Two Finishes for Friday

At last, I have a finish - well, two actually.

The first is the baby  quilt I've been quilting: - Arggh! - I don't have a photo! I seem to have erased it. I'll have to show it later.

Next, this I do have a photo.  My studio sign:

It is done and waiting to be hung in my studio. This is a pattern from Kay Mackenzie's book, Scrap Applique Playground .  I raw edge appliqued the letters and FMQ the background.  Then I did back and forth on the spools to make them more realistic as to having thread.  The one thing I'm not happy about is the background is not square in the bottom left corner.  I'll remember to check that before I add the next border to a top.  The scissors were a bit tricky because I used a gray solid for the blades.  Solids so fall apart! I had to use fray check all along the edges to keep it not together. Sigh. But at least that worked.  I didn't realize the letters would look so ghostly with the white, dotted background. Another thing to check with a b&w photo from my camera.  But it's done and I'm happy enough to hang it.

Lastly (and another finish) is the steal game entry I made for our Guild meeting.  

Made a sandwich, quilted it, then cut out a 7 inch circle.

Then I bound the circle with bias binding.  

I then folded it per instructions from the pattern in the 2000 Fons and Porter Nov/Dec For the Love of Quilting issue. And got this:

a scissor case

So those are my Friday finishes.  What are you working on?  I'd love to see. Just leave me a note and I'll come comment. I'll be linking to Can I get a Whoop, Whoop?  and Oh Scrap!.

Blessings, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Quilting with a Domestic

My sewing studio is small - 10' by 10'.  I can't accommodate a long arm machine (even if I could afford one). So I bought a Juki TL2010Q which has become my quilting machine.  I thought I'd show you how I manage to get my tops ready to quilt.

At soon to be in my mid 70s, I can't get onto the floor anymore to sandwich a top. I now use my kitchen table which is a good 46" by 64" size.  For small quilts I use a fabric cutting board.

I bought it at a yard sale for $1 a long time ago when I use to make clothing.  It's corrugated which is great as the pins nestle between the top and bottom so they don't scratch the table.  I first lay out the backing.  Then I pin it to the surface with the wrong side up.

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I do one vertical side and one horizontal side (here it's the right and top sides).  For the other two sides, Starting at a corner, I grab the back and tug it toward me to make that part of the side taut, not tight, and place a pin into the backing and board.  I then do all that side and the remaining side.  This keeps my back from forming pleats when its quilted.

The next step is to place the batting evenly over the backing. Then I do the same with the top.  I check all around the top's edge to make sure there is backing under it.  Then I start pinning from the center out after I mark any stencils I'm going to use.

Here's the center pinned.

I try to place pins outside of where I will be quilting.  You can see that better in this marked stencil block.

I only have to remove the center pin to FMQ the shape.  I'm going to use a variegated thread for these four blocks.  I outlined around each of the figures in the five other blocks using black thread as they had a tiny black line around them.  Here's what my first one looked like on the back:

I chose to use black on both sides. I rather like it, as I've noticed when I've seen the back of some quilt show entries that they sometimes used different threads on the back to make for an interesting look.

Here it is all pinned.

Once it is all pinned I turn it over and glide my hand over the back to see if any pleats form near a pin. If so, I re-pin that one straight pin.  Once that's done, on to quilting.

What are you up to?  I'd love to see.  Leave me a comment and I'll come by to check it out.
Blessings,