The tee shirt quilt is done, quilted and bound. The quilting was finished Sunday and the binding yesterday. I did something “different” with the binding, I used minky. I was a little hesitant, but I have seen it done on YouTube, so it must be do-able. The quilt was so soft and drape-y, I didn’t want to put a plain cotton binding on it, too stiff and scratchy. I had enough left over minky from the backing to cut long strips, perpendicular to the grain/stretch. I started with 2 ½ inches wide, but discovered that 2 1/4 was better. I sewed it to the back right sides together and then folded it to the front and sewed the cut edge to the front. It worked well, as I didn’t think I would be able to sew the two folded edges on top of each other without a struggle. I did use my seam guard set at ½ inch for the back side and 5/8 for the front side to keep it on the straight and narrow. Happy to have this project finished.
After I took the Tee shirt quilt off the frame, I pinned the backing for the Grassy Creek quilt on it. I like doing this, as then when I want to quilt, it is almost ready to go. Unfortunately, I didn’t pin it right and had to redo the top rail, so much for time saving. I seem to remember buying or finding in my panto library, an appropriate design to use, I should write these things down. I think I want to do something leafy and swirly.
Another start was a baby quilt for a regular customer. Coincidentally, I had just finished designing a block to use with the Mia Charro Forest friends fabrics. It is so sweet and springlike, as luck would have it, the baby was a girl and my customer liked the pretty flowers and animals. I decided to make two while I was at it, since I had enough fabric and I was using my Accuquilt strip cutter. For the first top I cut the individual squares and chain pieced the blocks. There are four blocks, but they are 20 inches square, really 16 ten inch blocks. The second top, I wised up and cut the strips and sewed sets of five together.
I ran into a bit of a problem with the animal prints, they are 4 1/4 by 6 inches. When I was figuring the block sizing out, I used 4 1/4 by 6 ½ inches. I had to increase the upper and lower white pieces to 2 3/4 inches wide and it all worked out. I ended my day with quilt #1 on the design wall, waiting to be put together and the strip sets for #2 sewn together. I think I have enough pink minky for the backings for both, I may even do another minky binding.
I need to get to cutting the pieces for the Busy Hands quilt along quilt, Hampton Court, this week. I decided to use this pretty pile of fat quarters from Laundry Basket Quilts, called Sequoia. I am wavering on what color to use for the contrasting blocks, I bought some ‘earth’ colored Bella solid, but it isn’t here yet. I may use tan, or gray, or white, maybe green would work too. So many options.
Pet All the Dogs stitching has been happening too. Once I finished the house, the other motifs are a breeze, I’m trying to get a bit of the lower lines done now. I’ll probably finish the right tree tonight and the brown dividing line. I ordered a bunch more Weeks floss for the Heaven and Nature sampler and the few skeins I needed for Strawberry Fields this past weekend.
I also saw a beautiful (free) blackwork quilty type sampler at Blackwork Journey , called Tiny Treasures. There is a square and a rectangle version, I downloaded the PDFs for a possible future project, this one would require the magnifiers assistance.
Time to get a move on.
Be kind
Touch of Grey 
hehe, your last comment made me smile ^^ If you hop over to my blog, you’ll see I’ve been working on Tiny Treasures (latest update posted on 28th Feb) – I’m almost finished now and it’s really great fun to stitch.
Yours is so pretty! I downloaded all the parts, and looked through all of your fellow SAL posters, wow! It reminds me of a scrap quilt, because you can use whatever threads you have, and you only need little bits. I have to ask though, do you use a magnifier? I haven’t done blackwork, yet, and I am wondering if I’ll like it. Are there half stitches, and is it easier on Aida cloth, or is linen/evenweave a better (easier) choice?
evening Tracey ^^
You’ll have seen that Avis and myself are both stitching Tiny Treasures on aida because we think blackwork looks crisper on aida (and we’re less likely to miscount) but that’s a personal choice.
I’m 57 years young, and wear progressive lenses (short & long-sighted) in every day life but yes, I do also pop a pair of magnifying specs on top of those just for comfort. If you have some small bits of “scrap” aida or linen, I’d suggest you try stitching a couple of repeats of the border as a trial run. You’ll be able to decide which fabric you prefer. If you plan on adding beads (I did French knots) you’ll also need to consider using either 14 count aida or 28 count evenweave, so regular seed beads would be a good size.
And you will actually need a fair amount of whatever colour you choose for your borders/outlines. I think I’m almost at the end of my second skein of very dark brown, which is what I used for all outlines and borders.
Hope that helps. Feel free to ask if you have any other questions.
Thanks Claire! This helps a lot. BTW, I’m only a year younger than you 🙂
Oh my, were you ever brave!! T-shirts AND winky? No way, not ever gonna do it. LOL!
The *secret* is to pin the minky by the selvedges to the leaders. That way it stays fairly stable, and there isn’t as much stretch. You still have to be careful about rolling it, keep it loose, but not too loose:).