Binding Update

Hello my friend!

I'm motoring right along with my St. Patrick's Day T-Shirt quilt.  I took it off the frame a couple days ago and started to think about a binding.  Luckily I remembered that I way over-cut this Kona Parrot green fabric into 2 1/2" strips.  I don't bind at  2 1/2" - I prefer a 2 1/4" - but I really didn't relish the idea of cutting 1/4" off all the strips!

Luckily I have the 2 1/4" strip die for my AccuQuilt cutter.  I just laid them out, stacked a few strips high, and ran it through.

Perfect and so fast!  So little waste.  Someone actually seemed surprised to find out I still die-cut a while back LOL!  I asked them - still rotary cut?  They rolled their eyes at me - but seriously?  Why would I pick up a rotary cutter when I own the die and I have a bunch of strips to cut?

After cutting and preparing the binding I love using my Binding Babies to wind it and dispense the binding.  My favourites are always the limited edition ones that I get directly from the company - like my cute little vampire.  I have a bunch of these so I can leave my favourite colours prewound and beautifully displayed ;-)

Next up - I think I'll start a new Leaders and Enders project that I've been thinking about for a while - orange and grey.

I know - not everyone's cup of tea but I adore orange and grey together.  I'm thinking of an alternating orange and grey 16-patch and maybe a snowball or a star sashing with black points to make it into a fall sort of Halloween quilt.  

I'm honestly looking forward to getting back to straight up good-old 2" squares and no HSTs!

What do you think?  Grey and orange - yes or nay?

 

The Split 9-Patch Centre is Complete!!

Hello my friend!

Thank you all to warm welcome back to blogging.  It feels good to be sharing in this format again. For a while I thought that social media would completely replace a blog - nope!  I was wrong.  There's something beautiful about this longer form of communication.  I know another that contributed to my lack of blogging was that I was trying to blog from my iPad - huge mistake!  It takes way too long.  I have a new Apple laptop and wow what a difference!

Yesterday we took my son to Trent University - and left him there!  :-o

That was hard and nerve wracking if I can be honest.  I had great plans to come home and get the final row done but it didn't happen.  Instead, we came home and chilled.  The campus is beautiful, right on the water and his housemates seem nice - so he's in good hands.

Instead I got up this morning and finished the last row in this Split 9-Patch quilt.  I went outside and sat at the water to pin the row.  This is always a big job in a Leaders and Enders quilt like this because there are so many points and seams.  This was a nice way to do the pinning ;-)

After sewing the last row on I had to see it out and wow!  I'm in love!  All this from the humble Split 9-Patch.

Look at how all the colours look like sparkles in the dappled light.  So many colours, and they all come together in the end.

With all of my L&E quilts I go through a hate stage.  I get to the point where I just want to throw it all in the garbage, donate it or just get rid of it somehow.  This job just seemed too big, too drawn out and, frankly, taking way too long.

Started in 2011 (when I purchased the 1.5" finished HST die) to having the centre finished in 2023.  This is actually a pretty big quilt.  I had to lay it out on a Queen sized bed to see how it lays and I'm so surprised to say it's actually dropping over the edge a few inches.

I was going to do a more elaborate border, but, now, I'm thinking a smaller first and a wider second border - simple.  No idea of the colour yet but I will be pulling from my stash.  Thoughts?

 

Pinning the Night Away!

Just because it is a leaders and enders project doesn't mean it doesn't deserve to have a few pins!

Yes that is me sitting there in my pajamas pinning my leaders and enders (L&E) project while watching TV.  I have to admit that I am looking forward to finishing this project.  All those open points where you have to insert a pin to find the point and then pin on either side etc etc ~ well I am getting a little tired of it.  I have my next L&E all ready to go so that's probably a big part of it  LOL!  I honestly don't mind pinning in front of the TV though.  It's easy and relaxing and it really affects the end result of the project.  I think I treat pinning the way a lot of quilters I know treat hand turning the binding to the back.  It's a nice easy bit of hand-work.  Personally I've been doing as many bindings by machine as I possibly can now :-D

Doesn't my hand-full of pinned blocks look pretty?  They are all ready to go and will become L&E now that they are pinned.  It is amazing how many you can do in such a short period of time!  I do like working on another project while I am working on my main one.  Or, should I say, main one for the moment!  I have been working on a few projects at a time for a while now and loving it!  Maybe it's because I have been dealing with my scraps right away, instead of shoving them in a bin, or, maybe it's just that I am in the mood to quilt again.  I don't really know ~ but I can say that I enjoyed pinning tonight.  It made me see the progress that's been made and that the next step is coming up!

I worked on a few different things this weekend and had a great time spending the whole day in my PJ's today.  Decedent I know!

What did you all work on this weekend?  Accomplish anything?  I love to read your comments so don't be shy ~ reply!

Chat soon!

I Think I Win

I think I win the award for stupidest quilting mistake ever!  I was working on this "leaders and enders" project a bit last night.  I've been working on this project for a couple years now as I piece it while I piece other things.  I really like the secondary pattern that is created with the off-white fabric and it is finally getting big enough that I was thinking that it might be time to put on a first boarder.  So I sewed a couple more rows onto the quilt and left it on my ironing board last night so that it would be out for me to work on today after my fitness class.

In the first picture you can see the sun shining on the quilt.  So when I was looking at the top today I noticed something really odd, confusing and frustrating.  Can you see it?  You might need to enlarge the picture to see it but it's there.

Hint:  look at the off-white background fabrics.

 Can you see it now?  I'm pointing at it.

Yep.  One of the off-white background squares is a completely different print in the same colour!!  How could I have:
a) got one square of this fabric into the stack?
b) not noticed this sooner?

This particular piece of fabric had to go through my sewing machine multiple times and I didn't notice it!  How could I have not noticed this?  I am completely confused.  Every other off-white is the same print except this one.

Now I am not really sure what to do.  Do I leave it and just try and pretend that it's not there?  Or, do I pull that square out and sew in a proper one?  If I am going to pull the block now would be the time to do it.  Once it's machine quilted it's not going anywhere.  I am starting to feel about done with this quilt so I think a lot of my frustration is coming from the realization that I have to do some really fussy work to re-work the center of the quilt. Yuck!

I just don't know what to do here.  Please leave a comment and give me your opinion!!!