Off the Frame ... Woohoo!

Quilting is finished (at last!)  Woohoo!

The hardest part is done.  Now I get to bind it and find a box to mail it to it's new home.  It's going to a friend who just moved to Texas with her husband.  Since she's a recent college graduate, a recent bride, and has just started a new job, I think I'll call this one New Beginnings.

Thanks to everyone who has commented on the quilting and helped me with suggestions as I struggled to use so few fabrics in this one.  Deb requested a photo of the back and I'd love to share one ... or more.

from the center

Border quilting

I can't remember where I've recently seen this half feather, half stripe for the border.  I wish I could share the blog which inspired me.  But this design is striking and I just had to give it a try.  I'm really happy with how it turned out.  I even used Deb's method for feathers (except I quilted spines since they were just half feathers).  She recently posted a cool tutorial at stitchintherapy.  Definitely check it out if you'd like to learn more about making feathers.  I like that there are so many ways to achieve great results.

Add caption

Pieced minkee backing

I included this last photo to let you see what happens if you piece minkee backing and rotate one of the pieces 90 degrees from the other.  It's a slightly different color.  Like corduroy, but not nearly as noticeable.  I can live with this, but I might buy enough yardage next time to get the length going the same direction - especially since it stretches more in one direction that the other.

I received a photo of the family in New Jersey who received the Hurricane Sandy quilt.  Their faces were bright with smiles and the smallest boy stood right in front of the quilt, but he was so small, he didn't hide much of it.  I don't have permission to post the photo on the internet, so you'll just have to imagine the smiles.  It made me smile too.

Enjoy your day!
- SeeingStars

On the Frame

This poor quilt continues to progress slowly, but surely.  I like it much better now and it's beginning to look more exciting as the quilting is taking shape.

First 2 rows are quilted

The photo above shows the first 2 rows, so I can refer back to them once they're rolled up.  Each block is quilted differently, just for fun.  With photos, I can try to keep the similar designs spaced nicely.  It's easy to forget the placement once the quilt is advanced.

3rd row

Of course, sometimes, the same pattern happens in adjacent blocks in the same row.  I have no excuse.  Sigh.  Didn't notice till I was finished with the 2nd one.  I am NOT ripping the stitches out.  

3rd row on the right

Time to advance to row 4 and hopefully make a little more progress today.  I like the minkee backing fabric.  Hope it isn't stretching too much on the frame.  Guess we'll find out soon.

Enjoy your day!
- SeeingStars

Sharpie Mug Rug Project

I met a few friends online for a pajama party Friday night.  One of us teaches the rest as a sort of interactive tutorial.  It's fun and there's silliness added to the photos and comments of each step.  So this week, we used sharpie markers to draw a design on white fabric.  Some used a nice Kona white, but I had some white muslin that I substituted instead.

Here are some of my designs.

 The squiggles were stacked two fabrics deep and the sharpie bled through a little bit.  But I still needed to retrace each line to make it thicker and darker.

After sharing our designs, we all sprayed them with alcohol to make the marker dye dissolve a little and spread.  Most used a 90% solution, but we had 3 bottles of cheap rubbing alcohol, which was a 70% solution.

After the alcohol spray

Then, we either hung them to let the colors run, or laid them flat (on a kitchen trash bag) to dry.  This is a quick process since alcohol evaporates quickly.

Finally, I stayed up late and quilted one of mine using lots of different thread colors.  It's been a long time since I quilted on my domestic sewing machine, but it was easier to do for such a small size.

I'll probably make up the quilt sandwich for the other designs and have them waiting until I'm in the mood to finish them.  This would make a quick gift along with a mug and a small treat.

Until then, I'm slowing quilting on my big machine that teal quilt which has haunted me.  My goal is to get it off the frame Friday and then hunt some more cream to bind it.  It's going to a dear friend who just moved to TX, so I'll send a care package to her soon.

Enjoy your day!
- SeeingStars

Micro Handles !

I installed a gift and had a little time to play with it today.  Microhandles for my longarm machine.

 These little curls were quilted using the new handles.  It takes a little adjustment - different muscles to control the machine.

Microhandles rotated upward to get them out of the way.

 Here's a photo with the handles raised.  It's a twist of the knob to loosen and rotate them upward.  Easy to change their position.

After getting started, I realized that I really do need to stitch in the ditch before quilting these blocks.  They distort with the quilting.  Sigh.  Guess I was being lazy and hoping to avoid this step.  You can see those wavy seams in these photos.

So I need the handles up to use the ruler as a guide to stitch in the ditch.  Then, each block is getting quilted differently.  For those with more dense quilting, I'll move the new handles in position to use them.  Otherwise, I'll just use the original handles.

With a minkee backing and new handles, this is a skill building quilt.  Hope it goes well.  It's behind schedule, but I'm thankful it's made it to this stage.  I'll quilt the 3 borders last, once I decide what to do there.

Enjoy your day!
- SeeingStars

Sandy Britches quilt is on its way!

Merry Christmas!  Here I am standing in front of the tree with the finished quilt called Sandy Britches.  I cropped the photo a little to remove the chaos of crumpled papers and also my fashionable fuzzy socks.

