Joyful

This is Joyful - a wedding gift to another cousin (three wedding quilts this year!).  There's so much to tell, I'm not sure where to start.  Isn't it pretty?  I rushed to take the outdoor photos literally 10 minutes after I finished stitching the binding, dragging Rob out there to hold it up.  I hadn't even had time to bury the threads so I could catch the last of the fading daylight (and I notice now it's technically upside-down).

The flange binding was a great choice.  I forgot, though, that the seams need to be lined up when joining the ends.  I didn't see it until I had stitched it all together.  Oops.  Had to pull that out and put it all back together.

I said I was doing graffiti quilting - it's not that dense.  I guess this might be called improv quilting.  It's basically a jumble of whatever free-motion patterns came to mind.  Regardless of what it's called, this was a fun way to quilt.  I will certainly do this again.  I tried some new stuff, played with some designs I haven't done in a while, refined some favorites.

I Like Thursday: Lots of Work

You know the Harry Potter flying keys that I admired at the library?  The librarians hated to take them down, so they hung them as ornaments on the library's Christmas tree.  I commented  how much I loved them and asked if I could have a key when they took down the tree.  Sure!  In fact, grab one now so we don't forget.  So now I have my very own golden flying key.  Love it!  It currently hangs on my advent wreath.

Okay, so here's a weird like - I've been enjoying car shopping with Rob.  Car shopping itself - not so great.  We rode in a few gawd-awful cars and laughed the entire test drive.  I loved the make of one of the cars, it was fun to drive, but the car itself was worn around the edges, had rips in the upholstery, smelled of cigarettes and I had to guess how to put it in reverse, since the stick was missing its diagram.  Ha!  But tooling around, commenting on what we liked and didn't like about each car was fun.

Still no car, but I have a better idea of what I want to get.  Now if I could just find it at a reasonable price....

Strip Twist Backing

I had this quilt all planned out and it still took on a life of its own.  I was all set with a nice, simple, single seamed backing.  But nope!  When I purchased this gold fabric I knew some of it would end up in the quilt.  I had looked forward to hanging onto a yard or two.  Turns out the whole piece was destined for this quilt; it complements the rust backing perfectly.  I shall have to be satisfied with a few tiny scraps.

That backing is well worth my loss.

The front of the strip twist is done with borders and the binding is ready.  I have until I finish clipping threads and sandwiching the quilt to pick one of three quilting designs I like.  I hope to be quilting by Monday.

Sharing with Freemotion by the River's Linky Tuesday.

I Like Thursday: Quilts and Architecture

I mentioned that I saw the Melrose History Quilt over the weekend.  Beside the artwork there were several quilted/knitted items for sale.  One woman created these beautiful quilted cards.  Each one had been paper pieced; there had to be over one hundred of them.  I limited myself to purchasing three - I wanted more!  Aren't they beautiful?  She had some great Christmas ones, too... but I have my own Christmas cards.

Melrose History Quilt

I heard about the Melrose History Quilt several months ago from a friend and went to see it on Sunday.  It's a neat piece of history (learn more about it here).  They think it was a fundraising quilt made in the late 1800s - I chucked when I realized that's an old concept.  I enjoyed learning about the quilt, how it had been restored and seeing all the names in such nice handwriting.  I even got a peek of the backing.

In addition viewing the the quilt, I talked to people involved in the restoration and viewed some contemporary fabric artwork from a few local artists.  Their pieces were amazing (and humbling to look at).

There was quite a bit of documentation done on the quilt.  Names and addresses tied several names to Melrose.  I know at least some of the addresses have yarnstormed (yarnbombed?) markers to mark them as part of the event.

Strip Twist Borders

The strip twists are all sewn together.  I'm working on borders and backing.  Of course the quilt is telling me to change my plans.  I'm thinking two inches for the inner border, three inches for the outer.  Always planned to bind in the green and now I'm thinking of doing a flange binding with a little yellow?  That idea came out of nowhere but it's stuck in my head.  I've only done flange bindings on wall quilts. 

I plan on cutting the green borders in one piece along the grain (so no center seams).  But that makes for short crossgrain binding pieces.  Looks like I can make binding along the grain - I've not done that before. Or cut binding pieces on the bias? 

Then there's the backing!  I had planned a solid back and now I'm considering piecing some of it together.  Wonder what this quilt will tell me to do next?

Sharing with Freemotion by the River's Linky Tuesday.

A Fun Photo Shoot

We had a long-awaited photo shoot two weeks ago with Salem Pet Photo.  Working with Joey is always a blast.  I had been worried if Wedgwood would be up for it, but she was perky and happy on that Monday (and she's still doing well!).

Are we wrapping or unwrapping?

Are We Comfy?

I caught Wedgwood nesting.  She pulled all the hay out of the holder then settled in the middle of it.  It's so nice to see her relaxed and enjoying herself.  She's off of most of the pain meds and is maintaining her weight.  She even did an extra lap around the living room with Mabel after breakfast on Tuesday.  Wedg is not the pig she was six months ago, but she's still doing better than I hoped.