Orange you glad to see me?

Progress, we're making progress. We've made an offer on a house here, and had it accepted. We had an inspection yesterday, and found that there are issues. Sigh. The next step will be to go back to the owners to see if they will work with us on the problems.

I must say, though, walking through the house with the inspector, I kept thinking about our Saginaw house and imagining what would be said about our lovely antique. Yikes.

We're living in an Extended Stay hotel. It is not a Residence Inn. We have two rooms for less than sixty dollars a night. (Hey, we're working with engineers here, it's all about billable hours.) As I continually relocate stuff so I can cook (on two burners and a toaster oven that we finally broke down and bought two weeks ago), I keep reminding myself that this is a First World Problem, and that I am blessed that I will have somewhere else to go in just a few weeks.

Mostly I'm writing to let you know that Step Three will be delayed until next week, hopefully by Tuesday. I have worked through the block to make sure the numbers work. I still have diagrams to make and words to write.

The upside is that you'll have a bit more time to catch up on any missed steps before the cost goes up. Just click on the link to my Craftsy store in the side bar to get the pattern downloads.

Meanwhile, here is one of my favorite tips for saving time while piecing.

I am sure that I'm not the only one who has carried a neatly organized stack of units to the sewing machine, somehow twisting them when setting them down. Unfailingly I don't even notice the mistake until I've sewn all the repeats.

What I do to help avoid this (my engineer hubby says "idiot proof" is impossible, the best we can hope for is "idiot resistance"), is sort out my units onto a ruler. If it's tough to tell right from wrong side, I take a moment to make sure all of the pieces are right sides up.

I use assembly line sewing to keep my units organized. By not cutting the thread between the units I can carry the lot over to the ironing board and back without losing any pieces, and everything stays in order.

When it comes time to sew the cross seams, the connecting stitches act as my pins to help get those perfect intersections. I think you can see that there is hardly any thread, maybe one or two stitches between the pieces,

For many years, all of my adult life really, I have hated orange. I was scarred by an early burnt orange and brown quilt incident, a story for another day. Now I love it. It's so cheerful!

But brown, still not so much. And yet practically every house we've looked at in Green Bay is decorated in brown. The house we are buying is painted deep, dark browns, even black, inside. I wonder if there was an ordinance or something. The Green Bay Packers' colors are green and gold, so I suppose it could be worse. Still, the paint mixer at my local hardware store is about to become my new best friend.

My week as a statue

That my work week started on April Fools' Day should have been the first clue. I woke up a little muzzy headed, so I made a bee line for the coffee maker. We have a Keurig thingy, and I knew that I was down to my last precious two pods of coffee. I popped in the pod and pushed brew, hoping I could make it to the end of the cycle before doing something really stupid.

Nope. I forgot to put in a mug to catch the one thing between me and a day of mental missteps. That it took me a second or two to remember what a mug was and where to find one in just testament to my dire need of caffeine.

Finally, the remaining coffee was delivered to my cup. Knowing that I only had one pod left, I decided that I would pour the missed coffee from the tray into my mug. It was then that I knocked the coffee cup off of the counter and down my right leg.

Still lacking that first dose of mind clearing coffee, it took me another second or two to realized that the coffee was damned hot and I really wanted to be out of those pants. I was actually busy wondering how I might gather up the spilled coffee. As I dropped my drawers I wondered if I would break any teeth if I tried to lick coffee up off the counter. I decided against it.

After applying a cool, wet towel to my scalded leg, and finding a clean pair of pants, I managed to make, and consume the last pod of coffee without further bodily harm.

We've finally figured out that we can afford to buy a house in Green Bay without waiting for the house in Saginaw to sell. It will be a stretch, and we won't be having any fun until the other house is sold, but it will be better than living in limbo. So now house hunting has gone into high gear.

While out and about on Wednesday, the magnetic phone holder in my car dropped off the dash board. We live and die by GPS around Green Bay (we just can't get our bearings). And the one day that I spent running around town, where I would really rack up the steps, I realized that I'd lost my Fitbit.

