Binding for Yakkety Yak

I have been lucky enough to get four quilts ready to bind all at once. This shows the quilting for Yakkety Yak.

I always knew the binding for this quilt was going to be pink. I had originally bought this "handsy" fabric as an option for the backing, but for some reason I didn't buy enough.

When it was time to choose binding fabric, this was an option. It's a Kaffe fabric that's pink with red and reddish orange fabrics.

I liked this fabric as an option. It was fabric I used in my granddaughter's seminole dress. Of the three, I really liked this the best.

Here's the fabric.

I cut strips for the binding and sewed them together.

I've sewn it to the back of the quilt. This fabric ravels like crazy, so once I sewed it to the quilt, I had to trim each edge. 

Noel Banner Finish

 

The Noel banner is finished. I am happy with it.

Here is a closeup of the quilting.

This isn't where the quilt will hang during the holidays, but it gives you an idea of how big it is. It is about 34" wide by 68" tall.

Binding for the Noel Banner

 

I cut the strips for the Noel quilt and joined them together.

I sewed it to the back of the quilt.

I also created the hanging sleeve. I sew the hanging sleeve to the quilt when I attach the binding to it.

Then I folded the binding over to the front and pinned it down.

I've started sewing it down.

And, get this...

I've decided to write a pattern of the Noel Holiday Banner and sell it. To do that I had to map out the quilt I made. Took me a bit...

Stay tuned.

I published the Seminole Patchwork tutorial. If you are interested, you can get it here.

Binding for the Noel Banner

The Holiday Noel banner has been quilted and now I have to choose the binding for it. 

I ordered some fabrics- two were white with silver. This (above) is one of them. I knew I didn't want to use white, but this didn't stand out moe than the white.

This one didn't work either.

I had already discounted the candy cane fabric. Seeing it again didn't ring my bell.

I knew I didn't want a dark binding, but when you are experimenting, you shouldn't leave anything out.

I had originally chosen this red print on white as the hanging sleeve, but since nothing was ringing my bell, I had to see what this would look like.

I can't help myself. Even AFTER I have selected the fabrics I wanted when I shop online, I have to keep looking. Even though I had discounted a darkish fabric as the binding of the Noel banner, I ordered a yard of this red and gold fabric. As soon as it spilled out of the package, I knew.

I mean, the quilt is Red, Green and Gold. Those are Holiday colors for me, so the red and gold will be the one.

I Talk...

 

I gave a talk to the Seabreeze Quilt Guild in Exeter NH last week. It was a glorious day, sunny and unseasonably warm. They wanted me to talk about my letter quilts, so I did. I brought fifteen quilts, including Too Much Chicken (behind me).

One of my all time favorite letter quilts is the Quick Brown Fox.

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I watched Project Runway from the very beginning, although I stopped after a few years. I always loved Tim Gunn's trademark phrase, "Make it work." He meant to use what you HAVE, not to go out and buy more stuff or change your mind. 

It reminded me of an Arthur Ashe quote I found in my notebooks as I was working on my talk. "Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can." That would make a great word quilt.

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Naturally I brought the Not Paper Pieced quilt.

Afterwards, a lady game up to me, "I almost didn't come tonight, because I couldn't see any point in putting letters on a quilt. But I'm so glad I did. I am so excited. I have SO MANY ideas. You have totally inspired me."

Afterward I got this text from the program coordinator from the quilt guild. Made my night.

One of the really nice things about the evening was that my mother was able to attend. She had never heard me speak before.

I wrote a tutorial about making free pieced letters. It's enormous, but comprehensive. You can get a copy here, if you want to make letters yourself.

Quilt in the Wild

 

It was unseasonably warm Tuesday afternoon, and it was gloriously sunny. I brought the "Awash in a Sea of Blue" quilt outside for beauty shots.

I think it's important to back up a bit when taking pictures of a quilt outside, so you can really get a sense of the scale of the quilt. This quilt is so graphic, it can really stand up to being seen from a distance.

I really like the way the sun highlights the quilting.

I wrote the quilt's story as I was making the quilt, so I was able to complete it after I took the beauty shots, while the quilt was in the washing machine. I had it printed and picked it up Wednesday at lunch, which was a good thing because I will be gifting the quilt soon.

I don't remember if I wrote about it, but this quilt was made in a specific person in mind. He's a very reserved, quiet guy, who loves baseball, hockey and fishing. He says he loves fishing so much he'd fish in a puddle. That was the impetus to make this quilt - a quilt about water.

This is a scrap slab triangle quilt, and if you want to make one, you can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop.

