Bind On

A large quilt always has me dragging my feet at the end. I get bored with the quilting, and my wrist and shoulders get tired. With several breaks to fortify my resolve, I finished quilting the Wine Country quilt yesterday. When it was all done, I took it downstairs and laid it out in front of the living room windows where the light is best for this kind of shot. 

It's a large quilt, and I stood on a stool and took this shot from the side...which is why it has kind of a weird angle to it...but there's the whole thing.

And don't you know when you lay a quilt on the floor, it's essentially an invitation to the quilt inspectors. They show up almost immediately.

Sadie prefers to get back a distance and get a look from far away.

They looked at it both front and back.

Purrsonally, I'd have purrfurred a "Catnip Country" quilt, but I suppose wine will have to do for now.

They were momentarily distracted by something outside the window.

Shortly after that, they rendered their final verdict.

We appurrove. You may purrceed with the binding.

Okay, so with that go-ahead, it was time to try out the little mini iron from Oliso. As I mentioned in yesterday's post (I think), this little iron was reviewed by my friend Wendy in a recent blog post. It sure is a cute little thing.

I've had a travel iron for years, but it isn't a good iron for quilting because it doesn't get hot enough. I felt confident this one would work better after reading Wendy's review and also checking out the reviews on Amazon.com. My biggest question was whether it would fit in the little iron caddy I made a while back. It's approximately the same size as my other iron, and it looked as if it would fit fine.

Folding it up...Ta-Da! Perfect fit.

I love my little iron caddy. It came as a kit with the heat resistant interior fabric and some batting. When it's unfolded, the interior also works as a little ironing pad. It's great for retreats and classes. The patterns come in both travel iron sizes and full-sized iron sizes. You can find the pattern/kits right here.

After that, I plugged it in and tried it out. It works great, although the handle is a little different from what I'm used to. It feels a little awkward in my hand, but I'm sure I'll get used to it. It has three heat settings and a steam function. Generally, I don't use steam, preferring to spritz a little tap water onto the fabric instead. I had to turn it up to the highest setting to get the heat I wanted, but then it creased the binding strips nicely.

Then I squared up the quilt. Squaring it up meant running this obstacle course.

Now the binding strip and label are sitting awaiting their turn under my needle.

I left them overnight, under a protective dome because, you know...mice. That long strip of fabric was in serious jeopardy.

The only other sewing I did yesterday was to get a start on February's heart. I gave myself extra time on this because it was a good way to put off doing any more quilting for just a little bit longer.

So I haven't been to the grocery store in ten days, which is kind of a course record around here. I've asked Mike to pick up a couple of things here and there, and we did stop in to get the French onion soup makings the other day. Still, I have a long list accumulated, and so that will take up most of the morning. Nevertheless, there should be plenty of time to get the binding sewn on, and to start on the hand work. A finished quilt is in the offing.

A Fun Day of Sewing

Yesterday I decided it was time to get to work sewing together the little iron caddy for when I carry my travel iron to and from quilting classes. Since I'm taking a class at the end of April, there was no time to waste. You might recall that I purchased the pattern for this while visiting the Going Batty quilt shop in Reno, Nevada. It was the perfect size for my little travel iron. This is the one I saw made up in the quilt shop. So cute. Mine is the Caddy Pad Jr.

The pattern included a sheet of heat resistant fabric to be used for the lining, which was very handy. It is sold by the yard all over the internet and at your local quilt shop. The instructions were easy to follow and quite detailed, and so this went together easily within a couple of hours. First, I was instructed to make a template for the center markings. I used freezer paper for this. I ironed it onto the lining and it stuck without shifting. Once I had the lines drawn around it, I just peeled it up.

Next, I drew in all the lines from the diagram, made a quilt sandwich using the outer fabric and two layers of scrap batting. (I always use Warm and Natural or Warm and White.) Then I pinned the whole thing together. 

Usually I use a crappy cone thread in my bobbin. For this project, I knew the bobbin thread was going to be showing on the outside. I had a bobbin already wound with Bottom Line thread. I don't usually like using it since it messes up my tension. There are a lot of folks out there who swear by Bottom Line. I am not one of them. In any case, it wouldn't hurt to test it out. Also, I've never sewn on this heat resistant fabric. That, along with two layers of batting had me a little spooked. I used a regular cotton thread on top and a 90/14 machine quilting needle. My machine has a dual feed, but different machines might require a walking foot. I sewed a little test line on the outside of the eventual cutting line. Looks fine from the top.

