Tulips top finished

This quilt top has been put away unfinished for MANY years........it was appliqued and pieced to this point in Oklahoma.

Lately I am feeling the urge to get things to a saveable point.....I mean, if I were to pass away, say, I would like for my unfinished quilts to be at a point where someone could hire a person to finish them if they didn't want to finish them themselves.   With an unfinished top, it's hard to know what the original quiltmaker had in mind.  This way, there's no scrounging around trying to find the pieces that go with it.

Anyway, with that end in mind, I pulled out this project.  As it turns out, the reason that it had gone 'on hold' seems to be that the design needed another  row of blocks pieced and appliqued in order to look right.
 Thankfully there was enough fabric remaining to piece 3 more blocks, and there were already-turned-under tulips and leaves waiting to be appliqued.  I had to come up with some white for background, and I sincerely hope that it is as good a match as it appeared to my eye in this light.

Two borders down, two to go.  Marley-Jo says that's enough for the night !

I also had enough of the solid green (which I pretty much hate) to come up with this plain border, and MAYBE enough for binding, although that is questionable .

The finished size of the top is 79 1/2  x 108 inches .  I don't know if I'll ever manage to get such a big top basted these days, but I feel good about it's present state.  As you can see, it's bigger than the space I current use for basting quilts lately....even if I move the furniture !

Finished Quilt/Floating Nine Patches/Sewing Studio Trial

Well.......I gave the new sewing room setup a good trial run, and I'm pretty happy with it.  I make small changes as I need them, but I'm a happy camper !

Here's the story, (long).

Somehow, without making a really conscious decision, I have embarked on a quest to make each of my brothers a generous-sized couch/recliner quilt.......I think of them as nappers.

I have given the first two brothers a quilt (links to blog post following).

John's quilt blog post--- https://dollyshome.blogspot.com/2014/05/diamonds-in-dirt.html

Jim's quilt blog post --- https://dollyshome.blogspot.com/2016/12/star-trails-finished-quilt.html

Now, the top for this third brother's quilt was pieced sometime last year, and I just got the tug to get it quilted last week, when I realized that his birthday was coming up quickly !

  To back the quilt, I tried a backing fabric that was extra wide, but was too 'pretty'.  Then I remembered that I had a few blocks from this top that were left over and waiting on my design board.
 

 

   I started auditioning them on pieces of fabric, but either wasn't happy with the look, or didn't have enough yardage to make it work.  I searched our meager Walmart inventory, and had no success, but stumbled across just the right yardage at a small local fabric/flower shop.
 Having pieced the back together, I moved furniture around and set up the basting frame on Friday of last week.  I spent 7 HOURS altogether, making sure that I hand-thread-basted this quilt closely enough that I didn't think it could 'run' from the foot and make tucks.  I was wrong.

But, still, I quilted on it a little bit on Saturday evening, and then again on Monday and Tuesday.  Binding followed.  Now that's another story.  I had a few leftover strips of the fabric that made the two vertical sashes in the quilt top.  There wasn't enough of it to make the binding all the way around, but there was enough for me to make the two SIDE bindings wide enough to really carry out the vertical sashing look.  Then I bound the top and bottom edges with the same fabric as the bigger backing fabric.

 I was IN LOVE with the flat look of the quilt when I finished.  With those vertical quilting lines one inch apart, it looked SO GOOD and CRISP.

BUT

I didn't want Jeff to be upset if he washed it and it crinkled up, thinking that he had messed up somehow.  So...........I washed it.    AND MAN DID IT CRINKLE UP !

 Now, this is usually my favorite part, but this time I had my heart set on flatter look.  I even turned the dryer heat down on LOW , but.....it is what it is.

  I found this piece of labeling fabric that I have saved for who knows how many years ! It reminded me that he currently drives a BLUE car........so it was perfect for his label.  PLUS, this backing fabric looks very much like grape leaves, and he works in the woods gathering grapevines from which wreathes are made !   SCORE !

So, tomorrow is his 64th birthday, and I hope that the weather is decent enough for me to get out and surprise him with it.

Three down, two more to go !

First finished top of 2020, and THE TABLE

I was browsing through my boxes of things in my sewing room, and I came across a box filled with 5" squares that I had forgotten.  I marked the light ones with a diagonal pencil line, and then I sewed a seam a quarter of an inch on either side of the line, making half-square triangle squares.  Playing on my design wall, I came up with these squares-on-point.   To make it a bit bigger, I sewed 2 borders around it, the first one made up of lighter whole squares, and the second one from dark blue and black squares.

It's a strange size, at 56" x 64", but I think that it is finished.  It's a usable throw size, and it looks good hanging on a wall, I think.

Then, this week while browsing in a second-hand store, I came across a big, heavy, beautifully made dining room-type table.  I was able to pick it up for the price that I saved on groceries this week, so I got my brother to bring his pickup to fetch it home for me, and to help me to get this heavy thing into the house, and the legs put back on.

The stickler in the whole deal was that I had to trade rooms in my home, between my then-existing sewing room and my bedroom.  So, I spent yesterday, and the day before, moving things back and forth between the two opposite ends of the mobile home.

  The goal I had for the new table was to be able to "catch" quilts that I am machine-quilting, so that they don't flow off of the back of the machine cabinet onto the floor, pulling on the needle of the machine.  Can hardly wait to try it, but today I also had to swap the closets that went with each room.

But, as a result of 3 days of work, I now have a cozy little bedroom, and a good-sized (for a small trailer) sewing 'studio'.

I think I'm just about finished with the changes, and am excited that I purged alot of things at the same time.

 I now have good access to my design wall and my cutting table as well......and room in the closet to hang my quilt tops.......maybe I'll actually get some of them quilted this year !!!!!  Go 2020 !