Doodles

 Now that the Chain Link quilt top is finished and pinned, it's ready to go under the needle of the Q-20.  Deciding how to quilt a finished quilt top is always a big decision for me, and I usually doodle little designs on paper.  This doesn't give a very good representation of how the quilt will look when the quilting is done though.  Today I tried something new.  I put a picture of the quilt in my Paint program and drew on it with different ideas:

This worked very well.  As I doodled around, I knew that "I don't care for that," or "That would be too time consuming and too much stopping and starting."  I actually like the arches, I had an "atom" shape in mind.  I have a new curved ruler to make it happen, and was excited to try it out, but when I put the needle and the curved ruler to the test, it was VERY hard to control the ruler and keep it steady.  I made two sewn arches and decided to abandon that idea as unworkable for me at this time.  I will need way more practice with that ruler before I attempt it on a quilt again!  I ended up spending a little time with Jack-the-SeamRipper to pick out those quilted arches.

But the doodles had another very good possibility in the batch, and I opened up a new copy of the picture in my Paint, and quilted the picture again.  Here is the result of that, and it is my final choice.  I will quilt the quilt like this:

I love how there are two visuals in the quilting: a starburst and a star.  This will be very easy to quilt (ruler work).  It is always a big relief to me to finally decide on how to do it!  Making that decision is harder than the actually sewing!!  

There is also a small gray border all around the quilt that is not shown in this picture, but I plan to echo the edges onto that border.  We'll see how it turns out, and I can decide what to do with the border at that point, but that's the plan for now!

Pinning the Chain Link

I'm on a roll!  Today I pinned the Chain Link Christmas Quilt.  I used my new favorite method, of course, pinning on the kitchen table using clamps.

The clamps are 3" spring clamps that I got at Menards for $1.67 apiece.  I bought all there were at the time, and wanted 3 more (I have 10 in all), so I bought three 4" clamps as well.  The 4 inchers are almost too much!  I need two hands to squeeze them open!  But they all work beautifully, and are plastic, so no rust will ever get on the fabrics.  I really love this way to pin a quilt.  I've had nothing but great results every time I use them.

Flannel Backing and Pillow Case

 I have bought a big piece of red/black flannel plaid for the backing at JoAnn's.  I bought 5.5 yards (I'll need to cut it in half and seam the middle), but when I opened it up to make the seam, I found out that the clerk at JoAnn's had measured it wrong!  Luckily, the mistake was in my favor, and I have almost 7 yards of fabric instead of 5.5!  I will have enough left over to make a pillow case to match the quilt!!  Whooo hoooo!

I cut off a yard of fabric for the pillow case, and looked in my box of flannel fabrics and found a beautiful red flannel and a light gray flannel left over from a previous quilt I had made.  PERFECT!  The pillow case will look something like this:

Because of all the backing fabric that I had extra, I was able to match the plaid, and the seam turned out so well that it is practically invisible.  I pinned the two pieces of the backing together almost like I pin a binding--poke the pin through the top, check the backside to see if it is aligned, and finish the pinning,  Move an inch, repeat the process.  So it was time consuming to do this, but well worth the effort.  I am very pleased too with this piece of flannel.  It's a good tight weave.  I have had flannel fabrics that frayed horribly, and this time I really got (more!) than my money's worth.  Here's the seam, if you can see it!

  

Progress Report

 I have finished the Chain Link quilt top.  I decided to do it with a 5 x 6 layout, so 30 blocks.  It's plenty big.  I added a 3" gray border to "float" the blocks, and so it will be a nice size, not too big as the original plan (8 x 6, or 48 blocks).  Here it is:

  

Chain Link

I have been working on the Chain Link Christmas quilt.  I have cut all the gray fabric, and I ran out before I had all the patches I needed.  Luckily, I bought this gray fabric from Pins and Pieces quilt shop not too long ago, and I went back and bought 3 more yards to be on the safe side!  This is a fun quilt to piece, and I like matching red and black "scraps" for the links. The scraps are 2.5" strips, and I have a lot of those laying around that just need to be cut to the proper lengths.  I have a good start and am not worried about not having it done on time.  Here's my progress so far:

"Underwear" for Christmas

 I have a grandson for whom I have not yet made a quilt.  His sister, however has TWO quilts, so I know that I need to make a quilt for Landon ASAP!!!  I asked him about color choices.  Now, the family joke is if I want to know what colors a grandchild likes,  ask him/her "What colors do you like, what color "underwear" do you want for Christmas?"  I get some color preferences to work with.  

The first time I did this caused some confusion, understandably.  "Red and blue" was the answer to the question, and I went out and actually bought red and blue underwear for my chosen Christmas quilt recipient.  And I made a red and blue quilt.  He opened the underwear first, and Shock showed on his face--Shock with a capital "S".  Shock turned into disappointment.  "I thought I was going to get a quilt!" he said.  He was not disappointed long, because the next present was the quilt, and all was well with the world!  But ever after that, "What color underwear?" has a new meaning! 

So, back to Landon!  I asked him "What color underwear do you want for Christmas?"  Landon must not have remembered about the family underwear joke, because he said, "Do not buy me underwear for Christmas!"  His brothers and sister hooted in laughter, and Landon repeated his demand, "Do not buy me underwear for Christmas!"  His brother told him, "Grandma is not talking about underwear!" but Landon would not talk to me after that!

I found out from his Dad that Landon likes red, and since his school colors are red and black, I decided those would be the colors I will use in his quilt.  It's the end of  October, so I have to get working on it right away if I want it done for Christmas.  I have a pattern picked out already.  I found a quilt I liked on the internet and worked out the pattern in Electric Quilt8, my quilting software program.  I will call this quilt "Chain Link", and it looks like this:

I will use scraps of blacks and reds, and I have a nice mottled gray fabric for the background. I might make it a little smaller than this pattern.  I'll see how it looks once I have the blocks made.  I can't wait to get started!

Madison Quilt Expo 2020

 Every September there is a big Quilt Expo in Madison.  Dianne usually joins me, and we spend the day together enjoying the sights.  Last year we got a 2-day ticket and had a mini-vacation while attending the show, which was even more fun!  This year is different because of Covid-19.  No gatherings!  Social distancing, wearing masks, lockdowns, Governor mandates, virtual learning for schools.  Gah!  So Dianne could not come this year, and there was no regular Expo at the Alliant Center.  The Quilt Expo was a virtual event this year, which is better than nothing I suppose. 

Dianne took a couple of vacation days, and we "attended" the Expo together virtually.  Between our computers and our phones on speaker phone, we were able to sync our trip through the Gallery of Quilts, and "shop" together in the Venders' Mall.  It was actually quite fun and interesting how it worked.  All of the quilts in the Hall of Quilts were photographed separately, and you could move down the rows of quilts in a sort of 3-D way.  Clicking on the quilt gave you a closeup of some of the details, quilter information, sometimes a small story of the quilt.  You could still vote for your favorite for the Viewers' Choice Award.  There were video classes and lectures, and the Shoppers Mall of venders.  Lots of these venders had Quilt Show Specials.  I bought some backing fabrics.  We enjoyed the experience, and didn't have sore feet at the end of the day!    It was a free event, and I hope they continue to have a virtual quilt show every year in ADDITION to having a real live quilt show.  We could do both.