Indigo and Lace

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

In January, I am doing a presentation to the Lafayette County Quilting Guild (those Sew 'n Sews!) on paper piecing.  Because I used that technique with the Four Winds quilt, I have not ripped off the paper on the back of that quilt yet. I want to use that quilt top in my demonstration. That means, it's not sandwiched, and not quilted and no binding on yet. But I can't work on it again until after my presentation!  Hmmm.  What's a girl to do???  Start another quilt, that's what!

And so, let me introduce you to Indigo and Lace:

 I saw this quilt at the Madison Expo in a shop selling quilting kits.   I was impressed with this quilt, and so I bought a kit, and now have time to do it.  Oh, did I mention this Quilt Expo was in Fall of 2012??  !!  Ha!  I have been one busy girl, cranking out quilts left and right!

It looks like a complicated quilt, but here's the beauty of it:  It's a panel quilt!  I have 5 panels to make this quilt. Each panel is cut in quarters and can be rearranged in several different ways.  I am making the large quilt shown above.  It'll be 104 x 104 when finished.  The quilting brings this quilt to life, sewing on those curved triangles makes them pop, and each one looks like it was sewn in individually!!!  I loved that look!  It looked pieced, but was just quilted that way!  Beautiful!  Right now I am working on those sashing strips. thin pieced strip sets.  Tedious.  The fun part of this quilt will be the quilting.  Can't wait to get that far!

One panel

Four Winds Finished Top

I have finished the Four Winds quilt top. It looks beautiful, but it seems a lot smaller than I was hoping.  It measures slightly larger than 80" x 80", and will gain a bit when I bind it, but only less than an inch.  I wish it was bigger.  Here it is on a queen sized bed.  It's wide enough, but I think it should be longer.  Squared quilts always leave me with that feeling.

I am very proud of my mitered corners.  I had to rip out 3 of them and redo them!  I didn't plan on matching the design, I didn't even think of it!  But when I did the tutorial on mitered corners for Dianne, and that corner had this beautifully matched symmetrical design, I HAD to have ALL of them match up!!  It was difficult, and took some fudging.  In theory, they should have ALL matched, like the first one.  But in actuality, some were wider or thinner.  I remeasured and fudged until they all matched.  They don't look like exactly each other, but they are all symmetrical, and I am pleased.

It still has the paper on the backside.  I have to tear that off, but not til after my Quilt Guild presentation in January on paper piecing.  I am using this quilt as an example.

Mitered Corners Tutorial

Just for YOU, Dianne!

To make mitered corners on a border of a quilt, follow these steps:

1)  Normally, when you cut border fabric for your quilt, you measure the width of the quilt and cut a strip to that measurement.  However, if you are going to add a mitered corner, you need the border strip to be longer than the quilt.  Extend the border piece past the edge of the quilt by at least twice what the width of the border is. Do this for BOTH ends because you will be mitering a corner on each end. So if you have a 60 inch quilt side, you would need @ a 72" border strip. (6" for the miter on the left + 60" for the width of the quilt + 6 for the miter corner on the right.)  My border piece is 2.5" wide, and the "tail" is 8 inches.

Sew on the border as usual, right sides together, top of the border  aligned with the top of the quilt.  Don't start sewing at the edge like usual though.  Put a pin at the top at 1/4" from the edge.  When you lay your border strip across your quilt, with the extra sticking off for the miter, you will know where to start sewing. Start sewing 1/4" in from the side, at your pin. Sew a few stitches, then back-stitch to secure the seam, then continue sewing the border until you get near the other side.  Stop sewing before you get to the end, about a quarter inch from the edge. I mark this point with a pin too so I don't forget to stop before I get to the edge.  You don't want to sew right off the edge like usual. And, if the quilt strip is on top, you can't see the edge of the quilt!  So, use a pin!  In the picture above,  you can see the pin that marks the quarter inch where I need to stop sewing in the picture.  BACKSTICH both the starting point and the end to secure the seams.

