Quilt-a-long!

[Giff]

Photo quilts are terrific gifts! I hope she likes it.

Well, school's gone back, so Tuesday night is quilting night once more, and all's right with the world.

My SIL and I decided that instead of making a baby quilt for my new niece or nephew before they are born, I will make a single-bed sized one for their first birthday. That eases the pressure somewhat, as I desperately want to get started on my son's dinosaur quilt, and I have a baby quilt to make for my other friend, due in ?February.

[brian-sue]

I finally finished piecing the top of my I-Spy quilt! It's been mostly done since Thursday or Friday, but I wasn't sure what to do for the border. I decided that because the quilt is so busy with so many different colors, I should just use the same fabric that I used for the triangles. I'm using blue flannel with stars and moons for the backing and Warm&Natural for the batting. Not sure if I'll machine quilt it myself yet or hire someone to do it with a long-arm machine. I was thinking about embroidering the name we've picked out for our daughter on the top or bottom border - what do you all think?

[Kedrock]

Wow!

[ZumaGirl74]

wow!  wow!  Wow!  It looks fantastic!  I think you should embroider the name, that makes it a really personal gift.  What I did when I embroidered the name was to start quilting the entire piece together, but then did the embroidery through just the top & the batting layers on the border.  Then the back of the embroidery is hidden when you finally sew the binding all around and 'seal up' the quilt.  does that make sense? 

Oh, and I also embroidered the year so it's dated.  I didn't sign it though, and some people suggest doing that.

[brian-sue]

Thanks, embroidering the year or date is a really great idea!

[ZumaGirl74]

I finally pulled out my flying geese quilt the other day and started sewing some of the strips together.  They are radically uneven, so I'm going to have to figure out what to do to fix them.  But at least I'm working on it again!

[ZumaGirl74]

I actually put in a lot of work this weekend - here's my progress so far:

http://rebel-workinprogress.blogspot.com/2007/07/this-is-not-end.html


How is everyone else doing?  Have you been working on your quilts, or did you get side-tracked by nice summer weather?

[Giff]

It's looking great, Zumagirl! I do agree that it needs a border to make it look more finished, though.

I had to unpick a block that was put together just wrong enough to bug me. After I re-sew that one, I have one more block to put together, then I'll be putting it together, and trying to work out what I do for the borders and backing.

Right now I'm off to prewash some flannellette for a baby quilt.

[ZumaGirl74]

Giff - isn't that always the way, you start getting into your big quilt project and a little one comes along and takes you away! 

[Giff]

I went to quilting last night and finished my last block. YAY! Then I discovered that I have dramatic variation in sizes between my blocks due to the issue I had with my 1/4 inch foot. BOO! But I have 4 blocks the same size and 2 that are larger, so my plan is now to make a 4-block quilt and 2 matching cushions. Also holding up my progress is the fact that the store where I got my fabrics from is moving in 2 weeks and they appear to have packed up their quilting fabrics already. I have a little bit to get started on the sashing, but I need about 4 more fat quarters, as well as some more of the fabric for the binding and backing.

This project is frustrating me to the nth degree.