I finally cut the binding for the 2 table toppers. They both finished just a little over 16" square.
I did the binding all by machine on both of them.
I finally remembered to take another photo of my tomato plants. They have had lots of sunshine for over a week now.
There are several batches of blooms on the Early Girl plant but no little tomatoes started yet.
My yellow Primroses are blooming here and there in all of the gardens. I pulled out a lot of them last fall. I usually just break the stems off but last year I was pulling them, roots and all not realizing I was thinning them out. I have a lot less of them this year but I'm sure they will spread.
I decided my next finishing projects will be two more table runners. I'm finally using up some of the long pieces of batting that are trimmed off after quilting a quilt.
The one on the left was supposed to be twice as big but first I misplaced the strip pieced wedges and by the time I found them I forgot how I made the blocks. Rather than spend a lot of time figuring that out I will just finish it the size it is.
I had to watch Dancing with the Stars last night to see David Ross from the Chicago Cubs make his debut. I quilted this tablerunner and then chose a binding fabric, cut it and sewed it on, and hand stitched the binding finishing at 11p.m. The runner finished at 11.5" x 33.5".
The back is one of my favorite old red fabrics. I found a nice stripe for the binding that looks good with both the front and back.
I also spent time looking for flannel to use on the back of my 9" tumbler quilt. I found 3 pieces that I think will work. Most of my large pieces of flannel are kid related or girly so they won't work on that masculine looking group of browns, greens, and blues.
Yesterday I had a hard time zeroing in on a project to work on. I finally decided to tackle the top of my cutting table in my main floor studio. The first thing I saw was a pile of strips left over from a few years ago when I cut and sold I Spy kits. They all had the selvage edge on them (no words or dots, just holes) and varied in width from 1.75" to 3". Every piece wider than 2" got trimmed to 2".
I made Rail Fence blocks with them and laid them out like a table runner. I was thinking of my 3 year old great-grandson while working on this. I could make 2 more blocks and make 3 square placemats. Meanwhile I have the rest of the table top to clean off.
While watching 3 1/2 hours of TV last night I sewed the flannel 9" tumbler top. I have to press it and then trim the sides and it will be ready to quilt. I think it will be about 63" x 80" when done. My design wall is 84" tall and the quilt top is trailing a little on the floor. This one isn't especially pretty but it used up a lot of flannel scraps.
Yesterday morning I quilted this table runner and last night sewed on the binding and started the hand stitching. I hope to finish it today. I used a 12 weight yellow variegated thread to quilt it.
I have 6 or 7 table toppers and table runners to finish. I started with one of the toppers, about 16" square. It is made with leftover double 4 patch blocks. I stitched diagonally in both directions for the quilting. It is laying on a table and was impossible to get a good square shot of it. I'll take better photos when I get a bunch of them finished.
For the back I used another of those hard to use batiks. It is a pretty batik but doesn't look so great cut up. I hand finished the binding.
Yesterday morning I designed another flannel quilt, all 9" tumbler blocks. I have the rows down off the design wall clipped together. Maybe I'll sew the rows today.
While my friends were here yesterday I sewed the redwork quilt top. It is 33.5" x 44.5" so one width of fabric is plenty for a back. How nice to not have to press 5-6 yards of fabric and seam them together.
I quilted this tablerunner several years ago and it has been waiting for binding. I finally cut it and sewed it on last night.
These placemats are even older, quilted a long time ago. I wanted to use the same black with gold metallic stars for the binding but I couldn't find the small piece that was leftover. Then I would find the binding fabric and couldn't find the placemats. This went on for years.....and finally one day I found both the placemats and the binding fabric and I could finish them.
The fabric on the back has gold metallic on it too. It was a good day to sew since it turned cold for one day. We are expecting 60 degrees on Saturday through Monday. I plan on trimming bushes over the weekend. I always want to do the trimming before they leaf out and it is usually too cold in the winter to do it.
I finally finished this little table topper for my friend. I worked on the binding last night while I watched a movie on Netflix.
It is 18" x 27" and the square pieces were 3.5" and 2". Those are the smallest pieces I have worked with in homespun fabrics and I have to say it was a challenge.
We had enough of a frost to wilt my Elephant Ear plant and some of the Cannas. I dug up the Canna bulbs yesterday. I bet there were 30 or more from 5 plants. It was getting dark by the time I was done so I need to clean a little more dirt off the bulbs today before I store them for next year.
My two quilting friends came over yesterday and I worked on a couple projects. Here are 3 of the 12 Laurel Burch Stack and Slash blocks that I will use for the layout demonstration when I do the workshop.
I asked my friends' advice on the borders of the medallion. We unanimously agreed that I needed to trim the spiky borders by 1/4" on both sides which meant the light outside border strips on the corner paws could be cut down to 1/2" finished. I trimmed them while they were here and sewed them on last night. The outside border is still just pinned in place.
While the washing machine was running I decided to clean out a box on a top shelf. There is one bag of flannel scraps, mostly long ones anywhere from 3/4" to 2 1/2" wide, crooked cuts, not straight strips. I was going to toss them into the dog bed scrap bag but thought I would offer them to any local person who could come and pick them up.
There is also a bag of homespun scraps, same thing 3/4" to 2 1/2" wide, crooked cuts, not perfect cut strips. Again if there is anyone local who reads my blog and want them they are free for the taking. If no one wants them they will end up in the dog bed scrap bag.
Also in the box was this tablerunner that I made for my mother back in the early 1980s. It isn't quite as bright as it looks here. The blues have mostly faded. That is typical of that age blue fabrics. I made this to see I liked making this pattern. Well, this is the only double wedding ring thing I ever made so I think the answer was no, I didn't want to make a quilt of this pattern. Now I am much more experienced in sewing curves so maybe I could master it but I have too many other quilts on the 'want to do' list that look like more fun.
My friend Donaleen in Portland OR needed something to hand quilt so I sent her 2 little tops, one to quilt for me and the other for her to keep and quilt for herself. I got this one in the mail yesterday so I put the binding on last night. It is a little under 19" square and I'll use it as a table topper.
I never took a photo of the other one when the top was sewn but here it is partially sewn.
I made these 2 when I was writing the Tutorial for the 2 in 1 Boston Commons and Grandmother's Dream. I needed some in progress pieces to show the steps. Donaleen will have to show this one on her blog when it is done.
