Keeping It All Straight

It will take 16 squares to make this tablecloth. All the squares are made exactly the same way with all the little pieces in the same pattern. The design comes from turning each square one-quarter turn as the quilt is put together. If the squares are not sewn together just right, the pattern will be lost. To help me keep track of everything, each block was given a letter and a number to mark its correct spot.

Five-Inch Squares

This new project will become a cloth for my kitchen table. First I accumulated fat quarters (18" x 22") of various materials - anything I liked. I was sure to look for light fabrics and dark fabrics. These were cut into 5" squares and then into smaller squares and rectangles and sewn together to make a pattern. This first picture is some of these pieces. The second picture shows them arranged and ready to be sewn into a block. The design of this small quilt will come from the play of light and dark.

Four Little Dresses

This week I made four dresses for a charity called "Little Dresses for Africa". It was founded by a woman here in the Detroit area and sends simple homemade dresses to little girls in poverty around the world. They also built a school in Malawi and are now working on a house for a teacher. You can read about this mission on their website, littledressesforafrica.org.

A Happy Village

My new/old project is to finish the Happy Village I started at a class in Colorado with the Main Street Quilters last year. It's really a fabric collage that will be quilted when the picture is complete. First I laid out the background - mountains, sky, water, and village. The pieces on the left have been glued down. I'm still working on the rest. I'll also add more steps, doors, and windows. It feels like I'm coloring with fabric.

Quilts on the Fence

Main Street Quilters revealed their challenge quilts at Gillett Lake near Jackson on Saturday, July 7. What wonderful variety considering that we all started with the same three fabrics.

The Finishing Touch

My "Colorado Bears" quilt is now finished. I took it to the family reunion to show Jurdis and to have others help with the tying. By tying instead of quilting, this lap robe will be softer and cuddlier for snuggling under while watching TV

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One More Bear

This bear decided to take a walk in the river.

Corners and Points

A challenge for any quilter is to get her corners and points to match perfectly. It takes precise cutting and careful sewing to make them come together just so. Not all my squares are this good. I'm just glad that my best ones are in the middle of the quilt.

What's Next?

There are now 6 bear paw units with paws, claws, sashing, and a corner stone in each. They will be combined with wider sashing and larger corner stones to make a lap robe. In this picture you can see both the front and back of the newest units. Now I'll decide what new fabrics to use and how to put them together. I see a trip to the quilt shop in my near future!

Another Unit

This bear unit is similar, but not identical, to the first one. Can you see the difference?

You see that I photographed the new unit on the ironing board. Ironing is as important as cutting and sewing. Making sure the seams are pressed in the correct direction will help make the square come out right with all the corners matched.

Joining the Squares to Make a Unit

Four paws with claws come together with shashing and a corner block to make a unit. There will be six units in all with wider shashing and blocks all around. You might think the center corner block looks out of place. This is one of the required fabrics. I had to introduce it into the center of the quilt so that it would not look out of place when I add it into the borders. (I'm making this up as I go along. I'll know how to finish the quilt when all the units are done. Then I'll figure out how to finish it.)

Starting Over

New blade in the rotary cutter? Check
New needle in the machine? Check
Coordinating fabric purchased? Check
Now I'm ready to begin the Jurdis/Challenge quilt. I chose the "bear paw" block in honor of the bears Berte and Carl have seen near their Colorado home. The fabric is a special pattern created just for Colorado with hummingbirds and columbines. The bear paw will be the building block, but there's lots more to come.
The pink is the sample block; the blue/green is the real thing.

And Now It's Done

When I got the quilt top done, I sent if off to a "long-arm" quilter. Rhonda put the quilt, batting, and backing on her quilting machine and then quilted it. I love the pattern she picked out. It curves around all the small squares and fills in the large white shape beautifully. I had cut and sewn together 2 1/2 inch strips, folded them in half lengthwise, and machine sewed then through all the layers of the quilt. Then I wrapped that binding around the raw edges - over 700 inches around the quilt! The quilt is now done and will soon be on our bed.

Back At It

It's taken me a while, but I finally had some time to get back to the quilt. I'm adding 6-inch borders to make the quilt big enough for our bed. Alan helped me make exact measurements for the final borders. This will help to make the quilt square. As soon as I sew the final two seams, I can take it to the quilt shop in South Lyon to be quilted.

Four Short Seams

That's all I got done at quilting yesterday. I was late to Paula's because of a commitment with the kids at church in the morning. When I got there I cut 6 and a half inch strips for the next border and I cut about 4 more than I needed. What a waste! Then I sewed border pieces together for each side of the quilt - four seams in all. I thought I measured carefully, but I discovered too late that I had cut the borders about 2 inches short!!! I carefully put everything away, sat by the fire and read some magazines. Maybe tomorrow I can look at the quilt again and decide what to do. There is no mistake that can't be corrected. The quilt will get finished, I'll love it, and it will be on our bed this summer.

Second Border

After the narrow plain border, I added a pieced border using the same squares that make up the body of the quilt. When I add another wide white border the top will be done.

First Border

Even a simple one-inch border is not without its challenges. The first border is very important because it is with this border that you insure that your quilt is square. If the quilt is not squared off, you'll have lots of trouble later.

You may think the first border is very plain, but wait until you see the second. This border just sets off what comes next.

The Top is Done

As you can see, all the squares for the top have been sewn together. The hardest part was squaring off all 48 squares so that they were all exactly 10" square. Sewing them together was easy. Fortunately, Wanda had her ping pong table set up so that I could lay out the quilt as I went along. Now to do the borders.