But sewing did get done......here is the latest on my Florabunda progress! Woohoo! I'm really loving these blocks!
I'd like it to be about a queen size, so I have 33 more blocks to make! I'm over the half-way point! Yay! But I've only worked on it as a kindof filler between projects. I kitted up a bunch of the blocks a while back, and I just finished sewing them yesterday. I need to kit up a bunch more now, and then they'll be ready when I have a few minutes (or a day!) to sew them up! I just love the yellow and all the beautiful blossoms that peek out here and there. I didn't realize I had so many big florals in my stash.....who knew! And.....why did I even buy them, other than I liked them. Thank goodness Bonnie Hunter came up with this plan.....or they'd still be sitting in the stack of "Why on earth did I buy this print!?!"
My 'real' project is finishing up the baby quilt for our cousin April's 1st grandson. I have the top finished, but was stumped on the batt to use. I really wanted it to have a more sleek, modern look, but my usual 100% cotton batts always give me the crinkled/puckered/antiquey look that I love. But that just wasn't in my head for this quilt. And I really didn't want to use a poly batt......just not my thing. So I figured to make a few samples of different batts and see what happened.
The two larger pieces are from a Fairfield 80/20 batt, one piece I prewashed, and the other I didn't. Can you see a difference?.......Me neither! The smaller piece is Warm & Natural.......and is only slightly more puckered than the other two. I drew registration marks on all of them, so I could measure the shrinkage, and the two 80/20's still shrank the same amount, even though one was prewashed AND shrunk in the dryer! What the heck! So, even though my brilliant batt test was a total failure.....it left me with the decision to just use the dang 80/20 and get it done! If it puckers and crinkles a bit, fine! It's a quilt, dang it, not a marble statue! lol
And the stripey quilting on the test samples is the same kind of quilting for the baby quilt......it's what was in the original pic, and April really liked the simplicity of it! Yay! Not perfectly straight lines, about 3/4" apart.....easy peasy! We love that!
Ok......back to the sewing room! I have to seam the back of the baby quilt (it's 50ish by 65ish......a nice BIG baby quilt) and get to the town office to pin baste it.
Oh yeah......I was just on a blog the other day......so sorry I can't remember where......but she had a YouTube of Sharon Schamber's table top basting method......and it's brilliant! I just need to get to the hardware store for some molding pieces, and I will never have a basting-backache again! Yay! If you haven't seen this method, here are the links to it. It is a two parter, so make sure you watch both videos.
Sharon Schamber's 'Hand Basting a Quilt' Part 1
Sharon Schamber's 'Hand Basting a Quilt' Part 2
Ok......I can hear Jane Eyre calling from the sewing room......gotta go! And yeah, that would be the Jane with Ciaran Hinds......he is SO good! Here's a little glimpse......
Jane Eyre.....the goodbye scene.....with Ciaran Hinds and Samantha Morton
Ok.....NOW I'm really going to sew! lol
Have a great day! Don't spend it all on YouTube! Ha!
regan
