If you thought quilt math was hard, then I don't suggest pattern writing! Pattern writing has stretched my brain in ways I didn't realize possible. And I don't even know if I can tell you the hardest part. There's calculating yardage and piece count (for multiple size quilts), there's figuring out which direction to press everything so that things nest nicely, drawing diagrams, writing coherent instructions, and I could go on! And all of this is before I even begin cutting fabric!
I'm not writing this to complain, truly I'm not. Because it's good to stretch yourself and grow your skills. But after a few hours of staring at a screen doing all that, pulling my hand quilting onto my lap or turning on my machine feels like I can finally relax.
Hand quilting is coming along nicely. I'm almost done with the borders, but I feel like I hit a rut or something. Maybe I went all in too fast and burned myself out. Or maybe, spring fever has set in and I don't want to be inside anymore. It felt so good to open the windows a little this week. Not a lot, but enough to let some fresh air in and air out my apartment. It made crawling around on the floor basting quilts a bit more enjoyable. But I'm happy to say that all four quilt tops are not basted and ready to be quilted.
The backing for the I Spy Stars baby quilt that I had was just a little too small so I added a strip of fabric to the top and bottom. I chose to use the white embroidered fabric I picked up at Joann's last month for the back of Good Fortune. There's no grey in the quilt, but I'm thinking it will be fine as the backing, especially on a bed quilt where you won't see the back anyway. But it has a linen like feel to it that I think will make it a good summer quilt. The backing that I originally picked out will probably end up as the backing to a throw quilt. Maybe on the back of a quilt I want to make with the larger prints leftover from Good Fortune. But I'm not starting that yet!
Old Town was backed in the super pretty fabric I bought for it and that leaves the Calico Hourglasses. Which I did not in fact have more of the fabric I wanted to use and did not have enough of anything that matched with that fabric. So for my 30s inspired classic quilt, I did what my grandma and great grandma's would have done. I made do. After discarding much of the fabric I had, I ended up going with a total mismatch of feedsack fabric. I used some that I had larger chunks of and some that I didn't have much of at all. Honestly, I think I'm going to like this better, because this is the next one to be hand quilted, and when I was last quilting through feedsack fabric, it was on my grandmother's flower garden quilt, and despite using a batting with scrim, it was a dream to quilt through. And I want to make a feedsack quilt because the more you use them, the softer they get. so for the back of a throw quilt, I think they will be perfect.
And you know what else? I finally finished quilting the plates on my Dreaded Dresden Plates. I'm over the intense quilting for a little while. I'm quilting something easy next. But first I need to finish quilting the sashing. The cable design I picked is a little small, so quilting it with a walking foot means I need to go slow. I really need to practice my free motion quilting one of these days. I'm tempted to do that on Old Town, just because both the top and backing are busy enough to hide any mistakes. I was half decent at doing loops at one point, I just can't figure out the tension on my Babylock. Though to be honest, I usually give up pretty quickly when my test piece comes out weird. Maybe I should try loops on my next wall hanging...
Isn't that how things go though? One idea leads to another which sparks a new project halfway through another and next thing you know there are a whole bunch of started projects. Which is how I usually end up with more quilt designs that I need to write patterns for. Speaking of which, I started pattern testing a new design last Saturday. Nothing crazy, just a simple baby quilt that I will finish and stash in my closet so when I need to make another baby quilt I have one ready to go. And if no one needs it, I'll donate it to the local foster kid resource center. I really should make some throw sized quilts too so the teens and older kids can also have some. This is how my brain goes, round and round and round, it's hard to keep up with myself some times! So what quilting circles are running around in your brain?
Happy Quilting!
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