured on piecing the batting.  I cut a piece of batting about 35 x 108, and pinned the center of the quilt.  I then folded both sides very compactly and pinned them down so they wouldn’t turn into a ridiculous pile of fabric.

I started my straight line quilting and while I think straight line quilting can look really cool, I absolutely loathe doing it.  So I ripped the little bit of straight line quilting out and decided I would do an all over meander.  So I quilted the center section.  Tonight I pieced the batting on the right side and quilted one more row (totally recommend the joining foot for your machine…makes piecing the batting pretty easy and there’s no bulky seam…think zig zag stitch to to join the edges of the batting together, and the result is totally flat).  For some reason I broke 4 needles…I rarely break needles so this was strange, and I can’t figure out why the needles were breaking…I wasn’t running over pins, so by the time the 4th one broke, I decided that enough was enough for tonight.

It’s taking A LONG time but it’s coming along and it looks really good.  I honestly never thought I would be able to quilt something this big!

Far left row: pin basted and ready to quilt.  Middle 2 rows: quilted rows.  Far right row: neatly folded top and back pinned down to make it a more manageable size.  I cannot even imagine how heavy this baby would be if I had sandwiched the whole thing and pin basted the whole thing!

It’s been a while since I’ve worked on quilting.  I’ve been so busy…we had house guests and then my oldest was sick.  I do most of my quilting in the evenings after the kiddos are in bed, but with the start of the fall tv season, I’ve discovered a few new shoes that I just love, so that means there is even less time to sew and quilt.

Anyway, I finished quilting the baby quilt, (still without a name), and last night I prepared the binding and sewed it to the front of the quilt.  Now I’m on to hand stitching the binding to the back of the quilt—a good task to do in front of the tv!

Thanks to Jen and Emily for their suggestions on what to name this quilt.  I’ve narrowed it down to 2 options: (1) Caterpillar’s Meadow (2) Pink-A-Boo.  Which one you like best?

For the quilting I used Sulky Blendables Thread…I so love this thread!  I used #4026 Earth Pastels.  I’ve used the blendable thread before: Butterfly Fling Squares (#4102 Spring Garden); Mod Quilt Sampler (#4030 Vintage Rose); Red, White, & Bold (#4105 America).   If you’ve never used the blendales thread I totally recommend it as it blends really well when you have a top with lots of different colors and if you use a light solid back, the back looks really cool.  When I’m done with the quilt I’ll take some closeups of the back and post the pictures.

I love making baby quilts!

One of my best friends is having her second baby.  She’s having a girl.  My friend doesn’t really like girly colors or baby colors (ie, no pastels and nothing overly girly).  She likes earthy colors.  So I dug deep in my collection and came across a fat quarter bundle I had of About Town, by Monaluna for Robert Kaufman.  Perfect.

I chose the Sanpshots patern from the Happy Hour (by Atkinson Designs) pattern book.  I love all the patterns in this book, and can’t wait to try them all!

So loving how this baby quilt is turning out!  It’s girly, without being overly girly and it’s also earthy with the browns and greens!

I need help naming this quilt!!!  Any suggestions?

I’ve been working on a new quilt.  I’m excited about this quilt…raw edge applique.

Then last night as I was quilting I noticed that the bottom tension was loose.  I couldn’t figure out the problem.  It was already midnight, so I went to bed and figured I would deal with it in the morning.

Because I didn’t get much sleep last night (long story short: Steve is out of town and both kiddos were up separately during the night for extended periods of time) when I got onto my machine this morning I just started quilting.

Then it dawned on me that I never addressed the tension problem.

I turned the quilt over and it’s a mess.

Now I have to rip out nearly 335 inches of straight line quilting.  Arggggg!!!!!!!!

I tried to figure out the problem, but I couldn’t, and as I was packing up the machine to bring in it get repaired it dawned on me that I never rethreaded the needle.  So I pulled the thread out and rethreaded.  Problem fixed!  After hours of quilting and trying to figure this tension problem out it came down to simply rethreading!!!  Wish it would’ve occurred to me sooner.

Tonight’s task: ripping out all that mess!

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Wednesday night through Thursday I was on a roll…determined to finish these blocks.  Now that the blocks are done I need to figure out the layout.

I also went to my local quilt shop and ordered this book.  It was recommended to me because the author makes king size quilts on her domestic machine by quilting in sections.  I’m not piecing the top together just yet, because I think some of the tips and strategies are to piece and quilt as you go, which decreases the bulk to maneuver through the machine.  I have no idea when the book will be in, but I’m looking forward to getting and reading it.   That said it might be some time before I tackle this quilting.

Here are the remaining blocks and possible layout (I had no idea my living room was such a mess until I looked at the last picture!)

Here’s the possible layout.  Do you know how hard it is to find a 100″ square piece of unoccupied floor in my house?  When I lay this baby out again I’ll have to move some furniture around in the playroom, because my living room floor is just not quite big enough.

Can you see the Ellie Fun quilt and Rocqua Rhythm quilt on my couch?  Love those quilts!

The wheels are also turning for the next project.  Stay tuned.

Blocks 15 and 16 are done.  Only 9 more to go!

I love how this block turned out, and unfortunately the photo really doesn’t do this block justice.  The flower is a charcoal grey color, and to bring out that color I chose a green fabric that has a lot of grey in it to be the initial framing fabric.  It really brings out the grey, and it looks really cool.

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After the long weekend of fun activities (but no sewing) I got back to sewing last night while watching the FSU Miami football game…great game!

I now have 14 blocks done.  14 down and 11 to go!

Blocks 1-14

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Here are blocks 11 and 12:

I’m working through the green framing fabric right now.  Then I’ll move on to the browns, and then the cream.  Here are blocks 9 and 10 for the Urban Nature quilt:

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