Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Using up those batting scraps

Out of that pile of batting scraps I managed to get batting pieced together for 7 of the 9 baby quilts!

I have one lap sized quilt I will have to cut from my bolt of batting, so I will use the leftover to piece another baby quilt sized batting. Here is the pile of batting I still have.
As I have been cleaning up piles here and there, I spied this yardage that was under a pile. This will be going on the back of one of these 16 patch quilts. It was funny that not that long ago I was digging thru my stash trying to find fabrics that might work for the backs not sure if I would find enough. Now I have more than I need between the fabric I brought home from my friend's yard sale and what I had in my stash.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I am taking Monday off to so that is a 5 day weekend for me.

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Tutorial - how to machine sew a mitered corner

Years ago when I bound a quilt I would overlap my corners. My Mom told me (we're talking about the 1990's) I needed to up my game and miter my corners. I found a plastic guide for making a machine sewn mitered corner. It came with instructions and it took me an hour and a half to sew the first corner! I can now sew all four corners in a half hour. Yes, thank goodness, I got quicker at it! LOL!!! It makes such a beautiful corner so here is how I do it.

First I sew my binding strips on each side of the quilt, sewing to 1/4" from the corners. In this example I had cut my binding 3" wide, but any size will work. It is a bit harder the narrower the binding gets. I don't measure or mark my 1/4" from the corner. I just go for it.

Sometimes I get the stitching just right, but most of the time I get close then need to fix it. This picture shows that the stitching doesn't come to the corner.

What I do to correct this is to tear out a few stitches, get the binding strips going the correct direction and restitch each side separately from the back side. This is what is needs to look like.

Next flip the quilt back over to the front and now it is time to make the stitching line for the miter. 1. center the measuring device between the stitching line and the edge of the binding
2. make sure the edge of your measuring device meets up with the end of the stitching.

Here is my corner marking device that I have had for years. I don't think you can buy these anymore.

but you can mark it just as easy with a small square ruler. The diagonal line needs to be parallel to the edge of the binding and seam line, and I make sure that the measurement at the corner is the same on both sides of the diagonal line. Make sure the ruler is just to the end of the stitching line.
Draw a line around the end of the ruler or tool. This is your stitching line.

With the quilt to your left, take the east west side and fold back the quilt and seam allowances. I kind of hand press the right side along the binding stitching line.
Then take the north south side of the quilt and fold it over to the east west side to align the bindings. You will make a triangle shape with the quilt.
Coax the seam allowances away from the binding and pin the corner. I also take a peak under the top binding to make sure the bottom binding is nice and flat.

Wrestle this under the sewing machine foot and sew from the inner corner to the outer edge. I definitely backstitch and when I am about halfway to the point of the miter, I change my stitch length to 1.5. Here is the sewn miter.

Trim the excess fabric. Yes this is kind of scary but you can't have to much fabric or the corner won't turn nicely. Now you can understand why you have to switch to a smaller stitch length.

Now that the sewing is done I trim the quilt, press the binding so it is nice and crisp at the sewing line, then using a pointy tool push out the corner. See what a nice corner you get?

Again, the first time you do this you will be asking yourself "why did I think this was a good idea", but after some practice you will get much faster at it.

The original direction had you line up the binding first then mark the corner. That was much harder to line up to mark the corner dealing with all those layers of batting. I figure out to mark the miter before folding; it is much easier to get an accurate corner. Let me know if you have any questions!

Monday, November 25, 2019

15th finish of 2019

I am so glad to have taken the time to finally get this one done. It turned out 88 3/4" x 99 3/4".

Next I need to get it shipped to Texas. We has some supplies show up at the job trailer and there is a box that is just the right size.

I spent the rest of the weekend cleaning, doing laundry, and I made banana bread to take to the guys at work. I should have baked the little breads another two minutes. Even though some of them sunk in just a bit, the centers were baked.

Friday, November 22, 2019

Finally making progress

I finally got the binding sewn on that large 16 patch quilt. I still need to sew the mitered corners, but that won't take more than an hour. I will get it trimmed, pressed, then hand sew the binding this weekend while watching football.

I laid out all the 16 patch baby quilts tops to see how many I had. Here are seven baby sized and one lap top
plus two baby tops on the design wall.

I was digging around and found quite a pile of batting pieces. Before I start pin basting the baby quilts, I am going to piece these batting pieces together and use them for these baby quilts.

Have a great weekend!

