Here in Kansas, this time of year, the grass should be brown from the hot summer time temperatures. This year, the grass is still green, I guess because we’ve had cool weather all summer, with lots of rainfall. We’ve had over 5″ of rain just this week. I don’t think we’ve even hit 100 degrees this summer. We only had 4 days in the 90’s for the entire month of July. That’s not right!! I love hot summer days! I’m getting ripped off this year.

To make things even worse. Look at what I’m seeing out my kitchen window.

There is a tree that’s already turning red! It’s too early for that!! I hope that doesn’t mean we’re going to have an early winter! That’s a depressing thought. Can you tell I don’t like winter? LOL!!

Oh well, on to quilting. My sister made this little wall hanging from some strips that she received at our guilds poker night a while back.  I finally got it quilted for her.

I put the chubby leaves in the border and I thought I’d see how it looks with 2 vein lines instead of just one like I always put in there. I like the double vein look. I’ll have to do that more often.

I loaded a Laurel Birch panel quilt earlier today, so I guess I better get back to work on it. Have a nice day!

Theresa

I’ve decided that in order for me to finish the quilt top that has been on my design wall since February, I’m going to have to make myself work on it for 10 minutes a day.  I have found that this usually works for me. Just 10 minutes. That’s it! I think I can find 10 minutes in my day to quickly sit down at my DSM and sew.  I sat down last night and sewed 4 sets of blocks into pairs.

I’ll then sew the pairs into squares. I have 8 out of 16 large squares sewn together.

I really need to finish this. I’m ready to look at something new on my design wall. LOL!!

I did the sewing on the blocks while taking a break from quilting.  You know sometimes, it feels good to sit down for a minute. LOL!! Anyway, this is a block from the quilt I was working on. I put  loops with flowers and leaves in the background behind the baskets.

My customer picked it up this morning. Now I need to get the next one loaded on.

Well, that’s it! Have a great day!

Theresa

Have you ever wondered how to do this?  Well, here is the way that I sew mine on.  I cut my binding strips @ 2 1/2″ then fold in half and press.

First, make your binding and press the beginning of it diagonally. Then trim the excess away.

Working from the front of the machine. (I like to start down anywhere from 6 to 10″  inches from the upper right hand corner of the quilt.)  Lay the binding on the quilt, backstitch to secure the thread then take a few stitches, stop and open the beginning of the binding. Sew down a few inches, then stop and close the binding strip. I use the foot as a guide. When I start off, I sew a little closer to the edge, so that when I come back, those stitches will be covered and I don’t have to worry about not hitting the exact sewing line. (since I can’t see it when I come back. LOL!)

Make sure that as you sew, you are keeping the binding even with the edge of the quilt.  Stop with the needle down, and advance the quilt as needed.

When you get to the corner, stop the distance of the hopping foot (if that’s what you’re using as your guide) away from the bottom edge of the quilt. Sew off the quilt to your right.

Fold the binding as you would on your DSM.

Then start sewing across the bottom of the quilt.  Making sure that you keep the binding and the edge of the quilt even.

Repeat this process for each corner. The lower left corner and up the left side of the quilt is the trickiest. You are actually going to be going backwards, and sewing away from you.

I lay the binding on the edge of the quilt and hold it down with my fingers to keep it from moving. Stop with needle down and roll the quilt as needed.

Continue to the upper left corner, across the top to the upper right hand corner and you’re almost finished.

Take the binding strip, lay it down on the already sewn binding to see where you need to cut it, so that it will fit up into the already sewn down part of the binding.  I like to make it a pointy diagonal, it seems to fit up into the binding better.

Lift up the beginning of the binding. Remember the part that you didn’t sew down in the beginning? That’s where you stick the end of the binding strip. Then lay it back down. Make sure that both the beginning and end of the binding strips are nice and even, then sew down the remaining binding.

Here it is finished.

Now I take it off the machine, trim the edges and hand sew it down.  At that point I also use  a matching thread and  small stitches to  close the diagonal area where  the ends meet.

Ok, that’s it. Did it make sense? I hope I explained everything alright, if not, let me know and I’ll try to explain it better.  If you have any questions please ask!

Also, please tell me if you try this and how you liked it.  It does save time and no wrestling with the quilt at the DSM. LOL!!

Have a great day!

Theresa

Well, I wrote a while back about wanting to start on a new project and it finally got the better of me! I started working on it! I ordered a  bolt of this beautiful hand dyed 108″ wide backing fabric and when it came I just thought it was so pretty!  Anyway, I had ordered a set of patterns of state birds and flowers back in 2003 (I looked at the post mark) and I thought hmmmmmmmmm, I wonder what that would look like if I embroidered it in white? hmmmmmmmmm So anyway, I couldn’t wait any longer and I marked one block and started work on it. Here it is. What do you think?

So far I’m lovin it! I started it Thursday night and Friday I decided that I needed to make a bag to carry it in. That way, I’ll have everything together and if I need to grab it and head out the door, all I have to do is grab the bag and go. So………today, I made a bag for it.

I combined 2 different pattern ideas and made it the size I wanted. It folds open so that I can get to what I want.  I put pockets on the inside to hold certain things.

I’m going to add velcro to the upper corners to help hold it closed. I will also put a small piece of velcro behind the yellow pocket and the turquoise pocket to hold them closed.

The turquoise pocket will hold the patterns and blocks when I get them cut.

The orange pocket is divided into 3 sections and will hold the embroidery floss,  scissors and the pens I use to mark the patterns. The green strip is the bottom of the bag.

The yellow pocket will hold the finished blocks and the pink pocket will hold the block that I’m working on.

Well, that’s what I’ve accomplished over the weekend.  As soon as I get the velcro pieces sewn on, I’ll be all done with it! Yeah!! The bag anyway!!! LOL!!!  It will take years to make 50 blocks. That’s one reason why I chose to make the bag using a black fabric! LOL!!  Who knows what the bag will look like after I tote it around for ?????years.

That’s it for now……………….

Theresa

I didn’t get a whole lot of quilting done today, but I did get some of the blocks quilted. I thought I’d share a tip that I used today for marking. I made radiating lines coming out from the design in the center, so instead of using a ruler and marking off every so many inches on each side and having to find the center of each block,  I cut a square of paper the size of the block and then folded in half, folded again in half, then again so that I had even folds along the edges. I then clipped the edge of the folds, so that I could use that as a guide. I then opened the paper and folded the opposite way, to get the other side marked so that it has little notches all the way around. I then laid it on the block and made little marks in each notched area.

Then I took a long ruler and connected the marks, so that I could see where to quilt when I was against the design. (I used a disappearing pen and it didn’t stay on there very long.) Once I started I had to work fast!

If you haven’t used folded paper for marking distances on sections, it is quick and easy. It can also be used in sashings.

Ok that’s if for now. I’ll get back to canning tomatoes. They are finally coming on strong, so the next few weeks I’ll be canning lots of tomatoes and making salsa. Yum! Yum!

Have a great one!

Theresa