KatyQuilts

I’m looking forward to some slow stitching today! I’m finally ready to hand stitch the binding of my Downton Abby quilt.

I really enjoy this part. It is so nice to spend time handling the cloth and slowly finishing a project. I actually did some slow stitching yesterday as well as I finished the bindings on the mug rugs.

Using single fold binding is really key for me to get these looking good. And I should know this. I have done it before on small quilts. Now that these are finally done, I can get my Pay It Forward gifts ready to send out.

The weather has been beautiful here this weekend. We have enjoyed spending time with little E.

And we Face Timed with Big L and Little L.

Little L is not looking too sure about Big L’s ability to hold him!

These little boys have completely stolen my heart. And we are only 7 weeks away from meeting our next little boy! Being Nana is just the best!

Have a wonderful day!

Linking up with Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday

…..call for desperate measures!

I just couldn’t live with my attempt at machine binding on this yesterday. Here’s a reminder of the yuckiness.

I was not going to pick stitches on this so I just cut the binding off.

I appreciate everyone’s suggestions for improving my binding on these little bits! And they helped! Thank you all! I think I tried everything on these mug rugs and found what worked and didn’t work for me.

Jayne mentioned that Crazy Mom Quilts has a tutorial for binding small things here. I tried that first. But I didn’t do a good enough job of pinning or something and ended up adjusting the end. See how there was too much fullness? I think I was afraid of cutting it too close!

After adjusting and finishing, this is how it turned out.

  
Smaller than when I started but this is so much better! As Janet suggested, the next one I sewed first and figured out the length at the end like I normally do on a big quilt. This is so much easier when using a single layer of binding fabric! I cut my strips at 1 1/4 inch wide per her suggestion.  Gina suggested pressing the hem under on the back before hand stitching. This was a great tip as well.

Not perfect but better than the last one!

In case you are interested, this is how I figure out where to sew the ends together.

I line up the ends and press a fold, then use that fold as a sewing guide. And yes, I know you are supposed to sew binding strips together on a diagonal. But I don’t. I do press the seams open. The quilt police haven’t hauled me off yet.

If you want to see some adorable mug rugs, check out these made by Gina at Quilts and Cakes. And you have to see the mini mini quilts Jayne made at Twiggy and Opal.

Thanks again for all the help everyone offered! I am feeling much better about my bindings on these small pieces now. Have a lovely Saturday!

I finished quilting my Downton quilt yesterday. Last night I should have been working on the binding, but did I? Oh no! I saw this pile of goodies on my work table and decided to play instead.

I was thinking I would make an improv table runner…..then I thought about how I wanted to try out a Swoon block…. Hubby had a phone meeting for work so I cut and pieced this.

This is 24 inches square. It would be a good size for a table top quilt, though not rectangular like a runner. I’m going to leave it up on the design wall for a few days and think about it.

And I might make some mug rugs with my scraps.

What are you working on today?

Linking up with My Quilt Infatuation

Are you tired of Downton yet? It is finally on the frame and quilting has commenced! Pretty much everyone was in agreement that the large blue floral was the right border choice. I couldn’t agree more!

I have no idea what line that border fabric is from. I bought it last summer as SAS Fabrics in Phoenix. I’m not normally s floral person, but I really love this and I think it goes well with the Downton fabrics.  Since this top is so busy, I decided to quilt this with a pantograph called Ground Cover.

It is a tight pattern so it takes a while to stitch, but the results are worth it. I love the texture.

  
Just for fun, here is a shot taken beneath the frame.

The color is completely off in this photo; it is more of a taupe color. I picked up a duvet cover in the clearance bin at IKEA a while back which yielded two nice pieces of polished cotton that is perfect for quilt backs.  This is one of them.

I hope you are having a lovely week!

Linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts , Freshly Pieced

Yesterday I finally started working on Baby E’s baby quilt.

