The 2011 Thumbstall Raffle Quilt top is finished!  It’s been a a year of organizing and stressing over color choices, pattern adaptation, distributing blocks, follow-up – but definitely worth it!  A group of us got together a couple of weeks ago and put the blocks together.

Unfortunately some of the star point tips were a little short. May shared a tip that helps preserve most of the points.  She called it pivoting the point.

Quilt Tip:

The first step is to insert a pin in the star point vertically,

and then eyeball the quarter inch of the facing block.

Then pivot the remaining fabric resulting in a near perfect 1/4 ” seam.

Julie and I added the borders and now the quilt is in the hands of a guild member who is a long arm quilter. She will custom quilt the top proving that ‘quilting really makes the quilt!’

Things are finally coming together.  I’ve finished up two and a half of the projects I took with me last weekend on the Watson quilting retreat.  Who was I kidding? – only myself -  There was no way I could finish 5 projects in one weekend – but I did try.

The top is complete for the baby quilt.  It’s also been quilted and bound.  (Good thing too.)  I was just told that she is having a baby shower November 6.  I didn’t know that one was planned this early.  For once I’m ahead of the game.

Quilt for Riley Diane

It was an ‘on and ‘off’ rainy day on Sunday, so I took advantage of forced time indoors and finished the quilt shams for my son.  The side borders are Seminole Patchwork blocks that are also border his quit.

King Size Pillow Shams

Lastly, I’ve embroidered three bluework blocks and have started on the fourth for my Linda Hunter quilt.  The pieced blocks are all finished.  I’d like to finish this top by the end of November.

Pieced and embroidered blocks

The other two projects, will probably go with me on our winter trip to Texas.  I really need to get started on some Christmas presents.   I’m hoping I have enough time to finish two twin size quilts.  The sticky part will probably be finding someone to quilt them at this late date.  I may have to try and quilt them myself – but I normally don’t like to quilt more than a lap size.  – Am I up for the challenge?

Tip of the Day:  When cutting borders for wall quilts I always cut the side borders with the fabric’s lengthwise grain to prevent wavy borders.  The will also lie flatter against the wall.  On a bed quilts, that doesn’t seem to be a problem.

Tomorrow’s ‘D’ Day – We’re on the way to our annual quilting retreat at Watson Homestead.  I’ve checked the weather report for the area.  It should be in the high 50′s but with showers and cloudy skies.  (Perfect quilting weather though.)

Most of the time, the leaves are at peak color while we are there.  However with the rain, it looks as though we won’t be able to enjoy them much this year.  In contrast, last year we were surprised by an overnight snowfall. It was a bit early in the season for that much snow and it was gone by the end of the day.  But – what a beautiful sight to wake up to.

View from Watson Homestead

I couldn’t resist going for a walk and taking some pictures of a stream that runs through the property.  After my walk, I was able to spend the rest of the day quilting!  Does life get any better than that?

Winter at Wason 2009

All my projects are ready to go and  have been waiting by the door for the past two days.  I feel like a kid going to summer camp.

Workshop/Retreat tip:  I label everything I take on a retreat with address labels, using just the name from the label.  So many of us use the same tools (rules, mats, etc.) that its easy to pick up something by mistake that belongs to someone else.

When quilters get together, we not only quilt and socialize but usually come away with one or new tips.  At a recent sew-in – it happened again.  Barb was working on some hour-glass blocks and showed me that just by clipping a few threads at the intersection of the joined triangles,  a perfectly flat center results.

I found the directions for just doing that on Debbie Mumm’s general instruction website.

“Twisting Seams

For ease in construction when using quarter-square triangles, we add a twist…. When pressing the last seam, twist the center of the seam so that it fans into a square. Loosen stitches in the “square”. Remove any stitches that prevent the square from laying flat. All seam allowances fan out in the same direction to eliminate excess bulk.”

What could be easier?