After rummaging through the car, and ransacking our tiny little apartment for forty-five minutes, I realized that I had changed jeans twice after the coffee debacle. The Fitbit was tucked in the pocket the pair of jeans I changed out of after I changed out of the coffee incident. And then mourned all the missed steps that would never be counted. (Kent and I gave each other Fitbits for Christmas. He's down 26 pounds and I'm down 16. It's working for us when nothing else did.)

House hunting is not fun. Suddenly all of the houses we've been considering are being rapidly sold to someone else. We feel a little panicked. We're hoping for a similar rush in Saginaw, but, always being able to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, we are certain we are doomed to wait until the zombie apocalypse for the house to sell.

I'm hoping that April is done messing with me. I've given her more than her designated day to play her pranks on me. Since I'm still out of coffee pods, and there is a very busy road between me and the nearest coffee source, I'm not at all certain that I'm in the clear.

This week's motto:
Sometimes you're the pigeon and sometimes you're the statue.

Five shades of grape

We have been, and will be, living between for a while. I feel a little like a secret agent, I can't tell you where I am! I've been splitting my time between Green Bay and Saginaw, but the last thing I want to do is spell out that either place is empty and open for nefarious shopping.

I can tell you that I love Green Bay! They have five, FIVE, quilt shops. FIVE! Each one has a different style and inventory. Being the supportive shopper that I am, I managed to find something wonderful to bring home with me at each shop.

My first quilting mission in GB was to find better purples for my Fine Romance quilt. It seems that I always want the color that isn't on the shelf, the color between the colors there. For this quilt, I wanted a purple that was the color of grape jelly, a rich purple that is not quite magenta, but definitely not a bluey periwinkle. No surprise that it was such a challenge to find. But with all these quilt shops available, I finally managed to find my five shades of grape.

One of my favorite part of designing quilts is figuring out how to use my fabric the most efficiently I can. Being that I consider myself an appliquist first, a piecer second, leaving the largest scraps possible gives me more applique opportunities.

Since we need so little of our fabrics for the pieced blocks I first cut the square for the quarter-square triangles from the end opposite the selvage, which left just enough to cut the strip for our smaller squares.

(I have no idea why these pictures are coming up rotated. A painfully slow internet connection might have something to do with it.)

I just love it when strip cutting ends up with so little waste. The fabric is doubled over in this picture, giving me the four squares that I needed for my hourglass block.

Moving is such an emotional roller coaster. We are excited to start a new chapter, and having tons of fun looking for just the right place to enjoy life as empty nesters. Selling a house is a lot like going to prom without a date. We are helpless wallflowers as we wait for someone else to love the home we've loved for so many years.

My new favorite saying:
They say that God never gives you more than you can handle. God must think I'm a badass.




 

Fast Four-Patches

Some call it chain piecing, but I learned it as "assembly-line sewing" from my hero, Eleanor Burns, way back in the dark ages when rotary cutting was new. Quilters often believe that the big benefit from the process is to save on thread, but that is really just a nice side bonus.

I really do practice what I preach when it comes to staying organized. Just as the pattern indicates, I sort my pieces into zip top bags as I cut them.

I hate, hate, hate looking for things, and the more I fumble around looking for the right piece the more the chances improve that I will settle on the wrong one. Sorting the pieces so that I have only the shapes I need for the next step makes it harder to make a mistake.

(My hubby, a mechanical engineer who really does know how to do everything, suggests that "idiot proof" is impossible. The best we can hope for is "idiot resistance".)

Before I start, I set out the parts in the configuration in which they will be sewn. If it's hard to tell right from wrong side on a fabric, I take the time to flip them all right sides up in each of their stacks.

Now, all I have to pay attention to is the quality of my seam allowance. The top pair is sewn together, then the bottom pair, then the top pair and then the bottom pair, all the way to the bottom of the stacks.

