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