Finished!

 

I didn't expect to finish this quilt so quickly, but the movie AMADEUS was on Netflix, and I stitched while I watched. 

I love every single thing about this quilt, not the least of which is the panel on the back.

It's a scrap slab quilt, and you can make one. The tutorial is available here, at my Etsy shop.

Awash in a Sea of Blue, Quilted

 

I picked up the Awash in a Sea of Blue quilt yesterday. It is now in the binding stage. I wanted this quilt to remind you of water, so the quilting had to reflect that. The pattern is called Catching Waves with Bubbles, which was perfect. 

After we chose the pattern, Janet-Lee and I turned our attention to what color the quilting thread should be. GREEN popped into my head.

Janet-Lee looked at me. "Really?"

"Green is the color of the ocean when you're standing in it and the waves are crashing around you." 

J-L picked a light, celery green. "Not that one," I said, reaching over to pick a darker sage-y green. "Something like this." I really hadn't given it a lot of thought. GREEN had popped into my head, and out of my mouth immediately. But I have learned that my gut instinct is often right, so I went with it. 

We settled on a green thread (Sage Green). As you can see, it came out terrific.

"I always check after I've quilted a couple of rows to see if it's going to be OK," Janet-Lee told me. "I was especially curious about this one. I mean, GREEN! But I looked at it after it had quilted about six inches and, damn, you were right."

It even looked beautiful on the panel on the back of the quilt.

All that's left now is to sew the binding.

Seeing the Obvious

 

We walk past so much beauty.  

This is the view of a picnic table on the grounds of the company where I work. It's just outside the door I use to go in and out of the building every day. This lovely sight greeted me the other morning. It was so pretty, so other worldly, I had to stop and take a picture. I wonder how many of my coworkers rushed past without seeing how special the scene was.

I've sewn the binding to the Gardens of Our Imaginations quilt, so I'll be hand sewing that down over the weekend. I'll be picking up Awash in a Sea of Blue later today, and I can't wait.

Asterisks & Birds

 

The asterisk flower quilt, The Gardens of Our Imagination, has been quilted and I have chosen the binding.

White was an obvious choice for the binding, but in the end I decided to go with the fabric I chose for the back.

I wanted something with some color, but not too much. Now I can sew it down while I watch television. Lately I've been streaming Top Chef. I have watched every season since the beginning. so now I have been working my way through them again. All the angst is still there.

The pink bird quilt, Yakkety Yak, is all squared up and the backing is ready. I'll bring it to be quilted in another week or two. 

Janet-Lee has Awash in a Sea of Blue finished already (fun fact: that blue quilt will be quilted with a sage green thread. It's the color of the ocean from close up, so for me, it works.) She will bring the Noel Holiday banner to the talk I am giving next week at the SeaBreeze Quilt Guild in Exeter NH.

I have SO much binding in my future! (I have a tute for that!)

My eye is much less swollen and feels almost normal. I am extremely sensitive to Benadryl, so I couldn't take it, but believe it or not, ibuprofen helped with the swelling.

You can make birds: Get my tutorial here.

You can make asterisks too: Tutorial for those is here.

No Good Deed...

 In the "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished" department, I got bit by a bug on Friday while I was working out in the yard bagging leaves for the spring clean up. The problem is WHERE I got bit...

It doesn't so much hurt as it is uncomfortable. I can see just fine and have no other symptoms. The swelling will eventually go down. 

What's buggy (pardon the pun) is the effort it takes to keep that eye open and the fact that the nosepiece on my glasses rests on a swollen spot; so that is annoying. I've been putting cold compresses on the area. Do you know how uncomfortable THAT is? 

Anyway, my get-up-and-go has been seriously affected. 

(And yes, that is Wanda Hanson's quilt Sparkling Stars on the wall behind my left shoulder in the top photo.)

However, there is other good stuff happening.

I visited Janet-Lee, my long arm quilter, and picked up The Garden of Our Imagination quilt. I will bind it in white (duh.)

I left Scribble Scrabble, the Noel Holiday Banner, and the Awash in a Sea of Blue quilts with J-L for quilting.

Just a reminder that I will be speaking to the SeaBreeze Quilt Guild in Exeter NH on Tuesday May 14th about my word quilts.

A Little Ham...

This is my granddaughter in the Pink Dinosaur Seminole Dress. 

Pretty sure she likes it. 

Seeing these photos (and the others my son sent), reminded me of what his pediatrician said to me during one of his exams.

"There's a little ham in this kid."

Clearly it runs in the family.