Episode 68: Nearing the Finish Line

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Caitlyn’s Pinwheel quilt and Razzle Dazzle are done! Today I bought the border and backing fabric for the Bento Box quilt, which needs to be done by next Thursday. Piece of cake!

Here’s the Pinwheel quilt, front and back:

And here’s just the front:

The Man took Razzle Dazzle pix, but hasn’t emailed them to me yet. I’ll post them soon!

0 Replies to “Episode 68: Nearing the Finish Line”

  1. The quilt looks lovely – the way you have finished it really frames the design wonderfully. I look forward to seeing Razzle. C

  2. I love the cool palette colors of the Pinwheel Quilt. They are kind of dreamy. Also – while I love Jammie Sunday or Jammie Saturday, the thought of Jammie Week just brings a smile to me. I may make a sign and proclaim to the family that no one can get dressed the week after Christmas.

  3. You must be very proud of the way the quilt turned out. It’s beautiful. I love the background fabric too.

    Love, Mom aka Jane

  4. The dark but subtly complex fabric of the edge together with the bright lavender limning both the deep blues of the outermost and the page-like whiteness of the inner pinwheel design is my favorite thing about this quilt.

    jonimarie

  5. I love that pinwheel quilt. The first thought I had when I saw it was, “Oh that turned out SO pretty!” The second thought was, “Why is it upside down?” See how oddly I can look at the world through my weird colored glasses? 😀

    I have two pink plastic stencils that I bought about ten years ago. I’ve used them for hand-quilting projects. In getting ready to machine quilt, if I want a particular pattern, I will practice it on a white board first, to get the feel for the look I am wanting. It trains the mind and hand to follow a pattern. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried that method or not.

    I think you make up excuses, on purpose, so you have another excuse to go to Thimble Pleasures. (j/k) I just looked at the quilt again and the border fabric you have doesn’t lend itself to having to match up the corners. Yes, I would agree that they are not trying to oversell you on fabric, but rather to make sure you don’t run short. It happens to so many and happens so much more than you’d think! However, the employee/managers of fabric stores should explain why, and not make the customer feel bad if they don’t agree. Yes, going in the store with a specific yardage in mind would probably be the best idea.

    You know, I’ve never used a dye catcher sheet. I suppose I should. I am one of those who pre-washes everything anyway. I have found out that different washing machines will affect fabric dyes differently. It makes sense. Some washers have different agitators. They beat up the fabric a lot more! Different waters make a difference too. Well water, vs city water, vs different city waters, all affect fabrics in their own unique ways.

    I have been so busy getting ready for Christmas that I am way behind on everything from sewing to listening to podcasts! Now you’ve reminded me that I have company coming on Wednesday and need to clean my house too! I’d rather be quilting! I hope to sandwich my calendar quilt later today so I have something to play with when I take breaks from cleaning.

    Looking forward to hearing next week’s podcast already! As always, enjoyed this one as well as the one last week that I didn’t comment on because I was running around too much! See ya later, alligator!

  6. …And now I’ve listened to the episode. You need to put the Quilter’s FabriCalc on your Christmas list, if it’s not too late! Yes, I can do the math by hand, by why would I? You can often get the FabriCalc at Joann’s with a coupon. I carry mine with me whenever I go on shop-hops or know ahead of time I’ll be visiting a quilt shop. (Quick runs, I rarely remember.) A few fast button pushes and you’ve got the yardage needed. (“Number/inch/top/number/inch/width/yardage…”) Most of the time it lives at home on my cutting table and I always use it to calculate yardage needed for backing and binding, although it does a ton more than that that I haven’t delved into. Generally speaking, I’ll see what it says I need and then round up to the nearest half yard just to give me a little wiggle room.

    And what was all that about matching the seams on the border? I’m not entirely sure I understand what the person at Thimble Pleasures was saying we should all be doing with our borders. I’m happy enough if the seams just sort of disappear into the overall fabric or quilting design. Mitered corners require some additional fabric but not extensive amounts. Directional fabrics…well, that’s a whole other matter…

  7. I am glad you finally bought the Sewline marking pencil. I told you it was great! I am going to have to get Karen’s phone number and get her to tell you what I want you to buy for class! I hope Sampler blocks is on your to do list for 2012!

  8. Your pinwheel quilt is lovely! Thanks for sharing the picture and the process. Happy Holidays, including Happy Jammy Day or Week to you!

  9. I have been meaning to comment for a while. I love your podcasts especially your quilt diaries. The color play in your pinwheel quilt is great. Jackie from SewExcitedQuilts.

  10. I was listening to a podcast where you were concerned about washing a quilt that you thought might bleed.

    I recently made O Fransson’s Tokyo Subway Quilt. I used bright colored scraps, some of them red and some of them batiks. None of them had been washed. The background was kona snow.

    When I completely finished the quilt, I basted color catchers over top of anything I thought might bleed onto the white. I used a whole box of color catchers, and my basting stitches were an inch or more long, just through the center of the color catcher. I took about 15 minutes to do the basting.

    I washed the quilt on cold and hoped for the best. A lot of the red fabric bled, and most of my color catchers were pink after the wash, but none of the excess dye was absorbed by the white background. The color catchers were easily pulled off the quilt since the basting stitches were so long.

    I can’t take credit for this technique as I read it on the internet somewhere.

  11. Your border sewing comment. When I piece a border I always sew a 45% BIAS seam which generally means the seam is barely visible, especially on a busy print. And although I think this was my idea, I try to sew the border on so that the short piece is at the top on one side and at the bottom on the other side. I think it makes it less obvious that I seamed the border.

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