This quilt rode in one of the 2 church vans for 18-ish hours to get to New Jersey, along with our oldest teen and 17 others who made the trip.  The team will be gutting houses which had been flooded by the storm.  Someone they help will also receive the quilt to remind them of God's love and that others care about their loss and the long journey of rebuilding.

Here's the back side which was made from the scraps and a little extra fabric I had in my stash.  These beachy prints were a large package of Fat Quarters which I won in a giveaway last month from Quilting Daily blog, handmade_quilt_art.

I asked y'all for help with selecting the layout for this quilt and it was an easy decision since all the comments chose Option 2.  You can see the choices here in a previous post.

Thanks for your votes.  Glad to have this one done.

Enjoy your day!
- SeeingStars

Another Suspect in the Tossing of the Recycle Bin

Don't worry, I'm not quitting my daytime job.  But I might try to figure out what all these shapes and letters mean on the camera settings dial.

After cleaning up the recycle bin's contents yesterday, we immediately accused Wile. E.

Or perhaps his friend.

These 2 played an exciting chasing game this morning.

However, while pinning the binding on the (Hurricane) Sandy Britches quilt, I noticed that my upper bird feeder was swinging wildly to and fro.  It's on a double shepherd's hook with feeders at both levels.  There wasn't enough wind to cause this much sway.  So as my eyes fell lower, I saw the culprit.

#1 Suspect in the tossing of the Recycle Bin

The good news is that I've made progress on both quilts that need to be finished really, really soon.  Thanks to Debbie's comments yesterday, I found a nice cream on cream for the outer border and then picked up a cream minky for the back.

I'll doodle while waiting for the computer to think and hopefully come up with a quick quilting idea for the teal one.

Enjoy your day!
- SeeingStars

A Teal Dilemma

Since spelling is not my strength, I had to look up the word 'dilemma.'  I actually thought there was supposed to be a silent 'n' tucked in there somewhere, plus I rearranged the 'i' and 'e'.  I wish it looked correct now, but it still looks a little off to my brain.  So the blessing of having to look up the spelling is that I was also able to read the definition.  It's a problem with two solutions, neither of which is very satisfying.  There's an idea of riding the horns of a dilemma ... you can choose to sit on the left or the right bull's horn, but neither is very comfortable.

So this quilt and I have fought through it's existence so far and we're not finished yet.  It's intended to be a Christmas gift, so there's an urgency which prevents me from throwing it to the back of the stack until I can re-purpose it.  The idea of slicing along diagonal lines and mixing it with other fabrics to make something neat keeps popping up.

Not enough border fabric as shown in the top to actually do this.

Since there aren't many fabrics available in this color, I was very limited.  There's lots of fabrics with true teals, but this is a green-teal.  Sort of a lighter tint of the recipient's wedding colors.  The camera makes them look like they don't match, but they are closer in person.

I thought the border needed something a little darker and came up with this ....

First border choice

 The black/gray/light greenish colors in the inner border just contrasted too much.  It's awful.  I tried moving it around to other parts of the house, but still no joy.  So I took it to my local quilt shop with hopes of finding something else.  The owner is a friend and I appreciate her honesty.  She told me that she can see why I don't like this one.  It's not quite my style to be so monochromatic.  If she'd just tried to soothe my feelings and encouraged me to leave it this way, I'd still not been happy with it and I'd wonder what's wrong with her.

We chose a batik for a border and binding and I went home, cut some strips to place over the black here and .... still didn't like it.  I don't think I have a photo of this option, but it just didn't work either.

So I dug through my fabrics (again) in desperation.  Christmas is coming and I'm in trouble here.  A small (20 x 24) piece of dark green/teal batik which reads as a solid revealed itself.  I hoped for more, but at least there's enough to replace the black.

After seam ripping and stitching, I've reached this stage, which is much, much better.

Current stage

The quilt is happier with that dark teal/green inner border and then the batik striped border.  I could stop here, quilt it and bind it with the same striped batik.  I don't love that the outer border would be so small, but it could work.

Or, riding the other bull's horn .... I could add the gray/teal wider border, then bind it as planned with the striped batik (cut on the bias, not straight of grain as shown).

Other choice.

I do like the balance of a wider outer border.  But I'm just not wild about the actual fabric.  There's some gray in the stripe to tie it into the rest of the quilt, but no gray in the center of the quilt.

Probably, I'll add the gray border and quilt it quickly before I can change my mind again.  For now, it's time to go to work, then stop by the shop one more time for the backing fabric (with a 50% off coupon which I hope hasn't expired).

Just for fun, I googled some images of bull's horns to add, but I don't want to use any photos that are copyright protected.  Those things are sharp and with force, will penetrate a man's body with alarming ease.  Ewwww.  Perhaps I've overstated by case by calling it a dilemma.

Nature report .... lots of rain the past few days.  Since I didn't hear the owls calling, I decided to stay warm and dry instead of sitting out at night with raindrops running down my camera.  But, I saw another 5 deer and a lone coyote in the past few days.  (grin) I feel like National Geographic has moved nearby.  Maybe soon those owls will get ready for another meal and come back to hunt.

The contents of the recycle bin were a bit tossed last night.  Darling Husband and I are blaming the coyote even though we have no proof.  Poor guy.

Enjoy your day!
- SeeingStars