Then, I flipped it over to see how the Bottom Line was performing on the other side. Well...it might help to clean the lint from beneath the throat plate. After that, it worked beautifully.

And so I was off and sewing. I sewed the first line of stitches in the center,

And then checked again on the other side. Looking good.

And then I sewed in all the lines, and trimmed the edges. The pattern suggested that scissors might work better than a rotary cutter. I can't cut a straight line with scissors, and so I used the rotary cutter with no problem.

The scariest part was cutting off the corners.

When I had that finished, I turned it over and I was well on my way to having a finished caddy.

Next, I was instructed to sew on a binding using my favorite method. The pattern contained a good explanation of how to do those greater than 90-degree corners.

Before I turned the binding to the other side, I sewed on the elastic loops.

Usually, I would hand sew a binding, but for this purpose, I thought machine sewing might be stronger, and so I did that.

Then, I added handles,

And buttons.

And then, I was ready for the moment of truth. For one thing...would it fit? And it did...perfectly.

It's a bit of a puzzle folding it up. Fortunately, there is a helpful video on the internet that shows you how to do this. If you can't see the video, click right here. 

And there it is!

This was so simple and fun to make, and it folds into a tidy little package. The heat resistant liner means that I'll be able to pack away my iron, even if it's still hot. I'm so happy with it!

So the end of the month is approaching, and I still have a few things on my list of goals to get finished. I'm not sure I'm going to make it. The kids are coming up for ham dinner tomorrow, and I'm getting a head start today by boiling some eggs, making a salad, and getting a pie crust ready to go. That shouldn't take too long. As for sewing, I'm going to get to work making up the next block for the Live, Love, Teach quilt...this one from Callis.

I have in mind to applique the yellow petals as one piece, and then fill in the details with thread. That way, I can do the embroidery in the center through just one layer of fabric. That shouldn't take too long. If I have time, I'll get to work on the little tissue cover I'm making as a pay-it-forward gift. 

There are a lot of these online, but I'm using this one from Fun with Barb.

It's a busy day ahead...better get going. Oh yes! And I almost forgot...we're going out tonight to celebrate 400 days until Mike's retirement. That happened on Thursday. Yes, we're counting...it's as good a reason to celebrate as any, we figure.

Fun First

Today I put serious household business on hold so that I could spend some time sewing. The goal for today was to finish up the orange Four Fabric Forest that still needed quilting and binding.

Before I did that, however, I spent some time on serious sewing business. For one thing, I saw this genius strategy on someone's Facebook post. Since I am forever losing my scissors, especially when I'm quilting, I decided to give this a try. I purchased some stick-on plastic hooks at the grocery store yesterday. My options for Eliza were limited, and so I stuck them where you see them.

I'm not sure those aren't going to get in my way, and so I might end up moving them...or removing them. The hooks came in packages of four, and so I put the other two on the wall next to Big Bertha.

Of course any organization strategy is only as good as the user's dedication to actually using it. My current method is to allow the scissors to land where they fall. We'll see if I can force myself into the habit of actually hanging them up when I'm not using them.

The other thing I saw recently was a video about using templates and rulers for free motion quilting. The person in the video kept talking about "sticky tape" to help keep rulers and templates from slipping on fabric. I investigated this further and found this Safe Way Traction 1" X 60' Foot Roll of CLEAR Rubberized Anti Slip Non Skid Safety Tape. It's intended for placement on slippery stairs or sidewalks. I wasn't at all sure it would work for my purposes, and so I read the reviews of the item, and found this comment:

Perfect. I ordered the smallest roll I could get, but it was still way more than I needed. Not to worry. I'm sure we can find lots of uses for this stuff in our rainy climate. In any case, I stuck that to one of my quilting rulers and, let me tell you...that puppy will not slip now.

It was impossible to avoid the reflections in that image, and so I can't give you a better image. I was a little worried about the tape making ruler markings difficult to see, but that turned out not to be a problem. I stuck it on all my rulers, and I'm thinking it would work well for cutting rulers too.

So with those items taken care of, I got to work quilting the orange Four Fabric Forest. For the orange sections I used a swirly string of pearls sort of thing...that's a highly technical quilting term. 

For the trees, I used the fabric as a guide and put a kind of swirly wood grain curly-cue thingy wherever one appeared on the fabric. It's a little hard to see.

