Tag: quilting

One Circle Quilted

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All 24 sections of the Dresden plate as well as the flowers surrounding the fisherman have been quilted.

Rather than transfer a quilting design and following it, I used the fabric as my guide. Any motif that looked simple enough to follow was outlined in black quilting stitches.

The Dresden plate

Close up of fisherman

In order to accomplish all this quilting, I drug this quilt all over Pottstown. It has been worked on at McDonalds, my neighbor’s house, MOMS club activities and local playgrounds. Basically, any spare moment has been spent quilting.

3 more circles to go. Expect to see the quilt if you see me.

Vacation Notice

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We are leaving for Ocean City, NJ tomorrow morning. Elly knew of our plans a month ago and has been ready to go all that time.

The past two days of packing have just increased the “Why can’t we go now?” questions. Though I am excited to put an end to those questions, I am not looking forward to 2 hours of “Are we there yet?” questions. Perhaps I will be the woman who invents the vehicle that can transport you to your destination by the push of a button. Necessity is the mother of invention, right?

Typically, on beach vacations, I never set foot on the beach as there is little that I like about the sun, cold ocean water, and sticky sand. Elly, on the other hand, would live by the water, so truly a compromise or two will have to be made. Hopefully, a little hand quilting will do wonders to help me forget my surroundings. If that doesn’t work, a glass of port at the end of the day should ease my sun-weary feet.

Hope you have a wonderful week! I’ll be back with lots of pictures.

Quilt Top Finished

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Appliqueing the Dresden plates by hand took a lot longer than I had planned.

The plates are really big and most often I only accomplished hand sewing half of one down before it was time for bed. Of course, sickness and daily life ensured that I didn’t get to work on the quilt everyday.

Still the process was enjoyable. I got to watch a lot of Miss Marple. The series is not quite as good as Murder She Wrote though it is in the same vein, but perhaps that is because I am bias. I just adore Angela Lansbury.

After appliqueing the plates, the next step was to create a quilt sandwich. The only way I know to anchor the back fabric when a quilt becomes this large is to tape it to the floor, so that is exactly what I did. Blue painters tape worked brilliantly in this case.

A million pins were placed all over the quilt top to keep the sandwich together. Despite using quilter’s safety pins which are curved, my fingers were still bleeding by the end.

This is where I stopped in the process a few days ago. It always takes me a few days to build up my courage to start quilting and even then it might take a glass of port to push me into making the first line of quilting. I truly love to quilt. It’s the best part of making a quilt. Yet, it always gives me the butterflies. Part of me feels like I am taking a Sharpie and marking all over an art piece.

Hand Applique

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The quilt top is assembled, but it is not finished.

The Dresden plates are only basted onto the quilt top. To tack the edges down, I am using a hand applique technique. Although I found instructions for the technique in the Complete Guide to Quilting book, an online tutorial can be found here.


If you squint, you should be able to see my stitches in red. I used red thread because if I am going to hand sew, I want my stitches to visible. Plus, I thought it might look nice against the red wheel fabric.

Why hand applique, you ask.

It’s a good question. Surely, a sewing machine would be faster. It’s not like I lack for sewing machines. I own 3 now.

There are several reasons why I chose to attach the Dresden plates by hand.

One, I plan to quilt this Dresden throw by hand, so it just goes with the theme of things.
Two, I like to hand stitch things.
Three, a sewing machine must be used in the sewing room after hours and away from family. Hand stitching can be done almost anytime and anywhere.
Four, I can watch TV while hand stitching. There are no TVs in the sewing room.
Five, did I mention that I really enjoy the repetition of sewing by hand? It’s like knitting; it relaxes me.

Right now I am watching Vanity Fair. It’s so nice to get a break from Go, Diego, Go and the Green Lantern, also known as the Justice League.

And for those wondering why Elly watches the Justice League, well obviously Dan had a hand in it. About a month ago, Elly won a stuffed super hero from the claw machine inside our local grocery store. She asked me what his name was. I had no idea. Of course, Dan knew and not only told her his name, Green Lantern, but also introduced her to comic books with the Green Lantern in it and cartoons with the Green Lantern in it. Now the whole family knows Green Lantern’s name and has watched far too many Justice League cartoon shows. Although I shouldn’t complain because the Justice League is far better than Diego or Bob the Builder or Timmy Time.

Quilt Blocks on the Floor

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Typically, I would stack my quilt blocks on a table, but these quilt blocks are gigantic. They measure 26.5 inches square. It is far easier to piece them together on the floor.

Dan is not a fan. He has been sick and has graciously relegated himself to the guest bed so as not to get the rest of us sick. Thus, he has had to weave his way around the blocks to get in and out of bed.

Hopefully, I can finish pinning the sashing to the quilt blocks in the next day or so. Then at least they will be off the floor.

The plus side of the gigantic quilt blocks is that it will be quicker to piece the quilt top together, since there are fewer pieces to sew. Which in turns means that I can hurry up and get to the part I love: hand quilting.

Quilting while Sick

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Elly was sick the week before her birthday party. Two days after her birthday party, she was sick again. This time, I got sick with her. Misery does love company.

No progress has been made on my Fearless February project. I’m too sick to mount the energy required for it.

Instead I put together a mini quilt.

The winter picture is from an old 1978 calendar.

To turn it into a quilt, I just cut the picture out, tossed the calendar section in the trash and added two borders.

The fabrics were picked out from the huge selection at Generations Quilt Shop. Gosh, I love that store. The fabric is divided by color so it’s like walking into a rainbow. But the main reason I love the store is because they always have just what I want. I have never walked out empty handed.

But back to the quilt, I used fusible quilt batting to secure the quilt sandwich together. Then, I stitched in the ditch along the border seams. The rest of the quilting will be done by hand.

While watching the now memorized movie of Tinkerbell and Periwinkle, otherwise known as the Secret of the Wings, I squeeze in a little hand quilting while listening to Elly as she excitedly tells me what is going to happen before it does.