Another attempt at finding the right border

I ended up in Cookstown yesturday at the Country Concession quilt store.  I found another fabric that had all the colours needed to bring out the colours in the middle, however this one was just too busy.

We have a busy pattern and a large blotchy pattern.  Now I need to find something that falls right between them both.  Sew Sisters quilt store is closed until the New Year.  But I saw a couple of possibilities on their online site.

Yesturday I finished cutting all the fabric I had out for the Bow Tie quilt.  I made a batch, enough to make a full row of the quilt, and some.  I have enough pieces to make another four rows.  I will be left with trying to find different lights in order to do the last two rows.

Today is another day.  New Year's Eve.  This is the first year that my daughter had been working.  Guess who got stuck working the New Year's Eve day and New Year's day.  Of course the rookie.  So this New Year's Eve we are spending a quiet time at home bringing in the new year.

Trying to find the right border

I finally find some time for me to do some quilting and unfortunately I find myself sick with a sore throat, runny nose and body that doesn't want to do anything.  It has been a very busy month with new neighbours and helping them fix up the house, Christmas shopping, cards and decorating.  And all the visiting with family and friends.

This month seems to not have enough hours in the days to get everything accomplished.  But we keep trying and for the most part get everything done.  Today the kids want to go see a movie with the gift card I receives for a gift of thanks, so I am drinking lots of ginger tea and fighting this cold all the way.

The day before yesturday, my mother and I went for a visit to The Hobby Horse to see if we could find some borders.  I found the small border for a pleated log cabin quilt.  The grey colour highlights the blacks and greys in the quilt.  I also found the colours for the last border, however I do not like the feel of the fabric.  I picked up a small piece of the fabric in order to help when searching.  The colours on the fabric seem to pull out all the colours in the quilt, but I want the pattern to be a bit more geometric or something with an older feel to it.  So, I keep looking.  

I was going to go check out Sew Sisters Quilt Store today, but unless I get better really quickly, I will have to schedule it for another day.

In the meantime as I have my ginger tea, I am cutting up pieces for my Bow Tie quilt.  I have seven rows left to do and trying to keep the theme of no repeats is starting to get difficult.  So far so good.  I need to get the bow tie off the design wall, as it is getting big and taking up the majority of the wall.

First piece of my hexagon quilt

Yesturday while at the hair dressers, waiting for my son and daughter to get their hair cut, I sat there and hand pieced some hexagons.  I had some of them done from during lunches and added the last few yesturday.  This is the first piece, which is part of the first border.  It is a floret with the purple surrounding borders.  This one will fit anywhere along the sides.

All the side pieces will be made like this.  When I figure out the colour placement I will attach them together.  The quilt requires 50 different coloured florets.  Now that I have my first one done I only need 49 left......lol. 

One at a time and it will get there.  I am making this only as a grab and go project, so it will take a little longer to complete.  I like having stuff to work on during time just sitting around, because I don't feel like I am wasting time.

Working on the hexagon quilt

I've started working on the edging of the hexagon quilt.  It is looking really nice.  I like the effect of following the hexagon shape for the edging and following the floret shape for the sides.  

So far I have been able to do a half of the top edge.  The picture below shows the finished edge hemmed and quilted.  I took the picture this evening, so the black is the shadow under neath my sewing machine.  It actually helps to see the full effect of the edging.

This next picture is of one of the sides.  After finishing the half above, I turned the corner and continued to do some more.  I really like the scalloped edge effect.  This was the result of following the floret shape.  Again the shadow under neath my sewing machine helps emphasize the shape.

I noticed in the picture above that I still have my painter pants on.  I thought I was going to paint at my nieces house today, but in the end I was not needed.  Didn't change, because these are my comfy pair of jeans turned painter pants due to an oops.

The quilt is coming together.  Won't be long before I have this one done.

Hexagon quilt edge

I finally finished the quilting on the hexagon quilt, aside from one singular row going all the way around the quilt.  The purpose for this is that I have to finish he edges first, before I can do the quilting.

The first step I started with is cutting the batting and backing to match the edging of the quilt, plus 1/4" seam allowance.

The next step was to carefully trim back the batting even with the quilt edge, leaving the backing material to fold in.

