TGIF - I Need A Weekend!

Spent a couple of hours sorting selvages after dinner last night.

These are the purples and turquoises in their clear shoeboxes.

The blues and the reds are also in clear shoe boxes.

The pinks are in a normal-depth clear box.

The blacks with brights plus black and white selvages are in a double height box.

(I later added the b&w batch I forgot to put in the laundry baskets,

making that double-tall box very full.)

The greens filled a regular clear box.

And this group is the one that surprised me the most!

For someone who doesn't "like" orange

 (for clothing or home decor, OK in quilts),

this abundant group made me giggle and grin.

The yellow/gold/orange/rust/brown selvages overflow their double-height box!

So, to Amy of the Calico Cat, Cheri of Jovaliquilts,

and all others who have added their selvages to my selvage stash,

THANK YOU!

I have more than enough for the two ideas gestating in the background.

Not right away ~ but yet this year.

Have a great weekend, ya'll!

Quiltdivajulie

This and That

Front

 Look at what arrived in the mail!

Back

Do you remember the scrap/string pieces from my last JCCFS class?

Outside - front and back

Wonderful Wanda turned them into journal covers and I LOVE THEM!!!

Inside - front and back

I can't wait to put new composition books inside and start using them!

Now that Waiting For the Mail's scrappy back

  is pieced, pressed and trimmed . . .

. . . I pulled out the final 2011 "promised" gift project box.

This one is for DH and he's already given it a name ~ Reboot.

He has requested his special "design feature" (more on that another day).

Any of you who are married to an engineer 

will understand his need to "add more features." 

The best part was discovering that I had already cut it out!

And there are even small scraps to piece for the back

(or add to the crumb collection).

When I moved Reboot's box, I rediscovered the wonderful orphan bits

from my swap with Andrea, the Welsh Quilter.

These will become a nine-patch block for my white coat project.

OH ... for those of you who pop in to visit Mary Lou Weidman's blog,

her bloggy-address (and look) has changed!

Here's the new link ~

Mary Lou and Whimsy, Too

And I am going(!!!!) to deal with the 

overabundance of selvages in my studio . . .

I pulled selvages out of their two large, very full drawers,

two clear storage boxes, and

oops, I forgot to add those from the b&w stash!

First step will be to sort by color . . .

Quiltdivajulie

So Many Reasons to Say Thank You

The first gifted piece for my white coat project has arrived!

Thank you, Elsie!

You can read more on my White Coat page.

(see link at the top of my sidebar)

And look what the mail carrier brought while I was in Kentucky.

The Calico Cat managed to pack

an incredible quantity of selvages!

Thanks, Amy!

And look at my new cutting table!

DH bought this from a fellow woodturner

at their meeting last weekend.

He had it all set up when I got home . . . and I love it!!!

Quiltdivajulie

Selvage Finishes

All six placemats are finally finished!

Four have machine stitched binding (each done a little differently)

and two have hand stitched binding (left handed).

I started to do a tablescape, but couldn't get a good angle

so laying them here on the cutting table 

(and standing on the step stool)

was the result.

Each of the six backs is different ~ related, but different.

My goals to  use 

some of my black and whites, 

some of my selvage stash,

leftover binding pieces,

and figuring out other methods to bind

were all met with this project.

This finish feels especially good.

I need to believe the words of this quote:

"Don't wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect.  There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions.  So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger,  more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.”  (Mark Victor Hansen)

Quiltdivajulie

Machine Binding With Invisible Thread

After the tricky process of winding invisible thread onto a bobbin,

I stitched this binding to the back of the placemat.

[photos will enlarge to show greater detail]

Here you can see me stitching it down on the front.

I used my Purple Thang and/or the tips of my scissors

to help hold the folded strip straight 

as I worked.

The scissors worked better for me.

The Purple Thang was a bit too soft and flimsy.

This photo shows the line of invisible thread stitching

along the back.  This particular binding had been cut

2-1/4" ~ for machine binding like this, I suspect

cutting the strips 2-1/2" would make things easier

and less "tight."  

There's a PIF quilt waiting (Let It Be) to test this theory.

Next I used a placemat where the binding had already been stitched

to the front and tried machine stitching it to the back

with the invisible thread still in the bobbin.

Front corner finish.

Back corner finish.

This approach has definite possibilities!

Especially for utility quilts, PIF quilts, and

pillow shams, pot holders, and placemats.

Thanks for the suggestion, Hilda!

Tomorrow or the next day,

I'll show photos using the tutorial method

I found out about from Paula the Quilter.

I knew I wasn't the only one

who needed an alternative to 

right-handed hand-stitched binding!

Quiltdivajulie

MORE Mail!

Two boxes were waiting for me on the front porch when I got home Thursday evening.

One from Leehaven and one from The Calico Cat!

Amy sent selvages ...

and tucked deep inside 

were these two hollow forms for DH.

(turned by Brian Butters in 2003 and 2006 

of myrtle wood and yoshino cherry) 

THANK YOU!!