2)  Sew your second border in the same way, starting and stopping a quarter inch from the side edges, backstitching to secure the seams.  It will look something like what you see on the left--the borders should almost touch when you fold the tails back at 45 degree angles. You can sew a few extra stitches if necessary to get them closer, or tear out a few if they are sewed together.  You want to see a tiny space between them.

3) Press your stitching line to set the seams, then fold your border up and iron it, continue ironing the quarter inch seam allowance on the tails as well.  This will be helpful later on.

Now that your borders are sewed on, we can start the miter.

4)  Fold the quilt diagonally, right sides together.   Make sure that your two borders are matched along the top.  I put in a couple pins up there to hold it.  You want your corner block to be folded at a 45 degree angle.  You can use the markings on your mat or ruler to get an accurate fold.
(Here you can see that I have paper-pieced part of my quilt.  Pay no-nevermind to that!  It is not relevant to the process of mitering corners! Paper piecing is another lesson for another day...!)

5)  Lay your long ruler against the fold, extending that 45 degree angle across your border.  Draw a line against your ruler on the border fabric at that 45 degree angle.  This will be your sewing line.

 

  

6)  Now put pins on both sides of the line, around 3/4 inch from the line.  (This is where you'll find it helpful that you have previously ironed that seam allowance on your tail.)  These pins will hold everything together while you sew.  

7)  Take it to your sewing machine and sew that mitered line you just drew!  You're almost done!

8)  Open it up and take a peek!  Hopefully it'll look wonderful and you won't have to make any "adjustments!"

9)  Cut the tails off around quarter inch from the sewing line.  I like to leave it a little wider, but that's just a personal preference.  Quarter inch is standard.

10)  Press the seam open.  Snip off any "ears" of the seam allowance that stick out.

ALL DONE!

I hope this was helpful.

(Wow!  I hope ALL my corners turn out this gorgeous!!  I didn't plan that corner at all! The pattern looks so round, and the X's sort of flow right into each other!)

Getting There

I have been cranking away on these A and B blocks.  I have only 3 or 4 left to go.  Then the borders.  I have picked up a few tricks along the way, and I can get one of these blocks done in about an hour now.  Here's how it looks so far:

There is one more row to go on the top, I have 3 blocks done.  So, this part is almost done.  I just have to sew the rows together, and then add the borders.  I think it's beautiful.  (Looks better in person than in the picture!) 

Notice my beautiful impatiens plant.  I brought it inside before the first frost and it loves my sewing room. It shed all its flowers and a lot of leaves (it maybe got a slight tinge of frost....) but now it is bursting forth in new flowers and certainly adding a lot of color to my room.  I also have 2 begonias in there, brought in before the frost, and a jade, an aloe, and Mertyl.  Mertyl is a plant of some sort, probably 20 or 25 years old.  We put it outside in the summer, where it thrives in the sun, wind and rain, and bring it inside every fall where it sheds leaves like crazy and pouts til spring.  But this year, Mertyl is putting out new growth in the sewing room, leaning toward the light (remind me to rotate her periodically).  The sewing room is a GOOD SPACE, for me and the plants.  The dogs like it too, laying in the one patch of sun on the carpet.  With south and west windows, this room gets a lot of sun and is bright and cheery.  I love my sewing room!

Quilt Guild

I have been negligent in not telling you that I have joined a newly formed quilt guild.  There have only been 2 meetings so far.  We meet on the second Monday of every month.  There are maybe 20-25 members so far!  Most of our activities have been organizational so far, we voted on a name for our group:  The Lafayette County Sew 'n Sews!  I think it will be an interesting group with fun things to do.

