Art, Craft and Needlework, February, 2009

A place for Artistry, Crafts and Needlework; Decorating and Holidays.
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Harriet
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Art, Craft and Needlework, February, 2009

Postby Harriet » Mon Feb 02, 2009 1:55 pm

Our first month of a new year is complete - what projects have you completed, continued or started? Any progress learning new techniques? Any supplies laid in, or space claimed in the name of organized creativity?

For many of us, weather is keeping us inside right now, and we have more opportunities for creative time.

Do you have a deadline approaching that you'd like to meet?

How about plans to get some Christmas gift/decor work time in year 'round? How's that going?

There's so much fun reading the reports of friends here. Do tell! ;)

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Harriet
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Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, February, 2009

Postby Harriet » Wed Feb 04, 2009 12:38 pm

The machine quilter returned dstepgd's quilt. :) It's rather large - 82 inches long - so I knew I would have a hard time machine quilting it myself. I had wanted to avoid stitches through the "faces" in the character squares, so I sent this one to the lady who is able to do different quilting in different areas. The border has a regular continuous design all around, but the blocks each have a design that avoids the character squares.

She used Dream Cotton batting - one I haven't used before. It makes a rather dense quilt compared to poly or other cotton I've used. It's for a bed, so no problem, but I need to remember that when I am making a large quilt I want to hang for display, that batting choice might be too heavy.

I'm kind of surprised to be deciding to bind this one by hand. When I pull the green backing around to the front to "audition" it for my machine binding, I see it's just not going to make the quilt look as nice as a bright blue that will match the sashing. Went through my stash, and I don't have a piece that's large enough, so I'll take a sashing scrap with me and shop for at least a half-yard.

I'll take the center medallion for ds23's woods/forest wedding quilt with me when I shop and look for more fabrics that compliment it, too, to use in the rest of the quilt. Need to get it up on the design wall and think.
If you don't believe in miracles, you're not being realistic.

SuzLew

Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, February, 2009

Postby SuzLew » Thu Feb 05, 2009 3:31 pm

I have made 1 and 1/2 more dishcloths in the cotton yarn. But really want to start the queen size Tennesse Waltz quilt thaat is all cut out. This quilt is for the bed when Ds/35 moves out (they are talking December) right now!

Dh and I can't wait to get back to Ramona to the quilt shop for our February quilt block. we both finished our Jan. blocks!

By the way my new ergonomic rotary cutter works so well- cutting through eeverything the first time.http://www.martellinotions.com

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Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, February, 2009

Postby Harriet » Thu Feb 19, 2009 11:11 pm

That looks like a really good cutter, SuzLew. Is yours red? (Would be easy to see and not lose among fabric!)

Got dstepgd's quilt bound today with the idea I came up with in my sleep (or drifting into sleep) for better looking fast machine binding. I sewed the 2.5 inch wide straight binding strips together along their length, right sides together, with a 1/8th inch seam. Then I pressed so that the little seam lay in the middle of one side, so it would be hidden inside when I wrapped the binding around to sew it on. (I tried for about 3/8th inch on the front, slightly wider on the back.) I sewed it on with a narrow blanket stitch in one step, being careful to catch the top edge perfectly. On the back the stitches were all on the binding even though it left some of the binding edge free.

Because I used thread that matched the binding almost exactly, it really looks neat on the back, too. Because it's stitched that first time it's pretty stable, doesn't shift or get wavy. I didn't pin - I just stopped every six inches and adjusted front and back amounts. For the two quilt sides, I just cut the binding off flush, and for the top and bottom I sewed by hand for the last inch at each corner, to cover them neatly. I got it done in one day (82x60 quilt).

The design wall went up well. I used 2 white Command adhesive wall mounts with hooks to hold a $4 thin gold-tone expanding (to 84 inches, it says) cafe curtain rod. 60-inch wide gray polar fleece hangs from a few inches below the ceiling to about a foot from floor. It's been holding all the existing parts of the woods/forest quilt for several days now and all seems well. Dh walked past in the hallway, glanced in at the arrangement and said, "Now I like that a lot." and kept walking. That's about as much input as I'll get from him through the whole process, but I appreciate it.
If you don't believe in miracles, you're not being realistic.


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