As in quilted and bound - DONE!! - ;))
The backing is left-over "turkey" fabric with a strip of "orange pumpkins" -
I love turkey "left-overs" - of every shape and form - LOL - ;))
The strip of "orange pumpkins" wasn't quite long enough - so I added some "Halloween cats" in the middle - and didn't bother with the corner triangles because it's a table topper - not a wallhanging - ;))
I used a pre-packaged quilt binding and carefully marked the back for placement so that I wouldn't cut off the points on the HST - and most of them look pretty good -
And some don't -
But you can see the pretty decorative stitch that I used to stitch down the front -
So there's that - ;))
Now I'm debating whether or not to fuse/baste the Halloween Churn Dash - since the backing is already made - to get it going - before I tackle my pile of Christmas "Squirrels" - ;))
Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -
DESIGN WALL MONDAY -
Check out all of us who link up with Judy L. -
At Patchwork Times on Mondays.
We have some awesome stuff on our walls!
Well, THEY do - ME - not so much sometimes - ;))
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On my wall today -
My Christmas Sudoku Quilt from years ago -
I love the border fabric - Gingerbread men with milk - some are half-eaten and missing heads - and/or other body parts - depending on where you start and what you choose to eat first -
It's next up in the "to be quilted" queue - after I get the binding done on my Thanksgiving Churn Dash. The free-motion quilting is nothing fancy - just back and forth lines in each "unit". Horizontal and vertical lines in the "bricks" - and diagonal lines in the HST and the center squares -
I figured that anything fancy would get lost in the "fabric" - so I stuck with "simple". It was great practice to get back into the "rhythm" of the machine - and the "sound" it makes when I'm just humming along - ;))
I'll take more photos when it gets bound - but I needed something to post today - and this is it - ;))
Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -
Today I managed to "stitch-in-the-ditch" vertically and horizontally along the seams of the 9-patch "units" of my Thanksgiving Churn Dash. That should be enough to stabilize it before I do some free-motion quilting - ;))
The colors in the photo above seems to be a bit on the "yellow/orange" side - the colors in the one below are more accurate - ;))
Now I have to decide what to do about the FMQ part - something "allover"? - something in each "area"? - something block by block? - or just let it marinate awhile while I get my Christmas UFO/Projects/Squirrels organized - and wonder how I managed to use "awhile while" back-to-back in a sentence? - ;))
Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -
Happy Thanksgiving!! - ;))
Today is Turkey Day in the U.S.A. -
And a day to Give Thanks! -
And I DO! - ;))
I'm thankful for SO many things -
My family - my friends - my neighbors - my readers/followers/fans -
My stash - my sewing machines - my toys -
And SO much more! - ;))
Here's hoping that you have a very nice Turkey Day with your family! -
And have plenty of leftovers! - ;))
Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -
I thought that I had enough "Turkey" fabric for the backing - so I folded it in half and laid it out on my cutting mat to "eyeball" it - put the quilt top folded in half on top of it -
Folded both of them over onto themselves so that I could check the other end -
And - sure enough - I'm SHORT!! - ;))
Guess I'll have to see what I can "piece" together - ;))
Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -
DESIGN WALL MONDAY -
Check out all of us who link up with Judy L. -
At Patchwork Times on Mondays.
We have some awesome stuff on our walls!
