Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Too Busy to Talk

The last three weeks I have been diligently staying on task...trying to finish a quilt. I'm in the binding stage...so close. I tried three new techniques with this quilt and I am counting at least two of them a success.

The quilting design on the outer border is a technique called "Curved Echo Border." You can find a wonderful tutorial for the design on Kathy Schwartz's blog Tamarack Shack. She has a wonderful blog and I encourage you to visit her if you have never been to her site. Wonderful quilting along with Aurora photos and some quilting designs in snow.


The second new technique I tried on my latest quilt is marking with ordinary chalk. I got this tip from Margaret Solomon Gunn when I met her at the International Quilt Show in Houston. I even tried colored chalk and it worked beautifully too. Just sharpen with an ordinary pencil sharper with a larger pencil option. This is such a treat to work with...cheap, easy, washes out completely and I can actually see my marks no matter what color of fabric I am quilting. Most batiks are of medium value so this has been a issue for me in the past. Such a simple solution. 


The third technique was also one I got from Margaret. Wash the quilt before sewing on the binding. I'll decide if I like that technique when I actually finish the binding and see how it lays.

Sunshine is in the forecast for tomorrow so I am planning on a quilt photo session in the snow.

In an effort to stay on task with my machine quilting, I have started getting the next quilt ready for loading on my quilting frame. This quilt top has been waiting so patiently for me to quilt her that I had to spend some time ironing out all those hard creases from having her crammed on the shelf for many years. I had a lot of paper-pieced points in this design and I had to spend some time getting seams pressed for the least amount of bulk.


Don't worry...the iron is unplugged...a habit I am trying to instill in my routine since my quilting space is shared with a cat that loves all things quilty.


And I just had to share a puppy picture. Logan is four months old. He still loves to cuddle. When my husband is out of town the puppy gets to spend a few minutes in bed with me before we go to sleep.


I never made it to the January Breakfast Club gathering. That morning I woke up to the sound of rain...the worst possible weather when you have snow-packed roads. Many cars slid off the main road I would have had to drive that morning...it was a wet ice rink everywhere. Fine the next day...so frustrating! 

2 comments:

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

yes I bet it is a good thing to stay off snow covered roads when it is raining outside - we have only had snow one time this winter and it was a measly half and inch. February is to be above average and the way the end of January went is the way it will continue - 3 days in the 60's then 3 days in the low 50's to 40's - daffodils already have buds on them!! hope we don't dip way down to the 20's at some point this month. Kitty looks so lovely I like those big cats. have fun quilting.

Sally said...

Debbie, you were right to stay home that day...I never drive on snowy roads (actually, I'm terrified of driving on snowy roads). I'd be perfectly happy staying home and sewing all day! Hoping you get to photo those quilts...can't wait to see them.