Exit, Laughing

After I finish tying the quilt, I usually trim the excess fabric to 6" wide. In this case, I added the striped fabric to the quilt backing, so I didn't have to trim anything.
I fold the raw edge over to match the edge of the quilt top, then fold it over again until the edge covers the raw edge of the quilt top by about 1/2"; it's usually about 1-3/4" or so. In this case, it's 2". I miter the corners.

I machine stitch the edge down.
Then I iron the quilt, pressing the edges nicely.It's all finished.
Here is the back. You can see where I had to add a bit to the sides.When I have help, I'll photograph the quilt in natural light, so you can all see the entire thing. In the meantime, here is what it looks like on the bed.And under the crocheted bedspread.Yeah, I know all you "it's-not-a-quilt-until-it's-quilted" folks are rolling your eyes and shaking your heads... "she must be crazy, hiding this under that bedspread..." but, that's exactly why the quilt is called...

Laughing Out Loud.

All Tied Up

Julie, this photo shows the easiest way to tie the quilts.(have somebody with a strong back and knees help you.)

Absent that, here's what helps me: a small pillow for my knees. And I do a little bit at a time. In between sessions, I cover the quilt with a sheet, so I can walk over it in stocking feet without worrying about getting the quilt dirty. You all know I tape the quilt backing to the floor to prevent everything from shifting.
When I'm done threading the ties (which is a lot like basting), I roll it up like a jelly roll,
and move it to my dining room table,
where it's much easier to cut the threads, tie the knots and trim the excess.The Laughing Out Loud Quilt is all tied now. I'll work on it later. I've got a birthday party to attend this afternoon (note to self: don't bake a cake when it's 90F if you don't have air-conditioning), so I am not sure I can finish it.

Laughing Out Back

Yesterday I moved the dining room table over and started getting the backing ready for my Laughing Out Loud quilt. I will not quilt this, and after I tie it, I plan fold the backing over to the front. If you look closely, you can see the backing is too small.
Here it is after I added fabric to all four sides and squared it all up.
Then I placed the top down on the backing. Now it is ready to tie and finish. I hope to have this on my bed very soon!

Hip to Be Square

One of the best ideas I ever got from a book about organization was to have a wastebasket in each room of the house. The idea was to encourage their use by simply having them where needed. I have followed this advice, and can tell you it really helps keep rooms clean.

In a book about home crafting, I found a suggestion to use an empty tissue box as a tabletop waste receptacle for bits of thread, fabric scraps and broken pins. It sounded like a good idea, so I started using one. But empty tissue boxes are flimsy, big and often kinda homely.

At one of the home goods stores I found some pretty boxes for a couple of dollars.I bought a couple, and placed one one the bookcase behind my ironing table. Very handy. I keep another one on my sewing table.Then I moved the bookcase to another wall. I didn't have a place to put the box, until I realized I could hang it from the magnetic knife holder with a metal clip.
Then I got a better idea. I hung it from a small picture hook attached to the wall behind the ironing table. This keeps it high and out of the way. It also leaves me more space on the magnetic rack.It's handy, it works, and it's pretty!

Sewing Studio Video Tour

You asked for it. OK, maybe you didn't ask. Here's a quick tour of my sewing room. It's a small room, barely 8-1/2 feet by 10 feet (about 2.4 x 3.0 meters). It's clean, and as all you quilters know, the sewing room never stays this pristine, so take a good look.

Keep an eye out for these things:

1. Plastic bins with little scraps sorted by color.
2. The template for my hand I used in the Alphabet Sampler Quilt.
3. The disappearing nine patch quilt.
4. The sock kitty Monty and the two Millies.
5. The Laughing Out Loud Quilt, and the fabric for its backing and binding.
6. Gwen Marston & Freddy Moran's books.
7. Gina's gorgeous quilt from Doll Quilt Swap 5.
8. A great use for a magnetic knife rack.
9. My selvage tote bag.
10. Several photographs of my son, with one memorable acrobatic pose.
11. My plexiglas strips
12. My first attempt at sculpture.
13. A little perl.

