Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Thanksgiving Churn Dash - DONE -


As in quilted and bound - DONE!! - ;))


The backing is left-over "turkey" fabric with a strip of "orange pumpkins" -
I love turkey "left-overs" - of every shape and form - LOL - ;))


The strip of "orange pumpkins" wasn't quite long enough - so I added some "Halloween cats" in the middle - and didn't bother with the corner triangles because it's a table topper - not a wallhanging - ;))


I used a pre-packaged quilt binding and carefully marked the back for placement so that I wouldn't cut off the points on the HST - and most of them look pretty good -




And some don't -


But you can see the pretty decorative stitch that I used to stitch down the front -

So there's that - ;))


Now I'm debating whether or not to fuse/baste the Halloween Churn Dash - since the backing is already made - to get it going - before I tackle my pile of Christmas "Squirrels" - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -




Monday, November 28, 2016

Design Wall Monday - 11/28/16


DESIGN WALL MONDAY -
Check out all of us who link up with Judy L. -
At Patchwork Times on Mondays.
We have some awesome stuff on our walls!
Well, THEY do - ME - not so much sometimes - ;))
===


On my wall today -

My Christmas Sudoku Quilt from years ago -


I love the border fabric - Gingerbread men with milk - some are half-eaten and missing heads - and/or other body parts - depending on where you start and what you choose to eat first -


It's next up in the "to be quilted" queue - after I get the binding done on my Thanksgiving Churn Dash. The free-motion quilting is nothing fancy - just back and forth lines in each "unit". Horizontal and vertical lines in the "bricks" - and diagonal lines in the HST and the center squares -


I figured that anything fancy would get lost in the "fabric" - so I stuck with "simple". It was great practice to get back into the "rhythm" of the machine - and the "sound" it makes when I'm just humming along - ;))

I'll take more photos when it gets bound - but I needed something to post today - and this is it - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -



Thursday, November 24, 2016

Thanksgiving progress -


Today I managed to "stitch-in-the-ditch" vertically and horizontally along the seams of the 9-patch "units" of my Thanksgiving Churn Dash. That should be enough to stabilize it before I do some free-motion quilting - ;))


The colors in the photo above seems to be a bit on the "yellow/orange" side - the colors in the one below are more accurate - ;))


Now I have to decide what to do about the FMQ part - something "allover"? - something in each "area"? - something block by block? - or just let it marinate awhile while I get my Christmas UFO/Projects/Squirrels organized - and wonder how I managed to use "awhile while" back-to-back in a sentence? - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -




Happy Thanksgiving - 2016


Happy Thanksgiving!! - ;))


Today is Turkey Day in the U.S.A. -

And a day to Give Thanks! -

And I DO! - ;))

I'm thankful for SO many things -

My family - my friends - my neighbors - my readers/followers/fans -

My stash - my sewing machines - my toys -

And SO much more! - ;))

Here's hoping that you have a very nice Turkey Day with your family! -

And have plenty of leftovers! - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -



Monday, November 21, 2016

Short -


I thought that I had enough "Turkey" fabric for the backing - so I folded it in half and laid it out on my cutting mat to "eyeball" it - put the quilt top folded in half on top of it -


Folded both of them over onto themselves so that I could check the other end -


And - sure enough - I'm SHORT!! - ;))


Guess I'll have to see what I can "piece" together - ;))




Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -




Design Wall Monday - 11/21/16


DESIGN WALL MONDAY -
Check out all of us who link up with Judy L. -
At Patchwork Times on Mondays.
We have some awesome stuff on our walls!
Well, THEY do - ME - not so much sometimes - ;))
===


On my wall today -

The rest of the blocks -

For my Thanksgiving Churn Dash -

All sewn together into a quilt TOP - ;))


I think I have enough left over backing and binding fabric from Turkey Day to finish it off - so that is the plan for this week. If I can get it basted - quilted - and bound by Thursday - I can start playing with my Christmas stuff - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -



Saturday, November 19, 2016

Cutting Bias Binding - LEFT-Handed -


Last night I said that -
I asked my bloggy buddy - Gene - if he minded if I showed you how to cut bias binding "his way" - LEFT-Handed - and he graciously said that I could - so I'll show you how I did that tomorrow - ;))
And today is "tomorrow" - so here goes - ;))

This piece is a 1/2 yard cut but you can use a larger piece if you want/need to -

