Monday's Sewing

Well, yes, it's Tuesday, but pretty much everything I'm about to tell you happened yesterday.  I'm a yesterday's child kind of gal.  I have lots to tell you and lots of pictures to show you, so I'll just get right to it.

Yesterday I finished up the center panel for the True Hope quilt.  I'm really liking the way this is looking.  Now it just needs borders.  It has one 2-inch border of the gray you see in the four-patch part of the triangle block, and then a wider border of the swallow fabric.  I'll probably use these same fabrics to piece a back for it and bind it in red or black.  But I'm getting ahead of myself because I won't do the borders until later.  For now, I'm going to set it aside and work on quilting the Perfect Harmony quilt.

I had a few minutes to spare before I needed to take off for the 2nd of four classes to learn to use my sewing machine.  I knew I was nearly finished with my latest Vintage Miniature Sewing Machine block, and so I spent the time tracing out the next motifs for the Gardener's Journal quilt.  The next two motifs for the third block are the dog house...

and "There's No Place Like Home".

And this morning, I actually did finish up the 11th of 12 blocks for the Vintage Miniature Sewing Machine BOM.  I'm still awaiting the arrival of the last block, which we are told is lost in the mail.  Hm.

I'll be linking this post to Slow Sunday Stitching later in the week.

Then last night I went to the 2nd of the four classes to learn to use my new sewing machine.  We spent some time playing with the fancy stitches last night and learning about some of the feet that came with the machine. The bottom row was to experiment with satin stitch and blanket stitch.  I can do a double blanket stitch now, and I think I'm going to love that for machine applique.  Also, check out some of these adorable stitches.  I was playing with the more whimsical ones.  Do you see the cat and the dog?  How about the dinosaur?  There are several fonts as well and I can program in a combination of stitches and lettering if I want to.  There won't be any excuse not to do my quilt labels now.

The class could have been half as long, but we were enticed to buy some of the more expensive optional feet.  Here is what I did with the piping foot.  I passed on that one.  It's cool, but I doubt I would use it enough to justify the substantial expense.  It's my one gripe about Bernina...the parts are fabulously expensive.

Also, she showed us the ruffling foot.  Again...maybe if I had a granddaughter, but I doubt I would use this otherwise.

You can even attach a piece that allows you to make the ruffle and attach it to another piece of fabric at the same time!  Very cool, and very expensive.

But here's what you've been waiting for.  Before I went to class, I picked up the Plain and Simple quilt from my quilter, Erin Davis.  I asked Erin to do traditional quilting motifs on this traditional Amish quilt, and I knew she would do a good job on it.  I was not disappointed.  These pictures are less than adequate, but the quilt is huge.  I really need my holder-upper men to help me.  I'll ask them once I have the binding on it--probably next month.  Here's a portion of the whole quilt:

Now I'll show you some of the motifs on the individual blocks.  She did a diagonal grid on this Around the World block.

Medallions on some of the smaller blocks.

I absolutely love this pretty motif she did on the solid color blocks.

Here's another shot of it along with a peek at the borders.

She did this combination of feathering and a medallion on this Amish Bars block.  This is one of the large 18-inch blocks.  She used this same motif on the Square in a Square block, also 18-inches.  My picture was blurry, and so I didn't include it.

Here's another peek at the inner border and cornerstone.

Here's what she did with the outer border.  Erin and I discussed thread color.  Initially I asked for black, but she talked me out of it.  I think it was a wise choice to go with tan, but I still wanted black thread in the black border.  Also, she used a black poly batting.  She was afraid a white batting would show through or beard in such a way that I wouldn't be happy with it.  (I'm glad there are folks who know about batting because I sure don't.)

Here's another image of the combination feather and medallion motif.  And notice what she did with the basket in the upper right-hand corner of this image.

And here's a peek at the back.  So pretty.  I'm going to bind the quilt in black.  

My quilter, Erin, has a gift for doing these traditional motifs.  She's quilted many quilts for me and she always does a beautiful job.  She's located in Wilsonville, Oregon.  If you're interested in contacting Erin, you can email her.

Today I'm checking in with my Curves coach and getting back to working out after a ten-day absence.  When I get home, I have a little housework to do, and then I'm going to start on the quilting for the Perfect Harmony quilt.  I hope your Tuesday is going well so far.