Basket Quilt flimsy completed

I last posted about this quilt in May.  I had all the blocks made then and had since sewn all the rows together and had half of the quilt in one piece and the other half in four pieces.  I got it all together into one piece on Monday.

The instructions were to now add a thin border.  It's hard to see in the above picture, but the bottom and sides have about half an inch of background fabric beyond the corners of the baskets while the top has about 2.5 inches of background fabric above the basket handles.  I like symmetry, so I decided to add more background fabric to the three skimpy sides so they were all the same as the top and then put on my thin border.  I used the three black prints to make my 1 inch finished border and then added the same amount of background fabric all around again.  This is what the quilt looked like yesterday.

The next step was to add a 6.5 inch border of another fabric.  I did some calculations and figured I had enough fabric left that I could put on a 5.5 inch border made with squares from the rest of the fabrics the baskets were made with.  On the long sides, I had to have one block that was one inch larger and on the short sides I had to have one block that was half an inch smaller.  I probably could have sewn the seams of the blocks on the long sides a little narrower and the seams of the blocks on the short sides a little wider and the result would have been unnoticeable, but I think it turned out fine.  Once the quilt is finished, I won't be pointing it out.

I could only sew together enough black fabric for three of the corners so I looked through my scraps and found some other fabric for the fourth corner.  The black is a little darker but if you squint I think they coordinate well enough.  I won't be pointing this out on the finished quilt either.

The quilt is currently 81" x 90" so a nice size.  Now I just need backing and binding fabric....

Touch Base Tuesday

Last Wednesday, I worked on the Basket Quilt Blocks again.  I was using turquoise and green fabrics.  I didn't quite get them finished so decided to do that this morning.  You can't see all of the bottom row, but here are all 72 baskets with set in triangles cut and ready to assemble. 

I will leave them on the wall for a day or so before sewing them together in case I decide to move any of them around.  I deliberately placed a basket of each colour along the four sides of the quilt, but for the most part just tried to place the blocks randomly without any basket in the same colour family touching.  I also tried to not have identical prints, albeit in different colours touching each other, but was not totally successful in that endeavour.

My daughter and I also worked on the Triad Quilt for her girlfriend's wedding.  We sewed most of the triangles into pairs and the next day, I finished sewing them and ironed them all.  Here's a sampling of the 113 pairs.

This is my #1 priority this month as it needs to be finished for a wedding in early June.

My friend Marilyn also came over last Sunday and stippled a colourful slab comfort quilt.  Here it is right off the frame.

Early June, twenty-five days from today to be exact, is when Victoria's wedding quilt has to be finished.  I think I better check with my daughter when she can come over next so we can get the quilt block layout completed and get this quilt top sewn together and ready to quilt!

Wednesday was a Whopper of a Sew Day!

I sewed with some of my fellow guild members for almost four hours (with a lunch break) and managed to get 24 more basket blocks done, 12 in orange fabrics and 12 in yellows.  Here are 48 baskets so far in blacks, reds, oranges and yellows.

I'll be working on greens and turquoises next.

Then my daughter came over for super and to work on the wedding quilt for one of her girlfriends.  We worked for a couple of hours and got the second small triangle on all of the blocks which means all the blocks are now sewn.  Here are some of the blocks on the design wall.

We will likely be placing them all randomly, but for fun I laid them out so the diamonds were in matching pairs.  (I kind of like it!)  Below I laid them out so the touching side pieces match to make parallelograms.

The next step will be to finalise the arrangement of the blocks on the design wall and get the top put together.  Our goal is to have the top in one piece by the end of April and then I will have all of May to quilt and bind it for the wedding in early June.   Very doable.

Touch Base Tuesday - I am behind with some of my posts

The week before last,  my daughter and I got together and did some more sewing on the green Triad Quilt for her girlfriend's wedding gift.  We now have one side triangle sewn to all the main triangles with one side left to go.  I put a few of the partially sewn blocks on the design wall just to see how the pattern was developing.  Looking good!

