Weekend Catch-up

My husband was out of town all last week and I had a laundry list of things I wanted to get done. On the top of that list was basting 2 quilts that I had finished at the end of last year. Since getting pregnant I've had only baby and baby quilts on the brain, but with the weather warming and hubby out of town I pulled out my frames and got to work.

I basted my improve quilt  (above) as well as my 9-patch on point. Basting for me is the easy part, the hard part is "tacking" down the quilt. I have really good frames, its just making the quilt taunt enough and working with three layers of material that's tricky. Just handing it over to Ella's for quilting is sooooo much easier but in the same breathe I am learning to love machine quilting and as we all know, practice makes perfect.

I borrow my SIL's kwik klips for basting and they are a life saver. I didn't even know these existed until I helped her baste a quilt last summer and wallah: kwik klips ~ soooo genius!!

Propeller Quilt Finished

Over the weekend, I finished the border (machine quilting) and the binding on my propeller quilt. I choose three straight lines for the borders. I didn't feel anything specific calling out to me and since my machine quilting skills are below minimal I decided for Safe and Simple.

I choose a checked yellow binding. I thought it brought out the yellow in the border and since yellow is never my first choice...I went out on a limb. Don't get my wrong, I love yellow. I adore yellow: sun + bananas + flowers + hair color + yield signs. You name it yellow and I love it. But when I look through my closet or my stash yellow is hardly seen. Maybe I need to make an all yellow quilt just to prove to yellow that I like her. Brilliant!!

FYI ~ these pictures do not do this quilt justice. My camera was really acting up.

Machine Quilting

Over the long holiday weekend I attempted my first machine quilting. I had done little things here and there, but nothing bigger than about 24" by 24". I knew with my husband home to watch the kids and my baby on his nap schedule I felt pretty confident I could get it done.

Five years ago I bought my Bernina and I told myself... "now you can learn to machine quilt!!" I was so excited.... free-motion quilting was something I was eager to learn. Well, over the last five years I've done absolutely nothing. Nadda! To be completely honest, I was scared of screwing up and by the time I got the top finished I just wanted to send it off to Ella and have her do all the dirty work. Not this time, I gave myself a good lil' pep talk and I couldn't be more proud!

Before getting started I consulted a few friends, watched a few youtube videos and read online about tips and tricks.

Realizing I was a newbie to machine quilting, I chose a QUILT top I felt confident with. It took me a couple days to iron, smooth, smooth again and pin. This was the scary part: what if the back is just a hot mess?!? with puckers and folds and whatnots? Luckily the quilt is just under twin size and easy enough to manage. Besides, I don't know if I would conceivably ever try and machine quilt a Queen or King myself.

In my kitchen, trying to keep things relaxed and easy going.

Because of the size of my borders and blocks I didn't have to mark the quilt. I just made sure my walking foot was in between the white fabric!

I am so excited! The quilting looks beautiful. I feel like I've crossed an invisible hurdle and can now use my machine for small simple quilts. Straight line machine quilting was perfect for this quilt. I wasn't sure how I wanted to quilt the borders so I'm taking a few days to contemplate my next stitch.