Monthly Archives: June 2014
Baby quilt center finish
Now that each row is complete, we are ready to press. (Did I mention that I sew quilts with a #2 length on modern machines or on older machines, it would be a few more stitches to the inch) OK, ready to put the quilt together – Move the numbered papers you have at the top to down the left side.
At the ironing board press all even numbered rows to the left and all odd numbered rows to the right (this can be reversed, just be sure that they are pressed opposite)
We want to “nest” the seams. Nesting is something you can feel. Put one seam left and the seam to the right as you gently pull them together, you can feel it lock. This is exactly what you want. Unless you are a seasoned seamstress, you may want to pin at each intersection. Sew the bottom of row 1 to the top of row 2. Sew the bottom of row 3 to the top of row 4 etc. Again row 11 will be left over. This is a great time to press those seams down. Now sew the bottom of row 2 to the top of row 3 and so on until all rows are together. When all the rows are stitched together, press all seams down. In my experience, if a seam intersection is less than 1/8″ of inch off, no one will notice. We are making these to be used and abused by an infant or small child. When you quilt through the layers that often obscures any tiny errors. It is more important that your seams are all flat on the back side.
Here I have finished the center and am ready to put the borders on. So far I have tried several borders, but am not happy with any of them. I may just use a plain color for the outer border. I will let it hang there for a few days until I decide what to do.
Baby quilt rows
We are starting now to sew this quilt together. Label each of the top blocks with a consecutive number. I suggest pinning it on as you need to visit it several times. A perfect 1/4″ is always nice, but in this case since they are all squares, having the same size seam whether it be a tad less or a tad more is more important.
Starting at the top of row one, pick up each block on the way down. You will now have a pile of #1. Do this for each of the numbers you created.
Lay column one and column 2 side by side in front of you. ALWAYS pick them up the same way, in my case, I lay #2 block on top of block #1 and sew down the right side. Be consistent so you know where you are. When these are all sewn together, keeping them in the same order, cut them apart.
I chain sew them and then lay them out to cut them apart. Do this with columns 3 and 4, sewing them together. Repeat for columns 5 and 6, then 7 and 8, then 9 and 10. You will not use row 11 just yet.
Now sew columns (1+2) to (3+4) Again cut apart keeping in the original order. Each group will have 4 blocks. Sew columns (5+6) to (7+8) and columns 9+10 to the block #11. This is a good time to put them back on the design wall to be sure you still have them in the correct order. If you are happy with them, you can finish putting the three groups together and take off the labels.
They will look like this. Tomorrow, we will talk about pressing and sewing these rows together.
Hello Canada!
Leaving Washington State, USA, and entering British Columbia, Canada through the Peace Arch entrance.
Entering Chinatown, Vancouver. which is the largest Chinatown in Canada.
This clock and the replicated gas lights are in the original downtown Vancouver. Also notice the beautiful hanging baskets.
Here Casey is beside a tour bus with lots of “people” painted on the side.
Casey really wanted to visit this store near the large market and then she was done. And it was time to head home.
Round and round baby quilt and Design wall
For the design wall, I buy the large flannel backed plastic tablecloths after a holiday on sale for 99 cents. I’ve had this one up for at least 3 years. It is ready to be changed – perhaps after Christmas this year.
Here is an idea for a baby quilt that I like. When I have fabric scraps that aren’t enough to save for a larger quilt, I often cut them into 2.5 or 4″ blocks and put them aside. When I made this I had a many blues. This time I tried to use up pinks
Now I want to use up 4″ pink pieces. If you look carefully, I don’t always have enough of one piece of fabric, so I go with a very similar tone. By putting them on the design wall, I can see where I might need to make changes and where one is upside down etc. and sometimes I do need to get a fat quarter at the store to fill in a color gap. In this case I used a fat quarter for the darker pinks and I have some butterfly yardage that I couldn’t resist. So I’ll go with this on this quilt. See how easy that is. I’ll show you how I put it together at a later date. I still need to choose an inner border, but I’m off to a family gathering.
Happy Father’s Day
I hope all fathers and men had a wonderful day. You are an extremely important part of our world and we love you
Our youngest daughter and her husband (dad to our grandcat) took us to a Mexican dinner for the event
The Dad that lives here helped me water the garden and pick another 2 gallons of strawberries. The string beans are now in.
Oh, and the most exciting thing that happened in the last 12 hours is that the fabric and notions end of the basement flooded giving us something to do until very late. A fitting on the water softener failed. Because this is not the first time, most things on the floor were in plastic totes. And a couple cardboard boxes that became quite wet were lined with garbage bags. Some fabric scraps are now being washed again and a huge load of towels is now out of the dryer. All in all, I have a much cleaner floor in there, though it will take awhile before the water under the floor tiles evaporates. I’m very thankful for heat in the floor.
Sister’s quilts
My sister gave me a box of these blocks plus this quilt top and another nearly finished. They are beautiful, but she doesn’t want to sew more because she doesn’t think so. I am inclined to take the outside border off, add more blocks to make it larger and keep it. But that probably won’t happen.
Look at her work. It is really good.
These are bibs she did. Look at the stitching below. They are turned exactly on the line and the sewing around the neck is quite precise.
The work is better than 90% of my work. And not only is the work good. The projects are finished.
Friday the 13th
Today we went to visit my sister. Here, Christian, my grandson is bored
I gave him the camera and sent him out to take photos and these are three of the views of her yard surroundings with which he returned. He loves taking photos as you can see.
We returned via the Seattle Bremerton ferry
On our way home, we passed the International Starbucks home (which used to be the big Seattle Sears)
It is very interesting to take someone new to show your hometown. You start seeing sites that are very familiar to you with different eyes. This is one of many sites I frequently pass without giving it a second thought.
Ride the Ducks
We had a most enjoyable day. The weather was perfect as we walked past the Space Needle and the Science Center on our way over to the “Ride the Ducks
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