I love it!

I am thrilled that I have finished the quilting on this piece, but a strange thing happened on the way to done. I love the fabrics, I love the design, I love the people it is going to. But turned out I literally struggled to get it done. I used different quilting designs in each of the squares and felt tapped out to keep finding new ways to do that. So I repeated some of the things here and there, but tried to add variations throughout. By the time I got to the last row of squares, I was unrolling back to the beginning to see what I did there that I could recycle! This is made using Elisa's Backporch circle templates to make 195 7" blocks, enough to fit a king-size comforter. I pondered quite awhile on how to accomplish turning this into a duvet. I had made one before from a pieced quilt but that was before my longarm was here. On that one I had just done straight line quilting through some of the seams to anchor it to a plain backing, then made the back of the duvet from some other pretty fabric. With this one, I wanted to be able to do some pretty quilting in the blocks so I put a thin batting and solid fabric with the top.

The batting helps the quilting show with a little depth but I didn't want this to be so hot and heavy that it was not practical. The batting I used was new for me, it was a Fairfield product that is cotton and bamboo. I was a little leery of using it because I have come across some Fairfield batts that were not so nice (uneven, weak, way too stretchy) but I liked this one. It had none of those problems, although it did have too many dark flecks to make it workable with a white fabric. So anyway, the gamble paid off and it looks and feels great. Now I have a king size flat sheet to attach for the back of the duvet, and before long it will be done done!

a little bit about binding

I have a sort-of tutorial here for you today to tell you about something I have learned that helps me with my binding process. I get pretty picky about my bindings, they have to be neat, flat, straight, sharp corners, etc. I watched a video by Sharon Schamber that carries bindings to a whole new level, and while I don't feel the need to follow each step of her process to the letter, I did find one or two things that have benefitted me. Today I am telling you about bindings and starch. This pertains to the preparation of the binding strip before it is even near the quilt.

Here's what you need:

a fabric strip, spray starch, iron and ironing board.

My fabric strip in this case is 2" wide which is all the wider I wanted for this project. It used a very low-loft batting and needed to look narrow in the end, so 2" is plenty wide. This fabric happens to be the same color on both sides. I LOVE Niagara spray starch in the aerosol bottle, but it can be a little hard to find in stores so I have even ordered it online. Type of iron doesn't matter, and my ironing board got covered with a clean piece of muslin so all the stains don't show in the pictures!

With the wrong side of the binding strip facing up, lightly spray the starch.

Fold the strip in half lengthwise, wrong sides together with your fingers, carefully matching up the raw edges. The damp starch will help you stick the layers together with just the pressure of your fingers. Just work on a section at a time, however much is laying on the surface of the ironing board, you want the fabric to stay damp so you can't work too far ahead.

With a hot iron press the folded strip.

This will give you a crisp folded edge and a little more body to the fabric.

The starch actually kind of glues the layers together, as you can see in this picture of a partially pressed strip.

Then you are ready to sew it to the quilt edge, and I find that it is easier to sew neatly if it has been starched this way. There is little or no shifting or twisting of the two layers of the binding fabric and it ravels less on the raw edge. And that's what I know about binding prep!

check this out

Today I am supposed to be quilting up a storm, but I feel compelled to pause and tell you about this. One of the things that I do while running my quilting machine is listening to podcasts that I subscribe to via Itunes. I'm not sure if I mentioned this here before, but I want to suggest that you tune in to a very informative program from National Public Radio called This American Life. First, let me sort of explain the "how-to" in case you aren't familiar with this method of programming. This is a talk-radio weekly show but I never have the radio on at the time it is broadcast. I make use of the fact that it is available through their website and I can listen to it at my convenience either on my computer or ipod. I "subscribe" to it on Itunes, this means that each time they broadcast a new program it goes into my Itunes library on my computer, and is saved there for me. It's all free. I can listen to it once or as many times as I want, save it or delete it. If you don't want to do it through Itunes you can go to the program's website and get their entire archive of programs. The newest program is a free download from them, or the older programs can be listened to for free directly on their website.

So why am I telling you this? This American Life is sort of a digest of real-life short stories centered on a weekly theme. Sometimes very funny, sometimes serious. There are 2 programs that I encourage you to listen to that explain some of the ins and outs of the healthcare situation in our country. I'm not trying to get political here, I can't swear that every fact or detail you will here is 100% accurate, but NPR does have a good name for reporting the news, at least as I know it. The programs are titled "More is Less" and "Someone Else's Money" and were broadcast in October. If you like these, you might also like to look back in their archives for a couple other programs they have done in 2009 about the mortgage and economy problems. Check it out!

Did you remember to set your clocks back?

DNR

As part of my own personal appliance health plan, I had to pull the plug on my washing machine. It gave up the ghost last week and the examination by the AT (appliance technician) was not promising. Given the fact that it is the youngest appliance I own, I was actually surprised that it could not be resuscitated for a more reasonable investment. It's only 7 years old, which in this house is just an appliance infant. It stands next to my lovely antique Kenmore gas dryer purchased in 1982 and going strong ever since. Bob has had to tinker with a few things to keep it in shape, but I really don't mind that the handle for the lint trap is fastened on with a chunk of wire, it still catches the lint! I had actually expected the dishwasher to be the next to go, both it and the refrigerator were purchased when we built this house in 1988. The dishwasher is in sad shape, badly needs a new bottom rack, but keeps on ticking. I know I might be able to replace the rack, but it's one of those items that never moves up very high on the Must Do list. Plus you know as soon as I replace it, the whole thing will die! After shopping in the appliance department at a couple local megastores, I realized just how humble my little refrigerator is--no fancy faucet with computerized keyboard in the door, no high tech food storage containers inside, not even an ice maker! Must be my inner Amish, but when I am looking at appliances I try to keep it simple! (Actually, the fridge is an Amana so I do see the connection there! Who knew appliances had religion!) For example, when choosing a new washer, I know that basically I use only 2 cycles (regular or gentle) and 2 temperature settings (cold/cold or hot/cold for felting), so why can't I find a frontloader that doesn't have 15 choices? Anyway, I await the delivery of my new washer and removal of the washer carcass that is easy to say goodbye to because I don't have 20+ years of attachment!