Thursday, January 23, 2014

Little Sampler

In the midst of some store re-arranging a week or so ago, I took a little quilt top off the wall and decided that it was high time that it was finished.  Last Friday, I layered and basted.



Yes, I still baste with needle and thread.  I don't like safety pins, REALLY don't like the chemical smell of sprays and don't mind the basting process. Years ago I was the lucky recipient of boxes (and boxes) of cone thread from a local garment factory.  I gave it to the students in my classes, two quilt guilds, and I still have lot of it left.  Call me old fashioned. 

I've used this little pattern twice to teach beginner classes.  My first sample had 6 blocks and hand quilting.  This one has brighter colors and 9 blocks.  I wanted this sample quilted NOW, so headed to the machine (see, I'm not so old fashioned after all).



Quilting on Tuesday morning, binding on Wednesday morning.  Today I'll add a hanging sleeve.  To get around the problem of binding thread catching on the quilting foot, I make small stitches on the top and large stitches on the bottom - an uneven basting stitch.  I hardly ever get stuck anymore.



I found a cute print for the backing. 

We had a tiny bit of snow here in Eastern North Carolina early Wednesday morning.  Guess I'd better post a token snow picture, too. View from the front window of the store. It's not as pretty today, after half of it has melted.



Wednesday, January 15, 2014

The Zippered Bag

From this:

To this:

Many Thanks to Sue N. who showed the Friday afternoon bunch how to make these little zippered bags with front pockets.  Pretty quick and easy.  I may just have stumbled upon a new Christmas present/craft show idea!

A lot of my energy this week has gone toward getting two new beginner quilting classes off the ground.  We are making sampler blocks, so that they can experience a little bit of many different methods.  Maybe I'll be able to show you some of their efforts at a later date.


Friday, January 10, 2014

Pagoda Fun

This project was last seen way back on November 14.  It's the "Pagodas" pattern from Maple Island Quilts.


Many things have gotten in my way:  Thanksgiving, Christmas, challenge quilt deadline and shop hop quilt deadline.  I was so happy to hand over the shop hop quilt top to the machine quilter yesterday!  It has to stay a secret until February 5, the day the hop starts.

With all of those things out of the way, I was free to go back to the Pagodas project.  I worked on it Wednesday and Thursday, taking time out for a night of BRIDGE, and put the borders on last night.  It is 48" square, large wall hanging or small throw?  Either way, I like it!


What's next?  I'm taking it easy this afternoon with some sewing friends. One has promised to show us how to make little zippered pouch.  I am assembling my supplies now.