Tuesday Quilting Progress!

Like I said before, Tuesdays are for quilting. I feel so productive! I made progress on the Picnic Time Quilt that I started SO long ago, and finished the top to my new quilt-the Sherbert Quilt is what I'm calling it.

If I can finish it in time, the Picnic Time Quilt will be a Christmas gift. It's one of my goals, but it's a big undertaking, so we'll have to see what happens.

Once the last few rows are sewed on to the Picnic Time Quilt, I need to make a quilt sandwich and start quilting everything together. I think I'm going to go the easy route and sew strands of embroidery floss in the corners and tie it together. We will see though.

Have you been doing any sewing lately?

Rachel May

Tuesdays are for Quilting

On Tuesdays, my friend Jody and I quilt, eat dinner, gossip and drink beer. It makes for a nice pause in a busy week for me, with staff meetings being on Tuesday mornings and them being the longest of my day of each week.

Jody is learning how to sew, so our ongoing joke is that we make drink more than quilt, but we've actually gotten quite a bit done since we started. We're using 8 inch squares and just doing a normal patchwork square quilt-easy peasy to start.

I've finished my quilt top last night (or rather, I've run out of fabric AGAIN), but It's really long and narrow, so I think I'm going to add a long row to the side to make it wider (so not quite done, I suppose).

Work has been stressful this week as we look for a new assistant, but I've been looking forward to Tuesday nights and our quilting.

Rachel May

Craft File: Picnic Time Quilt

Last weekend I decided I wanted to be a quilter...again. So I started the easiest quilt I could think of, a simple checkerboard quilt. I love the idea of just a mish-mash of reds and creams for a blanket, taking it out on a sunny summer day for a picnic. This was a scrappy project (I'm lucky enough to have to aunts that are big-time quilters, and they share their scraps with me) the red scraps were from the aunts, the creams are from my stash-I have a love for unbleached cotton fabric-so natural, such a great feel to it.

I'm pretty far along in the project, all the squares are cut, I'm in the middle of sewing the blocks together to make rows, then I will sew the rows together to make the quilt top!

I'm thinking of using a red binding and and unbleached cotton backing, but we will see. Those are fabrics that I'll actually have to purchase!

Details: 5x5" squares, 1/4" seam allowance, 11x11 rows/squares, cotton fabrics

Tips/Tricks: My aunts taught me that if you use a tablecloth with a cotton backing (like shown), the fabric squares will stick to it. It's a really helpful (and inexpensive) trick, especially if you're living in a tiny house like mine!

Enjoy!
Rachel May