My goal is always to have just a single stitch in the air between the pairs. When it comes time to sew the cross seam, the thread will act as my pin, holding the first seam in just the right place for that perfect intersection.

I'll be back in a couple of days with pressing strategies and more sneaky piecing tricks for sewing on the triangles.

In the mean time, I'm working on setting up a Pinterest board, and a linky thingie so we can share our progress. I hope you're working away out there, are you? Once we get these sashing strips out of the way, it's all fun and games.

Open House

The long-awaited other shoe has finally dropped. The job transfer has come through and we finally know where we're headed. There are still some details to work out, but it seems that Kent and I will be moving to Green Bay, Wisconsin sometime this spring.

The time has come to say goodbye to our treasured home. We have lived here nearly twenty years. This wonderful old house is practically a member of the family.

We're hosting an Open House on Sunday, March 1st, from 2 - 4 pm.

Click Here for more information, and a tour of the house.



When the realtor, my mom and I turned the corner into the driveway, all those years ago, it was love at first sight. We hardly got past the back hall and into the kitchen (which was orange and black, for heavens sake!) before I was convinced that this house was the perfect place to raise my four rowdy boys. More than that, though, I felt like the house was choosing us.

We've left our mark on this historic old home, to be sure, a lot of living has gone on here in the past two decades. This house has been filled with love and laughter, even when times were hard. We've celebrated birthdays and graduations. We even had a bride come down the wonderful old staircase, something this mother of boys never expected to see.

It's magic here, it really is. I wonder who the house will choose next.

A Fine Romance - Step One, The Sashing Strips

It's all about between, which perfectly sums up my life since the beginning of the year. Personally, we're still waiting for that other shoe to drop. Any.day.now. And then there are these sashing strips. Simple shapes, right? Easy Peasy. Well, as it turns out, yes and no.

Electric Quilt is just the best for designing quilts, especially the piecing part. I use it all the time to build the framework for my applique designs. One of the functions I love the most is being able to print out rotary cutting instructions for each block. It's terrific! The default setting is to state the sizes to the nearest eighth of an inch, which is just right most of the time.

It wasn't until I'd stitched out all sixty-eight of my four-patches, and then added the half square triangles that it occurred to me to measure the thing. They were about an sixteenth of an inch shy!

I went back to EQ and selected to have the sizes print out to the nearest sixteenth of an inch. (Something I usually do automatically.) Darned if the squares weren't listed as a sixteenth of an inch larger!

Now I know that I already have some quilters shaking in their shoes because there are no many eighth of an inch measurements. For the life of me, I don't understand the fear. The eighths are as clearly marked as the quarters and halves! I could only imagine how heads would explode is I suggested that anything be cut to a sixteenth of an inch. (Even though it's only halfway between the eights, how hard is that?)

So I fussed around and found that by rounding up on some shapes and rounding down on others, and with some careful attention to seam allowance, the sashing strips come out to pretty close to the right size. So, my dear quilting friends, just stay vigilant about seam allowance and all will be well.

What I thought folks would get their knickers in a twist over was the zillions of four-patches. Strip piecing is not my friend, especially the part where I have to cut each segment individually. So I wrote the pattern for both strip piecing and cutting the individual squares.

Step One is posted here. I'll have two more blog posts on piecing strategies in the coming days.

And just because the cold and gray of winter is finally getting to me, and I can't stand how gray and lifeless this post looks, here is a gratuitous picture of preparing the large flower applique pieces.

A Fine Romance

Let's do this thing! Because my life just isn't crazy enough, I think it's high time we get this party started!

I've posted the supply list and (fingers crossed) schedule for the release of the pattern steps over on Craftsy.

Click Here

Since things are still unsettled here I'm using the Craftsy Pattern Store to post the blocks. That may change once everything settles down, but for now it's the best I can do.

The introductory step has been posted for free. The individual steps will be posted initially for $1 each and will remain at that price for one month. After that, the price of each step will become $3. (Gotta keep you coming back, right?)


