You’re in the home stretch.  You’ve painstakingly pieced the quilt top, making sure all the seems match and the points are all sharp.  Now one last critical step before you begin quilting  -  sandwiching the quilt.   Just one wrinkle in the backing or batting – can ruin the whole quilt.  It really is true – ‘Quilting Makes the Quilt’.  So it’s important that you take the time to sandwich the quilt properly.

I like to stretch the backing in place on my cutting table with binder clips,

Stretching backing with binding clips

but masking tape works well too.

When the backing is smooth I place the bottom on top and gently smooth it out.

It helps to let the batting relax a bit before sandwiching either by fluffing it in the dryer on the ‘no heat’ setting or unfolding it, draping it over a table and letting it lie it flat overnight.

I like to pin baste when machine quilting and hand baste if I am hand quilting.  The layers seem to stay together by both methods with out slipping.

Now – I’m ready to quilt!

I finally was able to get some quilting done last night.  Tom and I are preparing for two one-man photo shows at the Crawl Space, Little York NY this month, so the better part of the week has been researching the list for news releases and invitations.  I finally finished it up yesterday and the mailing and emails are now all done.

But – I did find time to work on the next ‘fat quarter’ quilt project.  It’s done with needle-turn applique.  – One of my favorite techniques.  It’s really easy (contrary to popular opinion) as long as you use the right tools.

I’m thinking that this piece will be prefect for the silent auction for the quilt show.  Then I will have an excuse to use the new fabric I found on our shopping trip after the last

Fat quarters on left; Border fabric on right

Consortium meeting. I just fell in love with the background fabric – then of course had to have some new fat quarters to complete the project.  Barb and I got together at the library sewing day and shared fabric for the border.  Its made up of various half square triangles – so you only need a small piece

of fabric for each block.

Now another wrinkle – I just went out to the mailbox and the smells of spring hit me like a ton of bricks.  – It’s supposed to be in the 70′s today – A perfect day to play hooky!  It will definite cut down on my quilting time.

However it’s still in the 40′s – so I’ll probably have time to make the quilt sandwiches for the two quilts I plan on machine quilting next.  I’m thinking that I will use a meander pattern on the ALS quilt, but the quilting on my Seasons quilt will be a little more challenging.

Quilt patterns for Seasons border

I’ve found some patterns that depict the four seasons – just perfect for this quilt.

The snow is just about gone – This small pile, on my deck, really didn’t want to melt.  The entire weekend was gray, windy and cool -  two good days to spend inside quilting (as though there could be a day that wasn’t perfect for quilting!)  It’s really unusual for me to have a ‘full’ day to quilt – let alone two!

So to work I went and finished two table runners  that I had started Monday at the quilt-in at the Marcellus Library. Now I just have to hand sew the binding.    I like to finish the quilt  binding  on road trips.  We’ll be traveling to North Carolina at the end of April  and I’ll have my projects lined up to take with me.

I decided to finish up one of my UFOs while I was at it.  This is a table runner that I made two years ago at our annual Watson retreat.  It’s now quilted and the binding is attached.  Another ‘road trip’ project ready to go.

In addition I was able to quilt Delectable Mountains and the challenge for the guild’s quilt show is sandwiched and partially quilted.

All in all not a bad weekend!

This quilt is the challenge project  for Thumbstall Quilt Guild’s biennial quilt show in July. The challenge is to use this bright colored focus fabric and blocks that contain only squares. Other elements that could be used are setting triangles and embellishments.

I struggled with the coordinating fabrics for this quilt because I normally choose  earth tones and ‘Thimleberries’ type fabrics – not brights for my quilts. However, I think I came up with the perfect fabrics to compliment the focus fabric – off-white and white on white.

These toned down the focus fabrics and I think the finished mini-quilt (it measures 18″ square) looks as those it’s full of brilliant gems.

I’m working at keeping my New Year’s resolution to complete some of the UFO’s that seem to grow in my storage area overnight.  The first month of the year is just about over and I have at least completed some of my list  (I started with the easiest):

• Watson mystery 2007 and 2009 quilts- binding  - Done!

• Seasons wall hanging -

quilting patterns chosen and practice pieces completed

• Autumn Pennies table topper from a class by Kim Diehl  and

• organize my stash!

- And now to the more challenging:

Today I did some practice quilting for my Seasons Wall Hanging.  I decided to try out my new Clover Mini Iron II “The Adapter Set”. (A Christmas gift from my son.)  One of it’s accessories is a hot knife tip that works beautifully when making stencils.

Cut stencils

Next I practiced some free motion quilting on some 15-inch muslin sandwiches.  Now I’m ready to start the actual quilting on my quilt top.

Practice

Goals for next month are:

- UFO’s – finish the quilting on this top as well as the binding

- New:  guild projects – fat quarter quilt and sample block for 2011 raffle quilt.