Blow The Trumpets, Clash the Cymbals - Nine Patch Friends Is Finished

Finished putting the last stitch into the hanging sleeve so can officially call this quilt finished.  I do like the way it turned out and am looking around my house to see where would be the best place to hang it. 

Here is the back of the quilt.  As you see I had to add a strip of fabric diagonally to make it large enough for the backing.  I described this process of adding a diagonal piece of fabric to widen or lengthen backing on this blog post.

Am glad I am done with the hand work on this quilt as stitching on black fabric is not much fun.  The black just sucks up the light and even with an extra light it can be hard to see at times.  I think tacking the binding down on a quilt is my least favorite part of quilting so am glad to have it done, done, done!

Well - now I can say I used my 25 yards of fabric since August to meet the guild challenge for this year.  Thank goodness that is done!  Already have an idea for what to do next but first I must get the rest of the things ready to take to the guild meeting.  We are having a kind of auction where we all bring an item we no longer want and donate it - everyone buys tickets and drops them into the bag of the item they want to win.  The tickets are cheap - 10 for $1 and everyone gets into the spirit of it.  We also are having a pot luck supper and playing a dice game called Right, Left Center and the items we are trying to win are 2 1/2" strips of fabric.  Our May meeting is always so much fun so am looking forward to it.

Until Later,
Lynn

Machine Quilting Nine Patch Friends

Here is what the quilting looks like on the Nine Patch Friends quilt.  I finished the quilting so now am getting the binding ready to put on.  Will I make my Thursday night deadline?  I am working hard to get it done so check back and find out.

I quilted a spiral in the center of the light squares and petal like shapes around it to make it look somewhat like a flower. 

With the black fabrics, using black thread and the other dark fabrics in the quilt you really can't see the leaf and vine quilting between the flower shapes.  I know it is there though and if you get your nose really, really close you can see it too!

I told you I changed the design I planned for the small border...well here is what I used instead.  The design I had thought I would quilt in this area just didn't work so ripped out what I had started to quilt and then stitched this design instead.

For the outside border I again quilted a flower shape with a spiral in the center of the 9 patch blocks and a leafy vine in the black area.  I think I am quilting pretty good then Whoops, I get a zig or a zag or a jiggle.  I am such a perfectionist that most of the time I would rip those spots out but this time I am trying to ignore them.  In the overall picture of the quilt you don't really see those little oops so maybe I am making progress on my perfectionism (don't even know if that is a word.)

Until Later,
Lynn

Just looked for more black fabric to bind this and wouldn't you know, not enough solid black in the house.  Good thing I have to go to Hastings for physical therapy this morning and can buy some.  I keep telling myself, "I will get this finished," " I will get this finished."

Lynn

Prepping for Quilting

I prepared my quilt sandwich for quilting by basting the layers together and this time I decided to use my safety pins and get it done more quickly.  I did roll the backing and top on boards like I do when I baste quilts with thread.  Almost ran out of pins before I got it done though - not sure where all my pins have gone as I used to have lots more.  Oh, well it is pinned and being quilting as I post this.

Happy Quilting,
Lynn

Quilting Designs For Nine Patch Friends

I wanted to share how I figured out what to quilting designs to use on my Nine Patch Friends quilt.  It was not an original idea but something I learned by reading  Carla's Feathered Fibers blog and picked up the idea from her.   Here is a page on her blog where you can see and read how she plans her quilting designs plus she has a Yahoo Group called quiltwisperer that is about quilt design and machine quilting.  She has taught this as an online class and it sounds like a good class to take as we all can use help planning what and where to quilt.

The main gist of it is to use Photoshop Elements to draw the design possibilities on the top of a photo of the quilt.  Of course I didn't spend much time drawing since I am under the gun to get it finished but did like using this idea.  I am sure Carla has lots of other tips and tricks she teaches in her classes but my crude attempt helped me in this case.

I did change the design in the small border and revised the flower like shape I quilted in the light squares, but I am quilting a vine with leaves and tendrils in the other area though.  Like I said I was in a hurry to get started quilting on this piece.

Happy Quilting
Lynn