We're going to start with the boring stuff, the pieced sashing strips. I always start by doing my least favorite step. I was chatting with a friend recently who was working on a charming wool applique pattern. She had done all of the special blocks and had only the plain, boring scallop blocks for the edging left. She mentioned that she hoped she could keep with them, seeing how unappealing they were, long enough to finish the project. She gave me such a look when I explained that I would have started with them.

It's just my way of keeping a WIP from becoming a UFO. How many of us have projects that are nearly done? Often there is just one or two steps left to do, but after the interesting parts were done the project just lost all of its steam. Instead, by conquering the less glamorous steps first, while I'm still excited about the project, I can look forward to how much fun the rest of the work will be.

So, meet me back here on Sunday for the first step. I plan to have a stack of pieced sashing strips ready for show and tell. It could happen!

God Laughs

It's an old Yiddish saying. Man plans and God laughs. I started this year with a renewed creative drive. I had plans, such plans, of all the wonderful new stuff I would make and learn. Wanting to be more painterly in my applique design, I signed up for a beginning watercolor class. With the new quilt project's design nearly finalized, I started pulling fabrics.

And then everything changed. Just like that. While it's too soon to go into details because we don't have any yet. We've been waiting for details any.day.now, for almost a month. No need to worry, it's nothing dire, just a big change, and one that will be very good when we've finally come through it.

So, here it is, my working plan for the new Block of the Month. I'm calling it "A Fine Romance" after one of my favorite songs, written by Dorothy Fields and Jerome Kern.

Some of you who have been around this old blog for a while might recognize the design as one briefly posted a couple of years ago. The piecing plan is pretty much the same, but the applique is all new. I've been wanting to do something all viney and curvy for a while, this project seemed to be the perfect place for it.

With all the uproar around me, it's been a challenge to make even the simplest decisions. For a while I was toying with having the flower colors be much more random, but I'm thinking now that I'm going to stay with the rhythm of the colors falling in their own place. What do you think? The colors in the design are just placeholders anyway, so maybe I'll just have to make a few and see what I like.

Yesterday I added a few more colors to the palette. It seemed to need a more lemony yellow and some citrus greens. Several of the fabrics are from Moda's Grunge line, including the light background. The soft gray for the background accent piecing is a Riley Blake Basic which has a very similar texture. It's taken me a while to settle on the gray. I wanted it to be there, but not there, you know. This gray has a little more presence than that, and I may end up using the back side, or even replace it. We'll see.

The timing for the release of the steps is totally up in the air, just like everything in my life right now. It may have to be two months between steps, or even catch as catch can until things are finally settled, which I understand could be any.day.now.

Wanna Cruise with me?

Warm, tropical beaches. Sunshine. Excellent food. As casual or formal as you please. And quilting!

I hope you'll join me on a cruise to the Eastern Caribbean next March 5-13, 2016 with Quilt Retreat at Sea. That's eight delightful days at sea, eight days to rest and reinvigorate without a care in the world.

My hubby and I love to cruise. It's like staying at a deluxe hotel that also takes us to exotic places. We always return to real life with renewed energy.

This marvelous beauty will take us from island to island. We will be sailing onboard Royal Caribbean’s innovative Independence of the Seas. She recently underwent a $7 million refurbishment. The new features include a Cupcake Shop, an Italian trattoria called Giovanni’s, new digital signage, bow-to-stern WiFi (fees apply) and a poolside movie screen.

Our itinerary:
5 March 2016:          Depart Fort Lauderdale at 5:30pm
6 March 2016:          Cruising and Quilting Day at Sea
7 March 2016:          Labadee, Haiti from 7am to 3pm
8 March 2016:          San Juan, Puerto Rico from 2pm to 9pm
9 March 2016:          Basseterre, St. Kitts from 10am to 6pm
10 March 2016:        Philipsburg, St. Maarten from 8am to 5pm
11 March 2016:        Cruising and Quilting Day at Sea
12 March 2016:        Cruising and Quilting Day at Sea
13 March 2016:        Arrive Fort Lauderdale at 5:30am

On St. Kitts, we'll be visiting Caribelle Batiks, where we'll see first hand how some of our favorite quilting fabric is hand made.

