Challenged to the Hilt

Haven't been hiding. I've been sewing like crazy. The hanky challenge has been completed and turned in. Phew. And, it couldn't have happened soon enough. I am kind of anal about my quilting, sometimes. Read between the lines, yep, on the hanky quilt. I've shared it with you before cause I know I asked for help. And, I used several ideas.

If things could go wrong on this quilt they did go wrong. I made the cute center shape in the middle and then realized you really can't see it all that much. It didn't add or subtract from the quilt. Ok. I can deal with that and I learned the technique that I think is way cool!

I mdeg a rose that was to go in the center. Euuu... to bright, too obvious. I also decided to put the hanky on point with a 1" strip and then the triangles. I decided on the red batik that matched the roses perfectly. I made three more roses to go on the triangles. Luckily I made them as units first and then started appliqueing them on the corners. I got 2 and a half appliqued down and decided to look at it from a distance and measure it. YIKES -- too bright of a red. Too small for the contest rules. Not to worry. I ripped off the triangles, red borders. I replaced the red with a rose colored soft geometric print and made it 1 1/2" finished. I used two of the setting triangles -- of course one was blank and the other had the rose half sewn on. By this time it is Sunday afternoon. I have one big hunk of the setting triangle fabric left -- enough to do the one more square to be cut into the half triangles. Measure twice, cut once. I am sure I measured it carefully -- I already had cut one wrong. ARGH> it was the wrong size. Ok, I can deal with this. Um, how. Maybe I can fake the corners -- no that didn't work. Um, maybe I can seam a corner. UGH how tacky. Ur, maybe I can make the rosey colored print 1 1/4" and then get two more pieces of fit. Yep, took the two triangles off, cut 1/4" off each rose-colored side. Resewed, trimmed up the two setting triangles to work. Then removed the 2 roses from the 2 pieces that are now too small. Resewed them to the new triangles. Got the last one done. I wanted the center, embroidered rose to stand out a bit. So I put an extra piece of batting under it, stitched it with dissolvable thread trimmed the little piece of batting just outside my stitching line. Yeah! Ready to batt it up. Did that Sunday around midnight.

I wanted it fairly thin so I used a thin, poly batt I had at home. But it seemed really thin. So I doubled it. I knew it would be easy to quilt through. First thing Monday morning (and I mean by about 8 am when my eyes are barely open) I am embroidering the center rose motif. Then I started hand quilting. By about 1 pm I'm done with the quilting and take a lunch break.

Good idea. I still have to decide on a block of the month, make one, write directions and copy enough for the group. So during lunch I find a block and take it upstairs to start the sample. Yuck. How am I going to get that done fast enough. Find my book of four patch blocks and pick a truly easy but interesting block. Use 2 1/2" strips to make the block. (Yea for Bonnie Hunter's strip users system!) And, by the way, I get the binding sewn on. Write the directions, print them on the old laser printer, take a shower, dress etc, and then start sewing the binding down. I finish at 5:25. I am now late for my ride but throw everything together for guild meeting and dinner out. I did take two pictures too. So, what do you think? I think it is more puffy than I wanted -- I think the batting must have fluffed itself over night. But I do like the color mix, the hanky shines quite well. Darn, it isn't all that even on the edges... more time and I could have fixed that too. But, it's done! Not many people entered -- maybe 7 turned items in. Maybe a few more will turn in this week. These are judged by an outside person with results revealed at the next meeting. I'll keep you posted.

Bill, one of our newest members, shared this scrap quilt with us. It is rather amazing -- all done by hand. He said an older lady who was confined to a wheelchair did it. His mom or grandmother had it for many years. He suspected it was 70 to 80 years old. It is really charming in a somewhat frenetic way. The squares are 1". Some are on point, some are straight. The sashing is what ever in mostly blues. There was one point that about 1/2" of sashing in a particular fabric was showing. I am not sure whether he is going to quilt it or have it quilted. One of our members recommended having it quilted because it would stabilize the fabric.

Phew. I'm long winded today. I have my second load of laundry in. The floors are going to be vacuumed and I suspect I'll wash the kitchen, sitting room area floor. It is rather useless in a way because the next time anyone comes in from outside the floor starts looking yucky. I still love my floor, don't get me wrong.

Happy quilting all!