Enjoy!

Disappearing 9-Patch, Finished

It's quilted and bound. Looking at that top edge, I think it's a prime example of the liabilities of working past your bedtime.

I've gotta fix that.

Some doll will be very happy!

Yellow House

The sewing studio was so clean, I just had the need to do some work in there, so I made this happy wonky house.

Disappearing 9-Patch Update

I added a border to the disappearing 9-patch I was working on earlier in the week.
Amazing transformation, isn't it?

**PS, the quilt shown in yesterday's post was first blogged about here. It's my Chessboard Quilt, and I made it from leftover bits of the 40 + quilted chessboards I made several years ago.

Sewing Studio Walls

For Sherry, who asked... The big white areas in my studio are 48" x 96" pieces of 1/2" Homasote. I painted them white, then attached them to the walls in that room. You can get it at the big box hardware stores. It is relatively lightweight, takes paint well, and is easy to cut. You can also cover it with fabric, as I did for the bulletin board on this closet door.It makes an excellent bulletin board, especially since you can cut it any size you want (use a sharp utility knife, score it once using a ruler, then make repeated cuts until you get all the way through.)
Since I originally set up that room as an oil painting studio, I painted the homasote panels white.

If I had originally intended the room to be a quilting studio, I would have covered them in flannel. Since the panels were already up, and I had a piece of flannel and an electric staple gun, I ironed my flannel, turned the ends under, and then stretched and stapled it to one of the homasote panels using 1/4" staples.

Yes, I could have bought more flannel, made it the "right size and then stapled it all around, but I didn't need a gigantic design board, and I wanted to GET IT DONE!

You can see the staples along the edges in this picture.As for the clips across the top of the panels.... They are simply small picture hooks nailed into the homasote (remember the homasote is 1/2" thick) to which I have hung metal binding clips like these.
They're handy to hang a quilt up on the wall if all you want to do is photograph it. And after photographing the first quilt, I just left them up there because it was easier.And I was a bit lazy.

Shuffle Along

For my birthday, I bought myself some more of the little bins I use to store my little scraps.

And last night I finally stapled some flannel to one of the walls in my sewing studio to use as a design wall.Of course, this necessitated a complete rearrangement of everything in there...I'm not done yet. You'll see.

Goodies

My friend Peggy Trish sent me a Kaffee Fassett book and these goodies for my birthday last month. Can you believe it took me a while for me to figure out this little bird is actually a pincushion?


D'oh!

And another D'oh! because I got Trish's name wrong... {sound effect of Lynne slapping her forehead} If you all ever needed evidence that there are things I suck at... here you go!

Tame Tuesday

I decided to try the disappearing 9-patch using some fabrics I picked up at a local yard sale. It didn't mean it to turn out so symmetrical, but I sewed a pair wrong and had to adapt. This is very nice, and pleasing, but not quite enough "zing" for me. I should have used a brighter yellow, a warmer yellow, so the whole thing would POP more. I'm going to add a little border, and practice some machine quilting on it. I'll finish it up. It'll find a good home somewhere.

More on the Doll Swap Quilt

I've finished the selvage quilt for Doll Quilt Swap 7. I quilted it a lot more closely than I have ever quilted anything else. Which is a big deal considering the "throat" on this sewing machine is about 5-1/2". There's not a lot of space to maneuver anything around.

I'm not going to post a picture of the finished quilt until September, when I ship the quilt to its new home, but I did take a picture of myself holding it.
This looks very easy, but it's not. I'm standing on a small stool, and I can't use a flash. The quilt is really too big to hold with one hand. You do get a pretty good view of my sewing studio.

You can click the photos to enlarge.

Selvage Doll Quilt

There was one block I didn't like in my Doll Quilt Swap 7 quilt, so I did it over. After arranging the blocks the way I liked, I added more selvages to the four inner blocks giving me a much more interesting design. I have now made the quilt sandwich and have started quilting.

I really like the graphic quality of this, and for some reason it reminds me of Andy Warhol's Wayne Thiebaud's work.

Millie helped, of course.