Adding the binding

I'm sewing on the binding today!  It's easier than doing this post. What a struggle for me to get this post going.  The "new" Google needs some improvement, especially for us grandma types, I think. Anyhow, I really get a lot of satisfaction when I have finished free-motion quilting and sewed on a binding.  My sewing machine adjusts for sewing on thick items such as quilts. I cut a binding on the straight of grain in a  1 3/8 inch width, sew it to the edge in a 1/4 inch seam and then I hand hem it to the back.  I like to hand hem while I'm watching a TV show.  There's a  few shows that I really enjoy on TV right now, like "The Glades," "Memphis Beat," and "The Closer," for instance.  (I like detectives.) I'm getting a lot of mileage out of my DVR these days.  And I've got some photos here of Jenna's quilt.  I pin basted it today.  The green fabric with the turtles is the flannel backing of Jenna's quilt.  I think that I've made quite a bit of sewing progress this week. Well, one thing I find, this Google thing doesn't understand about making a new paragraph, if I hit the space bar, it shoots down the page. Anyhow, pretend I made an new paragraph.  The weather has been mighty strange here in Southern California.  While most of the USA has been blasted with heat, our weather is very moderate.  I needed to wear a sweater yesterday morning, and none of my neighbors (I live in a Condo--lots of neighbors) needs to have on air conditioning.   I've not only been sewing quilts, I've been knitting and crocheting too.  I made a baby sweater for my dentist because she's expecting.  I posted a photo of my latest knitting and crochet on my Flickr, and it can be seen by clicking on the Flickr thing on this page.

the next phase

Jera's quilt being pin basted

You know what I always say, "It ain't a quilt until it's quilted!". I'm so happy to post that I have now finished making the three quilt tops, including appliqueing on the rest of those umpteen hearts on Jenna's and Sabrina's quilts.  I did add a bright green border to Sabrina's quilt, also.  Now it's time to put the band aid on my left index finger (before I hurt it with the safety pins, I put on the band aid, and when I finish putting in all those pins, presto--no hurt finger) and put in all the pins I can find.  I decided that I haven't been putting enough pins in when I pin baste lately, and so I put in a big bunch (that's a quilter's mathematical term) this time around.  I think that Jera will like this backing fabric, because it reminded me of the flowers that she draws.  Jera is an artist.  And knowing that she will be checking out this blog, I want to wish her a Very Happy Birthday next week.

Sabrina's quilt under construction, continued

Here it is!  I finally felt better enough from my allergies to assemble Sabrina's quilt top.  I used dark green for the sashes.  The top now measures 47 by 74 inches.  I have to decide on whether to add borders, and if so, what?  I guess that what I ought to add is about 4 inches to each side.  That's not very much, I think that I ought to look in my stash for some fabric to sew onto the sides. (Maybe some of that bubblegum pink? or bright green?) Speaking of fabric, my stash is getting away from me a bit, and I just ordered more!  I'm going to have to stop buying all these wonderful solid colors until I use up some of this stuff. 
Meanwhile, I find that I've now become allergic to cherries.  (That's on top of my allergy to one of my prescriptions.) I haven't been able to eat peaches for many years, and now it's the cherries.  It seems that the allergy to peaches and cherries are connected somehow.  I keep having to give up more and more of the foods I love as time goes by.  As they say, it's the penalty for growing old.  Speaking of feeling old, this week on the 21st of July is our Fiftieth wedding anniversary!  We have recently had a family reunion in honor of the occasion.  Unfortunately, my darling husband is not in the best of health.  However, we are so happy to have been married all of this time.  As they say, "Marriages are made in Heaven."  Well, I guess that seems not to apply to all marriages.  But with all of my husband and my eccentricities it worked out!  And we are blessed to have three wonderful children and six fantastic grandchildren.

Onward with Sabrina's quilt

In spite of my having awful allergies, I'm working on Sabrina's quilt.  I spread the blocks out on my bed to take this photo. All of the blocks are done, and this is the layout for them.  Now I need to decide on the color of the sashes.  I have to figure out how much fabric that will take, and find a nice piece of fabric in my stash.  I think that I need a medium to dark color.  I might use more than one fabric, too. The scrappy blocks will probably need to be trimmed on the sides of her name, I can just do that later.  I'm having such a good time planning and making these quilts.  I feel like a boat that is going out from the shore--I'm sailing further and further away from most of those quilts that I see illustrated in the quilting magazines that I subscribe to.

Sabrina's quilt under construction

Here's a photo of  some of the blocks that I made so far for Sabrina's quilt.  I made some house blocks with little figures in the windows.  And there are two wonky heart blocks, that I learned how to make from Tonya's blog.  The shoo-fly blocks are made from directions in Gwen Marston's book Liberated Quiltmaking.  I made a shoo-fly quilt before from those directions.  I sent that quilt to my daughter who lives in Florida.  This time I put novelty prints in the central squares.  I like it so much, that I'm thinking of making a baby quilt like that sometime.  As a matter of fact, since I have given away a baby quilt lately, I guess I ought to make a couple more of those, as I never know when a new baby will arrive.  The mother and father might know, but that doesn't always translate into timely info for the quilter.  Right now, I'm planning to make a bunch of string blocks to fill in the rest of Sabrina's quilt.  I have an enormous quantity of scraps at the moment, so string blocks it will be.

More details, and the beginning of Sabrina's quilt

Here I go--I began with Sabrina's name as I started  making her quilt.  I finally decided to choose blue for the lettering.  Lots of blocks to follow--that will be fun for me.  And I'm posting close-up photos of the applique blocks that I made on Jenna's quilt.  The house block is a very simple one, with embroidered running stitch edges on the house, and on the door.  The hearts are embroidered with white blanket stitch.The bird is embroidered with black blanket stitches, and has a French knot eye and chain stitched legs.  The flower pot is made with a running stitch around the edge.  The flowers have white blanket stitch around their edges and French knots decorate the centers of the flowers.

Jenna's quilt

I'm so glad.  I have managed to sew together Jenna's quilt top (of course it will need a lot of quilting)!  This in spite of my being under the weather this week with allergies and other health stuff--you don't want to know about it.  Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease, as it seems the doctor thinks that I'm allergic to one or more of my prescribed medicines.  Anyhow, I did some hand embroidery on the appliques and that does not show up in this photo.  I guess I ought to take more close-up pictures of that.  So, now on to working on my third little granddaughter's quilt--her name is Sabrina.  As you can tell if you've been reading my blog here, every quilt has the girl's name on it, but every quilt is otherwise very different. Today is July Fourth, and I want to wish everyone a Glorious Fourth!