Proof is
here! Mrs. Messy has featured a photo of Jack's Quilt (and her other favorites) as part of her photo montage for the word of the week "quilt". How exciting, thanks Mrs. Messy, blog shout outs are super sweet!
The rest of this post brought to you by...Crayola Washable Markers and Elmer's Washable School Glue (Allow me to explain).
This afternoon I finished quilting Quinn's quilt with a simple "diamonds" pattern using straight lines and my walking foot. I did the first set of lines using 1.5 inch painters tape and tried to do the second set of lines...unfortunately the tape wasn't cooperating. I think the stickiness wore off too much and I was too lazy to tear off more tape, so I decided to draw on the lines using crayola washable markers and my clear ruler.
Overall I think it was much easier. Although I like using tape because I don't go blind watching the drawn on lines, I think in the future I might just draw on my designs and not mess around with the tape. I've used these markers in the past and had no problem with them completely washing out (even after weeks of soaking into the fabric). I find them cheaper and easier to use then all of the traditional quilting pens that I've found a fabric stores.
I also sewed binding strips together and put them on the front of Quinn's quilt with my machine. In the past I've had horrible frustration (OK, temper tantrums following by yelling and cursing) attaching the "ends" of the binding together and onto my quilts. Either I have too much extra and I end up tucking fabric (which makes me nuts) or I cut the tails too short and then I have to sew on another piece (which makes me even more nuts).
Finally, thanks to this fabulous video on
utube I made and attached a perfect binding! I'm so thrilled to have finally found such an easy solution (Elmer's glue to help attach binding, who knew?) I could dance around the room. Sharon Schamber's videos are excellent. If you haven't watched them yet, I highly highly recommend you take a gander.
Back to hand stitching the binding to the back
K-
This weekend E and I went to the Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza. It was really amazing and the quilts there were absolutely gorgeous. I took a bunch of photos that I'll upload in the next couple of days. Now I have so many ideas for new quilts I want to start, I hardly know where to begin. I bought some beautiful batiks and some wool felt that I plan on making into a strawberry candle mat for my grandmum. I also saw some fancy longarms which was pretty neat. When I have an extra 15-30k lying around I know where I can put it to good use.
