Sunday, April 13, 2014

My First Finish of 2014


I got the binding on the this quilt Saturday morning. I machine apply bindings using a serpentine stitch on my Bernina. I used to used clips to hold the binding in place, but I've figured out how to do it without the clips. I can bind almost any size quilt in less than two hours, usually much less. My bindings won't win any awards, but it gets my quilts finished and they won't come loose. I never enter my quilts in contests anyway, I make quilts to be used. In case anyone is wondering, this quilt is made with the Smith Mountain Morning pattern found in Bonnie K. Hunter's book Scraps and Shirttails 2.

 
I'm not sure if you can tell the quilting thread is variegated in this pic or not. It is King Tut thread, I think the color is Bulrushes. I bought the big cone, and it's pretty much gone, just a little left, maybe enough for a baby quilt.
 
 
I had to laugh when I changed thread to sew on the binding. This was all that was left on my quilting bobbin. I'm so glad I had just a few inches left instead of running out with just a couple inches to go which seems to happen so often. I used two 1000m spools of Aurifil in the bobbins, this quilt used a LOT of thread.



After I finished DS the Younger's wedding quilt, I finished the last of the Aussie blocks which will be a quilt for DS the Elder.

 
 
This photo is a little blurry, but I laid out four blocks so you could see the secondary pattern that emerges. This block is called Garden Path, and I found it free online. I plan to make one of my grandsons a quilt out of this same pattern, using car fabrics and black for the paths so he can drive his Matchbox cars on it.


 
It feels amazing to have had such a productive weekend. It seemed like pure luxury to have so much quilting time. I should have a few hours during the next week, and I plan on cutting out a couple quilts. I gathered fabric today, and went through my precuts for things I could use. I also ran the numbers to figure out yardage requirements and how many of each piece I need. I hope to get quilts cut out for each of my grandsons. My plan is to use my grandsons quilts as leaders/enders for the other wedding quilts I need to make.

2 comments:

Connie said...

It's beautiful, Melanie

Andee said...

I have really enjoyed seeing the progress on SMM...it is stunning--love it in green!