I have to tuck under the 1/4" seam of the backing fabric and slip stitch the edge to close the quilt.  Very much like closing a pillow, except this quilt has to be completely done by hand all the way around.

I started the edge.  This will also take some time.  After I finished the edge I will go back to quilting the last row.  I am getting there, but with the hustle and bustle if Christmas, I doubt it will get done for a bit.

Finished the P.S. Don't forget to... pillow

Well, it has definitely been a zoo around here lately.  With helping my niece fix up her new house, preparations for Christmas, work and everything else one does to run a household.

In all the business I still managed to finish another corner of the Hexagon quilt and up the last side as well.  Now I only have the one side left to do, before I move on to the hand work of finishing the ends, instead of binding.

I also finished my P.S. Don't forget to... pillow for my guest room.

I am hoping the stress of juggling everything around Christmas will ease soon.  I am missing some serious quilting time in my quilt room.

Enjoy.

Finished the matching Crazy Reversible doll quilt

We all went for the Christmas tree cutting.  I think everyone had a good time.  Always nice getting together with family.  On the way there and back I did not do any handwork. I enjoyed the scenery instead, listening to Christmas music all the way.

When we got back, the kitchen was full of girls still going at it.  Baking and filming.  They set the table for a French scene where the waitress suggests a fine desert.  It is cute, the way they go about it.  I sit down in my quilt room and smile as I listen to more laughter than them actually filming.

While I am in my quilt room staying out of their way, I manage to finish quilting the borders for the matching Crazy Reversible doll quilt.  Now, except for the binding they are finished.

One more thing off my list. Yay!!!

Today we all met at my sister's house to go up together.  I had the chance to deliver the queen size Irish Chain quilt in blue and purple on black background to one of my nieces.  It seems she likes it.  She went straight up to her room to put it on her bed.  I am glad she likes it.

In my life time, I plan to make an adult quilt for each and every son, daughter, niece and nephew and eventually grandkids.  I have three children plus eleven nieces and nephews. Thus far I gave a quilt to one son and two nieces. One quilt is being made for another niece, and I have a nephew to figure out what to make.  I'll go in age order, unless like today, someone likes a quilt that I already have completed.

Working on the P.S. Don't forget to... pillow

Even though I wanted to sleep in today, it didn't happen.  My internal clock just will not let me go past 6:30 am, even if I go to bed at 1:00 am.  So, why fight it.  I got up and stated working on my P.S. Don't forget to... pillow.  I cut out all the fabrics, assembled all the blocks and completed the top of the pillow before lunch time.

I had to take a break to run out and get some soap to scrub down the kitchen.  I have my daughter and a group of her friends coming over tomorrow to do some filming for a French project.

It is now 4:00 pm and I have the one block done.  But haven't started on the kitchen yet.  Nothing like leaving everything to the last minute.  I just had to see how the pillow is going to look.  Now that I have this little bit done I can get some work done.

Tomorrow the rest of us are going to cut down our Christmas tree.  Looking forward to that.  All my older nieces will be coming this time.  Ott to be nice.  We haven't been all together for the tree cutting for a long time.  On the drive up and back I may try to do some more trimming around the blocks.

Finished the Reversible Crazy quilt

I am finally finding some time this morning to take pictures of the finished Reversible Crazy quilt.  The only thing left to do is put a binding on it.  The day is a bit drabby, so the lighting is lacking, but you can still see the quilt well enough.  This is the crazy side with all the scraps from my scrap basket.  Bits and pieces from previous quilts or donated fabrics.  We'll call it the wild side.

Here we have the tame side of the quilt.  Pretty and bright. So the future owner can pick what side she wants to display, depending on her mood.  The wild side or the tamed side.

While I was assembling this quilt I realized that the side borders were not long enough to use the ten rows of blocks I had made for this quilt.  I was left with six blocks.  So what am I doing with them?  Well I have decided to make a matching doll quilt to go as a set with this one.  I already have the blocks together in rows of two by three and now need to work on quilting the borders.

I am glad for the problem that turned into a happy ending.  That is a case of me taking the lemons and making lemonade.  It all works.

Enjoy your day.