Tip o' the hat to Quilter Blogs.com

Quilter Blogs, one of the blog rings I belong to, does a feature on their website called "What are quilters blogging about today?" Several of my posts were the subject of this feature recently. The blog rings are a terrific way to discover new blogs and find other folks with interests similar to yours. Quilter Blogs also has an online quilt store and a quilt store locator. Thanks to everyone at Danemco and Quilter Blogs for the coverage.

Owls

OK, I'll admit it. I'm vamping because I haven't had time to finish quilting either of the two pieces I'm working on, but at least it's a new post. These are some of my favorite owls in the collection that I keep at school. The one above came from Hawaii and was given to me by a friend and co-worker in Indiana. She went to visit her stepson in Hawaii and carried it back in her purse so it wouldn't get broken.

This is a fantastic Arts and Crafts tile from Motawi Tileworks in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I love just about anything from the Arts and Crafts Movement on both sides of the Atlantic!

This is a lovely little glass ornament of an owl in flight. Originally intended as a Christmas ornament, but so wonderful that I display it always.

Kathy over at Pink Chalk Studio fed my fancy for owls the other day when she posted about a new pattern she was offering called Little Owl. You can make a little quilt or a bag. It arrived yesterday and I haven't decided which to make first.

I know Robin of Simply Robin has posted about liking owls and Susan of Incremental Victories posted a fantastic picture of a barred owl that visited her yard. Any other owl lovers out there?

Working on Caylan's piece

This is the front of Caylan's little birthday wall quilt. The label on the back says that the dancing skeletons image on the front was created by José Guadalupe Posada. The copyright on his work has expired, but I don't want to take credit for an image that isn't mine. The Alexander Henry fabric on the back was also based on Posada's work.

Once I got everything pieced and embellished, I sandwiched it using iron-on fleece for the batting. I'm quilting it now. Here's a detail of the echo quilting around the figures.

Someone asked in a comment on one of my posts about the order in which I do things. I follow this order:
1. piece
2. embellish
3. sandwich layers
4. quilt
If you do plan to enter your work in a show,the back side of your embellishment stitches (embroidery knots, beading thread knots, etc.) aren't supposed to show. Hence this order.

What's on your bed?

For many years, I identified with the old story about the shoemaker's children who had no shoes, because we had a terrible, very early quilt of mine on our bed. Finally, to celebrate our twentieth anniversary, I made an Indiana Puzzle quilt for our king-sized bed with many different blue fabrics. It's hand quilted using my favorite large stipling stencil. It took an eternity and it wasn't finished until it was nearly our thirtieth anniversary!

Making the quilt was an excuse to take down some ugly brown flowered wall paper, paint, and put down new carpet. I had a good time looking for little blue objects to go with it. This is a wonderful dish I found in a Crawfordsville antique shop. Made by Nikko China, the pattern is called Discovery 1492. I've never attempted to make a Mariner's Compass, but it's a traditional pattern I love to see made well.

We also have a print of White Rose with Larkspur No. 2 by Georgia O'Keeffe in our room.

White Rose W/ Lakspur No.2
So, now I'm curious. What's on your bed, reader?

"The budding twigs spread out their fan"

"The budding twigs spread out their fan,
To catch the breezy air;
And I must think, do all I can,
That there was pleasure there."
Lines Written in Early Spring by William Wordsworth (1798)

It's Saturday and in the mid 70's. Seems impossible that less than a week ago there was snow and ice and 10 degree weather. I've been working in the yard and on the screened porch most of the day. Just taking a short sit-down to rest my back and post these lovely images of spring coming to the Piedmont.

Discovered that I have chives up already...

...and parsley. And even though they were covered with ice and snow, my wonderful daffodils came through mostly unscathed.

Sue Nickels @ Gate City Quilt Guild

Photo credit: http://www.sue.nickels.com/beatles_quilt.html

Sue Nickels, co-creator with her sister Pat Holly of The Beatles quilt, presented the program at the second meeting of the Gate City quilt guild tonight. Sue and her sister are both incredibly talented quilt artists in their own rights, but are also unbeatable collaborators. The Beatles quilt won best in show at Paducah in 1998.

Sue's program was about the history of machine quilting, which is really much older than one would imagine. In their travels, Sue and Pat have collected historic examples of quilts that were machine quilted. The oldest goes back to the 1870's. Sue will be teaching at Randy's Quilt Shop in Greensboro this weekend and there are still a few places available. Her raw edge appliqué and machine quilting are stellar and I'm sure her classes will be terrific.

