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. 

Yakkety Yak, squared up

I added extra fabric to the sides of the Yakkety Yak quilt to square it up. I have a tiny bit of tinkering to this and it will be ready to send it to be quilted.

 

Yakkety Yak, Finished!

The Yakkety Yak quilt is all finished. Here it is, hanging over the top edge of my cubicle at work, but more on that in a bit.

I've been binge watching all the past seasons of Top Chef. I watched them all while they were happening, and it's amazing what I forgot. I'm up to Season 11 now. And yes, I am watching the new episodes of Season 21 as they are shown. So while I have been sewing the binding of the last few quilts, it's been Top Chef all the time.

And Cherie, I am sorry! Your brain wasn't sleep addled. In yesterday's post, I did indeed refer to the binding mistakenly as "backing." It's fixed now, but you were not wrong. That's what I get when I try to post too close to my bedtime.

I brought the quilt to work to show my colleagues and the CEO suggested I display it for everyone to see. 

Not going to refuse that. I wrote a note and taped it up so folks could read, since I was on the other side of that wall and couldn't tell if anybody was there.

It's a good sized quilt, and it will surely live on my bed, at least for a bit.

You too can make birds! Get my tutorial here. It's an instant download so you can get started right away!

 

Switching Around

 

I started cutting the light triangles for filling in the gaps of the Prism quilt. I've got some polka dots coming for the other spaces.

I washed and ironed some fabrics yesterday morning. Then it got warmer, and the last thing I needed was something to generate more heat, so I switched gears.

I sorted through my pinks and chose one for the border of the as-yet-unnamed pink and white zebra quilt.

I cut the strips, joined them at an angle and sewed them to the quilt.

Now I have to work out the backing. This one will likely be a bit scrappy. After that I have to add enough white space around the edges of the pink birds quilt (Yakkety Yak).

I've been watching a lot of tennis from the US Open and it has been absolutely stellar. Having cut the cord with my cable company I was worried I wouldn't see much, but that has not been a problem.

Speaking of which, I took this photo on my way home from California. That big white octagon in the middle is Arthur Ashe Stadium at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center where the US Open is played. The white box to the right is Louis Armstrong Stadium. that crescent shape is Court 17 and the round blue shape below Ashe is the unisphere from the 1964 World's Fair. Just above and to the right is Citi Field, the stadium where the Mets play baseball. This is probably as close as I am going to get to the US Open tennis, so I was delighted to see it.

Yakkety Yak - the flimsy!

 Putting this quilt together has been really challenging. Every seam requires a lot of thought, and sometimes it changes that I thought I was going to do. Like this bird with the really long legs, above. I -thought- I knew just what I was going to do, but it didn't seem to work.

I ended up chopping them off and adding two tiny birds in their place.

There are only three set in squares in the quilt, but there where I lot of places where there were "T" seams  where things got added to something else.

I have to straighten out the sides, but I worked all day on this on Sunday and I was just wiped out. It's about 66" x 80".

Naturally, things got moved around in order to sew it up. I didn't take any birds apart, but I did remove a lot of the strips above the bird heads several times. Several birds got shorter (legs got trimmed) and one bird got a smaller beak. The littlest birds are 3" tall (excuse me, short).

You too can make birds like these using my tutorial available at my Etsy shop, here. They are a lot of fun.

Not Quilty

Saturday morning I got up and made breakfast, solved the Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword puzzles then I went out to whack weeds in the garden and water my herbs. 

I changed the sheets, solved the Spelling Bee (got Queen Bee, naturally) and then got to work on the other things I wanted to do: wash some windows and the mini blinds. This is the window over my bed. I took the mini blind down and washed the window, inside and out, and dusted and cleaned the sill area. All the while I listened to Radio Roland Garros, which broadcast the tennis from the French Open.

So I listened while I washed the mini blind from the bedroom, and then while I washed the window in my kitchen (the one over the sink) and the dining room. While I was on the ladder over the sink I decided to wash the glass globe from the overhead light.

After each mini blind was washed and rinsed, I let it dry by hanging it over the side railing of my entry. I listened to the tennis the whole while. I also did the other usual chores - changed and washed the sheets on the bed, did all the laundry, made lunch and dinner, and did all those dishes.

I brought the big windchime outside to hang under the carport. I watered the plants. I made a coconut pineapple pound cake.

Afterwards I was sitting on the couch (still listening to the tennis) and I was feeling really sore. I got up to take some Ibuprofen, and looked over at the bathtub. YES! Just what my sore muscles needed. I started the water running, and threw in a bath bomb.

As I luxuriated in the tub, the tennis kept me company.

Sorry, (not sorry) no pictures.

The plan for Sunday is to wash the three windows in the office (after the sun moves away) and take beauty shots of the River of Light, Prizm, Yakkety Yak and the Asterisks quilts.

And yes, I shall be listening to Radio Roland Garros* again.

I listen through the Roland Garros app on my phone. There are radio broadcasts from all the major tennis tournaments. I find them a lot more interesting than watching or streaming on TV.

Bits & Bobs

 

It's one step at a time, one section at a time, putting the Yakkety Yak quilt together. It's a lot of brain work, and every single seam is a big decision, so it's slow going. Here are the latest "chunks" or "panels" that I have sewn together.

And this bird...

.. got a rhinoplasty, and feels much better about herself.

It is definitely silly sewing.

True fact: there is actually a bird in this quilt that is its own set-in square. 

Talk to Me!

 

It was time to get off the pot. I cleared the design wall and started to arrange the pink birds as if they were talking to each other. This was the first pass.

After tinkering for a bit, I had this. YES, I know it is fuzzy, but what am I going to do? I've changed it already, so I can't go back  You probably noticed the green bird in the upper left corner. He won't stay. I needed something big in that corner, and a tall bird was it. The only tall bird I had was a green one.

THIS will be a bird that will replace that green one.

Here is the new bird.

I am not going to fuss with this. My best pal Julie has helped me figure out that I make my best quilts when I don't think too much about them, so I'm not going to spend a lot of time rearranging the birds. I like the way they look so I'm going to start sewing this together.

And I have a name for this quilt. "Yakkety Yak,"

I am excited!

The Littlest Kids

 I told you all that the layout of the Yakkety Yak quilt was going to change as I put the blocks together. In the original design I have bird blocks overlapping each other, and I can't sew them together that way. In real life, the blocks are farther apart to account for this. 

And then while I'm putting things together, I see opportunities. Like this one:

When I arrange birds like this - beak to beak - I think of them as kissing. THESE two.. This is a single Mom who is REALLY hot for this good looking guy she is chatting with. The only problem is the empty space is really big. I really hate big empty spaces.

So I created a really little bird and put him really close to his mother. He is behaving like the normal little kid, totally blocking his Mom. Can you hear him saying "Mommy, potty! Mommy! Potty! MOMMMMMY"

I had so much fun with this concept, that I reviewed my layout and made SIX more little birds.

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I know it's hard to see that these birds are small, so let's take a look:

I gave the little birds longish legs because I can always trim them down if needed.

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.