Bow-Tie Quilt Finished!

 Hello Happy Quilters!  After days of not stitching or doing anything quilty related I'm back!  This quilt has been finished for over a week now.  This morning all housework and chores have been pushed aside in order to photograph the finish.

Measuring 90 x 90 makes it difficult to get a good picture.

So let's get up close and personal with this girl.

As you all know I'm no fabric snob.  It's fun to see quilt shop quality fabrics alongside the repurposed and cheap fabrics.

This quilt has moved to the top of my list of favorites.  Each fabric holds a memory from my 30+ years of quilting.  A few fabrics have extra special memories.  Like this pink fuzzy swiss dot.  This is a vintage fabric from my moms stash.   Used to make cloths for me when I was a baby and for my daughter when she was baby.

And another one from her stash.

Here's something interesting that I didn't even notice until I was editing the photo.  Check out the two prints below.  The "newer" fabric is a Lori Holt print.  The vintage fabric I bought in 2011 or 12 at an estate sale.  SAME PRINT different colors!  Now we know where Lori gets all her great ideas.

As you all know I'm not perfect and like to share the good, the bad and the ugly.  So here's the ugly scorched label.  This happened while glue basting it to the backing fabric.  I decided to use it anyway because making labels with the fonts on the sewing machine is so time consuming.  I'll do my best to remove the scorching with peroxide before washing.  If it doesn't come out...oh well.

Today I'll get her washed and on the bed...I can't wait!

Because this quilt is so hard to photograph, I made a video.  You can watch it here on the blog by clicking the image below.  Or  Here's a link to YT 

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Quilt Binding Buddy

 Happy Valentine's Day Quilty Friends!  Wishing you a day filled with love and laughter and of course lots of time doing whatever makes your little ole heart go pitter pat. 

For me that means finishing up the Bow-Ties quilt.  She was taken off the quilting frame on Wednesday.  Trimming the backing fabric away from this 90 x 90 quilt was a real chore.  In my younger years it would have been tossed on the floor for trimming.  These days my knees tell me it's a better to wrestle with her on the cutting table, and I agree!

I won the wrestling match and promptly started auditioning binding fabrics.  That meant pulling my favorite ginghams and striped fabrics.  Surely one of them will tickle my fancy.

A few striped fabrics also made into the auditioning line up.  

While all of them were beautiful, they didn't make the cut.  Instead, I opted to go with plain ole white.  The blocks of this quilt are the stars of the show and they want to be ogled.  A colorful whimsy binding would draw the eye to the edge of the quilt and steal the show.  I wanted the binding to be a bodyguard not a part of the dance.  

The idea of a true quarter inch binding was also scrapped, simply because I didn't feel like a wrestling match with the bodyguard.  A compromise was made.  Two inches wide will give the look I want and avoid the hours of wrestling it into place.

Yesterday was a relaxing day cuddled up on the couch with all my favorite things...quilts, coffee and my sidekick Khaleesi.  Binding a quilt has always been my favorite part of quilting.  I think it's Khaleesi's favorite part as well. 🩷 It's nice having a binding buddy to remind me to get up and move (play with her).  We had a fun day and will get to do it again today.  I can't think of any other way I would want to spend my Valentine's Day.

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WIP's Wednesday

 Hi Friends!  Yesterday while using my sewing machine to fill the bobbins for my quilter, I realized I had not shared the progress of my Old Town Mystery quilt blocks.

The plan is to finish piecing this quilt top as soon as the Bow-Tie quilt is finished.  

Piecing these blocks a slow process due to the petting and admiring each block and the many different background fabrics.

As you all know I like scrappy quilts, but most of the time I use a consistent background fabric...white.

The low volume adds so much interest to the quilt but doesn't take away from the beauty of the block.

Every time I make a super scrappy quilt like this one, I tell myself I should make every quilt with a scrappy low volume background.

When it comes time to cut for the next quilt reality kicks in...sigh...it takes much longer to cut a gazillion different prints.  Laziness?  I prefer more positive words like...eager to sew or too excited for slow progress.   

Anyway...I shared each block individually because I'm pretty sure many of you are like me and it will make you smile to see the many different fabrics.

  

Believe it or not and I know you do believe it because I do this all the time.  I set an easy goal and fail to achieve it.  I'm beginning to think it's my superpower.  My Monday plan was to have the quilt off the frame by Monday night.

The Bow-Tie quilt is still on the frame.  

Today's plan... I'm staying in my jammies. No cooking, no cleaning.  And due to the weather, no dog walking.  This quilt will be off the quilt frame today, no if's and's or buts!  

Well for now, I'm pretty sure...HAHA!