He looks like a friendly little dinosaur! I’m using hand dyed fabrics for the body and they are embroidered/appliquéd on my embroidery machine with an embroidery package from Embroidery Library. Here’s a quick look at how I do this (which may be all wrong, but it worked!). First I layer my stabilizer, background fabric, and the appliqué fabric in the hoop. The first embroidery step is just an outline.

After carefully trimming away the extra fabric, I put the hoop back on the machine and embroider the rest. Here is this block finished.

These are not quick to do and the machine requires baby sitting. It took nearly all day to do these 8 blocks.

Of course, I also did some housework and worked on my Dowton quilt. I had to do something between thread changes! And so I was able to get these blocks together.

 And now I am thinking about borders.

  
  
When I queried this on Instagram yesterday, people were about evenly split between adding a border or just a binding. However, it was pretty unanimous that it should be blue! I tend to agree. Come back tomorrow to see what I will choose!

Linking up with Free Motion By the River

I mentioned the other day that I was wanting to get my Downton Abbey quilt finished up this month. I have 20 of 30 blocks done. Here it is back up on the design wall.

I decided to go through my pieces and make sure I had enough for the last 10 blocks and also to make sure the last few would not have all the same fabrics in them. So I matched them up and finished the four patches. This is no longer a leader/ender project, I want this one done. I plan to get as much done on this today as I can.

I really love the Downton Abbey “Downstairs” collection. They are all shirting type prints. I am thinking I would like a border on this quilt, but I don’t want to buy anything so I am going to look today and see if I can find anything in the stash that might work.

I finished the binding on the tree quilt yesterday. I’m hoping the weather will cooperate to get some good pictures this week.

Linking up with Patchwork Times 

I spent most of the day Friday quilting the tree quilt for my sister.

 I found a great tutorial for topography quilting over at Tia Curtis Quilts. It was really fun and fairly quick to do. The tree part was not quick to do. Here is a sneak peek:

 But it is done and my slow stitching for today is to finish this binding.

 I won’t show any more of this until it is finished. I will be taking it to my sister the end of this month when I go home to help my mom after her knee replacement.

Happy stitching!

Linking up with Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday

In only 9 weeks, Little E’s brother will arrive. It’s time for this Nana to get busy! Daughter #1 bought these prints on Etsy to set the theme for the baby room. You can view the listing here.

She bought a plain white crib skirt and asked me to dye it to match these prints. I will also make a baby quilt with hand dyed fabrics.

So yesterday, I hauled out my dyeing supplies and rolled up my sleeves. I haven’t done any of this in the last couple years but it really is fun. I should have done this before the weather cooled off. Anyway, I stirred up my eyes and soda ash solutions and mixed my potions. 

 I use Procion dyes from Dharma Trading Company. They are fiber reactive dyes so you have to use soda ash as well.  Sometimes, I add soda ash solution to the dye bath but this time, I soaked the fabric in the soda ash solution first. The colors I used were Mink Brown, Deep Orange, and Oxblood Red. I mix these colors until it looks about right to me. Then dump the dye on the wet fabric and knead it a bit. I was in a hurry and really spent as little time as possible on this batch. I let it sit until I got home from work before I started rinsing and washing.  Normally, I buy Kona PFD (prepared for dyeing) fabric to do this. I really only needed to dye the crib skirt. But I had that whole bolt of Ditta on hand from Ikea so I thought I’d try a yard to see how it took the dye. Most fabrics have a permanent press finish that prevents the dye from adhering. Normally when I dye, I do at least 15 yards to make it worth the mess.

Here is how the crib skirt and fabric turned out: 

 I am pretty happy with how the Ikea fabric took the dye. Since I have nearly a whole bolt of it, I may just do some more. These bits could put me in the mood for a little fall project….. But I think I need some more greens…. This next one is my least favorite, I kind of dumped all my leftover dyes on this one!      

I think I have hand dyed fabrics in all the other colors I will need for the quilt. I have purchased some designs for my embroidery machine  to appliqué some dinosaurs on that. This will be a first for me. I am a total rookie with machine embroidery.

Happy Saturday! I hope your day is colorful!