Enough and to Spare

I had no need to worry about there being enough scraps for my Not Always Black and White quilt.

 I was able to make all 30- 12" blocks and still had these to spare.

Makes me wonder how many quilts I have in all my scraps.

My Sunshine Returns

When my oldest was little I used to love singing 'You Are My Sunshine' to him.  I feel each of my children is a ray of sunshine in my life.  That said, my baby has been gone for the last two weeks.  We picked her up from the airport late Wednesday night.

Armed with flowers 

and a sign.

 So glad to have this ray of sunshine back.

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If Your Ever In A Bind

 Binding that last step to a finished quilt.  I know quilters that love it and others that hate it. I'm a lover of the processes.  Cutting out a quilt is my necessary evil.  But since I have to get that done in order to get to the parts I love it happens.  I'm afraid if it was the other way around I might never finish a quilt. Today I thought I'd share a few tips.  Who knows maybe I'll convert a few of the haters.  If not to the loving side at least to making it tolerable.

 Making binding is fairly easy.  I like to make mine scrappy.  Is anyone surprised by that?  I have a tutorial for it here.  If you don't want it scrappy just use a single fabric rather than sewing strips together as shown in the tutorial.

Getting the binding onto your quilt is the next step.  Here you can find steps to help you along doing it all by machine.  

 Getting it meet up perfectly can throw many quilters.  Here's a tutorial on how to make it come out perfect each time.

 Let me know if you have questions.  I'm preparing for a class on binding and would like to hear where people struggle and what they might find useful.  Your questions and tips would really help me to make this class a success.

Thanks!

Not Always Black and White

You may remember that my grey and black scrap bin was full.  After dumping  those lovely scraps into a laundry basked to make them easier to see.  I started making wonky log cabins.  I've got 19 done. 

 A few more in various stages.

 And here is what the basket of scraps it looking like.

Think I'll have enough for 11 more blocks?
Linking up with:

Free Motion Quilting Musings

If you are like me there are parts of quilting you feel very confident in others that push your limits.  I recently entered a quilt in HMQS.  I know my quilting is not my strong point.

 I did it because my friend, Patsy, who is heavily involved in the show, was looking for quilts.  I told Anna I guess I'll find out all the things I'm doing wrong.  My sweet Anna was surprised to think I was doing anything wrong with my quilts.

 I knew she was wrong and when I got my evaluation it was confirmed.  The only nice thing the judges had to say about my quilt had nothing to do with the quilting but with my color placement.

 But I am not detoured.  I will continue to do my own machine quilting (mainly because I'm cheap.) A dear friend, upon hearing about the evaluation said that not all quilts need to be show quilt quality but are to be loved and cherished.  I'm content on making loved and cherished quilts.

I will however continue to doodle in notebooks, watch You Tube videos and work to improve my quilting.  Whether that yields a show quilt or not.

Managing Scrap Bins

As any quilter knows scraps have a way of multiplying.  Before you know it you have bins that are overflowing with bits of goodness.  What's a girl to do.  Make a quilt of course.  When my blue bin was overflowing I made this one.

When my green bin couldn't be contained it became this.

 My low volume bin has a way of filling quickly and I've been able to make this quilt

 and this quilt.

 Well, I can no longer put the lid on my grey and black bin so I've dumped it into a laundry basket so I can see every little bit more easily.

And today I hope to find a solution to that overflowing bin.

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Winner, Winner

I finished my Scrappy Dresden before I left on Wednesday to teach.  But because I had a hiccup getting my daughter off on her Europe trip I didn't get it posted.  I took it with me thinking I'd find time to photograph and post it but that never happened.  Now that she is enjoying her trip and I'm done teaching I've found a few free moments and here it is.  I put on a scrappy green binding using this method.  Feeling like a winner as I celebrate this finish.  Linking up with Cynthia's Oh Scrap to celebrate.

Now to announce the winner of the Mon Ami layer cake.  The random number generator selected #27 Marei.  She said, "Love the Mon Ami fabric, as well as your Coreopsis. Thanks for the chance to win."  You are so welcome, Marei.  Please send me your snail mail and I'll serve you up that layer cake.

Quilty Hugs Abound

This is what the mail man delivered to my house on Tuesday.

 It contained these beautiful quilty hugs.

To add to this pile I had already received.  Plus the ones I had already given to Ginger to put in Boxes of Love.  That pile filled her back seat.

 Thank you everyone for your generosity, especially to Sarah for heading up Hands 2 Help.  I know each of these 'quilty hugs' will bring comfort and healing.

Serving Up A Giveaway

Because it's been a while I thought it would be fun to have a giveaway.  So I cut some flowers from my garden.  Got out my quilt dish and served up a layer cake of Mon Ami by Basic Grey for one lucky winner.

 To win leave a comment for a second chance follow my blog and/or me on instagram (icon at the top of my sidebar) and let me know in a second comment.  Thanks!

Good luck everyone!  Forgot to say I'll pick a winner next Monday.

Quilt not Finished, Still Celebrating

I've been quilting my scrappy Dresden quilt.  I was hoping to have it finished to share today and whoop it up with Sarah. But I didn't quite make it.  Just a little more to do.  So next week for sure.

 I'm still celebrating though.  Monday was the last day for me to drive Jr. High carpool.  After 12 years of driving kids to Jr. high. (That's what happens when you space your kids out like I did.  One finishes and the next starts four kids three years each.  Yep it's crazy fun here.)  But it's the end of an era.  Anna graduated from Jr. high and I no longer need a big car to haul kids.  So we are selling the Suburban and I got this fun Hyundai.  

I love it.  Great gas mileage, easy to park.  I took grandma to lunch yesterday and she loved it.  So much easier for her to get in and out of.  So Whoop, Whoop!  Big happy dance!  Yeah I finally finished Jr. high carpool!

Machine Binding Tutorial

If your like me you often have a big stack of quilts to bind.  Although I enjoy putting a binding on by hand, doing so takes more time than I often have.  So I do a lot of them by machine.  I recently learned a new technique.  It has a nicer finish than my previous method so I thought I would share it with you.

 First sew on your binding to the right side of your quilt.  I start in the middle of the bottom of my quilt.  When I come to a corner I stop a scant 1/4" from the edge.

 Pull my binding back so it continues the edge of the next side as shown.

 Then fold it back along the next edge and sew in place. My method for joining the two edges of my binding can be found here.

Next I take my basting glue.  I like the bottle of Roxanne's comes in.  To be honest though once you have the bottle you can refill it with Elmer's school glue.  Stock up in the fall when you can get it cheap.  But that long metal spout gives a nice bead of glue so start with Roxanne's.

 Apply a bead of glue in your seam allowance.

 Press your binding over the bead of glue.  Making sure to cover your seam.

 When you come to the corner press to make 45* mitered edge.

 Put a dot of glue on the corner of your 45* mitered edge and a bead along the next edge.

Press into place.

 On the right side of your quilt stitch in the ditch between your binding and quilt.  You might want to baste a couple of inches and then check to make sure you are catching the binding on the back. Then stitch around your quilt.

 Here is the front of my quilt with the stitching done.

 Here is the back.

 And ta dah, the finished quilt.

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