Erica's Stitches

I have now completed my first Mug Rug swap through StitchMap.  Luckily I was 95% done when I hurt my hand. I waited till almost the last minute hoping for the best.  No such luck.  I taped my hand and finished the binding with no ill effects.  Still, I'm going back to not stitching for a while longer. Cathy seemed open to anything so I took the small stack of leftovers and one oops from my last quilt and started arranging.  There were too many for one mug rug but if I left one out I had just the right amount. I liked the S shape so that's the arrangement I chose.  I was going to do more embellishing, but there wasn't room.  I was expecting more margins.  So, I kept it simple with rick rack. The one left over flying goose did have margins, so for my mug rug (I couldn't mail it, it was too small to meet the swap requirements) I went crazy. Yep, two sizes of rick-rack and ribbons.  There will probably be more when it's do...

Enough multitasking.  I worked on the quilt binding until it was all done. Next step is to toss the quilt into the washer.  To me, a quilt is not a quilt until it has been washed - the fabric wrinkles around the quilting resulting in that "old quilt" texture that I love to touch. No matter how many quilts I wash it is always a stressful occasion.  I still expect it to come out in multiple pieces with the quilting undone and the colors all run together.  However, that hasn't happened yet. I stated out hand washing them in the bathtub.  I did that once and it's too much work.  The washing machine is much simpler.  I use the gentle cycle and a very mild liquid detergent. This is what happens if you try to take a picture without a flash. Next it is moved to the dryer on low for about 20 minutes to get most of the moisture out.  Then it goes onto the clothes line or over the ironing board in bad weather. Here is the finished quilt.  It...

Quilted ... check Binding attached ... check Hand sew the binding to the back ... the first 2 feet ... check OK,  I've got a ways to go and this is were it starts to get tedious.  From now on, when I feel like stitching I MUST sew down a threads length worth of binding before I work on any other project.  After all, I'm only half way across one of the short sides. Mostly I'm looking at the back of the quilt (and I really like the acorn print I found).  But, every once in a while I catch a tantalizing glimpse of quilt underneath and that keeps me going. Every once in a while I look out the window and it looks beautiful.  I want to put the quilt aside and go outside.  But, the temperature is about 20 degrees cooler than it looks and a crazy wind is howling through the trees making it rather unpleasant out. So, maybe I'll sew another foot or so of binding down and hope for warmer weather tomorrow.

I haven't written about my latest quilt in a while.  The quilt has 17 big squares ,   24 nine patches and 57 flying geese .   Since then I've add 2 square in a squares, assembled it, added borders and basted.  Now I'm trying to decide how to quilt it.  It's a smaller quilt so I'd like to do something more adventuresome than stippling. I'm getting inspiration from the fabric.  Here is one of the main background fabrics (rather busy, isn't it?). The ribbons and flowery vine should be easy to machine quilt and make an interesting design. I could either quilt it randomly or go put the ribbons in the ditch and the flowers over the blocks.  So many decisions to make.  That's OK, it will take a while for me to work up to the actual quilting.

I have finished another milestone on my next quilt.  57 Flying Geese!  Actually, I have a few extra since I create them in batches of 4.  I started these during my Christmas break and got most of them done.  I was relaxed and refreshed and determined to keep up the momentum during the new year.  It didn't happen.  The last of the flying geese took about two weeks to get made. Luckily I only have 2 more blocks to sew before I start assembling the top.  Maybe this weekend, maybe next.  Maybe the weekend after.

23 nine patches with dark corners and 1 with light corners. Usually when I'm working on something and estimate when I'll be finished, I'm wrong.  It always, always takes longer. Guess what!  This time it went faster than I imagined.  The nine patches came together quickly and I've had more time this holiday season to quilt than I thought I would. The next step involves more blocks but they are smaller and can be mass produced.  This time, I'm not even going to guess how long they will take.

I've started my next quilt - this time it's a lap quilt. The first step was to cut 17 background squares.  I used 2 quite busy fabrics.  I have a feeling this quilt will be quite lively. I've sorted and arranged different fabric scraps and I think I've narrowed it down to the final colors.  This quilt is from a book and I want to keep the same feel as the original quilt - an antique reproduction.  I wanted the quilt to be mostly red, but most of my red fabrics were rejected as being too modern looking.  A new project is always exciting and I feel energized and ready to go.  Although I want to start piecing immediately I'm going to be taking it slow.  I'll probably get a few more blocks done every weekend. The next quilt post will after I hit another milestone in the construction.