What I did during my four-day weekend

What a lovely long weekend it's been.  Friday was spent pin basting the new baby quilt and starting a new project for a toddler who loves dolls.

This is an old pattern that I used years ago to make a doll for my dear mother-in-law, Mae, who loved dolls and cats.  I love rag dolls.  My Mama made be a Raggedy Ann and Andy that I love and kept on my bed for many years.  The girl kitty has pantalettes, and a dress that looks like a blouse with an apron over it.

Here's the face all embroidered and bewhiskered.

On Saturday, I finished the body and got started on the clothes.

Here she is all finished on Saturday afternoon.

Sunday has been spent hand quilting the new baby quilt in the hoop.  This has been my idea of a great weekend.  

My woobie is finally finished

It's been in the hoop for months while I made several baby quilts, but today, I finally finished my woobie quilt.  It's another in a series of "Single Girl" quilts.  I find Denyse Schmidt's pattern is absolutely addictive.  This is a companion to the woobie I made Jim earlier.  The color palette is similar and it has a fleece backing for staying warm on the couch in the evenings.

This is a detail of the quilting.  The first few I made using a large stippling stencil, but I've switched over to Denyse Schmidt's recommended quilting pattern.

The binding is a reproduction fabric that has a touch of light blue in it.

I made a tag label for it and used one of my owl stamps to decorate it.

This is the bias binding being hand sewn down to the back side.  I love the Big Ben fabric meant to commemorate my time in London.

Here's the whole thing in the middle of the backyard.

"Steppdecke für Katz": in the hoop

Thanks to the three-day weekend, I was finally able to get back into the studio to finish the top for the Christmas quilt for Mom.  The photo above is the beginning of the marking process.

I'm still fussing with the Nikon.  About every other photo isn't sharp enough for my taste.

I made a set of plastic templates based on Denyse Schmidt's recommended quilting pattern for this Single Girl patterned quilt.  Not only is it attractive, it's very well designed to catch up every piece in the quilting.  For a quilt that will get lots of handling, that's the best kind IMHO.

Here's the start on the quilting in the early morning light of Sunday.

Flora's Quilt: In the home stretch

Hand quilting is now completed on Miss Flora's quilt and the continuous bias binding is finished.

Edges were cleanly trimmed and hand basting was removed after the binding was machine sewn on the front side. You can look at this older post for more details of that process.

Now the binding needs to be turned to the back, pinned, and hand sewn.  This should be accomplished by tomorrow night as we watch the last of the new Hercule Poirot's on PBS Masterpiece.  Right now I'm finishing up some house projects before the children arrive on Monday and Tuesday.  More on that tomorrow.

Flora's quilt: Hand quilting progress

Thanks to lovely weather this weekend, I was able to spend large chunks of time on the screened porch hand quilting Flora's quilt.  The center area is finished as are all four corners.

The large half hoop makes it possible to finish one of the short sides all at once.  A quick wash at the end will take out the yellow marking chalk.

Weekend in review

The Piedmont Triad was treated to a glorious weekend.  After a wonderful breakfast at the Smith Street Diner on Saturday morning, Jim and I went to the Greensboro Curb Market and then spent the afternoon on the screened porch.  He was reading and I was finishing up the quilting on this African Striped Baby Quilt.  To see more baby quilts, click on Kaffe Fassett or baby quilts or African Striped Baby quilts in the labels.

Since I had finished piecing Henry's new baby quilt, I pieced a back and made bias binding. I'm using the bamboo/cotton blend batting that I got at JoAnn Fabric with my 40% off coupon.

The big table on the screened porch makes a great place to baste.  Here's the back taped down with the centers marked.

The quilt sandwich is made and I am ready to baste. You can see more examples of Denyse Schmidt's "Single Girl" pattern by clicking on that phrase in the labels.

"Single Girl" Support Group: Nearly finished quilting

The baby quilt is nearly quilted.  I'm using the large half hoop to finish the edges.

Continuous lines of quilting are so much easier to quilt.  My goal is to get the binding on by tomorrow.

"Single Girl" Support Group: Marking and quilting

I have hand quilted each of the three "Single Girls" I've made differently.  The first one (Anna's wedding quilt) is quilted with a sashiko embroidery design called the seven treasures of Buddha.  I ordered an extra large 360° protractor to mark it.

The second one (Jim's woobie quilt) is done in the large meandering or stippling stencil.

For the third one (Henry's baby quilt), I'm going to do the design recommended in the pattern.  The photo above was taken during the basting process.  I tape the back down to the table and mark the center of the backing with pins, then I can line it up with the top.

