Back to Sewing!

It feels so good to be back to sewing! I still haven't sewn in my new sewing room, I've been using my Bernina in my bedroom. The cabinet in my bedroom is better for assembling quilts, and that's what I'm doing, so that's where I'm sewing.

I finished another weighted blanket, and I'm making another one identical to this one. After actually seeing a weighted blanket in use, I changed my construction methods a little, to make it sturdier. I still sewed just the  longer sides right sides together With the backing two inches longer on top and bottom. After I turned it right side out, I added topstitching along the sides to further re-enforce the seams. Instead of stitching in the ditch like I did on the first one to make the channels, I used a serpentine stitch, which further re-enforced every seam.

Here's a photo of the back, and you can see the serpentine stitching. I think re-enforcing the seams was a good move, because these blankets are heavy, and the pellets inside are always moving around. I was much happier with this weighted blanket, and I am making the third one exactly like this. I think I'll be out of plastic pellets after the third weighted blanket. I had originally only planned to make two blankets, but I bought enough pellets for three, and as soon as a friend of mine found out I was making them, she asked for one. I had enough of both fabric and pellets to make one more, so it worked out for the best.

The weighted blanket in the photos is on the way to its recipient, but I've already started the third one. In fact, I'm using UFO's as my leaders/enders while I work on the last weighted blanket.

I've got the rows sewn together for three quilts now. Tomorrow I'll press these rows and get some quilt tops together. I'm only using UFO's as leaders/enders as much as possible right now. I have a whole laundry basket full of blocks ready to be sewn into quilt tops, so every time I assemble a quilt, I'll be using at least one UFO as my leader/enders until that basket is empty. When I assemble a big quilt, or one with a lot of rows, it's not hard to get two UFO's assembled for one main quilt. I'm not going to mess with borders right now, I'm just getting blocks sewn into quilt centers, then I'll make decisions about borders later. I'm making more and more quilts without borders these days, but I know some of the UFO's I have will be getting borders.

I still have six deadline quilts for this year, since I've had a few additions to my list. If I wasn't using UFO's as leaders/enders, I wouldn't be making any progress on them at all. For the quilts that need borders, there will still be more piecing work down the line, but at least getting them to quilt center stage allows them to be hung in the closet, more out of my way than they are currently. I already have one deadline quilt on my list for 2017, but I'm hoping it will be a big quilting year instead of a big piecing year, and that I get a lot of finishes next year.

I didn't want to work on assembling more than three quilts once, so when I ran out of leaders/enders, I started making the setting triangles for the Allietare mystery quilts. I should have the setting triangles for both of my mystery quilts done by the time I'm done with the current quilt assembly, so then the mystery quilts will be ready to assemble too! Next deadline quilt I assemble, I may be using the mystery quilts as my leader/enders.

I may have too many projects in the works right now, but I feel like I'm moving forward on several, so it's all good!