Our first activity is "Birthday Blocks."  In the month before your birthday, you bring in a square (@ 8") of focus fabric and pass out one square to each person.  They have to take it home and cut it apart and make a quilt block with it for you.  The next month, they bring it back to the meeting and give it to you.  You then have 1 year to make a quilt with all these birthday blocks.  We discussed this at our first meeting, and so 3 ladies have Dec. birthdays, and brought focus fabric squares to pass out.  Here are the 3 focus fabrics:

and here are the quilt blocks I made with them:

The first two are called Spider Web blocks, and they are both 12.5 inches so they will finish off as a 12" block.  The last one is called Gate and Stiles, and is an 8.5 block (finished off at 8".)

I had a hard time with the larger blocks because there really wasn't much focus fabric to work with.  An 8 inch square couldn't even give you one strip long enough to cross the entire block!  You had to cut a lot of smaller pieces, and so (I think) you lose the focus of the "focus fabric." It was hard to find a pattern with pieces small enough so you could get enough, but large enough so that you can see the design of the fabric. In contrast, the last block is a lot smaller and the pieces could be bigger, and the focus is easily seen.  I enjoyed making these blocks though, and the challenge was a lot of fun!  Next month is MY month to bring a focus fabric.  I think I will bring bigger blocks of focus fabric for the people so they will have more options.  It's definitely something we need to discuss.

Production Line

I have a system going that is working very well for me now in regards to the Four Winds quilt.  I paper-piece the top triangle, and sew quarter inch seams on the bottom triangle.  It takes about 1.5 hours to do both sections and sew them together to make the block. Maybe less if I don't have to rip anything out.  I have the fabric pieces readily accessible, my iron hot and within reach of my sewing machine.  Just swivel in the chair from one task to the next!  Maybe I'll get my time down to an hour per block!  Here's my "production line!"

Fabric is all cut for the entire quilt top.

Paper Piecing the top triangle

My work station

Progress so far

Meanwhile...Back at the Ranch

(This page is a compilation of several posts I have been saving to publish after Dianne has seen her Advent Calendar.  She has seen it now, so I can publish these posts.  I just put them all in one post, in chronological order, so they might seem out of order, since the first post was from last Feb.!)

February 26, 2013  (Today just happens to be Dianne's birthday!  Happy 29+, Dianne! )

My Painted Lady quilt has been put on hold until the backing fabric arrives.
So, in the meanwhile ... I am working on Dianne's Advent Calender.  Since this is for Dianne, and since she reads this blog on occasion (when I tell her I put up something new), I obviously can't post this til after she receives the calender.  But I wanted to keep a log of how it's coming along, and then put it into the blog afterwards.

Last December, Dianne and I talked about making an Advent Calendar.  It was something I already had in mind to do, so I downplayed it to her.  I had found an Advent Calender fabric panel but didn't want to make it like that panel. I bought the panel anyway because it had Christmas-y numbers and I had something in mind for it.

Original Design

 I had found this wall hanging of a Christmas tree, and I wanted to combine both these projects into an Advent Calender similar to something my family had used when Dianne was a little girl.  You know me, I can't just do a project the way the directions say!  I gotta "fancy it up!"

I have been working on the tree for about a week, and I have all the half-triangles sewn into horizontal rows now.  I ditched that big clunky star for something a little more delicate.  I am using squares for the white background instead of half triangles as the directions say.  My "white" background fabric for this project is an off-white fabric with gold glitter.  Perhaps "glitter" is not the right word, but there is gold sparkles in the fabric, or perhaps sprayed on.  If you rub your fingers across the glitter, you can get gold sparkles on your fingers.  It reminds me of that lotion that leaves a gold shimmer on your skin.  Very pretty, but I have to be very careful when I iron!  The shimmer can disappear and all I have left is an ivory fabric!  The glitter must melt or something.  It doesn't stick to the iron, it just disappears.  I have had to redo several squares because of this oddity.  So, here are a couple of pics of MY project so far!

My Star

The Numbers going around the tree will be covered by doors.  When you open the door, there will be an ornament that you can put on the tree to decorate.  24 doors.  Start on Dec. 1, and by the time the trees is decorated, Santa will be here!  Anyway, that's my idea.  We'll see how it goes!