For those days at sea I've designed charming little project that is full of fun techniques . It's a secret for now, but I'll be showing glimpses on the blog from time to time.

Click HERE to find out all you need to know to join us on this amazing tour. Spaces are limited, please check it out right away.

A Change in Priorities

 

Just about seven months ago I rearranged the studio. Yeah, yeah, you all know how I like to sort things, and reorganize, but this time it was different. I took my beloved Bernina from her place of honor, front and center, and shoved her to the back wall of the studio. All to make way for my new obsession: weaving.

It made perfect sense at the time. Looms not only need floor space, but they also need enough room around them to handle the awkward task of warping. Plus, the light (and the view) is so much better on the other side of the studio, near all the windows.

Yesterday we moved my sweetie back to front and center. I've decided to sell the smaller floor loom (the Baby Wolf) and move the larger loom to the back corner. Keeping the larger, heavier loom will allow me to make rugs from all the bolts of fabric I have, leftovers from kits and project work for fabric manufacturers. (I just adore my rainbow of fat quarters and thread.)

After all, I have work to do. I've set some goals for this year, and all of them include quilting! Since my applique book with C&T is out of print, I'll be writing a new one, which I will self publish. I have a project to design and make for the Caribbean Cruise that I'll be teaching on in 2015 (more information here, and coming soon to the blog.) I have a large quilt project I've been itching to do that may or may not become a block of the month (you'll help me decide, won't you?).

Plus, there's this quilt I need to finish, and heaven knows I'll need the space to work on it. (I've almost finished the ditch stitching, I'll have to figure out which fill stitches to use very soon. It's the hardest part for me, the deciding.)

Out with the old

It's probably been just about a year since I last posted about how much I like the clean slate that is January. There's something heady about a fresh new calendar. With the holiday crazies clearly in the rear view mirror, the new year promises the wide open spaces of unencumbered time.


 Of course that's silly. While the parties and family gatherings of the holidays are behind us, each day still has only twenty-four hours.

I'm nothing if not an optimist. Even when the sky is falling down around my ears I still think someday this will be funny. January just feeds my inner Pollyanna. The days are getting longer and there are few things more beautiful than sunshine on fresh snow.

It's no secret that the past several months have been physically difficult for me, but I've had a bit of an epiphany. After the docs pronounced me "as good as it will get", I found myself getting crankier every day. Being told "if it hurts, don't do it", and knowing that everything I enjoy hurts, I felt that all the doors in my life had closed.

During a rowdy conversation with my youngest about life and destiny, free will and predestination it dawned on me why I've been so frustrated.

I don't take "no" for an answer! I never have, even as a kid. Just tell me that I can't do something, or that something can't be done and I'm busy trying to prove you wrong before the door closes behind you.

There's always a way. Where there is life, there is hope. I thrive on hope. So, I've decided if I'm going to hurt anyway, at least I'll have fun while I can. And all of a sudden, I have my life back. Just like that.

There are so many new ideas, projects, techniques and challenges swirling in my head, and I'm breathless with the joy of possibilities. There's a big new quilt in the design stage, dare I say "block of the month"?

Yet another new toy this fall, my Silhouette electronic die cutting machine, just may become my new favorite applique tool. Imagine being able to down load a file and have the machine cut out those pesky templates for us! To learn the machine, I've been making these darling little paper houses, designed by Marji Roy. Too cute, huh!

Does New Year's Day mark a welcome new beginning for you, or it is just another day? Do you make resolutions? What are your hopes for 2015?

The Annual Gingerbread House Build

After all the dregs of another turkey dinner are swept away it's time to break out the gingerbread. I just love doing this for, and with, the grandkids. When we broke out the fixings Alex exclaimed, "oh goody, we get to make a mess!" We always have a crazy good time, and every year the houses get just a little more involved.

