Enough Procrastination

 

Time to put away the scraps and stop the retail therapy (4 quilt shops in 4 days) for awhile.

I have had three large quilts laying on the bed in one of the spare bedrooms for quite awhile.

  Back in March or April I got ambitious and layered six or seven quilts.  I finished the smaller ones right away but then I got side tracked.  I have been shifting them back and forth from room to room when we need the bed in the larger bedroom.

  Part of my problem was an uncertainty as to how I would quilt them.  Part was just setting aside other sewing projects and making time for quilting.  When I start quilting, I don't usually do piecing. 

 I have just one machine at home now as I have been leaving my feather weight at the lake.

I finished this quilt In February here.

Indecision was the reason for not starting this quilt.  Someone had once told not to worry about what you were going to do on the whole quilt. Just start with what you know you want to do and the rest would work out.   I knew I would quilt plate sections like the Dresden plate quilt I finished  in February.  Then simple feathers to go around them. I'll worry about the borders when I get there.

At least it's a start -------Yeah!

Dresden Plate Version 2

This is as far as I got on this top Wednesday evening.  It is approximately 60 by 78 at this point.  I took it to Sally's yesterday and we tried out some of her extensive collection of Kaffe Fassett prints as potential borders. 

As we were in Raleigh this morning, I stopped at Wish Upon A Quilt to check out their Kaffe inventory.  Nothing that said "buy me!" but then an Amy Butler with the right colors caught my eye.  I also found a good choice for the backing.  So after lunch we came back home and I was able to get the borders on and the backing and binding made.

Although the picture doesn't show it the background is a great match with the center of the inner border. The top ended up being 74 x 88" and I"m satisfied with that size.  Now I need to trim the background fabric from behind the applique and it will be ready to layer and quilt.

I love those little white dots that mimic the dots in the background of the quilt center.

The background/binding  fabric and the backing fabric.

Looking back, I see that I started this quilt in February last year.  I found a tutorial for making this block at Luriline's Place blog found at  http://lurlineg.blogspot.com/

Thanks to Carole for treating me to an evening of culture.  We went to the Symphony.  Guest conductor, Christian Knapp and the cello soloist were outstanding!

Double Four Patch Finished

Yesterday I got up early and finished quilting this double four patch quilt that I put together at Connie's house in December.  I tried out a new for me quilting pattern that I had seen somewhere.  The backing is flannel and I will probably wash it before I donate it.  It will go to the Veteran's Hospital in Durham for their Hospice Program. 

The quilting doesn't show up much on the front but that's okay.  It was good practice and I can see that it needs to be more open to cover a large quilt.  I started out making the motifs too small.  They look better to me when they are more open.

They can be seem better here.  I will probably use this pattern again as it covers well, goes fairly quickly and adds interest to the quilt.

Last  night I fell asleep during the evening  news and woke up too late to go to Disciple Class ( no way am I going  20 minutes late).   My little nap gave me a burst of energy so after tidying up the kitchen I went to the sewing room. 

I finished appliqueing the last two Dresden plate blocks that have been hanging around since last year and set them together.  They are large blocks (18.5") so that didn't take long.

I  had in mind what I was going to use for an inner border so I added that also.  Now I'm stuck! No pictures of the top as it was too late when I finished.

Today is an outing with Cathy, Connie and Sally so I will see what they think.
We're going to a Quilt Display at a museum in Goldsboro, lunch and a couple of fabric stores.  Fun ahead!