Once the binding is on

I can check another unfinished project off my list.

This medallion quilt was begun years ago when I was first learning to quilt. it began as part of a round robin our guild was having.

I made the middle block then passed it to another member in the quilt guild to add a round to the design. the person could choose to continue by adding strips, blocks, borders, appliqué, etc. Then it was brought to the next meeting where it was passed to another person to do the same, this would continue until it was deemed to be passed back to the original person to complete it.

Usually it would be large enough to be a completed quilt top to just bind but this time the round robin was cut short for some reason and so the project was tucked away to be completed at another time....

I think the date on the card along with the names of people who participated was 2006.

Next step is to get the binding on and then onward to another unfinished project.

Slowly moving along

I keep asking myself what was I thinking...
Yet I am too stubborn not to keep moving along.

Friday design table

Finally got a quilt top off my HQ16 and the binding is on, whew! 

So now here is a question for you fellow quilters..

Do you wash your quilts before you give them away OR consider them finished?

Here are photos of the lap quilt from today, but I am one of those quilters that does not feel the quilt is finished until it is washed so presently this quilt has made it's way to the washer and is in the dryer.

Will post new photo tomorrow (unless rain interfere) to show you the difference I think washing makes to a newly sewn quilt. :-) Until then Enjoy and Happy Halloween.

Love how the binding fabric turned out

Have you ever regretted thinking "that's so cute, think I'll make one?

Ok so I admit it's been a long time since I've bought a pattern to quilt, must have had a weak moment of judgement while visiting City Quilter in NY City recently and saw one of their samples on the wall and thought to myself that's so cute I should make one. lol 

Hmmmmm fast forward to now while I am asking myself where was my mind? 

Oh well it is cute and only 15 more letters to fuse before I start the long process of zigzagging around the shapes, etc. etc. Yes it will be one of those been there done that quilts just like when I did the postage stamp style quilt. :-)

Here's some process photos.

First pick your fabrics add some type of fusing material, cut out the shapes

Only 15 more letters! I figure a couple a day...

So how many of you?

Wondering how many other quilters make try out drawings before deciding how to quilt your pieces?

I've found printing off photos of quilt tops handy when unsure exactly how I want to quilt a piece.First print off photo of quilt top then cover the photo with clear acetate or similar clear plastic and use washable markers to practice your quilt lime possibilities.

 

I love Fall!

       On the design board..

Little by little

Guessing pics are better then no posts :-)

We have a little of this...

And a little of that...

And then a little more of that...

On my design board today

Today is a busy day for me.....lunch date with some of my Quakertown area quilter buddies, then off to NJ tonight for the monthly meeting of CentralJersey MQG = Modern quilt guild = fun yet late evening since it is a drive for two of my friends and I, YET so worth it. If you live anywhere near Pennington NJ come join us and check out the fun we have. A great guild to join.

So this is one item on my design board today sadly deciding to fill my design walls with present and old unfinished work seems to have me a little disoriented or sometimes unfocused on the one/plural that has a deadline looming so might have to rethink my plan of attack on old projects.

This is an oldie I discovered that I am going to use as an test run for what they are calling matchstick quilting. I will explain the term as I have perceived the explanation to be? Hoping it makes sense and that I also understand it correctly since I am posting about it :-) lol So matchstick quilting is when the lines of quilting is about a matchstick's width apart, so very dense straight line quilting.

So I am off to enjoy my day and still hoping for some productivity. wish me luck.

It's been brought to my attention...A question was asked: What happened to my posting?

So someone mentioned to me it was a shame I had not posted recently.
I wish you KNEW how many times I've written my post in my mind or thoughts photos and all :-)
Yet for some reason, I cannot understand? Hmmm they just have not connected with my blog wifi wise. I am betting that someday soon there will be a way to telepathically send our blog our posts by just wishing or letting it read our minds.
Well until that time I am guessing I need to get busy and TRY very hard to resurface my old successful blogging practices or habits.
I will try to get back into my habit of posting or sharing my creative activities.
So here are just a few items on my design board presently.