Now it's all basted and ready to be marked.

I decided to make templates of the quilting design.   The inner four were small enough that I made a templates of the entire shape.  After that, I only made quarters.

Here are the little ones.  I marked the center and the four seams to help line them up.  I use a little chalk wheel to mark because it brushes off easily.

Here's the center marked.

And we're off to the races!

Jim's New Woobie: Finishing touches

This is the large half hoop when I was just about finished quilting Jim's new woobie yesterday afternoon.  It was a little cool on the porch, so I was happy to have the quilt resting on my legs.

I made the continuous bias binding earlier in the week.  I use my Viking with the walking foot to sew on binding. Here's a link to a tutorial on continuous bias binding.

Here's the front side of the tag...

...and the back. I sew the tags to the back above the binding line of quilting and then turn the binding down and hand sew it to secure the tag. I've made several tags lately.  See this post and this one.

Here's a little detail of the binding and the hand quilting.

Jim's woobie quilt: quilting update

Jim's new woobie quilt is about halfway quilted.  I'm using the large half hoop on the edges.  We've had gorgeous weather this weekend and I've spent every moment I could hand quilting on the screened porch. I spent some time this afternoon helping to drop the Piedmont Quilters Guild show and both of my quits are safely back home.  I got some nice comments from the judge, but no ribbons.  I'm planning a new quilt for the spring PAQA-South show.  That should be a better venue for my type of work.  I hope you are all enjoying some lovely October weather.

A Great Weekend for Getting Things Done

While I did spend some time quilting on the porch on Saturday, the weekend was mostly given over to a variety of jobs around the house.  Nearly all of the supplies are now here for the bathroom remodeling.  (More on that in the days to come.)  I took off the last of the wallpaper borders in our bathroom and we are ready for the demolition and then, the new floor and fixtures.  The front beds are weeded and ready for the fall and a large limb that came down in the backyard is cut up and ready to be collected by the city tomorrow.  I made Thanksgiving for Jim and our niece and we are all nursing food babies at the moment.  I hope your weekend was enjoyable and productive, too.

Screened Porch Quilting on Jim's Woobie

Another gorgeous day in the Piedmont Triad, so I was out on my screened porch quilting on Jim's woobie quilt.

The stippling design shows better on the back side.  I'm loving the 80/20 batt and the soft backing fabric.  They quilt like a dream.

Finishing up the doll quilt and a weather change

We awoke Saturday morning to a lovely change in the weather--beautiful deep blue skies and temperatures in the high seventies and low eighties.  I spend a large part of the day on the screened porch finishing up the hand quilting on the doll quilt.

The quilting is finished and the continuous bias binding is all machine sewn.  Now I just have to bring it around to the back and hand sew it down.  The tag has my name and the washing instructions on the reverse side.

Here's the lovely little lady who will soon be covering her babies with the quilt.  Dan took this photo of Zoe at Anna and Matty's wedding.

"Curiouser and curiouser" is finished

"Curiouser and curiouser" is finished.  I finished hand quilting it Tuesday night and put the binding and rod pocket on yesterday.  The photo above shows a detail of the quilting on the final border.  I didn't mark anything--just did roughly parallel lines in the body of the quilt and then followed the printed design of the final border.  This is my favorite kind of quilting.  This quilt and "Mérida Remix" will be entered in the Piedmont Quilters Guild Show in October.  More on that when it's closer to the show.

Our first teachers' meeting is tomorrow.  The librarians all meet on Monday and then Wednesday, the students arrive.  It's been a full summer, but I'm sure going to miss my time in the studio.  Posts will be fewer and farther between again, but I promise to stay connected.  Happy school year to those of you so involved.

"Klimt cum Kenyon"

In my work to straighten up the closet in Safety Pin Studio, I did a lot of rod pockets yesterday.  One was for this quilt that I made in Crawfordsville back in 2001.  Titled "Klimt cum Kenyon,"  it's dedicated to Anna with apologies.  I had tried for months to do a large portrait quilt of her in the style of Gustav Klimt.  It just never looked like my mental image and so, I cut up the elements of the borders and background and made this quilt.  The title comes from the original intention and the fact that Anna was at Kenyon College at the time.  It was improvisationally pieced and hand quilted.

This is a detail to show the quilting.  I'm sending this off to Anna and Matty now that they can hang it properly. "Kundun" also got a pocket along with "Mérida Remix" and "Curiouser and Curiouser" that will be entered in the Piedmont Quilters Guild show.