O happy day!

Do you remember that old song, "The sun is shining, Oh happy day..."? At last I'm feeling well enough today to pin baste this quilt. And this photo gives a better close up of the quilt's construction. The second photo is a cover that I designed for my daughter's I Pad. She wanted a sock monkey on it. I should have written down what I was doing at the time--but I didn't, so there's no pattern for this. I simply measured the I Pad and crocheted a large rectangle to fit it.

Pin basting

Every time I start pin basting a quilt, I promise myself that the next quilt I make will be smaller!  This quilt is about twin comforter size--approximately 62 by 84 inches.  I had to piece together three fabrics to make the backing. 
Of course, meanwhile my mind is spinning on what quilt I want to make next.  I want to make another gift quilt and a donation quilt, too. 
I think I need an afternoon nap before I finish basting. 
The good news is that Jacob saw what I'm making for him and he likes it! 

Advancing on the brick quilt

About the changes in my husband's Medicare: My husband's new doctor was very good, and reassuring. My granddaughter came with us in the special taxi to help with the wheelchair. My husband tolerated the trip. He's back safely in the Care Home. So far, so good.

So now I was doing some quilting! I sewed the brick quilt patches together. As you can see, I have the ends extending. I decided not to drive myself crazy figuring out the size and placement of the end patches. I just will trim those extra ends off now and baste the quilt.

And I'm so excited about the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative http://www.alzquilts.org/index.html that I decided to start another quilt for that. I'm making a hand-appliqued and embroidered block. I designed this block in 2005, and I used it in a tea cozy and in a "bird" quilt. I had to make the design in a smaller size to fit into the requirements for these donation quilts. I plan to hand quilt it.

Season's Greetings and Happy New Year!

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.

Quilting in sections

It's easier to machine quilt when the quilt is made in sections. They will be joined after the machine quilting is done. If you can make it out in the photo, there are some little red things there on the quilt. I have rubber finger covers that I use for machine quilting.

Pin basting

This is a section of the courthouse quilt (it's in 2 sections at the moment). It is undergoing pin basting. I pin baste on the dining room table. I put a cutting mat under the part I'm working on. I use that big wooden slat that appears in the photo to smooth out the quilt before I pin it. I will be free-motion quilting on the sewing machine. I have to wind up a bunch of bobbins first.