Cumulative Finish

After trimming the finished quilt to size, it was time for adding on the binding to the piece I've made for the Stretching Art & Tradition exhibit.

And then I decided to go over the couched-on spiral of cotton Baker's Twine as I'd missed too many places. That took a while! But it was worth it, now it won't get caught on anything.

There it is...Cumulative Spiral. One of my first quilt finishes for 2026, hurrah!

A close-up of the binding (I used the same Navy blue as I did for the background of Patchwork Palooza) and the now-secured spiral.  Now it's time to sew on the sleeve and label and send it off to the show organizer tomorrow!


 

Off The Couch(ing)

Well, I lost at "bobbin chicken" and had to stop my couching efforts to wind myself a new one.

It's going pretty well now that I've gotten the hang of it. Very different than free-motion quilting. Also, I'm using a small zig-zag stitch as well.

Getting closer to the top.

And...done! Now to trim to the exact size, 24" w x 36"h and add some binding. 

 

Still Couching.

 

I'm still working on the "Cumulative Spiral" couching effort for my Stretching Art & Tradition quilt. It's fiddly and kind of close-up. I decided not to mark or pin or glue, but I still am working to a sort of plan/design. The thread vs. the baker's twine that I'm using is playing well together visually. But the baker's twine is sometimes getting stuck on the needle, and on the thread above the needle. So that's a little annoying, but I'm sticking with it and trying to go slow enough to notice when there's a problem developing.

I

Every now and then I have to stand up and see what it is that I've couched. I'd say "So far, so good", I'm almost up to the top, which means I'm almost done. Noticing how much I truly love stitching on my hand-dyed fabrics, it's somehow still quite a thrill. That means I really do need to keep on dyeing. (note the e in the word)

Black and White Couching Spirals

 

After all that quilting, it was time for some quilt trimming.

I have a design drawn out that needs to be added to this quilt, so I decided to try some couching.

I'm using a black and white  two-ply twisted cotton baker's twine. This first part in the lower right hand corner is the most fiddly part.

I'm using a black and white twisted 2-ply rayon thread (Wonderful D-Twist) to do the couching. Last seen being used last year, on my Stretching Art & Tradition 25 quilt

This is working out pretty well so far. It shows up just enough, like a sketch.

Thread Spiral

Choosing threads for all the colors of the background of my SAT 26 quilt, Cumulative Spiral.

Looking for not exactly matching, but pretty close.

It's always fun to go through my quilting threads and search for the right colors to use.

 I think it turned out pretty well. Now that the background is all done, it's time to do the rest of the work on the reminder of the quilt design.

SAT 26 - Begin Again

 

Working on my quilt, Cumulative Spiral for the SAT 26 exhibit (Stretching Art and Tradition). This is the un-ironed, non-sewn together background. Yes, those are all of my dyed fabrics. A lot are the results of trying to match colors for the Temperature Quilt.

Free P.O.T.S.

 

You just never know what's going to be on the Free Table at the Bay Area Modern Quilting meetings and Sew Days. This time it was this kind of large, two sided opening thread organizer box. I think this will be a much better solution to corralling all the embroidery threads I've accumulated instead of digging around in a bag for the right one. It won't be one that I carry around with me for a project on the go. And, Yes it's yet another P.O.T.S. (Plastic Organizer ThingieS) but one that I'll hopefully actually use. If not I'll put it back out on the Free Table.

I like the idea of the two-sided doors too. I'll have to fill it up and show how it looks.  It seems like it will hold a lot of different size/shapes of spools which is a good feature. 

Also seen above another of my favorite batting Hobbs 80/20 fusible that I just bought to replace the last one I used earlier this year for both my SAT 25 piece, Our Mistake and Sky Structure, made for the Sister Artists auction.

Our Mistake

I had a lot of help from one of my studio assistants getting the facings, sleeve and label hand-sewn onto the Our Mistake I was finishing for Stretching Art & Tradition. 

Korben was really on alert and we had a little fight about who got to use the needle (eek!)

 Here's the final look at the whole quilt with the facings stitched down.

I like the look of this view of the bottom part of the quilt, it looks like a scenic postcard to me.

And a close up of the boat being dissolved in the acid lake.

The word window picture frame worked out as I was hoping. The title and the words in the window come from an essay written after the November election by Rebecca Solnit.

All four of the corners cooperated for once.

As per usual I looked up the ever so helpful Jeri Riggs facing method page for assistance.

And now it's off in the mail winging its way across the country in time  to be in the 25th Stretching Art & Tradition exhibit at the Mancuso show - Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival in Virginia. 

Approaching Finishing

 Just a bit left to do on the "Our Mistake" quilt for Stretching Art and Tradition.

The newly-added lake waves are all done, so now it was time to break up the boat into dissolving-in-the acid lake pieces.

Very happy with how this turned out.

And there it is, now all that's left is to just add facings, a sleeve and a label.

And the Sister Artists quilt, "Structured Sky" has been trimmed down to size. This one will be getting binding, a sleeve and a label.

Final-ish Form

 

It was all green stitching today. That and going slowly to avoid sewing over the pins.

The green acid lake is looking turbulent enough.

I did chicken scratch quilting on the edges of each raw-edge. Blends them together well enough.

It was hard to cut off this part at the end, but this quilt needs to be 24"w x 36"h.

There, the background is all stitched. I did do some extra around the sides and bottom for the trimming to size.

The boat is the last part to stitch on, and the look of it will be quite different when I'm done.

Blue Finish

 

The new blue worked out just fine. Thankfully I had a large selection of light blue thread to choose from.

Now that the blue is finished, so is the quilting on this one. Now for the trimming and all the rest.

And here's how the other quilt is looking now that the green acid lake has been re-pinned.

Mostly Blue

 
I carried on with stitching more blue in the Sister Artists quilt. 

But I lost at thread chicken! Instead of bobbin chicken for once.

Trying to give some sense of butterflies flying through the air with the quilting motifs.

Stitching around the embroidered butterflies I'm going slower not wanting to catch any of the embroidery threads. So far so good. I've got some more blue stitching left to do on this one.

I also finished off all the blue thread quilting on the Stretching Art & Tradition quilt. Yes the green section has been unpinned. It's getting a bit redesigned.

I like how the blue turned out on this one.

The clouds are floating by...