Cube Lattice done!

I know I have been working on Dear Jane My Way, and I have been doing lots on it since I last posted. Enough so that it needed to be cleansed of the blue marker before it became permanent. So, it had a bath and is now drying. Since it has a wool batting, this takes a while. Soooo, I picked up the Cube Lattice mystery quilt that came back from the long arm quilters on 2 March, and bound it. I didn't just bind it, I watched Sharon Schamber's Binding the Angel videos and bound it more or less her way, not quite so neatly because after all, this is a quilt to be snuggled in the living room, and not an heirloom. If you want to look at Sharon doing her thing, check out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PE0Yq9iGlc&feature=related Binding the Angel Part 1. There is also a Part 2 and a Part 3. This is for straight edge binding. She also has one for scallops. Guess what I am watching next? Sharon is an awesome quilter, best of show at Houston caliber. Her "Lady in Red" first caught my eye years ago, although I didn't know of her at the time. Then I saw her green lady, and just discovered that another one of her quilts was also one of my favorites at PIQF a few years back. Check out her gallery at http://www.sharonschamber.com/ Meanwhile, here is my quilt that I finished using her binding technique.

SBS M-1 Spinning Hourglass

As a treat for finishing the quilting, I decided to put together this week's BOW for Sylvia's Bridal Sampler, M-1 Spinning Hourglass. Went together fairly easily following Jennifer's directions, Partial seaming on a 1 1/16" finished square is a bit tricky, but it works.

Getting ready to bind

The quilt is now quilted, at least to the point where it can be bound! Looking at it, I see a few points where I want to add a bit. But later. I remembered I had a scallop tool and actually found it. I tried to use it, and finally figured out how to put it together (the instructions were lacking that essential point), and then forgot that quilting makes things smaller. It is no longer 5" between the points of my triangles, just slightly less, but that magnifies to more as you go along, which I was blithely doing until I noticed how far off I was getting... Needless to say, I am glad I was using washout blue marker and on the back side. I will "erase" the bad parts and start again when they have dried.

Then there was the search for the binding material. I have a tote labeled Dear Jane fabric, no luck (although the pillowcase makings are in there), and two bins labeled 1800s reproductions, again, no luck. And finally another bin in the same general area as the 1800s fabrics, no label, but they looked like reproductions from the outside, and lo and behold, there was my extra border fabric that I planned on using for the binding. Yeah! It was getting a bit dicey there. Below are a couple of the blocks.

Counting Down the DJ center blocks!

Only 25 center blocks to go!

Quilting the blocks

I have been quilting away on the center blocks, just 41 are not quilted at all, although a few might need more quilting. And the kites, 2 have some quilting, but really need more, plus the two that don't have any quilting at all. Would love to get them all done this weekend. My quilting on these little blocks has certainly evolved over the 180 units that I have quilted (169 blocks, 52 triangles and 4 kites are in the quilt). Some of them might get picked out and redone, at some point. Not before I bind the quilt though.

Dear Jane Stippling Done!

The border is quilted! Not quite three bobbins on the outer section of stippling. Now on to blocks, less than 100 to go.

Still Stippling after all these days

I have an advanced degree in stippling, or I should have. So far there are about 450 yards of stippling in the border of my quilt, and I still have 3/4 of the border outside of the feathered cable to stipple, or another couple hundred yards.