Sunday, July 31, 2011

Catching up on what I've been doing

I haven't been quilting as much as I would like. But I have done 4 quilts since my last post. I have also driven /chaperoned a few youth group outings....Turner Falls, OKC Zoo and White Water Bay. Fun but time consuming...but the kids are worth it. Anyway, back to the quilts. I quilted another one for Habitat for Humanity house, similar to the first. This time I quilted a baptist fan pattern over the whole quilt rather than outlining the roads etc....Next in line was a Sunbonnet Sue ABC quilt made from embroidered blocks from Anne W. I did simple quilting to show up the embroidered blocks. This one is for NAQG Community Projects.
After a couple of busy weeks and no quilting I finally got busy and finished Sara's wedding quilt from Mom. I had to add the borders and piece the back and quilt and bind. I've been practicing on the white board and decided to quilt with an allover freehand "funky feathers" I am very pleased with how it turned out!
I decided the quilting should be done with dark blue thread to help tie the whole thing together and to break up those big blight blue snowball blocks. Mom started this quilt 16 years ago and her fabric choices weren't at all what they would be now, but the quilting sure did help this quilt.
The back was pieced, but if I do a quilt this big again it will not have seam running both horizontal and vertical on the back....it makes it hard to roll the back on evenly. If I must piece a large back I'll do all horizontal seams or diagonal seams...but wide backing fabric sure would make it easier!
This quilt turned out 99" x 87" and I'll say I will draw an absolute size limit at 104".
I really enjoyed doing the funky feathers and decided it would be a good design to use on my first "customer quilt". Sharon N. said she would pay me to practice on her quilt. I hope she likes what I did!


I have a few more community projects quilts, a large one for Habitat for Humanity house,and another for Sharon N. waiting in the wings. I also have somewhere to go every evening this week ( hope to get some quilting done during the days I'm home) and next week will be Knights of Columbus Garage sale keeping me busy Tuesday thru Friday afternoons and early evening and Saturday most of the day...maybe I'll do some late night quilting if I have any energy left.