Kawandi Finish

 

Since I got back from LA, I've been continuing to stitch the kawandii quilt. My goal was to finish in time for the BAMGQ UFO Challenge which is due on our Sew Day (which is today).

As I got closer and closer to the center I had to finalize it, added two last pieces into the mix, right before the stitching reached that area of the quilt.

I found the stitching got harder and harder to do as I got into the center. 

The pieces got smaller so there were a lot more edges to contend with and that meant more layers of silk to stitch through.

It has been a fun and challenging project and I’ve really enjoyed learning a new way to make a quilt. I started working on this project in a SBMQG class with Sujata Shah back in 2021

Here it is, all finished! 

I ended my last stitching line with an X just because, "x marks the spot" has always made sense to me.

The corners got a little ravel-y, but they're still looking nice. As Sujata said in class, "the Kawandi looks "naked" without a fula in each of the four corners."

And that's #2 on my BAMQ UFO Challenge list completed just in time to show at Sew Day.

120° Degrees

 

This is mostly for me, but here's how I did the 120° corners on the mini quilt/tablerunner. Mark a diagonal line at the corner and stop stitching on or just shy of that point. Make sure and backstitch.

This step is where we see the biggest difference in applying binding to 90° corners, when you fold the binding back over itself- align the raw-edge bottom of the binding straight with the bottom edge of the next section around the corner you're working on of the item being bound.

The next step is to fold the binding down back over itself,  and then pinning down that fold. 

Start stitching (and backstitch) on that same point where you stopped before, at the center diagonal of the corner and 1/4" away from the raw edge.

Repeat those steps with all the corners, join your binding ends as per usual.

I sewed the binding down from the front by machine as this is going to be a frequently machine washed item. The trick to this is to go more slowly than usual, and take your time folding the binding on the corners.

Some closeups of how the binding looks.

I like how a new word is suggested because of the piecing, It looks like "dictrum" maybe?

More views of the words fabric and the quilting.

This turned out to be a fun project, and now I don't have these pieced triangles sitting around.

Here's how the corner binding looks, I did a needle-down pivot and stitched into the binding join at each corner a few stitches and then back stitched, pivoted in the next direction and .

It seems to make it a little flatter.

Pretty pleased with how this turned out.

Word Mini Quilt

 

Time for me to make another small quilt for the SBAMQG MiniQuilt Challenge. 

The challenge this time is "Words" so of course I thought of my favorite word fabric that I was using in the Ring blocks I was making a couple years ago. I had bought enough extra to spare a bit for this project.

I unearthed a baggie with the green leftover pieced triangles from making the Jawbreaker pillow and thought it would go together very well with the green word fabric.

I couldn't help but notice the perfectly highlighted word definitions on the seam allowances.

It really was cracking me up, how perfectly it worked out on so many of the seams.

I had to document it as it was soon going to disappear once this got quilted.

Definition of a needle.

There were a few near duplicates of the pieced triangles but I like the repetition in the overall design.

These really go together easily using the Hex-n-More ruler.

As I was cutting the triangles out, I made sure that the words were rightside up on either long edge of this so that the people on one side of the table can read the triangle's worth of words that is closest to them.

Here's how it looks all pieced together. Yes, another table runner has magically appeared...

Definitely needed a border, so it was back to the Tula Pink bin.

I got this quilted very very  quickly, just straight-line, nothing exciting.

 I think that it looks good and all the stitching will hold it together through many machine washes.

Now to got sew on the green binding to finish it before the meeting tonight!

Several Saturday Updates

There are several things I wanted to update on but weren't "worth" their own post. First off, a quilt finish, Checkerboard-ish is done and on my table. I was able to get it done in time to show it off at the SBAMQG meeting, as it was a mini-quilt challenge for that group.

I'm very pleased with how the quilting turned out.

I did indeed do a facing and it worked out very well, not distorting too much and very flat which is good as it is being used ar a table runner.

Just as predicted (and hoped!), zig-zagging the edges of the two woven 1/2 yards from this month's Color Collective helped quite a lot with fraying. Definitely worth the extra bit of time to do this step before pre-washing wovens.

Leeloo has now discovered the joys of lurking on top of the fridge. Thankfully she jumped down onto the counter after I was done chopping (this time at least!).

We did Passover at my SIL's on the actual first night for once, and it was fun. I got to be the Locusts this year.

The old bird feeder is now under attack by squirrel, and is also beginning to break, so it needed replacing. The red glass hummingbird feeder just needs refilling.

I got a supposed to be squirrel-proof gigantic feeder. We need to hang it out further from the pole, that's happening today, DH has been scheming on various squirrel-defying solutions.

I went to do my daily jigsaw puzzle in the app I've been using for many years and check out this ad! Yes, even puzzle games are in on the Pantone Color of the Year Viva Magenta bandwagon. I took the opportunity to post it to Instagram along with my fabric pull for my own Viva Magenta quilt idea for the 2023 Color of the Year Quilt Challenge.
 

That's enough updates for now!

Checkerboard-ish This Close to Finished

 As you can see, the borders I added to the color palette challenge piece were made with the same two blues and all the other colors from the palette that hadn't been used yet. I thought the red pieces looked good in the corners.

Once I was happy with the look of the borders, I just straight-pin basted and did the initial quilting lines along the main parallel strip lines.

The quilting on this was a pretty easy decision to come to. I just followed the inset skinny strip diagonal pieces. 

I used a medium purple rayon thread. I thought the color would show up well enough but not be too dominant or contrast-y.

It's taking a while to go all the way across the quilt surface with each set of parallel lines but it's definitely worth it. I have a couple sections to finish and then I'll call it done.

I like how flat this is turning out, it may end up being a table runner? It's just about the right size at 16" x 27" I think I'll put a facing on this to finish it off instead of a binding. Also I will take a better photo that doesn't have the late afternoon shadows happening.