Two-hour delay!

Naturally, since I was already up and ready, getting that message that we were on a two-hour delay meant the gift of two hours in Safety Pin Studio before going to school. First I finished basting "Mérida Remix." It's in the hoop and ready to be hand quilted now.

Next I went back to work on my niece's birthday gift. Since she sometimes visits the blog, I won't show too much. It's a crazy pieced wall hanging with lots of embellishments. I've been loving the work of several wonderful crazy quilting bloggers in Australia, Annie Whitsed of Annie's Crazy World and Sharon B. of Pin Tangle. As a result of looking at their work, I've added more trim and more rows of stitching.

Feather stitch with beads is one of my favorites.

Here's another row of feather stitch using a fine cord with a gold thread through it.

Snow day...but not really

Yes, you are looking at photos of Greensboro, North Carolina taken this morning. It's a snow day for most of the Triad. Even UNC-Greensboro is closed and my husband has a snow day! Since this is my first year with the school corporation, however, I have no vacation days to use, so I slogged into work this morning--optional teacher workday. Snow driving down here is terrible because they apparently only have one or two snow plows and we got a layer of ice before the snow started. So it's me and the janitor and the principal and maybe one or two others here at school. At least it's pretty. Enjoy some of the scenes I captured this morning.

The maple tree in our backyard.

My Adirondack chair.

Trees in our backyard and our back neighbor's less-than-attractive shed.

Some trees in our next door neighbor, Bob's yard.

Baby Quilt, the final episode

I finished quilting this morning, but want to go back a little bit to making the bias binding. Many years ago a friend gave me the Quilter's Strip Ticket from Lamb Art Press, Inc. Many quilt shops carry them and they can be ordered from various online quilt suppliers. It is the best less than $10.00 you will ever spend! It is a laminated sheet with directions for making your own continuous bias binding in a variety of widths and lengths. After measuring around the perimeter of your quilt, you add about four inches to that measurement for turning corners. The back of the ticket contains tables for a variety of widths of bias. Once you've decided what width you want, you find the closest measure to your perimeter and the ticket tells you what size square of fabric you will need to make the bias. I decided to make my bias three inches wide. It will be folded in half and I don't like to work with less than an inch an a half. Once the raw tape is all cut, fold the raw edges together and press.


Trim the edges of the quilt to remove excess batting and backing fabric.

The interior thread basting is removed. I leave the edge thread basting in until the bias is sewn on the quilt.

Amanda Jean over at Crazy Mom Quilts generated quite a response with her post about piecing scraps of batting as a thrift measure. I'm the daughter of two parents who lived through the Great Depression, so I've always been thrifty even before the economy went down the tiddy bowl. Not only do I piece batting, I save what I trim off the edges, cut it up small, and use it to stuff my Doorknob Art.

After the bias is cut, each end is at a 45° angle. Pin the raw edges of the bias to one side of the front of the quilt. Begin in the middle of the side. Turn the leading edge of the bias up a quarter of an inch and secure with a pin.

Place another pin about six inches further down the bias and finish pinning bias to that first side of the quilt. Place a pin one quarter inch from the edge. You will stop stitching there.

Use a walking foot (also called a dual feed) to sew bias to your quilt. The walking foot helps to move all layers of fabric under the needle together. If you are going to quilt, you need a walking foot. Begin stitching just beyond that pin that you placed six inches from the edge of the bias.

Stop stitching a quarter inch from the edge and cut the threads.

Fold the bias up to form a 45° angle. Finger press.

Fold the bias back over your angle fold and begin pinning the raw edges to the second side of the quilt.

Stitch the bias to the second side beginning right at the leading edge and stopping one quarter inch from the edge.

The back of the quilt should look like this at the first corner.

The top side of the first corner should look like this.

Continue on to the third side in a similar manner. Pin the final side just as you did the other sides. Extend the bias to overlap the leading edge of the bias (where you started) and make a mark where the doubled bias began.

Unfold the bias and, using a ruler, mark a 45° angle.

Cut the bias on that marking line.

Fold the bias in half again and place the end inside the leading edge bias fold.

Pin in place.

Sew the last side, sewing over the first stitching to secure it.

Fold the bias over the raw edge to the back of the quilt.

Sew the seam where the two ends of the bias met first, then continue to sew the bias down to the back of the quilt.

Stop when you get to the first raw edge.

Fold the bias down to form the mitered corner.

Continue sewing the bias to the back of the quilt on the final two sides.

Fini!