Quilted Spiral

I just finished the quilting!  Tonight I'll add facings and hanging sleeve. Here's a close-up, so you can see what I did. 

Check another thing off the list!  I'm working hard on the SECRET shop hop quilt ... when I get it sent off to Lilly the Quilter I'll be free to try out some new things.

Merry SPIRAL Christmas

Another progress report is in order.  I finished the spiral quilt top last night, layered and basted it.  Ready to quilt when the Christmas excitement is over.

And, after much consideration and consultation with Rayna, I believe that this is the best way to view the latest strippy quilt.  I had to live with it for a while.

Wishing everyone a very, very Merry Christmas!!!

Spiral Progress

The spiral is growing.  The target size is 24" square, so I taped off a place on the table to refer to.  Looks like I'm almost there!  Maybe I can finish up the corners and get it basted today.

Finished at Last!

Way back in October, my friend, Mickie, gave me this:

I've shown a few progress reports along the way.  Glad to announce that I finished the facing over the weekend and all that's left is to add a hanging sleeve.  I like it very much.  Size is 24 1/2" by 30".  Yet to be named. 

December 18 is a special day around here.
Happy 70th birthday to Keith Richards.

Free-Form Paper Piecing Without the Paper

What?????  I'll explain the title in a moment.

Holy cow, it's been a month since the last post!  When I last checked in, I had just taken my trip to NYC. Since then, there has been a trip to Iowa, Thanksgiving, and a BIG SALE in the store.

When the sale was over, I needed to do a lot of rearranging and restocking. Christmas, along with a little bit of Halloween, was moved to the second room, where I created this little "holiday corner".  

Out front, where the Christmas had been, I made a display of the newest fabric arrivals (plus some of the many baskets in stock).

The batting was also moved to the second room, where I had room to make a larger display.  Right next to the extra wide backing fabrics.  Logical.

More fabric shelves were moved to the front room to take the place of the batting.  It also makes a great place to show off more of the baskets. 

I have another challenge due soon.  It is part of the "Graffiti Challenge", that I've talked about in earlier posts.  I have one completed project, but still had another idea rattling around in my head.  On the left is the fabric we has printed at Spoonflower, made from fabric painted during one of our Artrageous Quilters meetings.  On the right are random fabrics I chose to coordinate.

The biggest challenge is getting the center of the fabric spiral started. This is about my 4th or 5th spiral, so I didn't have too much trouble.

There's an enormous amount of waste.  Sew, trim, press, over and over again. That is when I thought to myself that it's a lot like paper piecing. Except I don't know quite where it's going.  There's a required size, so I know that much.  Right behind getting started, is the difficulty of  ending the spiral. Stay tuned!