Quilting done - auditioning binding

Yeah! I finished the quilting and now it is on to the binding. I wanted to use sheet music looking fabric for the binding. I can't remember what you call the lines the notes are on. Well, anyway I found some in black and gold. I thought the gold would tie into the gold back and it picks up the gold in some of the prints. I didn't have any white or red that had straight lines of music. I did find a small scrap of scattered music notes so I decided to throw that in to get a couple hits of red in the binding. Here is the binding laid out full width. It will be not so in your face once it is folded and sewn on.

It is cold this morning! My car said 13 degrees, but the computer link says 8 degrees. We only received about a half an inch of snow - just enough to slick the roads up. Since I only have to go one mile it is not an issue. Be safe out there and stay warm where ever you are!

Musical quilt is almost done

I finished all the big striped blocks except I need to bury the loose ends on the last two blocks. I got started on quilting the red and white triangles and I love the look of the red thread on the back. It give the back a fun pop of color!

I am pretty sure I can finish the quilting tonight.

My brother called me yesterday. He is on hiatus from Springsteen, but he does work for many other bands so those bands have been keeping him busy. He told me the wives of two of the members of the band he is with right now are expecting in February and March so he would like a quilt for each. I said of course! I will let you know after I get the quilts made who they are for. I need to look for more fabric with drums on them. Drummer's wives seem to be having babies these days!

Major progress on the musical quilt

Free motion line quilting certainly goes much faster on a smaller quilt! I now have 7 1/2 blocks quilted! I am over half way done, but not 3/4. The red triangles and the small squares will take a bit more time just with tying off all the threads, but I am so happy with my progress. Here is a shot of the back and a detail shot.

Update on the musical quilt and a fantastic quilt by a MQG member

This weekend blew by because I was so busy! Saturday morning was all about getting my hair cut, stopping by a couple of grocery stores and attending a event called Urban Elf where Justin had a booth. I hung around for an hour but Justin never showed up so I didn't get to see him. Here are some pictures of his booth.

By the time I got home it was after 1 p.m. I needed to get to work on the musical quilt and so I did. I managed to get the top finished. I used the trimming from the blocks to add the row at the bottom and the piece at the right side of the red triangle section.

Sunday morning I made lasagna and a banana cake to take to my son's. When I got back home it was 5:15 and I called one of the women in my MQG, Stephanie, that wanted to use my table to pin baste a quilt she wanted to get done for Xmas. Look at this quilt. Isn't it fabulous? She was at my improv demo I had last year for my MQG. What a good student - great job grasshopper! While we pinned we talked about having the same fears when working this way - not having enough fabric, will it turn out like I picture it, etc. She also said how she thought it took more time to make with all the decisions you need to make. This true, but the results! She said she was influenced by a quilt someone else had made and the quilt was suppose to represent DNA strands. Hey, we are all influenced by everything we see. It is a matter of finding a way to make it your own and I think she was very successful.

See the black sections are pieced too!

Look what Stephanie brought me - a mini zucchini bread and some home made mocha truffles! Yum!

After she left, I pin basted the musical quilt and between last night and this morning before work I got two blocks quilted. The fabric I picked for the back is not a favorite of mine, but it was priced very good and it was musical fabric so I bought it. In the process of making these improv quilts using novelty fabrics I have learned that high contract leads to a more sophisticated look so I use very little medium fabrics. Now I did use that light green in the musical quilt since it had drums on it, but I think a little bit works in this piece. Since I was going to quilt the musical quilt with thread that matches each fabric, I thought this light gold fabric would work on the back and the different colors of thread would make the back more interesting.

I am having way too much fun making this quilt. I think I have finally hit my stride and found my voice.

Real studio tour, musical quilt, and another project before Xmas?

I am participating in Vicki's Real Studio tour over at Field Trips in Fiber. Today we are to post our favorite non-traditional quilting tool. Mine is a brick - actually two bricks. I worked at a custom drapery shop years ago and they used the bricks for holding fabric like an extra pair of hands. So I had to have a couple. I wrapped the brick in batting and then a scrap of drapery weight fabric and just whip stitch the seams - nothing fancy. I use them for holding down one corner of backing while I get it laid out on my table and also the batting and quilt top as I get ready to pin baste

I use them to hold down my big 60" metal ruler when I am trimming the edge of fabric or cutting border pieces

They are handy when I do crafting also by holding thing flat while they dry. So go out to the yard and find yourself a couple of bricks, wrap them up and put them to use!

I did get the first two rows of the musical quilt sewn together. In the past when I have made improv blocks I usually square them up, but I decided to try putting the blocks together by not squaring them up and just sewing them together. I did overlap the blocks and cut thru both blocks so they would have a matching edge.

Since the musical quilt is coming together so fast I was wondering if I could get one more project done before Xmas. I dug out these t-shirts that belong to my niece

I have been collecting orange fabric for a while to use in this quilt. She loves orange.

Even if I don't get it done I will at least get a good start on it. This is her quilt for graduating from high school.

Have a great weekend!

Musical quilt zippa-dee-do-dah

Yesterday I went to lunch with a friend and she brought me some lake trout that she caught. She was the same woman that caught that 22 pound salmon. I now have one bag of the fish thawing in the fridge - yum!

Last evening I cut and sewed two sections of my crazy improv triangles for the musical quilt. This is my zippa-dee-do-dah I am adding to this quilt. I put the sections up on the design wall and came up with several options;

option a

option b

option c

option d

option e - I decided to move some of the blocks around and put the zig zags at the bottom

I haven't made up my mind which way I am going to construct this quilt but I am leaning toward option b, c or e.

Here is a closeup of the red fabric. I wanted to use this fabric since the drums are prominent in this fabric and it adds a bit of zing!

Progress on the musical quilt

I got all my blocks made so here they are hanging on the design wall.

The space I left is for some piecing I will do tonight. I wanted to add some zippa-dee-do-dah to this piece so you will have to come back tomorrow to see if the vision in my head translate into fabric.

It is very warm here for December. 48 degrees this morning! I wish I could have stayed home and washed my car.