Stitch Happens Finish

 

It's true, Stitch Happens is now finished. I stitched on the binding yesterday. 

I was so glad that I'd made the binding ahead of time, so that I could just get going when I was ready. It makes a lot sense, as long as you have all the fabric out when you're working on the quilt, just make the binding. Reminder to me: Just Make The Binding

I decided to continue with the orange thread I was using for quilting, I think it looks really against that purple.

Tah-dah! All done!

Here's some detail shots showing the binding.

I'm glad that I added that little border of squares around the outside.

My favorite part of the quilt I think.

Love that needle motion.

Stitch Happens Quilted

 

And finally it's all quilted! The stitching on Stitch Happens has happened. Here's the binding all ready to get sewn on and then this'll be a done-zo deal. 

I made a lot of thread color changes, but I think that it was worth it.

I had all the fun playing around with filling in the different shapes in this quilting.

Avoiding stitching over the eyes of course.

I'm particularly pleased with how the spool of thread turned out.

Front And Back

 

Nearing completion of the quilting on Stitch Happens. Here are some pictures of how the back is looking.

I'm kind of regretting that I used grey in the bobbin for the initial anchor quilting as it really shows up. I switched over to orange which looks pretty cool.

I did a bunch of spirals in free motion quilting for the purple border.

And then in the background I did walking foot echo quilting.

I figured anything else wouldn't really show up due to the very busy letter fabric.

Trying not to work myself up into taking the anchor quilting out. It would really be too much.

I'm pretty pleased overall with the quilting so far. But I'm also looking forward to being done.

The grey thread that I used really disappeared which was pretty much the idea.

X The Border

Back in the sewing room after our camping trip to Yosemite. Back to some quilting on the Stitch Happens quilt.

This time it's walking foot instead of free motion.

As soon as I was really into stitching, of course the new Studio Assistant, Korben decided to get involved.

Mostly he just watched and sat on the quilt. No more worry about the quilt slipping off the table I guess.

Then he really started testing out the quilt for snuggly-ness potential.

It got a little harder to stitch the further asleep he became, but we worked it out.

Pretty quick to do freehand X's.

I went around the whole border with X marks the spot. It turned out pretty well without marking anything.
 And a good short nap was had.

Quilting Break Time

Well, I was trying to get some more quilting done today.

But my new studio assistant insisted that I take a break to pet him. Immediately.

He wasn't taking no for an answer.

I took off my quilting gloves and did enough scratching and scritching to make Korben happy.

He thoroughly inspected the Stitch Happens quilt.

There may be a few teeny tiny holes besides where the threads are going in and out, but I think that'll be okay.
 

Stitch Happens Layered

On this hot day, I braved the steamy iron and got my Stitch Happens quilt layered up with my favorite fusible batting (Hobbs 80/20).

 Once again, there's just enough to go around on the back. I always cut it too close. It's annoying when you're quilt layering/basting, but yet I keep doing it to myself. Memo to me: Make Bigger Quilt Backs.

Tomorrow I'll layer/baste the Slopes quilt and then it's time to switch over the sewing machine into walking foot mode.

Back Addendum

 

I was going to sandwich the Stitch Happens quilt top, but then I remembered that the backing I made was a skosh too small. About 2 1/4" too small in one direction.

I added a strip of scraps from making the quilt top with a little of the background solid on either end. Then I added one more small strip of the background to seal in those scraps. This will be the straight edge that I begin with when I do the sandwiching to make sure that line of scraps doesn't get trimmed off.

I really like this combo of the green orange red/magenta and purple pink in this picture. Striking.

Did I like the quilt backing as it was before? Yes. Should I have just added a big width of just the background solid instead of the pieced column of scraps? Maybe. But I think it looks just fine.

Still a bit unnaturally obsessed with how the teeny HST's turned out.

Now I can get to some sandwiching.

July To-Do

 

A to-do list for July seems a little ambitious for summer, but hey why not? There might be some days where it's not too hot so that I can use an iron and so on. For those days, here's the list so I can easily choose something to work on. Above is how the design wall looks at the moment, the final arrangement of the Trinket quilt is still being decided upon right now.

Sew-a-Long Thingies

Trinket - Finalize layout, assemble quilt top. To get a finisher patch for the sew-a-long I have to at least get the quilt top done and submitted (but not quilted) by the end of August.

Color Collective - Sandwich the Slopes Quilt, make another side for the Clover Pillow with Swerves, start cutting for Colorwash

Stitch Happens - Finish making back, sandwich, quilt, bind, label.

Temperature Quilt - cut hotter colors, assemble more month columns

Pantone Project - keep making blocks and sending postcards

ICAD- keep making the monthly index card a day.

Secret Lives of Color- it's still so secret, keep reading the book and making the blocks, post some too.

New Work

A Hot One - planned quilt celebrating the color of the year, Viva Magenta.

Garment Sewing Academy- start sewing the Cielo top.

Finish It Up

Sightlines Triptych - make and hand sew on hanging sleeves and labels.

Y.E.S. Coat - make more blocks and pieces.

Orange Bullseye - Finish quilting, bind, label

Village/Japanese Houses -Finish quilting bind, label

Quilt Photography - Still need to get it done, because I'll be needing the photos to enter a couple of upcoming shows and to update my website. Plus I really need the space back in my workroom.

Okay that's enough of a list for a summer month I think.