Only two more rows of Bow-Ties to quilt.   The edge of my quilt has been marked with blue lines to remind me not to quilt in the binding area.  Some longarm quilters will add binding to the quilt before taking it off the quilt frame.  I prefer to do it by sewing machine.  The less time I spend at the quilt frame the better.

I'll be doing a true quarter inch binding which means a quarter inch on the front and on the back. Instead of cutting the binding strips 2.25" or 2.50" wide, they will be cut 1.5" or 1.75".  Scraps of fabric will be used to test which width works best for this quilt's thickness.  Try saying that three times fast...which width works... HAHA!

On Monday's blogpost I was asked what fabric will be used to bind this quilt.  Good question, but I don't have a good answer because I haven't decided.  It's going to be a surprise for both you and me.  After the quilt is off the frame, I'll start pulling different fabrics, lay them next to the quilt to see which one I like best.

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Back In My Happy Space

 Hello Happy Quilty Friends!  I'm so excited to share some exciting news...I finally found time to sew on Friday night after days of not one stitch!  YAH!  

On Saturday as I was quilting the Bow-Tie quilt, this happened.  The middle of the quilt backing!!! YeeHaw!!

Seeing the UFO Vortex quilt I put in the middle of the backing washed away a week of not so fun days.  It also recharged my quilty mojo and I'm rip roaring and ready to get this cutie finished and on my bed.  The quilting continued until I saw the end of the quilt emerge on the bottom bar of the quilt frame. It was time to call it a day.

Before shutting down the studio I noticed my batting was too short.  No worries.  I knew this might happen.  When closer to the end, a scrap piece of batting will be added to the bottom with quilt spray basting glue.  After it's washed the dense quilting will hold it in place.

Today's plan: Finish quilting this quilt and get her off the frame. 

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Wordless Wednesday ~ Bow-Tie Quilting

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Bow-Tie Quilt Top

 After months of working on the Bow-Tie quilt blocks it is finally a quilt top.  The original plan for this quilt was to have no repeating fabrics except for background fabric.  I can't say with 100% confidence that it was achieved.  There maybe one or two repeats but I haven't found them...YET.

For the backing I used a small calico print.  There was not enough of the calico, so I decided to use my Vortex UFO quilt to make the quilt back a little larger.  

The backing still was not large enough. A quick dig through backing scraps produced a couple long and narrow white on white prints.  They worked out perfectly with very little trimming.

She's loaded to the frame and ready to be quilted with a quick and easy free motion design.

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Design Wall Monday and My Design Boards

 Things are moving along at a snail's pace in the quilting studio.  It seems when you become a mucus making machine sleeping is not allowed. I'm not sure how closing my eyes causes coughing but it does.  The 2 or 3 hours of broken sleep a night and occasional 15 second nap during the day aren't enough to keep my brain functioning at a safe level.  Not sure it was all that safe before sleep deprivation...HAHA!

Last night I slept a whole 6 hours with 4 coughing and bathroom intermissions. Believe it or not, even with the broken 6 hours I feel like a new woman. My brain feels clearer, and I have energy this morning.  I'm on the mend and grateful!  

As you can see the lack of sleep didn't keep me from making some progress.  The top 15 rows of Bow-Tie blocks are assembled and now I'm working on the bottom 15 rows.  The plan for the week is to have the quilt top finished by Friday. 

Before I go, I want to leave a comment here for QuiltGranma because I'm unable to respond to her by email.  She asked...

Well, I didn't make a blog tutorial, but I did make a video tutorial a few years ago. It's my second most watched video with over 70,000 views! You can watch it here by clicking the video image below.  

Or you can watch it on YouTube by clicking this link https://youtu.be/82DnHCdB42s?si=iXdwGquTidHvcrvJ

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Expanding My Temporary Design Wall

 Winter is in full swing out here in Podunk.  We've had lots of snow, below freezing temps and I have one doozy of a winter cold that has made me a bit lazy the last few days.  No problem, throw on a sweater, take little Tylenol, and break out the space heater and I'm ready to sew!

My Bow-Tie quilt will finish at 90x90.  The design wall isn't large enough to layout the entire quilt and even if it was big enough it's behind my sewing table. I plan to rearrange the studio soon to solve this issue, but for now all I feel like doing is work around the problem.  

 The sewing table was moved, I took some measurements and came up with a not so pretty but functional plan to enlarge the design wall.

The current temporary design wall is flannel stapled to the wall.  I didn't have more flannel, but I did find some cotton batting that will work just the same.

Within about 20 minutes the design wall was ready for more Bow-Tie Blocks.

The design wall expansion is working out perfectly.  My room is a mess and it's not pretty but it's functional!  

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