It's always something..

Do you have a chronic syndrome of some kind when it comes to quilting? No? Lucky you! I seem to have two of them.

1. Buying the wrong amount of fabric. How does that happen? I look at my yardage chart and double check it. Maybe I switch numbers subconsciously in my head, or blurt it out wrong, or just not look at the yardage chart. Who knows....
   
   
2. Cutting wrong! Which sometimes means I have to buy more fabric. I've had to do this more than once with the same quilt!  Thankfully, I buy about 1/4 yd extra all the time, which often is plenty to achieve a full recovery from my mistake.

Taking off the borders

It was #2 that got me, yesterday. When I finished the top, I put it up on the design wall to admire my work. GAK! It was awful. Just looked silly. The inner border was too wide and just overwhelmed the quilt. "But, I'm always so careful" I said to myself. Well, apparently not. I double checked my design and my cutting instructions. Sure enough, the design (on EQ7 software) specified a 1" border, and I had cut my strips for a 2" border.

So, off came the borders.

Finish quilt top (Free Wheelin', Feb QOM)

Today, I finished "un-sewing" both borders, re-cut the inner border, and re-applied  them. Much better! Now, I'm just waiting for my quilting thread to arrive so I can finish it up.  You can find pictures of the block construction here: Free Wheelin' Block Construction .

Enjoy your week. Now let's quilt!

There are brambles in my studio!

Well, not real brambles. But, a new Bramble panotgraph.  A customer has made a lovely quilt for her brother. Guys. They are a tough bunch to quilt for. Of course, they don't want anything girly, and on top of that his visual is a quilt in a cabin. Of course my brain went to cabin in the woods, which led to underbrush and sticker bushes. In desperation I emailed Urban Elementz (online source of pantos) what she had available that might work. The first one on the list was Bramble! Perfect! So today I had the opportunity to set up a practice sandwich on Miss Margie and practice making brambles:

There I am on my beloved saddle stool. I can quilt for hours at a time without fatigue! My feet are very grateful to the company that makes it. I got mine from www.bizchair.com.

This week has also seen a lot of gnashing of teeth trying to figure out how to make a crazy 3-D bow tie block for the guild's February Quilt of the Month. Ignore the fabric - scraps, you know. Usually the block is made with 5 charm squares - 2 background squares, 2 bow tie squares and a square for the center of the bow tie.  Of course, I had to put my own twist on it and made 4, half-square triangle blocks to use instead of just the charm squares. Once I figured out how to put the thing together so that the resulting pinwheel went in the right direction, all was well. Now I'm waiting for fabric from www.missouriquiltco.com to get here so I can get started.

If you are not getting their Daily Deal email, ..., well, just sign up for it! You might just find a cute charm pack for $2.22, or a $40 layer cake for $27!

Now, lets get to quilting!