Sunday, May 31, 2015

Cording and Tabs

Late last night (or early this morning, to be accurate), I finished cutting the tabs that will go around the edge of the Mosaic Lighthouse quilt.  I cut 584 pieces -- which will make 292 tabs.  They will need to be interfaced.  I also cut the light-colored fabric for the rest of the cording and piping -- 1" bias strips for the cording around the edge, and 2" strips for the thicker piping between border and binding.

(Note the tube of Pain-A-Trate in the background.  I used plenty of that, along with Capzasin, whilst cutting, cooking, hanging laundry, and shopping yesterday.)




Friday, May 29, 2015

Oak Clamping Quilt Bar

This evening, I took my brother Loren some supper (ancient-grain-encrusted cod, mixed vegetables, and apple/grape/banana salad) . . . . .  and look what he gave me! -- a clamping quilt bar, handmade of oak!  He and Janice bought it some time back for Janice's mother.  After her mother passed away, her sister had it, and, since she didn't use it, Loren got it from her and gave it to me.  Now I need to make a quilt to hang from it!






Saturday, May 23, 2015

Quilting Done on Mosaic Lighthouse Quilt

Tonight I finished quilting the Mosaic Lighthouse quilt.  Now for the binding -- to which I plan to add looped cording -- and then I will do some embroidery to better define the lighthouse and the keeper's house.

I spent 48.5 hours quilting it, bringing the number of hours in this quilt so far up to 472.







Since the quilting is hard to see on the front, I took some pictures of the back:










Somebody asked how I keep track of the hours I spend on the quilt.  I use the Excel program, and have the 'Hours' row divided so each activity is tallied separately.  When I add the number of hours I've quilted that day, for example, the Quilting total at the bottom changes, as does the GRAND TOTAL below that.

When I first started keeping track of hours spent on a quilt, the hardest part of the entire procedure was remembering to look at the clock when I started, look at it again when I stopped, and then actually type the number of hours into the document.  I totally forgot to take note of the hours I worked on the Cross-Stitched Block Quilt; it'll be a barely-educated guess, if I try to figure it out now.

Here is what my Excel spreadsheet looks like, minus the functions and formulas and gridlines:


Mosaic Lighthouse Quilt
Date Hours Activity
12/21/2013 8 cutting
12/27/2013 8 cutting
12/31/2013 5 placing squares
1/1/2014 5 placing squares
1/1/2014 1 cutting
1/2/2014 9 placing squares
1/3/2014 7 placing squares
1/4/2014 1.5 placing squares
1/8/2014 7.5 placing squares
1/9/2014 8 placing squares
1/10/2014 9 placing squares
1/11/2014 5 placing squares
1/14/2014 8 placing squares
1/15/2014 6 placing squares
1/16/2014 8 placing squares
1/17/2014 8 placing squares
1/18/2014 5.5 placing squares
1/18/2014 4 sewing seams
1/31/2014 5 sewing seams
2/1/2014 11 sewing seams
10/1/2014 4 sewing seams
10/2/2014 11 sewing seams
10/4/2014 2 sewing seams
10/4/2014 5 placing squares
10/11/2014 5.5 placing squares
10/11/2014 1 cutting
10/17/2014 1.5 placing squares
10/18/2014 4 placing squares
10/22/2014 3 placing squares
10/22/2014 0.5 cutting
10/23/2014 2.5 placing squares
10/24/2014 2 placing squares
10/25/2014 3 placing squares
10/28/2014 5 placing squares
10/29/2014 2 placing squares
10/29/2014 0.5 cutting
10/30/2014 8 placing squares
10/31/2014 7 placing squares
11/1/2014 8 sewing seams
11/5/2014 3 sewing seams
11/6/2014 7 sewing seams
11/7/2014 7 sewing seams
11/8/2014 8 sewing seams
11/12/2014 2 sewing seams
11/13/2014 5 placing squares
11/13/2014 0.5 cutting
11/14/2014 1 cutting
11/14/2014 4 placing squares
11/15/2014 5 placing squares
11/18/2014 6 placing squares
11/18/2014 0.5 cutting
11/19/2014 0.5 cutting
11/19/2014 5.5 placing squares
1/7/2015 3 placing squares
1/8/2015 10 sewing seams
1/9/2015 5 sewing seams
1/10/2015 8 sewing seams
1/14/2015 5 sewing seams
1/15/2015 5 sewing seams
1/16/2015 2 sewing seams
1/17/2015 10 sewing seams
1/20/2015 11 sewing seams
1/21/2015 6 sewing seams
1/22/2015 8 sewing seams
1/23/2015 8 sewing seams
1/24/2015 10 sewing seams
1/28/2015 5 sewing seams
1/29/2015 6 sewing seams
1/30/2015 11 sewing seams
1/31/2015 10 sewing seams
2/4/2015 7 sewing seams
2/5/2015 9.5 sewing seams
2/6/2015 11 sewing seams
2/7/2015 2 sewing seams
5/8/2015 1 ironing, measuring sides
5/9/2015 7 borders
5/12/2015 3 borders, ironing back
5/12/2015 3 loading quilt
5/13/2015 4.5 quilting
5/14/2015 8 quilting
5/15/2015 6 quilting
5/16/2015 4 quilting
5/19/2015 6.5 quilting
5/21/2015 2 quilting
5/22/2015 5.5 quilting
5/23/2015 9 quilting
Cutting 21.5
Placing Squares 169.5
Sewing Seams 221.5
Ironing 1
Borders 10
Quilting 48.5
Binding
Embroidery
Hotfix Crystals
GRAND TOTAL 472

62 different fabrics






Tuesday, May 19, 2015

More Quilting on the Mosaic Lighthouse Quilt

I quilted on the Mosaic Lighthouse quilt for 6 ½ hours today; I’m up to 455.5 hours now.  I’ve made it down past the lighthouse and the keeper’s house to the cliffside and the water splashes from the sea.  















Thursday, May 14, 2015

Quilting the Mosaic Lighthouse Quilt

Three 'rows' are done on the Mosaic Lighthouse Quilt.  I worked on it for eight hours today, bringing the total number of hours spent on this quilt up to 439.

Borders

Corner




Top of lighthouse


Feathering



Micro-meandering




Thursday, May 7, 2015

Border on Cross-Stitch-Block Quilt

The border is on the cross-stitch-block quilt, and the binding is cut.  The quilt now measures 105" x 131", bigger than I'd expected.

Here it is, sprawled on my cutting table.  The dusty green binding is at the right.