Sylvia's Bridal Sampler is Home!

Yesterday I came home to a fabulous box, my Sylvia's Bridal Sampler is home. Sue Baddley did a fantastic job. We e-mailed back and forth about designs and layouts and she put it all together and made my SBS super wonderful. So far I have just looked at it, and oohed and ahhed over it. Someday soon I will pull out the fabric for binding it and do it. I plan on using Sharon Schamber's binding technique again, but first I need to get a few supplies. I plan on getting it show ready, with attached sleeve, when I do the binding. Also need to get a label made. Love this quilt!

Boring bits and procrastination

I love making blocks. I love drafting blocks and picking out fabrics. What I don't love is sashing, putting on borders and binding. Oh, and basting isn't much fun either. But in order to get a quilt from concept to finished, you have to go through all the steps, fun and boring. Maybe some of the steps aren't so much boring as scary. Did I measure that border right? Did I measure the quilt that it is to be attached to correctly? You have a nice square (or rectangular) center, and then things go catty-wompus. Today I am trying to get the border on my Double Irish Chain. I had a lot of fun designing it in EQ6, picking out the fabrics, using my new Alto cutting system to cut it (yes, cutting is more fun with the Alto, who knew?), and I had fun seeing it all come together as a top. Then things stalled. I got to the scary part. Hopefully tomorrow you will get to see the completed top, but for now, here is the center.

Famer's Wife Sampler

OK, I know I am starting the Civil War Diary with friends, and I really shouldn't start two new big projects at the same time, and once again, I have. I should be able to do both. CWD will be low key, keeping up with (or maybe slightly ahead of) my small quilt group. And FWS will just be the BOW, at least for now. I bought the book earlier this week. Joined the Yahoo group too. Drafted the whole thing into EQ6. That was my effort to just do it virtually, not really effective. Started thinking about fabrics to use, went through patriotic, 30's reproductions, 1800's reproductions, my leftover Prairie Paisley fabric, batiks, and Christmas, finally settling on Taupes, more specifically, mostly Daiwaibo taupes. Plus a few more thrown in for good measure. This week the BOW was Spider Web. Here it is.

Sylvia's Bridal Sampler is Quilted!

O frabjous day! Sue Baddley (Summit Creek Quilts) recently finished quilting my SBS quilt and sent me a picture. If you want to see more detailed pictures, check out her webshots at http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2680391290100365634hXepcM . She did a fabulous job, and now I am waiting patiently (NOT) to get it back. But I will be patient, after all she did get it quilted without any delay on her part, now I need to wait for the post office.
Each block is quilted individually, lots of feathers (I love feathers), and one has my initials and another has the year.

Applique Sampler Progress

It has been a while, lots of working and not a lot of sewing. But I have managed to get the first two blocks done in the Applique Sampler. I am now re-washing the applique fabric, since I erroneously thought I was supposed to starch it. Turns out, that was the background fabric (guess I was tired that night). Much harder to needleturn starched fabric! That is why the flower petals aren't as smooth as they ought to be :)