Well, THEY do - ME - not so much sometimes - ;))
===
On my wall today -
The rest of the blocks -
For my Thanksgiving Churn Dash -
All sewn together into a quilt TOP - ;))
I think I have enough left over backing and binding fabric from Turkey Day to finish it off - so that is the plan for this week. If I can get it basted - quilted - and bound by Thursday - I can start playing with my Christmas stuff - ;))
Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -
Last night I said that -
I asked my bloggy buddy - Gene - if he minded if I showed you how to cut bias binding "his way" - LEFT-Handed - and he graciously said that I could - so I'll show you how I did that tomorrow - ;))
And today is "tomorrow" - so here goes - ;))
This piece is a 1/2 yard cut but you can use a larger piece if you want/need to -
Lay it out WRONG-side UP - with the selvage on the RIGHT -
Trim off the selvage edge before you start -
Or you'll have a bit of selvage on all of your strips -
Trim it now or trim it later - easier to do it now -
Take the TOP RIGHT corner and fold it DOWN to the BOTTOM LEFT - like so -
The DIAGONAL fold is now on the BIAS -
Then take the BOTTOM RIGHT corner and fold it UP to the TOP LEFT - like so -
Again - the DIAGONAL fold is on the BIAS -
Take the corner on the RIGHT and fold it UP to the TOP LEFT again - like so -
Making sure that all of your folds are nice and neat -
Then carefully turn the whole piece to the RIGHT to straighten it out a bit -
And line it up with a horizontal line on your cutting mat -
With just "a little" hanging over one of the vertical lines - like so -
Because you want to be able to cut OFF the folds -
Like Gene said - you want enough hanging over so that you cut off ALL of the folds the first time and don't have to cut it again -
So line up your ruler with the vertical line that you chose -
And trim off those folds -
Move the ruler over to the LEFT to whatever size you want to cut your strips -
And cut however many you think you need -
I cut five or six - I don't remember -
Then - unfold the strips -
And you'll see that the ends match up nicely -
So - stitch them together - using a 1/4" seam allowance -
And press the seams to one side - or open if you prefer -
Some of the strips will have the cut going the "other" way -
So pay attention -
Or they won't match - ;))
Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -
Turkey Day is bound and DONE -
Ta Dah! - ;))
I cut part of the binding last night - and the rest this afternoon -
And some triangles for hanging - ;))
The "bias" binding was perfect for the striped fabric - ;))
I was careful to press the triangles in the proper orientation for each corner -
And they hardly even show up on the backing - ;))
I talked about the Fast Finish Triangles - HERE -
And I asked my bloggy buddy - Gene - if he minded if I showed you how to cut bias binding "his way" - LEFT-Handed - and he graciously said that I could - so I'll show you how I did that tomorrow - ;))
Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -
Turkey Day is quilted - YAY!! - ;))
I did several lines of simple "echo" around the letters -
And had already quilted a "clamshell" design in the "Turkey" strips -
Added a couple of "loops" in each feather -
And ran out of bobbin thread with 1-1/2 feathers to go -
I didn't really want to refill a whole bobbin for that little bit -
So I cheated and used the "gold" bobbin -
You can't really tell the difference in this photo -
But maybe this one will show the difference -
Either way - it's close enough that no one will notice - unless you tell them - ;))
In the brown background I did another few lines of "echo" -
My lines started off pretty straight but very quickly became a bit "organic" -
They would/could have been much straighter if I had used my walking foot -
But I like the imperfect little wiggles -
They give it some character and some home-made charm - ;))
I like how the afternoon light shows off the texture in the quilting - ;))
So - it's quilted - ;))
Tomorrow I plan to make the binding - I usually just do a "straight" binding -
But my bloggy buddy Gene has a neat tutorial on how to do "bias" binding - very cool method -
I want to watch his video again and then give it a try - ;))
Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -
Thanksgiving Sudoku is quilted and bound -
Ta Dah - ;))
I did a simple wavy line - back and forth - on the diagonal this time -
Alternating the direction from block to block -
With a straight line grid in the border -
And used the wider "accent" fabric in the binding -
And a narrower seam when I attached it to the top -
Which made it much easier to miter the corners - ;))
Next up - Turkey Day - ;))
Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -
I was about to do the "ditch" stitching on my Thanksgiving Sudoku Quilt and started to re-thread my machine with green thread when I realized that - if I did the FMQ on my Halloween Sudoku Quilt on my other machine - I could leave the black thread in - add the binding - and call it DONE -
So I did - ;))
Say Hello again to Halloween - ;))
I did a really simple back-and-forth wavy line - changing direction in each nine-patch - and going diagonally in the corners -
You can probably see it better from the back -
And I messed up - one nine-patch has the lines going the wrong way - but - unless you see it in "real life" - you can't really tell. So - if anyone ever notices - they can wonder why I did that - and you can tell them - ;))
Bottom line - perfection is highly over-rated -
It's quilted and bound and DONE!! - ;))
Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -
