Blue Green Napkins

 

I really am attracted to these beautiful toweling fabrics from Ruby Star Society that have been out in the stores lately the texture is just so lovely. I bought a yard of a different color way than the rainbow one I worked with last year or the blue/brown stripes in 2022. Those napkins from four years ago are really holding up well to a lot of use and washing.

I stitched along the raw edge with the triple zig-zag stitch.

I also cut the one yard fabric length in half with pinking sheers to limit the fraying as I sewed.

I also stitched around the pre-stitched edges as some of the existing stitching wasn't regular, quite long in some spots.

And then I went around again a second time just for fun.

Now to pull threads and make a little fringe

And there they are, two completed napkins. Turns out I should have bought 2 yards to make the usual four. Maybe next time I make it to Hart's Fabrics again.

Vintage HRTs

 

The other project I worked on at Sew Day was cutting out the pairs of purple and white rectangles that I need to do clue #4 of the Lupine Mystery.

There are so many "vintage" purples in here, a lot of which were the very first quilt fabrics I ever bought as I've always been a purple person. It was quite fun to use them all and remember "way back when" and to finally be using them again. The one in the lower left corner comes from at least two yard piece of fabric that I had probably bought to make myself shorts or some other piece of clothing. That never happened and I can probably use the rest of it for the backing for this quilt - memo to me.

The rectangles that you start out with are quite large compared to the finished block unit size. It's funny to see them together. I didn't remember to bring my rulers to Sew Day, so I came home with the two large stacks of the 23 more sets of rectangles to work with.

12 Days of ICAD

 

I wish I could see a structure like this in real life.

These two go together.

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeeze

The most bulbous stoplight ever

This one might be my favorite of the bunch. Hopefully I didn't need these tickets.

Maybe this is the completely unconscious "before" of the clear hues rainbow-y Pride card I did at the beginning of June. I say completely unconscious because I didn't sit down and make this as an intentional "before", it just happened and I noticed the similarity afterward when I was sorting the cards into date order. Interesting how that works.

Sound waves?

Celebrating the end of June by tearing up the calendar page.

Not really raspberries.

Sometimes there are inspiring candy wrappers around to use: FEEL the JOY

History standout

This is the end of the ICAD download for now.

Mosaic Back

The first thing I worked on at Sew Day was making a back for my Mosaic table runner. I had two pieces with the smaller piecing to start with. 

I used more of the fabrics that I'd used on the front. They look so different when seen in the larger chunks of them. Now to figure out how to quilt this piece.

 

Mini Pumpkins Done

 

The Mini Pumpkins quilt was put together and all ready and layered for quilting.

And so I quilted it, nothing too fancy, but done.

I decided to use on of the background fabrics for the binding.

I got it sewn on quickly.

And that's all done now.

Okay, done, just in time to show it at Sew Day for the #5 UFO Challenge. Now on to doing #3, which is my Bohemian Wife quilt...a real challenge.

Semiquincentennial Time

Happy 4th of July1

We're currently out at our town Volunteer Fire Department Pancake Breakfast and then the town parade celebrating the 250th anniversary of our country's founding. So here's a picture from last year.

I really loved this reading of the grievances to King George that are in the Declaration of Independence. Robert Reich was formerly a professor at my alma mater, University of California at Berkeley. Note that it does include some footage and sound from our current ruler who truly believes himself to be a sort of a king. Which of course entirely misses the main point of what we're celebrating today. Freedom from tyranny.

Tyranny Shall Not Prevail! Above sticker available here.

This one from the US Constitution Center has no current presidential administration content and has a lot more background information included on the grievances.

As my ancestor Tom Paine said, "we have within our power to begin the world over again." A good thing to keep in mind these days. This video is part of a series of video shorts called 250 to 250 which are great little snippets of US history.

Community Giving Binding and Tutorial

 

This is a combination of a post about getting the quilt binding done for the BAMQ Community Giving quilt AND a tutorial on how to join the ends of the binding using the The Binding Tool by TQM. This is mostly for me, so that I don't have to go watch the instruction video each time. I'm pretty sure I picked this tool up on the Free Table at a BAMQ Sew Day.

You sew on a 2.5" wide quilt binding leaving a 12" gap between your starting and ending points. And I mean as close to exactly 12" as possible. (this is one point I wasn't always the best at). If you don't measure this, it's hit or miss on whether the binding will end up being the right length.

The printing on the tool is ALWAYS face-up. The square end of the tool butts up against the spot where the stitching ends on the left, and you mark the binding with the "MARK HERE" line on the tool.

Unfold and open up the binding flat, right-side up, place the tool on the binding and align the "MARK HERE" line with the line you've marked. The binding fabric they use in the tutorial is a solid, so it's a little hard to tell which side is up so I wanted to note that mainly for myself.

Trim the binding using the angled side of the ruler. Okay, that's the left-hand side of the binding cut and ready to sew together, now moving on to the right-hand side.

Turn the ruler around, but don't turn it over, **Remember it stays Printed Side up**. Butt up the square end of the ruler to the stitching ending point. Mark the binding using the "Mark Here" line.

Spread open the binding, right side up. This is the point I've messed up so pay attention: Align the small angled edge of the ruler with the line you've marked.

Trim off using the angle of the ruler. 

It's pretty standard from here out, pin the two ends together, aligning the snub nosed ends.

Sew with a 1/4" seam. Press open.

Sew down the binding over the 12" gap you had left. You're done/

And then, when you flip over the binding, if you've got a label, don't forget to add it in. For a quilt that's going to be used and washed a lot, I don't hand-sew the binding.

There it is, all done! No gaps, no lumps, no tears or un-sewing.

I made the binding out of some of the quilt's own excess backing fabric (the green one) and a piece of fabric left from the backing of one of my quilts (the yellow one).

I hope that tutorial helps me in the future, and maybe you too if you happen to have this tool in your ruler stash.