Lots of sewing goin' on

Good news today--I'm actually finishing Jacob's quilt. It's all quilted and I'm working on sewing on the miles of blue binding. I watched a movie on TV yesterday and got a lot of progress on the hand hemming. Maybe too much, I had to put an ice pack on my neck. After the quilt is totally complete, I plan to find a couple of folks to hold it up for a good picture.
In case you might think that some of those blue fabrics look like denim--you are correct in one respect--they look like it, but they are only cotton that's printed to look like denim. And furthermore, I have cut up a lot of fabrics from that fat quarter bundle I had the luck to acquire--and that has been "burning a hole in my pocket." I want to make a four patch quilt for a charity donation. Here's a little picture of those fabrics in motion--as it were.And another thing, I realized today that this is post number 492 on my blog. I guess that I've been chatting and quilting on the web for quite some time. I'll have to try to come up with something special for the 500th post--whenever that may be.

Half Log Cabin Quilt

I'm so happy to have completed this quilt. I tried to do something different--I used left over strings from the quilt for the binding. Lots of quilters do this, but it's a first for me. I just joined assorted bits together. I think that this binding goes with such a scrappy quilt. Now, why was I in a bit of a rush? Because ever since I got my hands on Tonya Ricucci's book Word Play Quilts, I've been mulling over in my mind what to make. This book is so inspiring! Anyhow, I decided what to make--a wall hanging. And I even did some research--yes, this wall hanging actually required a little bit of double checking--and then how to arrange the words. But my worst struggle was the colors. I keep telling myself to make beige lettering, but GREEN lettering keeps popping into my mind! Oh the decisions. What a lovely dilemma. And then there's the size--to be continued....

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.

"Perfect" Amish quilt

Here it is--my liberated Amish type quilt is completed.  I made this quilt for Tonya's challenge.  See http://lazygallibamish2010.blogspot.com/
Thanks so much, Tonya for letting me join in this fun blog!  My quilt was inspired by the book "Amish Abstractions."  There are several string quilts in the book, a Chinese coin quilt, and a baby quilt called "Joseph's Coat."  And I learned how to do the free-pieced letters from Tonya's blog
http://lazygalquilting.blogspot.com/
I've been enjoying the free-pieced letters for some time, and I've made wall hangings and a quilt incorporating them.  This quilt was made using only solid fabrics.  Over the past year or so, I've been collecting an assortment of solid fabrics.  I purchased the hot pink especially for this quilt.  The quilt is hand quilted except for the outer borders, which I sewed on the machine.  I enjoyed doing the hand quilting very much, especially because in a liberated quilt, you can stitch with some abandon.  If you are doing hand quilting, I advise getting a good light.  I purchased an inexpensive reading lamp because the lamp that I've been using all along malfunctioned, and had to be disposed of.  Now, about the binding.  I make a straight of grain binding, which I cut 1 3/8 inches wide.  I sew it to the quilt front in a 1/4 inch seam, then I turn it to the back and hand hem it.