Friday, January 29, 2016

Trimmings and Bindings

Monday I carefully cleaned the marvelously empty guest room floor to spread out my Barbara Brackman's sew along quilt, "Stars In A Time Warp" for trimming. Link.


A small kneeling pillow and scissors, as seen below in the upper left corner, is what I use to trim off the excess batting and backing. I know that most people trim with a rotary cutter on a large mat.


I prefer using gravity to help me manage the sheer bulk of my big quilts.


It is tough on the knees, so I rested in between each side that I trimmed.


Soon all four sides were trimmed and below is a peek at how that Judie Rothermel 108" wide backing looks with the quilt. Don't you  love it?


The audition for binding material was short and sweet as there was a red stripe that had already won my heart!


Getting it sewed onto the front of the quilt and ready for hand hemming was next. My arms and shoulders ached from horsing that big quilt around, but I got it done!



Tuesday was my wonderful Sunshine Club at the Alton, New Hampshire Senior Center where Sue was happy to show us her "Sidewinder" free standing bobbin winder. Neat tool! And fast, too!


Sue also was happy to share the saga of her loot from last summer's annual June tent sale at Keepsake Quilting's retail store. Keepsake is located in Center Harbor, New Hampshire about 90 minutes away.

Sue proved that you can cram more of the scraps into their ziploc bags by folding rather than rolling. The bag must close before it is rung up!


Joyce, above on the left, is looking on and learning the tricks of careful folding. We are all gleefully anticipating the first weekend in June to go again to Keepsake's Sale!

Joyce is doing terrific with her cute-as-a-button log cabin blocks! Go, Joyce!!!


I organized my little log cabin blocks a little and then we all had breakfast at the Senior Center.


Soon I was off to rush over to the last Tuesday of the month's meeting of the Handwork Circle at the Evergreen Country Primitives Quilt Shop.

Dawn was doing her beautiful Lucy Boston blocks with English Paper Piecing.


Click on any picture to enlarge it. Dawn was whipstitching one of the pieces into place on the outer edges of the block.


This is Carolyn, who had made a gorgeous stack of Farmer's Wife blocks, all by hand. Nice work!


 Miss Lily, the Evergreen shop kitty, was truly enjoying that imported Canadian catnip that I had sewn into a calico catnip mouse for her!


She was tough to photograph as she raced about the floor, playing with her newly beloved toy!


While I was there, I did complete one side of the hand hemming of my binding. My wonderful hostess, Camille, the owner of Evergreen, took a couple of pictures for me. Thanks, Camille!


The optical illusion that the alternate hourglass blocks create adds so much more drama to the star blocks, don't you think?


Thank you again, Barbara Brackman, for all your inspiration and education about Civil War era reproduction fabrics!

Linking this post to Oh, Scrap! Link.

Happy quilting!










10 comments:

Jean said...

Your star quilt is wonderful! I do like the setting bunches. I made 130 stars and set them side by side with a simple border. Not nearly as eye-catching as yours!

cityquilter grace said...

totally beautiful vic...i may borrow that idea myself...i do love that secondary design...it is really pretty...

Jeanne said...

You always sound like you're having such a good time with your quilting! Those stars are looking wonderful -- alternate blocks, back and binding are all perfect!!

Feathers in my Nest said...

I adore your Judy Rothermel backing! Beautiful quilt with the perfect backing to go with.

Janet O. said...

You know I love your setting squares for those stars--I also love the striped binding!
When I was at the Keepsake sale last year one of the employees told us to just clip a corner of the bag so that air could escape as you shoved fabric in. Made the bag hold more, for sure. I agree--fold, don't roll! : )
Another quilty fun-filled day for you.
Oh, that Camille is a sweetheart! Hopefully I will get there again someday!

gayle said...

I adore your stars quilt! The backing and binding are just the perfect touch. (Makes me wish I'd played along instead of just watching...)
8)

Nann said...

I've enjoyed following the progress on this quilt, Vic -- and what a wonderful conclusion!

Wendy Caton Reed said...

Your stars are sensational. And, it's done, wow! I was hoping to get to mine over the weekend, but... I hope you will enter that in a show so more people can see it. It is lovely!

Elaine Adair said...

You've made a LOT of lovely quilts, but this one is truly a stunner! LOVE the variety, the alternate squares, all of it!
Happy Quilting, Elaine Adair

Cynthia Brunz Designs said...

Your quilt is beautiful! And I can see why that striped fabric won your heart....it looks great as the binding. Thanks for sharing your lovely quilt with Oh Scrap!

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