September 15, 2013

One of the projects I am working on while my sewing machine is being fixed is Dianne's Christmas Calender.  I broke out my old rattletrap Walmart Brother sewing machine.  Nice to have a backup, but oh!  what a difference.  Like going from a Cadillac to a Volkswagen.  Anyway, I have about half of the doors finished with their pockets and velcro sewed on, and now ready to attach to the calender.  One thing about sewing through velcro..  Be sure to buy the NON-STICK type.  After every three or four doors, I had to remove the needle and clean the gluey gunk off the needle and scissors with Goo-Gone. When I am done with the velcro sewing, I will throw this needle away.  It can't be sharp anymore!  I still have to sew the "hooks"  half of the velcro to the tree, but I don't want to do that till after I quilt it.  Anyway... progress!  And it's looking good!

October 20, 2013

I have this project finished now! I had such fun making the ornaments!  I gave up sewing that damn stick-on velcro on with the sewing machine.  I did a few squares of the stuff with hand sewing, but you definitely need a thimble to push the needle through all these layers.  My poor finger looks like it petted (pet?) a porcupine from not using a thimble!  I found one, but it didn't work very well.  It was metal and didn't stay on my finger, and had a tendency to roll sideways.  SO!  I went out and bought some NON_STICK velcro!  What a life saver!  All the velcro on the tree is sewed now.  So much nicer to use sew-on velcro!  A few of the ornaments have the stick on velcro yet, I am hoping it will stay stuck!  I used some of those foam sheets to make some of the ornaments, and you can't sew through those, it tears.  So maybe the stick on velcro is the better choice for those.  In any case, here is the finished wall hanging Advent Calendar for Dianne and her family.  I will send it out to her in early November.  I know she will love it.  It is very similar to one we had when she was a little girl, but I had made that one out of  felt.

First Blocks

I have started work on the Four Winds quilt.  I have 7 blocks finished, and have sewed them together in pairs.  I am having all kinds of troubles with it, mostly with the quarter inch seams.  I decided to try paper piecing it, and made a pattern and this would actually work well if I had thought of it in the beginning.  But I have cut all the fabric for the whole quilt, with quarter inch seam allowances.  If I had cut fabric for paper piecing, I would have given the pieces wider seam allowances, like half inch or 3/8th.  It's very hard to align the strips a quarter inch from the sewing line on both sides.  I pin the sewing line so I can see where it is, but things shift, or stretch, or something!  Anyway, as with every quilting project, the more I do, the better I get at it, and I am getting the hang of it now. Here's how it is going so far:

The first blocks of the Four Winds quilt are done.

Four Winds

Here is my next quilt:  I's called The Four Winds by Jinny Beyer, Designer.  This will be for Doug and Gina.  Gina had told me long ago what colors she wanted in her quilt, and I have looked long and hard for a pattern that would "fit" them and have the correct colors, and I think I have found it in this quilt pattern.

My quilt will not look like this, exactly.  The kit is not available anymore, and I have purchased the fabrics piecemeal or used some in my stash.  But the colors will be similar and the pattern the same.  I have all the fabric I need now, my last piece came yesterday.  Here is MY fabric palette:

My Fabrics for my Four Winds Quilt

Some of these ARE from the original Jinny Beyer Kashmir collection, the border fabric, the "white-ish" fabric on the right, and the "teal w/black print".  But most are fabrics that I chose because I think will look well in the quilt.  I'm not always the best at judging how things will look in the long run.  More like, "Oh, this is a pretty fabric, let's use it!"  The A block fabrics are on the left, B blocks are on the right.  I'm hoping this will turn out as beautiful as it looks in the top picture.  Wish me well!

So!  I can start cutting anytime!  This is always an exciting moment, the START!  Makes me a little nervous to cut the border fabric.... I have 7.5 yard, but there is no room for error.  The fabric is printed with exactly a half inch between the border strips, and I need 4 strips that are 98 inches long.  That's tricky!  But I'm anxious to get started, so away I go!

