Big Quilts

For as much time as I've spent in my sewing room over the past week, I sure don't have much to show you. I've quilted several very large quilts. I worked all weekend, which I typically try to avoid. I haven't done anything at all towards my OMG for the month.

I've been working on a test quilt and have the top completed. The designer requires that the project remain secret until she publishes her pattern. I'm hoping to get it quilted over the weekend and I don't really know when I can share, but I will of course share once I'm able. I can say that I shopped my stash for it, only buying background fabric. I'm hoping to be able to get a workable backing from the stash as well.

I also finished sewing my Macaron mystery top together. I thought I would quilt it last weekend, but I didn't have the backing ready, so switched to a client quilt instead. Here is a really lousy photo of the top. I added extra to the top and bottom to get an oblong quilt. I can't remember if this was my first attempt or if this was after I trimmed down the sections I added. 

Once I get the backing ironed and pieced, I have the quilting design picked out, so just need to make another opening in my oddly burgeoning queue.

So...what can I show you? How about the most recent quilting jobs.

First, Midnight Sparkle on Sally's quilt. I really, really, really wanted to quilt a Bigfoot pattern on this, but I couldn't find a design I liked and she didn't want that anyway. LOL.

Next, I had Kristi's very large, 104" inch square Lori Holt sampler. We used a hexagon pattern on this that mimics chicken wire. I tried four other chicken wire designs before this and NONE of them stitched out in a way that I was happy with. This pattern was kind of complex, which my testing didn't reflect. I had to use the tweak function on every pass after the first one. It took me two days to get everything done since Lucey wasn't cooperating and iQ was doing some screwy stuff. The end product looks pretty good and it went back home yesterday.

I decided to go with something easier for the next quilt. This is Pat's military/patriotic quilt. I chose Malachite for it. This one still needs to be bound by me. I used Glide in Bark for this one.

Then I switched back to another very large quilt. This one is Annie's. She wanted Ikat on it. Luckily, I knew that Ikat tends to drift, so I planned my quilt layout accordingly to allow for the amount of tweaking I knew I'd need. Sometimes I do smart things. 😄 This quilt also still needs to be bound by me. It's hard to tell in the picture, but the thread is Glide Buttercup, which is a hair darker than her yellow fabric.

For my fifth quilt of the week, I switched to a smaller quilt again. This is another of Pat's. We went with Keryn's Chevrons for this one. We thought it mimicked goal posts. I'm quite pleased with the finished product. Again, still need to bind this one.

I've had a whole lot of binding requests lately. I did finish up this one of Annie's that I shared last week. This is another pretty big quilt.

So, that's my quilting week. Oh, I thought you might like to see a different view of my sewing room than I usually show. This view is from the closet looking back toward the sewing machine. You can see my cutting table (with blue bins) and ironing table on wheels. I swear, I spend more time moving those around than I ever dreamed. That cutting table is hefty. 😅 In this picture, it is pushed all the way against my built-in sewing desk so that I could get a whole-quilt picture of Annie's quilt. Her quilt is 111" long!

I am very disappointed to report that we have to redo our brand new basement carpeting (installed mid-October). We had already had the installer come back around Thanksgiving to work at better aligning the seams. Well, they are still very visible, so the carpet store owner came out Friday. He let us know yesterday that their rep told them to redo the carpet with a different, more traditional type of carpet and pad. I guess that the product we chose (Mohawk Air-0), which I really love other than the ugly, very visible seams, isn't really meant for large spaces. They are worried the seams will get worse over time, so a replacement carpet it is. I feel really wasteful, though I know it's not our fault. The product is recyclable, but who knows what they'll do with it. I'll be looking over the product they offered us and trying to choose a new color. On the plus side, none of the furniture we ordered in November has arrived yet, so there is very little to move in order to redo the carpet. Also on the plus side, we haven't replaced the slider with the new one yet, so we will definitely wait to replace it until they are done hauling carpet in and out.

Out in the yard, most of the trees have very visible buds. We have a few dandelions with flowers, which makes me happy. We worked on cleaning up the remaining dead plants last night, along with pulling more 🤬 spearmint. The weather was just beautiful. We have our first blooming daffodils. Oddly, these are usually amongst the last to bloom, but they are first this year. Many of my daffodils have large buds, but they are very short compared to their normal height. Looks like it's going to be another weird growing year. Hopefully I can at least get cucumbers to grow this year (for reference, I planted cukes three times last year and they never grew). 

And in my veggie garden, much to my surprise, most of the lettuce is growing again. There is one pod that is very definitely done.
Guess that's about it. I hope you have a lovely, peaceful week.



 

2 comments

  1. Anne-Marie, I’m amazed by how much quilting you can do in one week!
    Can you please explain what you mean by Ikat tends to drift, and what you do to combat this?
    Thanks Jane

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  2. Oh no, that really sucks but on the plus side you don't have to worry about a live video. Love Annie's quilt. Thank you for linking up to Put your foot down.

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