Lay it out WRONG-side UP - with the selvage on the RIGHT -
Trim off the selvage edge before you start -
Or you'll have a bit of selvage on all of your strips -
Trim it now or trim it later - easier to do it now -


Take the TOP RIGHT corner and fold it DOWN to the BOTTOM LEFT - like so -
The DIAGONAL fold is now on the BIAS -


Then take the BOTTOM RIGHT corner and fold it UP to the TOP LEFT - like so -
Again - the DIAGONAL fold is on the BIAS -


Take the corner on the RIGHT and fold it UP to the TOP LEFT again - like so -
Making sure that all of your folds are nice and neat -


Then carefully turn the whole piece to the RIGHT to straighten it out a bit -
And line it up with a horizontal line on your cutting mat -
With just "a little" hanging over one of the vertical lines - like so -
Because you want to be able to cut OFF the folds -


Like Gene said - you want enough hanging over so that you cut off ALL of the folds the first time and don't have to cut it again -


So line up your ruler with the vertical line that you chose -
And trim off those folds -


Move the ruler over to the LEFT to whatever size you want to cut your strips -
And cut however many you think you need -
I cut five or six - I don't remember -

Then - unfold the strips -


And you'll see that the ends match up nicely -
So - stitch them together - using a 1/4" seam allowance -


And press the seams to one side - or open if you prefer -


Some of the strips will have the cut going the "other" way -
So pay attention -


Or they won't match - ;))




Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -



Friday, November 18, 2016

Bound and Done -


Turkey Day is bound and DONE -

Ta Dah! - ;))



I cut part of the binding last night - and the rest this afternoon -
And some triangles for hanging - ;))


The "bias" binding was perfect for the striped fabric - ;))


I was careful to press the triangles in the proper orientation for each corner -


And they hardly even show up on the backing - ;))


I talked about the Fast Finish Triangles - HERE -

And I asked my bloggy buddy - Gene - if he minded if I showed you how to cut bias binding "his way" - LEFT-Handed - and he graciously said that I could - so I'll show you how I did that tomorrow - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -



Thursday, November 17, 2016

Quilted -


Turkey Day is quilted - YAY!! - ;))

I did several lines of simple "echo" around the letters -


And had already quilted a "clamshell" design in the "Turkey" strips -


Added a couple of "loops" in each feather -



And ran out of bobbin thread with 1-1/2 feathers to go -
I didn't really want to refill a whole bobbin for that little bit -
So I cheated and used the "gold" bobbin -
You can't really tell the difference in this photo -


But maybe this one will show the difference -
Either way - it's close enough that no one will notice - unless you tell them - ;))


In the brown background I did another few lines of "echo" -
My lines started off pretty straight but very quickly became a bit "organic" -
They would/could have been much straighter if I had used my walking foot -
But I like the imperfect little wiggles -
They give it some character and some home-made charm - ;))


I like how the afternoon light shows off the texture in the quilting - ;))



So - it's quilted - ;))

Tomorrow I plan to make the binding - I usually just do a "straight" binding -

But my bloggy buddy Gene has a neat tutorial on how to do "bias" binding - very cool method -

I want to watch his video again and then give it a try - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -



Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Done -


Thanksgiving Sudoku is quilted and bound -

Ta Dah - ;))


I did a simple wavy line - back and forth - on the diagonal this time -
Alternating the direction from block to block -


With a straight line grid in the border -
And used the wider "accent" fabric in the binding -
And a narrower seam when I attached it to the top -
Which made it much easier to miter the corners - ;))


Next up - Turkey Day - ;))




Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -



Monday, November 14, 2016

Hello again -


I was about to do the "ditch" stitching on my Thanksgiving Sudoku Quilt and started to re-thread my machine with green thread when I realized that - if I did the FMQ on my Halloween Sudoku Quilt on my other machine - I could leave the black thread in - add the binding - and call it DONE -

So I did - ;))

Say Hello again to Halloween - ;))


I did a really simple back-and-forth wavy line - changing direction in each nine-patch - and going diagonally in the corners -


You can probably see it better from the back -


And I messed up - one nine-patch has the lines going the wrong way - but - unless you see it in "real life" - you can't really tell. So - if anyone ever notices - they can wonder why I did that - and you can tell them - ;))

Bottom line - perfection is highly over-rated -

It's quilted and bound and DONE!! - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -




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