Quilted Purse

Here's a fun little project I whipped up while waiting for my quilt fabric to arrive from Missouri Star Quilt company.  It took me about 4 days to do this purse.  Some of the directions seemed confusing, for example, I didn't know what a gusset was. Yet here I have to make one. Don't we just LOVE GOOGLE!??  The supply list called for 3 different types of interfacing (fusible fleece, Pellon, and Peltex Durabond or "similar substitutes.") but I have no idea what those are either.  There are LOTS of different weights of interfacing.  The one piece was for the bottom of the bag, to hold its shape, so I assumed that was a very heavy piece.  What I used instead (and it worked rather well too) was a piece of plastic from an old lid to a shoebox sized tote.  I cut it to size and slipped it between the  fusible fleece and the "Pellon".  The only problem I had with it was at the end when I had to turn everything inside out, and the plastic couldn't fold up enough to fit through the little hole. I had to make the hole a lot bigger, and that meant more hand sewing at the end of the project.  Not a big deal.  The project used 1 charm pack and three half-yard pieces of fabric.  I originally bought a kit, but now that I know what I am doing, I can make other purses from scraps.  Lots of the fabric doesn't even show, like the charm pieces under the pockets, or the lining of the inside pockets.  It was an interesting project, more of a "sewing project" and a quilting one, but I get a nice purse out of it at the end!

One half of the purse, ready to sew together!

My finished bag!  Let's go shopping now!

Two Baby Blankets

I have finished both baby blankets now.  These were sure fun little projects.  I think because they WERE small, they were easy to manipulate, and it all went very fast.  There isn't much piecing, both these blankets are made from panels, but the quilting part was very fun!  Lots of room to be creative and experiment.

Here's the first one, I blogged about this one already.

The cream colored area around the giraffe had polka dots all over it, so I meandered from dot to dot and encircled each one.  It kind of reminds me of Christmas tree lights!  The purple border has little hearts all through it, so I again meandered from heart to heart and encased it in a bigger heart.  It was fun and easy.

Here's the second one:

The outer border has what I call a "Lollipop Vine" for the quilting.  I made that up myself!  It was my first endeavor at "traveling" (backtracking and/or sewing over a previously sewed line.)  I'm not too good at it, but was getting better as I went along.  I used a contrasting thread for this, so mistakes and wobbles show up, but I wanted the vine to be seen, so it'll just have to do!  Besides, I think the lollipop vine is quite unique and interesting!  Reminds me a little of (Jack and) the Beanstalk!  There are also small spirals in the first border.  The center panel is just outline stitching for the most part, and I added some "rainbow" lines.  THAT part is not too creative, but I still like how these turned out.

Baby Blanket

I have been working on flannel baby quilts for my niece who is having twin boys in February.  Here is the first one.  I still have to quilt the center white part, and the 3 borders.  And bind it. This was such a simple quilt, I don't even consider it quilting!  Just a center panel and 3 borders.  Doesn't get much easier than that!

Sewing Room Pics

In my excitement to make my sewing room, I forgot to take a "before" picture of the bedroom.  I have been enjoying this room for a few weeks now, and decided I'd better get these pictures shared!  So here it is, my sewing room!

The Sewing Table

The Ironing and Cutting Table

 

Organized Fabric

The "Green Drawer"

I have drawers for each color of fabric: 2 drawers of blue, a red/pink drawer, a yellow/orange drawer, a tan/brown/cream drawer, a purple drawer, a green drawer (shown above) and a black/white drawer.  Also a drawer for Miscellaneous fabric that doesn't fit any of the other major categories.  Although it doesn't show in these pictures, I have a book case behind the door.  I still need to fit my design wall in here yet, I'm just not sure how or where it's gonna fit. Perhaps that bookcase will have to go.  Nevertheless, I am LOVING this room!!