It might be easier to see from the back.

It took about two hours, and then the quilting was finished. 

I poured myself a cup of coffee, turned on my audiobook, and then got to work hand sewing the binding. An hour later, that too was finished.

Here's how it looks from the back.

So, next up I want to make the iron caddy for my travel iron. There is a class at the end of April I'm planning to attend, and I want this finished by then. My travel iron is always too hot to put away when I'm finished with a class. The pattern for this caddy came with some heat resistant fabric lining. I'll be using my own fabrics for the outside, but this seems like a handy little package to me.

You might recall that I saw this made up at the quilt shop I visited in Reno, and I purchased the pattern then.

So, it's way after noon now, and I've spent the whole day playing. I'm woefully short on steps if I'm going to make my 10k, and so it's time to get moving. I hope you're having a lovely day!

Quilt Shop: Going Batty Quilting & Sewing

This was the one quilt shop I had a chance to visit this trip, and it was a good one.

It was located in one of those commerce parks, and next to a WinCo grocery store. It's important to us that a quilt shop have access to parking for our big rig. I walked about halfway into the commerce park, and still hadn't seen the 9744 building number. 

When I got this far, I turned my head to the right and saw it a bit down the road. I might have walked a long way before finding it.

So...down the road and around the corner and there it was! Happy, happy, joy, joy!

It was a Bernina authorized dealer and a Bernina Excellence Dealer for several years running...whatever that means. It must be something good, right?

When you walk through the front door this is what you see. It's my favorite kind of shop...lots of fabric and lots of color.

They had lots of sewing machines for sale as well as items for folks who are interested in machine embroidery.

Here's a pretty Tula Pink special edition Bernina sewing machine. Will I be committing blasphemy if I say I have no idea about Tula Pink? I gather she's a person, but I don't follow this kind of stuff. I just sew and don't look up from my machine to take in the sewing celebrity hoopla.

There was something for everybody in the way of fabric, including lots of bright novelty fabrics.

Rows and rows of bolts.

These were all batiks.

There was a good supply of landscape prints.

And a good supply of regional prints.

Also a good supply of flannel.

They had a good supply of books and notions.

And some really cute patterns. I loved this Santa apron.

And I was happy to find a pattern for one of these iron caddies. I have a travel iron I take to classes with me, but it's always too hot to pack it up safely. I'm going to make myself one of these.

And so I bought the pattern. It included the heat-resistent lining.

I've seen this quilt made up before, but I've never run across the pattern. This one's for you, Padsworth.

If I'd been thinking right, I would have purchased one of these large buttons for my iron caddy. Oh well...just another opportunity to visit another quilt shop, I guess. Lots of fun ribbons too.

And walls of thread...you know I love thread almost as much as I love fabric. There was lots more outside the frame of this picture.

Here's another shot of the store. I could hear a class going on through those doors at the back. I would have loved to see the classroom.

And there was this:

I walked out with two yards of this fabric. I thought I might be able to use it in the Stars and Stripes quilt on this month's to-do list. It's coming from some bee blocks I collected last summer.

And for my regional quilt fabric collection...this one. It's Reno, right? Could I have found something any more perfect?

So I really loved this shop. The only fly in the ointment was their refusal to cut a fat quarter from that regional print. She offered to cut a quarter yard, but that wouldn't have been wide enough for my needs. I was forced to purchase a half yard...or two fat quarters, if you're counting. Since there were scads of fat quarters all over the store, this seemed a little silly to me. A quilt shop should be willing to cut fat quarters, in my opinion, and so I knocked them down one rotary cutter. Were it not for that, they might have received five out of five. 

For now, I give them four out of five rotary cutters and my recommendation that you visit if you find yourself in Reno. Just don't expect any slack on the fat quarters. 

And now, the Resident Driver is on my case to wrap this up and get going. When we're this close to home, we get antsy to get there. 

*Disclaimer:  Cat Patches accepts no advertising, nor any sponsorships.  The opinions expressed on this blog are based on the personal impressions and perceptions of the author. They are formed  on the basis of one short visit, on one day, and may or may not reflect the experience of others visiting on a different day.  They are no more descriptive than a single snapshot image can be, and nothing written in a review of a quilt shop should be construed as objective fact.  The reviews are strictly the author's subjective opinion and should not be interpreted as anything more.