Sunday, July 10, 2011

Still quilting


I have spent the last few days making sure I had everything ready for my guild's upcoming show.  The show is July 22 - 24 at the downtwon Renton branch of the King County Library, if anyone is interested.  I am entering five pieces.  At this time last week, only two were finished.  I have shown you the finished Tanzanian Tango, Rhumba, and the Iris.  I am also showing a vest I made, but haven't figured out how to photograph it well because it is pretty dark.  On Friday, I quilted Farmer's Market and attached the binding by machine.  I put the last hand stitches in it this morning.  It is pretty bright, but I do love it.


While I was quilting away, my husband came in with a surprise for me - a new shelf for fabric!  Here you can see how my stash has been stored, and the new shelf after the first five minutes of cleaning off one table surface.

It is a bit fuller now, since I cleaned off another table.  I don't think it will hold everything that is in the bins, but I have another shelving unit coming at the end of the month that I hope will hold most of it.  My stash consists mostly of smaller pieces of fabric - fat quarter size to half yard size.  I haven't done much stash building.  Most of the time, I only buy fabrics I need for a specific project.  Every once in a while, however, I do buy small amounts of something just because I love it. 

My last project with a deadline is the H2H quilt.  It is on the frame as of this morning.


You might have noticed in the first photo and in this one that my batting and top are just hanging and not on pick-up rollers.  I started doing this about six months ago, and I am much happier with the results I am getting.  I have much more control of the top while I am quilting using this method.  I know it probably breaks a few rules, but it works very well for me.  This quilt needs to be done and in the mail Tuesday. 

My list of new projects is growing daily.  For one of them, I need to find Kelly green fabric.  For two of them, I have some ideas for color, but have to earn some money to buy it.  These three are gift quilts.  Then there are the three I want to make for us, and more to make for charity.  I have also embarked on a Matisse QAL with Victoria at BumbleBeans.  Such fun!

7 comments:

Nancy Bowron said...

You are one busy lady! The colors in the top two photos are exceptional! They look like novelties, and quite wild at that. Hope your show goes well!

Impera Magna said...

Wow... you have a LOT going on! FIVE entries for the quilt show... that's so cool. Love the farmer's market quilt... very bright and colorful!

Cathy said...

You have so much going on. All your quilts are beautiful. I wish I had a long arm because I have too many quilt tops. lol I wish I had signed up for the Matisse QAL but not sure where in my day I could work on it. Hugs.

Sarah Craig said...

Interesting - I've always left my batting hanging, but I hook my top up to the feed roller. Tell me why this works better for you? I'm always interested in something that eliminates a time-consuming step.... ;-)

Victoria Findlay Wolfe said...

Love your fruit-y quilt! Great use of that fabric! Can't wait to see your Matisse project... and NEW fabric shelves! That is avery sweet Husband! enjoy!

BunkHouseQuilts said...

I always float my quilts just like you do are showing. Only the backing is pinned to the leaders. I rarely attach my top to the leader unless it's a problem child that needs to be tamed as I quilt it. I was taught this method. So, it's not breaking any rules, only different.

Michelle said...

I just did a google image search for "farmers market quilt" to see what others have made with this amazing fabric, and came across this post and your blog! Wow! I love how the quilt turned out. I'm also planning on doing HSTs, but probably 5" ones.

Thank you for the inspiration!