Now that Winter Stars is out of my sewing room, I'm making progress on the
piles of projects that are scattered about.
I started this mystery quilt back in March for a QAL from the Canuck Quilter. I worked as far as the reveal, then set it aside until now. I've
recently added borders, made a flange binding (coiled in the lower left) and
sandwiched it ready for quilting.
The big black-and-white king sized quilt is officially done!
A recap for those not following along: my aunt requested a king sized black-and-white quilt. We picked a pattern called Midnight Garden. I started prepping it about a year ago, creating my own plexiglass templates, trying out way too many layouts, and finally started piecing the whole thing together. Over the last year I had several delays, including a change in heart on background fabric (with weeks of dithering), a frozen shoulder and recovering from tick bite. I had reasonably anticipated finishing this in time to submit it to one of the local county fairs, but alas, they all passed me by. But I finished before the holidays and I am pleased with the result.
Last week the weather finally turned sunny without much wind, so we headed over to UMass Amherst for photographs (which has a huge accessible wall with good sunlight). Lots of photos - you can see a larger version if you click on a photo.
Huff and a Puff is a slanted replica of the one-room home where Henry David Thoreau lived (we passed the real one later that afternoon). I loved the whimsy. I was also impressed with how every shingle and brick were cut at an angle. Even the hardware on the door! The photos don't capture wonky it felt.
I was so excited putting my sewing room back in order late last week. The sewing machine had been up against my cutting table to handle quilting a big quilt. Now it's back over by the wall. In addition, when I work on a big project all scraps get chucked in a corner. Wow - the black and white quilt generated a lot of scrap. There were quite a few bits from a mystery quilt and Project Quilting, too. Sorting through that will keep me busy for several evenings this week.
My sewing machine needed a good cleaning and I have to fiddle with the thread tension again. As soon as I do that, I have piecing to do!
Finishing the mystery quilt is top on my list. It needs borders and then I can quilt it. The baby-quilt size left me with two extra blocks I didn't want for my wall hanging, so I think I'll make them into mug rugs.
While binding the quilt I found a few more spots of uneven quilting. Can you see the four and a half sunrays I ripped out? After restitching the quilting, I went over the whole quilt a few times, worried I missed a spot. It would be so easy to miss a line or two over all that space!
It's so dangerous to do close inspections... if I keep looking I'm sure I'll find a few more places that aren't quite perfect. So I gotta call it done.
Friday or Saturday may have good enough weather to photograph. How exciting! Fingers crossed.
I have some real odds-and-ends to share with LeeAnna and friends for I Like Thursday. I never know what will catch my eye or tickle my fancy.
I drove by this pumpkin patch a couple of weeks ago and was struck by the color, but didn't get a chance to photograph it. I was so excited last week when I saw the pumpkins were still there, plus a rainbow in the blue sky!
October is flying by. I finished up a few things.
Our little foster Echo found a forever home! This little pig obtained some serious chill while she was here. I hope she's happy with her new friend. We'll miss her. Finishing with a foster guinea pig is often bittersweet.
When I first started writing this post about a week ago, all I had was this
big roll of binding. Therefore the title was "Binding" as a
noun.
Since then I've fixed a few bad spots of quilting, finished burying threads and trimmed the edges. I got a chance to attach the binding. I've now moved on to "Binding" as a verb.
Ahh, I do love binding a quilt.
