What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Not much. We have both been enjoying some down time, reading, baking and just enjoying the stillness of the season. At first I was feeling a little guilty that I wasn't working on a new project but then I realized that maybe this was my Sabbath season. A season to refresh, refuel and regenerate. Now I am thinking I may go back to basics for a winter project.

I went into my fabrics and picked some pieces that I call my 'ancient of days' fabrics. These are fabrics that probably date back to the mid 80's and 90 ...

After much thinking and decision making, I decided to quilt the inside block borders following the fabric. I actually had fun doing this and using my dual feed walking foot. I was able to fly up and down these borders with just a few slow downs for deciding how I was going to cross the center squares and make them interesting.

Originally I was thinking of putting a motif in the cornerstones but decided I like the modern more organic stitching of crossing.

This will be my next UFO to work on. I do think this was the very first quilt I did. Can you tell it is from the 80's? I took this class from Arlene Stamper and what a great teacher she was/is. Very patient and tolerant of my color choices. I learned all the basics you need to know to make a great quilt, either art or traditional from her and Sharyn Craig. I took the feather star block class from Sharyn during the sampler class because Arlene didn't think you could do a 12 inch feathered ...

This is a step I do on all my quilts. This makes them lay very flat with no wavy edges. This gives your quilt a professional and polished look.

If you have steam dryer, you can put it in and steam it for several minutes but pull it out before it starts the drying process. If you don't have access to a steam dryer, you have two other easy options:

• You can wet the quilt and spin it out in your washer. The less drippy wet it is, the faster it will dry.
• You can dampen it by using ...

Finishing up the binding is an awesome feeling. This part goes pretty fast with just a few areas of concentration.

• Photo 1: I verify that the ruler and needle are in the proper alignment. I start stitching in the middle of a side leaving about 10 inches of tail. I don't use the binding joining tool but if you have one, follow those instructions.
• Photo 2: When I get to a corner I fold back the binding and crease it so I know how far down I can stitch. 
• Photo 3: I then fold the binding so that it ...

This is how I prepare my binding for pressing.

• Photo 1: First, I verify that all seam allowances are within tolerance. In the first picture the top seam allowance for the red fabric is within a couple of threads of the stitch line. The bottom binding is out of tolerance. There is too much of the red fabric showing and will need to be ripped out and sewn again.
• Photo 2: I then press open the binding with the seam allowances toward the smaller strip, this is the strip that is folded over. The red fabric will be laying flat ...

I generally pillowcase my quilts but some quilts just beg for a binding, especially if they are more traditional in nature. Here is my prefered way of attaching a traditional type of binding as it requires no hand stitching. 

I used a 1-1/2 red binding and a 1-1/4 inch blue binding that I then joined together. This will give me a small flange of red (1/8 inch) when done. An easy way to remember what will be the flange is the larger fabric will be the smallest showing on the front.

I first overlap the strips and ...

This is what happens when you don't verify a needle for a particular thread. I normally use a 90/14 while machine quilting and have no problems. The Superior thread I used for this stipple quilting requires a 100/16 needle for a good stitch result.

I will now be going back and tearing out a few of the skipped/shredded thread areas and quilt them back out. Since this was an old project that will just be living at home, I will not be 'reverse sewing' the whole section affected. If this was bound for a show, I ...

Here is some of the quilting that I decided on for this project.

For the body of the quilt I quilted on the diagonal for the pinwheel blocks. I then did stippling in the corner and center blank areas. I struggled for days trying to design something that I liked for those areas but just was not happy with anything I came up with. So back to the basic stipple.

In the corners I used my walking foot and a guide to do the aligned rows in the corner quadrants. I first went from corner to corner to create the ...

I am glad that I have a large island in the kitchen as I used to do this crawling around the floor.

• Tape the backing, right side down, taunt but not stretched.
• Place the batting on top, smoothing as needed.
• Place the top on batting squaring it with the backing and smooth.
• Pin the three layers together but do not pin over a seam (that is part of the anchoring stitch line).
• Untape and verify that everything is flat and no ripples or puckers were introduced during the pinning process. Repin or add additional pins as needed, about every 5 ...

I have decided on these older projects to back them like my Grandma Lillie did. She made at least one or two quilts a year. Always one to sell to add a little extra cash to her stash. She had her quilting frame set up in her sunroom during the winter and she always was hand quilting or piecing on her treadle Singer sewing machine.

She always used cotton sheets for her backings for a few reasons:

• They were relatively inexpensive
• She could get them the size for the quilt she was making
• She had no extra seams to quilt ...

Here are a couple of my projects that require a thimble and needle. Lucky for me I already have most of the quilting done, then binding and sleeve requirements. I should be working on these when I am vegging on the couch binge watching something!

I found a small bin with some of my older (but surprisingly interesting) unfinished quilts, including my first sampler quilt! This was created in an Arlene Stamper class and I only went because I had a friend that didn't want to go by herself. It is still just a top but I will be machine quilting it next year.

These pieces are SO OLD (how old are they?) that the quilt police would only accept hand quilting as a legitimate way to quilt. Some of my pieces have hand quilting started on them and I think the smaller or ...