Sewing Room

I have two lovely guest bedrooms upstairs that no one ever sleeps in.  We rarely have overnight guests here.  I am going to change one of them into a Sewing Room, and move my operations out of the dining room!!  I'm so excited about this project!  I bought two 6-ft tables, we will remove the bed and the "hutch top" from one of the old dressers, so I will have plenty of flat space to spread out, and lots of storage space for my stash and stuff.  I can keep my stash in the 2 dressers that are in there.  There is a nice wall for my Design board.  It has south and west windows, so lots of natural light.  I can't wait to get started!  I'll post some Before and After pics when I get my camera charged up and the project done!

Broken Bobbin Case.

I am now, once again, inbetween quilts.  I thought this would be a good time to send the sewing machine to the Fix-It Guy for an "oil change."  I was expecting to get it back on Wed.  However, I got a call from him  on Thursday, and it seems I have a broken bobbin case.  This could explain some of the trouble I had with the tension when quilting the Harry Potter quilt.  Seems a point broke off a piece in there.  I remember when I cleaned out all that dust and lint in the machine I did find a piece of gray felt (?) and when I plucked it out, it seemed to be stuck and/or half-glued down.  I wonder if it had previously been covered by something, because I didn't recall seeing it before.  Anyway, I authorized the repair ($40) and the Fix-It Guy will have to order the part, so I have no idea when my sewing machine will come home.   :(

Award Winning Quilt!

Here is my Harry Potter quilt in the Darlington Quilt Show: Quilts of Lafayette County:

I'm so excited and exhilarated!  My quilt won TWO awards!  The Viewers Choice Award and the Staff Choice Award.  People who walked through the quilts got to vote for their favorite, thus the Viewer's Choice.  The Staff Choice Award came from the people who put the show together, the venders, the judges, etc.  One judge called my quilt a "Masterpiece, clearly her choice for "best of show."  (OMG!!!)  She said it stopped her in her tracks and she knew "this is the one."  She took a picture of it and she says she rarely does that.  There was no Best of Show Award since this show was not for judging, but only for displaying the quilts.   I'm on top of the world. 

Here are my ribbons:

Baby Books

I am inbetween quilts at the moment.  There are a lot of fun, easy-to-do projects I'd like to try and so now seemed a good time.  I have an e-book of pot holder patterns, they looks really fun and fast!  (Maybe for Christmas gifts for all the ladies in the family...!)  My niece is having twins in January, so I want to do a couple of little baby quilts and I had these 2 book panels, which I whipped up today.

Books for the Baker babies

I've also been learning about "diamond quilts" and I'd like to try one of those.  Especially the art quilts.  Maybe do a wall hanging.  I took a Craftsy class on diamond quilting, and I'm eager to try it!  Those Craftsy classes really have a lot of great tips!  Here is a sample of a diamond "art quilt".

This is a very small sample of a very large quilt, but it shows how the diamonds combine to make an ocean picture.  It gives you the idea of what I'd like to do, anyway.  So!  That is what I have been up too!.  

Finished!

My Harry Potter Quilt is FINISHED!  I finished the binding today.  I had to rip the binding out and re-do it.  I had trouble with the tension.  I think the problem laid in my walking foot.  After spending hours ripping out the binding, I tried to resew it, and had the exact same problem--major loops on the backside.  I took the walking foot off, and put the regular sewing foot on, and tried some sample sewing on a scrap.  It sewed perfectly.  So I tried the binding and again, it sewed perfectly, and the binding looked great on both sides.  I don't know what the deal is, but I probably won't be using that walking foot anymore!  I might buy a new one, but this one isn't that old, it came with the machine.  When I take my sewing machine in for its oil change,  maybe I'll take the walking foot in too and have the fix-it guy look at it.

At any rate, here is my finished Project of Doom!  Next week it will be hanging in a Quilt Show:  Quilts of Lafayette County!  (It's not a show for judging, just for showing off quilts!)