Two weekends ago now I took a class on walking foot quilting and beginner free motion quilting taught by Jane and put on by my quilting guild.  I really liked the morning session using the walking foot.  (Probably because it was in my comfort zone and I was OK at it.)  Here's my first sample showing four different techniques.

I did not know that you can easily sew curving lines with the walking foot!  I was really pleased to learn this technique and very pleased with my second sample too.

I will definitely use these walking foot techniques again.

In the afternoon we started free motion quilting.   I am not a natural.  I guess that is why I registered for the class because I know I need to work on it.  Our first exercise was to write our name and then echo quilt it.  My handwriting is terrible to begin with.  It is more like joined together straight up and down printing than nicely flowing script.  I was also having trouble with my thread tension and had to keep loosening it as my thread kept breaking.  Our next exercise was making loops.  I managed some shaky small loops but try as I might, for some reason I could not make them larger.  We then moved on to making interlocking boxes which I found a little easier although most were not very square and I still could not seem to make them very big, but I think they turned out better than my loops.  The last exercise for this sample was tracing a drawn butterfly and then echo quilting it.  Some of my stitches were way too small but I was pleased that I was able to sew a recognisable butterfly and echo quilt it fairly evenly.

The last exercise was stippling and again I was unable to make it bigger.  Jane tried to help me go bigger in the lower left hand quadrant, but than my thread broke again and it was time to pack up and go home.

The class was great!  Needless to say, I need a TON of practise before the next class which will build on being able to master these skills.  For scale purposes, the sample blocks are approximately 18" square.

Last Wednesday I was quilting with some quilt guild members in the grocery store multipurpose room again and made twelve more basket blocks in red fabrics to go with the twelve I had previously made in black.

I have cut out orange and yellow fabrics to sew into baskets next week.

On the weekend my sewing buddy Marilyn came over and we sewed together for awhile until it started to snow....

What I've been Doing for the Last Week

Saturday morning I did some skype sewing with my friend Marilyn.  I was working on Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville Mystery "On Ringo Lake" quilt.  I only have ten blocks left to put together and then can assemble the top except for the setting triangles which I haven't made yet.

Wednesday was an all day sewing day!  I attending the sewing session that my quilt guild holds every second week in the multipurpose room at a local grocery store.  I decided to start a new project for this since I would be using a small portable machine instead of my regular heavy duty machine and different machines can give slightly different seam allowances.  (This is my story and I'm sticking to it!)  It had nothing to do with the spring quilts I've been seeing on line and my long time desire to make a basket quilt.  You can find the instructions for the quilt I am making called  Fat Quarter Baskets here.  It was designed by Lynette Johnson and was published by Fons and Porter.  You can see the quilt here but do not download it from there as it contains a cutting error, use the corrected first link above.  I was able to get twelve blocks made and am using 18 fabrics from a collection of 40 fat quarters called Chestnut Street by Fig Tree & Co by Moda which I bought at a really good price from someone downsizing their stash.

Then I dropped the machine I took off my frame for servicing and to have the feed dogs put back in so I could use it as a regular machine and not just for free motion quilting.  I had some time to kill so I dropped into a local quilt store and wandered around and only bought a half metre of fabric which was 50% off.  Then I picked up my daughter from work and we went back to her place and did some sewing for an hour on the quilt we are making for her girlfriend's wedding.

Thursday I sewed together batting scraps in order to make four 18" square quilt sandwiches to take to a Walking Foot and Intro to Free Motion Quilt Class I am attending this weekend which is being taught by a very talented fellow quilt guild member.

I put the quilt sandwiches together out on the deck in the snow using basting spray which I had never used before.  I was able to get enough fabric for the sandwiches from some old cotton/polyester fabric which I have had for a long time which made me happy that I don't have to use "good" fabric for practice.  They are colourful at least!

I am really looking forward to this class and hope to show you my class samples, unless they are too hideous!