What to do with the binding

Someone said to roll up binding on an empty thread spool. I have two spindles on my machine so using the second one with the binding spool is the best way to go. I no longer have a twisted up bunch of binding while sewing onto the quilt; this way the binding unspools as you go along perfectly!

Australian-ish stars

This quilt is made for my co-worker, Australian obviously, who's husband was ill with leukemia and passed away earlier this year. He was a lovely man--they are all a lovely family--and i hope that this quilt will give them some small comfort.

Green and yellow/gold are not my favorite color combinations but they are the national colors of Australia. the Australian flag also features 7-point stars which is possible to paper-piece but i can't even imagine regular piecing those! i also wanted to finish the quilt sooner than later so i picked an easier block.  here's my interpretation of Australian Stars. i didn't notice that i had misplaced one blocks until i took these pictures--oh well--humble blocks :-)

i didn't give them the quilt 'til Christmas but i had been hoping to make it fast and in the middle of making this quilt, i really felt the slowness of quilting. this isn't a hard block to make, and i actually had pre-cut yellow strips from another quilt, but this seemed to take forever because i had a self-imposed deadline. 

i quilted words onto the quilt which makes me think that would be a really cool quilt pattern for a smallish quilt (this was just barely doable because you have to quilt from left to right (like writing) which would be hard to do on a domestic machine with a queen size-quilt (though if you had a long-arm, that would be really easy i'd think). i wrote out the words, "And these three remain, faith, hope and love. and the greatest of these is love" from 1 Corinthians.

A friend asked if the back was supposed to be a representation of a sewing machine or a house (on the side). and no, it's just leftover scraps :-)  i think this is the last of the Crate & Barrel fabric that i bought close to 20 yrs ago now(!) for a dollar a pound.

Clipped Seams

When seams get too bulky, i clip the seams in the middle--especially useful for flying geese. i got this tip from Carrie Nelson's blog (or book?) of Miss Rosie Quilt Company fame. you need really sharp tips for this--i use Fiskars scissors that has the micro-tip (see below for a photo of the scissors). Carrie says it hasn't affected her quilts and so far so good for me as well.

Ironing help

I'm pretty sure i got this tip from the late lamented Siimply Quilts--when ironing a several of the same unit, iron the first one, then off-set the next unit on top and press that--the extra heat will help the 1st unit--and so forth.

what i also find useful, is that if i have a lot to do, and i need to smooth out the following units, i get out the ironing pad (a thick silicone pad--it came with one of my irons but i don't remember which one) so i can just leave it face down in-between picking up the units. saves on the wrist action.

First blocks

start of a new quilt

finally done quilting that stack of quilts and now to the fun part--cutting into fabric for a new quilt!

this is Strawberry Fields (Fig Tree for Moda).

and as the concurrent leaders-and-enders project, i'm using up the 1800's scraps for a courthouse steps block.

yawn...

i have two more borders to quilt (a new-to-me simple design of leaves and flowers) and then i'll be done with this batch of quilting. this one is my 3rd bed-size quilt (2 queens & 1 king)  and i also did two baby quilts (those took less than half an hour each). can't wait to get started on a new quilt--sewing is my favorite part, quilting, not so much.

i did an all-over pattern of simple flowers and stippling on this quilt--i get inspired to do more than the normal stipple when i start (this is a really busy pattern so i wasn't looking for anything fancy) (not that i really know how to do anything fancy) but get bored 10 minutes into it but then think it's too late to change my plans.  i also always think the quilting is turning out terribly while in the middle of it, but when i'm finished and looking from afar, it always looks pretty good to me :-)