Finished crazy-quilt

Here's good news--the quilt has been finished. And I really am enthusiastic about the result.

Binding

Well, there's good news, I'm binding the quilt. And more good news, the person I'm making the quilt for (my son) phoned me. He lives in Las Vegas and plans to visit us this week. Hopefully, the quilt will be ready in time. Ha Ha, he really needs it, the temperature in Las Vegas cooled down to 99 degrees Fahrenheit last week.

The quilt tying process

Here's my quilt being tied on the dining room table. Note that I put a cutting board under the quilt to protect the table surface. I use a curved needle and crochet cotton #10. I make a surgeon's square knot.

It's all together

Well, after some delays due to dental work (I had to have a root canal) the quilt is pin basted. I sewed together some assorted fabric from my stash for the backing. I'm using a regular weight batt, as opposed to the thin batt I usually buy. When I make a tied quilt, I like it to be puffy. And since I don't have the crazy quilt to stitch together now, I'm back to sewing those puffs I mentioned in previous posts. 400 is a lot of puffs! I'm using up some very old fabrics for some of the puffs, little bits of things that have been around for ages. I save just about every little bit of fabric.

Fit to be tied

Well here's a picture of the top for my crazy style quilt. I added a border of 2 inches of yellow and then 6 inches of more crazy pieces. I'm going to hunt around in my boxes of fabrics for something to put on the back.
What glorious fun this quilt has been. I'm going to tie it with crochet cotton #10. I have found that that is the best thing for tying quilts.

Quilted thoughts

There's something about sewing together scraps of uncoordinated fabrics that excites me. I have two laundry hampers full of assorted scraps in my sewing room. I like to pull up a few handfuls and go to town on my sewing machine. I'm making that crazy-style quilt pictured here, the one with alternating blue squares. I've gotten all the squares together. That was a challenge for me--sewing them on the diagonal. I've decided to make more crazy-style strips for the border. I join some, and cut the resulting patches with my six-inch ruler. This type of sewing makes me feel so happy.

baby sweater

See what can be done with some left-over yarn? I crocheted a baby sweater again--those babies keep on being born--I can hardly keep up!

For the Birds

This is a recent quilt, the subject is birds, appliqued and embroidered, alternating with some crazy quilt squares.

Quilting en pointe

Here's how my quilts start, on a messy piece of graph paper. I use pencils, pens and crayons to plan the layout and size. I very rarely make a quilt that is set on the diagonal. that's because I like to machine quilt. I usually make sections that I quilt, and then join.

But this one is being made as one piece, and on the diagonal, because I plan to tie it.

So I feel like a ballerina on tip toes (that's en pointe.) I've turned everything on edge.

This is a crazy-style quilt. I can use up the most useless little scraps. I use no foundation for this crazy patch. I just seam the thing together. Later I squared them up to 9 1/2 (finishing at 9 inches.)

Finished baby quilt

Here it is, all free-motion quilted and bound! I'm so excited. I used to bind quilts only with bias, but lately I've been cutting straight strips. And I have another exciting project that I'm working on: To Be Continued-----

Everyday placemats

These place mats are the kind I use everyday. I just made these two. It takes no time at all. First of all, I had this remnant that someone gave me ages ago--I forget exactly who or when. But it is a nice, heavy cotton. This is how to do it: fold fabric right sides together and cut out 14 by 18 inch rectangle. Also cut out a 14 by 18 piece of flannel. Any old flannel will do, even part of an old nightgown. Place all three together and sew all around in a 1/2 inch seam, leaving about 4 or 5 inches open on one side for turning. Trim the corners and turn right side out. Sew the opening closed by hand or machine. Press well, then top-stitch the edges about 1/2 inch in. I added a row of machine stitching down the center, using a fancy stitch on my machine. They're done! Now you can make these as fancy as you might like: using orphan blocks; crazy or strip piecing; applique; ric-rack or lace! A holiday fabric would be fun.



As far as the baby quilt goes, I finished my free-motion quilting. I sewed on the binding today. I used to make bias binding to sew on my quilts. Lately, I cut strips 2 1/2 inches wide, sew them together, press in half, and apply. I'll have to post a photo when it's completed.



And I haven't forgotten those puffs for the puff quilt (see photo) that I mentioned earlier--I'm still working on those.