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Binding and UFOs

I have had a couple long days so when I got home I haven't felt much like doing anything. I did get the binding cut and some of it sewn and pressed. Tonight I plan on getting it sewn on the quilt after I pin it.

Vicki of Colorways by Vicki Welsh had posted recently her goal of getting her UFOs down to 10 by the end of the year. I haven't' been very good about keeping track of what was on my UFO list so I decided to look at it this morning. I had taken pictures of the projects, printed them out, and hung them on a door next to the studio. I was surprised that I got to cross off two items as they are now WIP and one item was just crossed off.

I am down to 10 items and I would love to knock off one or two more, but I don't think that will happen by the end of the year. If I don't get all those baby quilts done they will end up being added to the UFO list. I could start a WIP list - no, I don't need another list to manage! LOL!! I have the double wedding ring quilt to finish too. I am just glad I got to cross off the pictures of piles of fabric ends that have and are getting turned into quilts - the homespun is used up, the flannel pieces are mostly used up and all I have are a few scraps and blocks, and the African pieces are also mostly used up.

Monday, November 18, 2019

16 patch baby quilt tops

I was not feeling that great this weekend as I have a bit of a cold coming on, but I still managed to get the laundry and grocery shopping done. Then I got most of the 16 patch blocks sewn into baby quilt tops.
number one
number two
number three
and number four

I ended up with 18 blocks left. I will set those aside for now. I will either use them for doggie quilts or make 12 more blocks to get enough for a baby quilt.

I only managed to figure out what color of Kona I am going to use to bind that big 16 patch quilt.

So I guess my plans for the week is to get the binding on the big 16 patch quilt then start pin basting all those baby quilts.

Friday, November 15, 2019

Weekend goals

On my list is to turn these blocks into baby quilt tops

and to get the binding on this quilt which has been done for a number of months. It is for my nephew and his wife. It is the quilt that got me started on the 16 patch venture!

Have a great weekend!

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Now where was I?

I remember now! LOL!!! The 16 patch blocks! Now that the design wall was empty I put back the two 16 patch baby quilts I had laid out before I started on the pink flannel quilt.

Thanks for all your lovely comments about the pink flannel quilt. The husband of the woman I made the quilt for was surprised and said his wife would love it.

While at the hospital yesterday I took a picture of the steel mounting that is on the ceiling of the operating rooms we are building. This is where the robots will be mounted. There are two of these in each room. That is some serious steel. We are building 4 new OR's and remodeling two other ones. These are things you don't think about. It is amazing how much goes into building an operating room! Next week they start the terrazzo floors.

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

14th finish for 2019

Yeah, I got the pink flannel quilt done last night. It is 72" x 84". I wasn't liking this quilt that much, but once I got the darker binding on it, that made me come around.

I will deliver it today and then it is back to the 16 patch baby quilts after I clean up the studio. It is a real mess right now from all the little nips of flannel I cut off the seams.

Weather wise where I live in NE Ohio we maybe got 2" of snow. Right now the sun is shinning and it is a bit colder than usual for this time of year - 15 degrees. Whew, it had finally cooled off! LOL!!!

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

A bit more done

I had a busy night last night so I only managed to get the binding on the other two sides and the mitered corners sewn.

Between a phone call and texts I was busy! I will not have any problem finishing the binding tonight so I can deliver it Wednesday. I will machine sew the binding down, sew on a labe, and it will be done.

We got a little bit of snow, but nothing to get excited about. The weather people kept on and on about it like the end of the world was coming. My ornamental grass has been bent over by the weight of the wet snow.

Monday, November 11, 2019

Sandusky, quilt progress, and a baby

Friday night the band had a show in Sandusky. The stage is in a loft space which means we had to haul the equipment up a flight of steps - well, I didn't - the guys did. There was no railing so we requested a railing be put up for safety. I can't believe they get away with not having one!
Here is the view from the loft stage

By the end of the night your neck hurts from looking up. The merchandise table was set up underneath the loft so once in a while I would walk out so I could see the band. I got to bed at 2:40 a.m. I did get a picture of the lake towards Sandusky. Still pretty even though it was dark and cold.

Saturday and Sunday I worked on the pink flannel quilt. It is quilted and I got started on sewing the binding on it. I believe I will make my goal of having it done for Wednesday.
I did have enough energy on Sunday to make homemade pizza. It was good with leftovers for today.

I received an email thanking me for a quilt I gave to the daughter of one of the men at work that was my boss for a while. His daughter had a girl and here she is on her quilt. How cute! I love it when I get pictures!