Nate, my oldest, and Alex get right to work on their houses. We use a three piece cookie cutter set to get the basic shapes. I think I broke down and bought a gingerbread house kit one year, just to get the cutters.

The grands still mostly rely on the cutters, but the kids are branching off into designs of their own.

Amanda and Nicole get moving too. Nicole is a take-charge kind of girl. gotta love that about her.

Of course, as far as the kids are concerned, it's not time for baking until the snowflake aprons and chefs' hats appear.

The real fun begins when it's time to build and decorate the houses. Just look at how intense the two engineers are! They are not content with cookie cutter houses. They always come up with something interesting. Nicole, on the other hand, is all about the glitter, she's my tomboy princess.

Finally it's time for our close-ups.










Alex wanted his picture to look like he was about to smash the house with his arm. I'm not sure that's the kind of thing that Captain America would do, but there you have it.

Amanda's winter wonderland house. Isn't she beautiful? (I'm pretty sure she has no idea how beautiful she is, which is part of her charm.) When it comes to mates, all of my boys have chosen very well.














Especially considering what they have to work with.

But then, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Now showing on the Baby Wolf

This is my Baby Wolf loom. It's smallish, with a weaving width of only twenty-six inches. The position of the warp threads, the ones on the loom, are controlled by shafts, frames of wire strands (heddles) through which the warp is threaded. Patterns are decided, in part, by through which heddle and shaft the thread is passed. With only four shafts, I think of this as my starter loom.

Right now I have it warped with cotton yarn for dish towels, which will (hopefully) become Christmas gifts. (I've you're on my gift list you might want to look away now.) It's really cool thread, called American Maid (from Lunatic Fringe Yarns), it's totally grown and processed in the US. The colors you see are all naturally occurring, and are supposed to deepen with washing.


Putting this warp on the loom made me cry. Repeatedly. The thread is so soft that it fuzzed up and matted together as we tried to crank it onto the warp beam. I had wound a fifteen yard warp, hoping to make a whole passel of dishcloths, but we gave up at about ten yards and just whacked the last bit off. Ten yards will still make almost a dozen towels.

Those threads hanging off the back of the loom are to replace threads that broke in the warping process. The thread is wrapped around a knitting bobbin and a lead fishing sinker is attached with a shower hook to add tension.

I'm learning that pretty much everything has a hard part that needs to be done well, and it usually comes early in the process. Babies need birthing, applique needs templates, quilting needs basting, and weaving needs a warp. It takes discipline and patience to get on with the hard parts, the patience part being the hardest for me. I have to admit to developing a new and specialized vocabulary for warping a loom.

But then we weave. As I dance on the treadles the shafts pop up and drop down, creating pattern and texture as the shuttles fly by. It is this good part that makes me forget all about the bad part until the next warp comes along.

Now with more piecing

When last we met I was regretting my decision to strip piece these units. Much to my dismay, even though I was feeling pretty smug about how carefully I had pressed them at the time, I found all sorts of pleats in the seam allowances at I put together the blocks. Let's just say there was a whole lot of easing going on.

There was also the ongoing question of what the he-heck I was thinking when I designed this quilt to have roughly two billion tiny squares.

The color is a little washed out here, but the alternate blocks are all done. Almost all of the teeny-tiny pieces are done. Yeah, right.

There are also thirty-some sashing strips to be done, and of course, they all contain itty-bitty four-patches. This time I came to my senses and cut first, sewed second. Being able to cut eight squares at a time made short work of it.

I've set them up on my ironing pad for what I call "flip-flop pressing". You can sort of see that the green fabric is showing on each of the sewn pairs. I want these seams to be pressed away from the background fabric, or towards the green fabric. I've alternated the pairs so that the thread within the four-patch will act as my pin for a super tight intersection. Once pressed, the thread was cut between the units, but not within.

Here they are, set on point with side triangles and ready be added into the sashing strips. It was about this time that I finally figured out that some of my piecing issues were due to a slightly generous seam allowance.

