I’ve had the quilting done for the Urban Nature quilt for some time now.  The next step was binding.  Admittedly I was a nervous to do the binding mostly because at 95 x 95 working on the outer 1/4 inch of the quilt all the way around really made me nervous.  Today I decided to take the plunge.  And it really wasn’t all that bad.  Dare I say no more challenging than the 60 x 70 quilts I’ve done.

I’ve noticed lately that if the presser foot pressure is the same as it is when you sew or piece the top when you are trying to sew the binding it creates too much pressure causing the binding fabric to shift in ways you don’t necessary want.  (I realize I didn’t explain that well, but I’m not sure how else to explain it).  So I decided to experiment with the presser foot pressure, and I found that if I decrease the pressure just a bit the binding sews on beautifully.  For example with regular sewing on my machine the presser foot pressure is set to 6.  When I free motion quilt I set the presser to 2, and with the binding I set the dial between 4 and 5.  Anyway, I’ve never heard of decreasing the presser foot pressure for binding, but for me it made a big difference.

I decided to quilt the Bowl of Cherries quilt top with cherries.  I thought that would be cute.  And it is.

But it was way more work than I anticipated.  Stippling/meandering is so second nature to me that I really don’t have to think while I’m doing it…my hands just know what to do and it flows smoothly.  This was the first time I tried the cherries, and admittedly I probably should’ve tried it on a small quilt first, but I guess because I’m so comfortable with stippling/meandering I didn’t think it would be a big deal.

It was so much more time consuming than I thought it would be.  I had to really think about what I was doing and where I was going.  I’m sure it didn’t help that I was attempting this new technique on a quilt 67 x 74.  That’s pretty large and challenging to maneuver, and with quilting the cherries, I really needed to be able to move the quilt sandwich around so that the cherries wouldn’t all face the same direction.  One thing that I’m so glad I did was quilt from the back.  The backing (above) was just one fabric and far less busy than the top.  I’m glad I thought ahead to do that because with this technique being able to really see where you’ve been and where you’re going is critical (at least for trying a new technique).  So, it was a challenge, nonetheless, and I’m finally done—I’m so excited to be done with the quilting.

Now on to the binding and hand stitching it to the back.

It must just be this time of year, because I seem to have very little time to sew and quilt.  When I do find time in the evenings, I’m just too tired to do anything other than curl up on the couch under a quilt and watch some tv.

Even with the motivation to want to get this quilt started and completed on a pretty quick schedule, I’ve had a hard time actually doing it.  I need to get it done though, because it’s for my aunt who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, and I’d like for her to have a cheerful quilt to help keep her warm during her treatments.  I also need to finish so that I can start and finish a baby quilt for my cousin who’s daughter is due to arrive in February.

Needless to say, I need to get busy.

For my aunt’s quilt, I’m using one of my all time favorite patterns: Jelly Filled.  I’ve had a jelly roll plus some yardage of Recipe for Friendship by Mary Engelbreit for Moda for about a year…just sitting and waiting for me to do something with…waiting for the perfect occasion.  I thought the cheerfulness of this fabric would be a good choice for this quilt.

The ladies at Jolly Jabber have the fast track to Santa and his elves, so I thought I’d share my letter to Santa.

Dear Santa,

I know you’re super busy this time of year

but have no fear

I have only one wish.

I’ve been waiting patiently for the arrival of Blush,

you see, I have a HUGE crush

and fabric and fabric oh how I love thee,

so I ask with childish glee,

pretty please?

p.s.: here’s a picture of exactly what I want–1 Blush Fat Quarter Bundle from the Fat Quarter Shop

♥ Rachel

I remember as a kid that some kids gave their teachers Christmas gifts.  I don’t think my mom ever did that…if she did I don’t remember.

A friend of mine reminded me that in the school’s directory there’s all sorts of personal info about each teacher like their favorite restaurant, favorite place to shop etc.  Kind of like a huge hint on what to give them for Christmas.

Well, I didn’t want to go out and get a gift card (I’m sure sometime in the future I will), and I wanted to give something homemade.  I decided that dish towels would be a nice festive gift.  The idea comes from Moda Bake Shop.

I originally bought the flour sack dish towels, but after washing, drying, and ironing them, I didn’t like the way they looked, so I bought a 2-pack of microfiber white dish towels instead.  I also didn’t use jelly roll strips…I just used some cute red and white fabric I already had.  To keep the fabric from fraying I cut each strip 1 inch wider and 1 inch longer than I wanted the finished strip to be.  I then pressed each edge 1/2 inch down (so if I wanted a 2.5 inch finished strip x 16 I would cut a 3.5 x 17 inch strip and press the 1/2 inch down all the way around the strip).

I love the result.

Don’t you just love ric rac?

I donated the Chocolate Covered Raspberries quilt to the silent auction at my daughter’s preschool.

I’m not sure how much I thought this sweet homemade baby quilt would fetch for, but I wasn’t prepared for this.  The starting bid was $5, and with increments of at least $5, after 6 bids it was up to $35.  Now the auction doesn’t end until 6pm tonight, but I could barely stomach seeing the $35.  That’s just about the cost of the materials, which means my time was worth $0.

Gulp.

I just swallowed my pride.

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!

The joining edge foot is a time and life saver!  I talked about the foot here, and last night as I pieced the batting together using the joining edge foot I (well my husband actually took the picture) took a picture for you to see how it works.  The concept is pretty simple: set your machine to a zig zag stitch (or similar stitch); take two pieces of batting and place under the presser foot; one piece to the left of the straight metal joining piece and one piece to the right of the straight metal joining piece; stitch.  The end result is a straight flat seam joining the raw edges of both pieces of batting.   Absolutely perfect for joining batting, using up those scraps of batting, and saving money!!!

In this picture I’m piecing the last batting strip (36 x 108) to the rest of the quilt batting.  The quilt is so heavy that I use the chair beside me to support the weight of the quilt so it doesn’t pull on the needle as I quilt.  This chair has been my life saver too!

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!

I made my daughter an adorable layered skirt.  Each layer has a dropped gathered waist…big accomplishment for me seeing this was my first time gathering!  The top layer is a vintage rose floral pattern and the bottom layer is a dark and light pink stripe.  I love the fabrics together, and the skirt is super cute, but too short for my princess.

Live and learn.

I bought lots of different fabric to make skirts, so more are definitely on the horizon.

Vintage Rose Flirty Skirt: