Appliqué Pieces

I have just spent 9 hours doing nothing more than tracing appliqué pieces onto freezer paper, ironing the freezer paper onto yet another piece of freezer paper, carefully cutting each piece, then ironing the pieces onto fabric.  Next, I cut the fabric, adding a fourth-inch to each freezer-paper template, and then, after 'painting' the quarter-inch seam allowance with starch on a stencil paintbrush, I ironed it around the freezer paper, using a Stuff-It tool my sister gave me to turn up and hold the narrow edges.

There are about 75 appliqué pieces for the first quilt block.  They're ready to put in place and stitch down.  I will use a very narrow hem stitch on my Bernina Artista 180 to put them on.  I might even have some invisible thread.

I could have had more done by now, had I not been mending and altering things yesterday.  Getting these appliqués ready was slow and tedious work, but I enjoyed it.  Good thing, because there's a whole lot more to do!

These are ready to put in their proper order.  Hmmm...  what shall I use for a light box, so I can lay the pattern down, put the 17" quilt-block square on top of it, and then get the appliqué pieces positioned just right on the background?

    

Fabric for The Graceful Garden

I am ready to start cutting!  Here is the book:

Here is the quilt; I will have to enlarge it considerably to fit a queen or king-sized bed:

And here is the fabric, purchased at Hobby Lobby:

Harvest Sun Quilt Finally on Our Bed

I made this quilt to go on our bed -- in our new bedroom in the addition.  But... the addition isn't done yet, and it will be awhile before it is done.  I've waited long enough to use this quilt, I do believe!

Embroidered Quilt Labels

I have finally completed quilt labels for quilts I made as far back as 2007.  Four of these quilts have been given away; I'll have to go visiting, label, needle, thread, thimble, and snips in hand!  The delay was because I was waiting for an embroidery machine.  Well, the embroidery machine finally arrived, back in October -- a Bernina Artista 180.

They're not particularly fancy, but I was in a hurry.  Fancy will come later.

Finally! -- The Jewel Box Log Cabin Quilt is on the Bed!

The quilt dried, and there is only one place where a pinkish tint is still slightly visible.  (Any area that looks pinkish in the photos is actually the ivory/blush-colored wool used for the HSTs.) 

It's a winter quilt, but it's on the bed, and it's going to stay there for a while -- partly because it's a big job putting such a heavy quilt on the bed, and partly because the house is cool enough at night that this quilt is not uncomfortable.

And no, three of the walls are not yet painted, because I can't budge the furniture.  Keith and Larry moved the bed so I could paint that one wall; but after that they were no longer available for hire, rent, or volunteer work.  Actually, Larry doesn't want to waste paint when he's planning to redo those walls with half-log siding anyway. 

This room will eventually be part of the living room, after we move into our new big bedroom upstairs.  We will finally have room to turn around without bumping elbows on dressers and barking shins on bed frames. 

AND!! -- I will have room to take decent pictures of quilts. 

Can't back far enough away from the bed, in this room, to get a good shot.

Why do the cats always so very much love the new quilts?

Ahhhhhh...

Pure bliss.

New rug

Quilt Drying on the Deck

Yesterday, Caleb headed downstairs, and then cried,

“Mama, it’s leaking down here, and your quilt is all wet!!”

Sure enough. There was water pouring from the ceiling, and it was flowing all over the quilt I had lopped over my quilting frame, all over the carpet, and barely missing my quilting machine.

So that’s why the upstairs toilet kept running and running, no matter how many times I took the lid off and readjusted the float/plunger/rubber flap thingy. Turns out, it wasn’t leaking in the tank, it was leaking at the valve. A few times during the day, I’d just turned it completely off – so that prevented more of a flood. And those few times I carried stuff downstairs to put away must have occurred during the times I had the water turned off, so I never noticed anything wrong.

Trouble is, where the water dripped onto the quilt, the reds ran into the whites!!! Why, why, why? – when I’d washed all that fabric in hot water with plenty of detergent, before ever cutting it? I then dried it in the dryer… nothing ran or bled at all. But now cold water drips onto it, and it bleeds, and the off-whites are pinkish red.

I threw it into the washer – no, I struggled and struggled to put it in and then called for help from Caleb and Victoria (that thing is heavy! – especially when it’s all wet) – and put in some color-catcher sheets. One time through the washer didn’t solve the problem; it was still pink in the off-white fabric. I rewashed it, and today I took it out on the deck to dry.

There were still pink spots.

The problem is, it’s so crammed into the washer, there isn’t room for it to slosh around, so the color-catchers can’t really do their job.

I tried spraying Resolve on those few spots, then pouring water on them...

The pink grew and darkened and spread, quite a lot like the Cat in the Hat's pink ring in the tub.  And I didn't have Thing One and Thing Two to help me out, either.

Sooo... I gathered it up, put three more color-catcher sheets right on top of those pink spots, folded it so that the sheets would stay put, and Larry helped me cram it into the washer.

The next time I pulled it out, all the pink spots were nearly entirely gone.  Whew.  But I'll doubtless have to use the color-catchers every time I wash it.  Why did it do that, when it hadn't done it at all when I first washed all the fabrics?

Siggghhhhhh… At least it’s just our quilt, and not a customer’s!

And here's the funny-looking back of the quilt.

There's Tabby back there...

Here he comes --

But Teensy beat him to it.

Here he comes, walking right across the wet quilt.

Ewwww!  (shaking one rear foot...)