Trying to complete some old old Un-finished-projects that were just rediscovered.

Hoping to clean out the stack of incomplete projects so I can focus on new ideas.

The crayon blocks I won during one of my VA quilt retreats, in FACT it was the year I retired for good from teaching school (art) so seemed appropriate that I won. 

It will become my retirement quilt 2009. About time it got sewn together.

This was a charity quit I quilted and bound for my Modern Quilt Guild.

This is a project that took way toooooooo long to complete.
This is my husbands office wall and desk furniture which I ended helping him paint with Annie Sloan paint

This was an old round robin piece that began in think around 2006. It was completed till the first brown border and I decided that I might as well finish it as a medallion quilt to either give away to a relative or a charity. The top is now #3 in my pile to be quilted on my HQ16.

So I KNOW I have not been taking the time to post, 

YET trust me, I will always find time to create! 

Creating brings sunshine into my life! So...Until next time...

Finally some fun experimenting in the wet studio.

So just a hint to fellow fiber buddies: If you are interested in trying out Lumi dyes check your JoAnn Fabric store for the product in their clearance section.
I had been planning on trying out the product for a while now so was excited to get it at such bargain prices.

Lumi has 3 or 4 different kits available w/Inkodye and then you'll find various little pounches or bottles of Inkodye along with the necessary Inkodye detergent.

Here are three pieces of silk that have been dipped in blue inkodye just to test run the color .
Wrinkles or folds done so these are now ready to put out in the sun to process.

Here are the blue pieces after developing in the sun so now ready to be washed in the inkodye fabric detergent.

Test run of red Inkodye.

Finally getting to use my little washer tub to help wash out the dye.

I am really loving my stainless sink in the wet studio (AKA as our basement)

I enjoyed experimenting with the product and look forward to trying  different techniques with the dye and switching from silk to cotton fabric.

The technique I used today was to crunch up the silk or create folds for lines, the premiss is where the sun hits the fabric the dye color will develop and where the fabric does not receive sun light the fabric will stay the color the fabric was to begin with.

So many possibilities and fun yet to come.

Modern Quilt Guild Michael Miller Challenge

Many of us Modern Quilt Guild members signed up to participate in a Michael Miller Challenge.

I along with many of my NJ Modern Quilt Guild buddies decided that we would participate and one of the NJ guild's idea was to include curves somehow into our designs.

I began by sewing together strips of curves of the challenge fabric  

From there I decided to cut the new fabric into strips

I decided to start to create some semi log cabin squares

Along the way I kept adding the squares to the design board

You might notice the design took on a life of it's own.

Close up of stitching

Finished in time and posted on the Modern Quilt guild site along with over 700 other entries.

Was a lot of fun and great practice to be be challenged to create something original.

Sorry for the lapse in blogging..But Summertime is busy and fun!

Ok so the last item I blogged about was the tshirt quilt I was making for my nephew's graduation.
During the construction of the quilt I did run into problems due to my forgetfulness.
If you notice the bottom corner of the quilt is the label which was made in part by printing special family photos. Sadly I FORGOT to use my Epson printer to print the photos so when I washed the quilt you will see the ink basically washed away.

So here is the quilt when I thought it was done. Thankfully my habit is to wash my quilts before I give them away, after the quilt was washed I noticed the ink had basically washed away. I suggest if you are going to print out any photos to be included in quilts that are to be washed to use a printer that has pigma ink such as Epson printers use.

Was sad that I did not catch my mistake before the quilt was quilted it now
left me with a dilemma of how to  correct my mistake.

Ink washed out = "Oh NO!"

Came up with a solution that meant reprinting the photos using correct printer this time and used fabric as frames, managed to sew them on  quilt with invisible thread and hoped no one would be the wiser. (Unless of course they read my blog lol)
Oh and YES I washed the quilt again to make sure repair worked.
Success!

Lesson learned: #1.) Keep the habit of washing quilts before they are given away.

#2.) Always remember when printing photos that will be washed to use pigma ink printers.