Background Quilting

I have been working on my background quilting.  Originally, I had a free motion quilting pattern that looked like flames that I wanted to use, but decided to keep it simple.  I've been having trouble with my tension, and I have to take my machine in for a good cleaning and "oil change."  In the meantime, though, I have registered this quilt to be in a quilt show Sept. 14-15, and I HAVE TO FINISH IT!  I ditched the flames stitching, and made a practice sandwich and tried out some other ideas.  I tried pastel variegated thread.  I like the idea of variegated threads, and I had good success with it in the butterfly quilt.  BUT, not this time.  So, ditch that idea.  I tried stippling.  This is where my tension really screwed up.  Those little turns were not going to work!  SO I resorted to the old "tried and true", but also one of my favorites--- Echoing!  Echoing is so easy, it's very forgiving, and it showcases the objects it surrounds.  It also goes very fast, and I did all the backgrounds of the blocks in a single day!  What's left you ask?  I have to quilt the borders (I might try that flame idea here, there's a lot more room) and I have to put on the binding!  ALMOST DONE!  This has been a a very fun quilt!

I got a little creative in the quilting of the larger objects too.  The Sorting Hat has purple spirals in it (hard to see in the picture, but very pretty). This was a little daring for me, the stitches are meant to SHOW!  It's subtle, but still not a matching color!  Whoo hooo!!   I also used yellow thread to echo the flame of the candle so it would appear to glow.  All the rest of the echoing is done in an off white thread.

The Sorting Hat

Echoing the Backgrounds

Stitch in the Ditch

The quilting stage of the Harry Potter quilt has been underway for a while now, and I am stitching in the ditch around the books and knickknacks.  I am not good at stitching in the ditch!  I'm just not good at staying on the lines! It seems so wobbly to me!  I started out with a neutral colored thread, thinking I could use one thread for the whole job, but I didn't like how that looked.  So I switched to matching thread.  This involves changing threads more often than not.  But it looks better.  There is a learning curve to this and now that I am almost done, I am getting better at it.  I have been ripping out some of the earlier work and redoing it.  Oh, how I hate ripping out free motion quilting stitches!  Most of them are tiny, overlapping and sunk into the batting.  It's a tedious job.  I am looking forward to the easier and more fun part of stippling the background and borders!

Here's one of my re-do's:

The Teacup--"Before"

The Teacup--"After"

   

Lots of Progress

I have been working on my Project of Doom quilt, and I have the Serpent and the Spider incorporated into the borders now, and the borders are attached.  Tomorrow I will make and pin the sandwich!

My spider turned out really well.  It was a lot of work for a mere 8 inches of border, but it was worth it.  Here it is in all it's glory on the top of my bookcase!:

Cute Spider

I'm especially proud since I designed the spider and paper pieces.  The only really tricky part was getting those skinny legs to line up.  Looks easy on paper, but hard to do in the actual sewing of it.

The serpent was also redone (one section) so that it would not appear to be floating in mid border, but actually creeping up the bookcase and peering over the edge.  It almost looks like he'd like to have my spider for lunch!  Here is the revised serpent:

Maybe I should have had its body touch in another place, but it was not fun tearing out a section of the serpent.  I had to redesign the piece, but forgot that I had reduced the image to 80%...  Yep, more tearing out and more work.  So many details, so little brain!  LOL.  Anyway, re-doing one section was enough for me!

<DRUM ROLL> please!  Here is the finished quilt top!  

Harry Potter Quilt

I need to find a good binding color now.  I had planned on using the wood grained fabric but that will blend in with the book case feet on the bottom, so it has to be something different.    I don't want black because it would become too Halloween-ish then.  I will have to try out different samples to see what works best.  Got time for that too, I have to quilt this first, before I bind it.  I am pleased... I LOVE THIS QUILT!  It was so much fun to do, and it turned out really well (in my humble opinion.)