~ ~ ~

I saved the second box from Karen until after dinner. 

I knew what was inside and I wanted to prolong

the experience of discovering and exploring the contents.

Some of you may remember

  seeing this photo 

on Karen's blog

back in September 2008.

The blocks came from 

PA, CA, DC, 

OH, the U.K., 

WA, TN, NH, 

TX, MD, NC,

and several other places.

I am utterly delighted

to have the 27 blocks

in my studio ~

with Karen's blessing

to create a flimsy for her

of any design I choose.

Honored

(to be entrusted with these).

Excited

(by the possibilities).

These batik strips were also in the box.

After randomly placing

the beautiful stars on my design wall,

I can feel what I want to do.

~ ~ ~

I thought about whether 

to work in secret 

so the flimsy would be a surprise . . . 

but that just didn't seem right.

I want to share this journey ~

Quiltdivajulie

Playing with selvages

This is where I started last week ~ with a tangled mess of selvages.

(they are stored in a drawer - no organization at all)

Making selvage placemats has been on my list for ages.

I figured I would get busy and make a set of 6 so that I could 

use them to develop my left-handed binding technique

before I return to work on Blue Moon.

The very next day,

 I ran across Brenda S.'s post about her placemat project.

Great minds must think alike!

Next, I raided my back and white stash.

But wait, the fabric segments I cut for the backs are not large enough!

Liberated methods to the rescue ~

if it is too short, add on!

If you don't have enough to match ~

make do!

Here are the first three placemats (unbound).

I layered the back (wrong side up) with the batting on top.

I then stitched the selvages through all three layers

(selvage quilting as you go).

But wait ~ the tops came up too short!

Note:  I had stitched two before I stopped to trim.

That's when I discovered my original pieces were too small.

Sigh - not such a good plan.

Again ~ if it is too short, add on!

Trimmings from one became an end for the other.

I butted the two pieces together and

used a stitch and flip selvage on the back

and a stitch and flip selvage on the front

to create a single piece.

Here is the other one that had to be lengthened.

I tried binding the one on top by machine.

It works, but I'm not sure I'll become a convert.

(pinning right handed through layers is almost as painful as needling

and I'm not as happy with the way the reverse side looks)

The placemat underneath will be left-handed practice

as will the others as soon as I get them ready.

(each of the six will be bound with a different color)

Wish me luck!  

Quiltdivajulie

At Home

This was the scene in my studio Sunday evening. You're right - they're NOT pickles! [And please forgive the date stamps on these photos. DH used my camera and neglected to remove the changed setting (and I didn't realize it until too late).]

Named At Home (another DH naming), this quilt will be gifted (they don't read my blog, so it's safe to share with ya'll). This is the orientation I used while stitching (although I had to unstitch and re-do three of the logs because I got the top turned around the wrong way - arrrgh).

This is how it looks from the other direction. There really is no "right" or "wrong" ~ a good thing.

I took this one (at dusk so the flash was involved) so you could get a better idea of the colors away from the design wall. The red really isn't as pink as it might seem ~ it's more of a garnet-toned magenta. These are the Marcia Derse fabrics I purchased in February during our field trip to the Delta Patchwork warehouse. [I did work from a pattern for the dimensions ~ Charming Log Cabin by Threaded Pear Studio ~ although I will not be using their scallop idea with this fabric combo.]

Here is the label. It is not pieced into the back but stitched on so that it will be quilted into the quilt. I used a Sharpie to write on the freezer-paper'ed fabric, removed the paper and heat set the printing, pieced a bit, pressed some more, and finished with selvages (giving me woven edges and no turning under).

At Home has been sent off to Chris. Meanwhile, I'll get the binding ready (strips are cut from that wonderful turquoise blue that has hints of purple in the background). This one measures 64" x 88" so it will take a little longer to bind.

Hope the kids like it! When the sun shines on the fabrics, the glowing colors remind me so much of those in the Santa Fe area where their wedding was held.

Quiltdivajulie

His Favorite Jeans

With the arrival of daylight savings time, I can now take quilt photos after work!

For those who may not have been part of the journey, I first posted about this quilt here. As you can see, the plan changed a great deal since then!

And then another post here (again, thanks to each of you who shared dog-selvages!)

Chris quilted HFJ using the Woodgrain panto and rust thread (did anyone catch the use of rust thread on the selvages?). The finished quilt (which has been sent through the washer/dryer) measures 58" square.

The fabric under the pocket was intact (couldn't say so much for the pocket itself). My best advice to anyone who wants to make one of Karen's Zinger quilts is to make yourself a good template ~ mine was a bit "off" so many of my meeting points are 'slanted' a bit. Adds to the character of this one, but if you want them to match up, check your first block and adjust accordingly.

My requisite 'crumpled' photo . . . I still get tickled when I start "reading" the selvages.

. . . and the quilt draped over one of our outdoor benches.

The air is still a bit chilly and damp, but spring is definitely making its presence known!

Quiltdivajulie