I'm working with a machine that is brand new to me, and I can't tell you how long it's been since I've actually sewn anything, so I just figured I was out of practice. But even when I was paying close attention to positioning the fabric, the seam allowance was still too wide. Moving the needle position one to the right solved the problem. I'm glad I figured that out before heading into the more involved parts of the quilt.

This is my "socialization" project. I only work on it at the quilt shop, during Open Sew or Sleep at Home Retreats. I figured I'd be able to knock this quilt in no time at all. About two days into the retreat I was so busy having fun that I forgot about taking pictures, and eventually gave up speedy progress because I was too busy laughing my keister off.

Transforming a UFO into a WIP

Remember this quilt? This is Christmas Yet to Come, the block of the month project for 2011. I loved making this quilt. I loved the over-the-top applique, all simple shapes, but oh, so many of them!

It's a large quilt, 102 inches or so square. I knew that basting the quilt could be a challenge. Buying a 108" backing fabric seemed like the way to go.

This is also the only quilt that has taken me three tries at basting to get it right. Three tries on a quilt that is 102" square.

My first fail came from a rush job at a quilt shop retreat. Because the place was packed full of happy quilters, only a couple tables, of slightly different heights were available. No biggie, right? This is not my first trip to the basting rodeo. Wrong. Puckers and pleats everywhere. Unbasting ensued.

For my second try, I switched over from my default 80/20 batting, which is white, to a black polyester batting that was supposed to be designed for machine quilting. I was concerned about bearding (when the light colored batting comes through the fabric to give it a hazy appearance), and I was hoping the loft of the polyester batt would add to the texture of the quilting. Another epic fail. This time it was incredible static cling that resulted into unruly bubbles on the backing, and the quilt weighed a metric ton. More unbasting.

Hoping that the third time would be a charm, I switched out the poly batt for wool. Wool has a gentle loft, and keeps its warmth despite being very light.

Of I toddled to the Quilted Cottage, on an off day so that there would be lots of open tables. With all the room I would need, I carefully pressed and then secured the backing fabric to the tables.

Starting in one corner, I was careful to leave enough fabric for wiggle room on the edge. I happily basted the majority of the quilt, feeling positive about the outcome this time.







But then I came to the opposite side of the quilt. Aaargh! The backing is short by about eight inches. Of course I started by kicking myself in the rear and then sitting down for a little bit of a pity party. I really couldn't face unbasting this quilt yet again. And when I measured out the extra on the opposite end I realized that it wouldn't have been enough, even if I'd snugged the quilt right up to the edges. Perhaps the quilt is a little larger than I thought, or maybe the backing wasn't 108", I bought it three years ago. Maybe it shrank in the closet, lord knows my clothes do.


In the end I decided to forge on ahead and seam the backing fabric. I started by ripping away the selvages. I had plenty of fabric left over in yardage, so I ripped that as well. The pieced edge will be cross grain while the majority of the backing is on the straight of grain. This might be an issue if this quilt were to be hung, but I'm not overly worried. I'm going to quilt the snot out of it, so the backing should be very stable.

Ripping the fabric keeps the edges perfectly on grain, This might end up being the only "perfect" thing about this quilt.

The sewing, even while being very careful, only took a few minutes. My machine has a dual feed option, which helps to prevent shirring along the seam. Otherwise,I would have used a walking foot. A seam this long, and with so much extra weight to one side, is just begging for trouble.

The proof is in the pressing. The seam was pressed open to eliminate as much bulk as possible. A seam pressed to the side can result in unexpected bumps when quilting. Thanks to the subtle print pattern of the backing fabric, the seam almost disappears.

Even though it seemed like a monumental job, it actually took about a half an hour to complete.

The quilt is now fully basted. Done and Done. Now it's time to finally commit to a quilting plan. I will begin by stitching in the ditch around the applique and the pieced elements. I'm pretty sure the center stars will be surrounded by some sort of grid work. As for the background fill? I'm open to suggestions. Really. Help!