Last week on Thursday, I went over to Ellen Peters' studio to get some help on my wide borders for the Twinkler quilt. I'm fine with putting on slab borders, thanks to Bonnie K. Hunter's great tips pages, here.
But I still lacked the confidence to do mitered borders on my own. Ellen personally coached me and they came out great! Thank you, Ellen!
Ellen loaded the quilt onto the big machine for me and got me going once we had the wide floral borders on the quilt and pressed neatly. Roseanne, who also knows the machine, stayed with me while I quilted because Ellen herself had to get to a teacher's meeting that had been booked months earlier.
It was a big quilt, I think nearly 84" square, although I still haven't measured it with my big steel tape. The cream floral backing was from Thousands Of Bolts and Only One Nut online here.
I am still very much a novice at loading the machine or tinkering with the tensions.
The quilting was done with loops and hearts, mostly to please Felix, who had turned his nose up at the big spirals on the Muddy Milky Way, LOL! Geez, everybody's a critic!
The fabrics in this quilt are mostly charm packs of the "Crossroads" line by Jan Patek for Moda. I used two charm packs and then supplemented them heavily from my own stash.
For the pattern to work, I needed dark enough darks in the blocks so that the twinkles would be visible. The rich tans in the collection, alas, weren't working! I tossed those out of this project.
By the end of the 2 1/2 hours that it took me to quilt this, my back, legs, ankles, and feet were screaming for me to stop! I sure was grateful to Roseanne and Linda for all their help winding bobbins, re-threading the top thread once when it shredded suddenly, and for cheering me on!
Roseanne even took some great pictures for me to share with you here, thanks, Roseanne!!! When Roseanne heard me say that I usually trim my quilts with scissors kneeling on an asphalt driveway, she was horrified and insisted on doing it in the studio. She did a great job with a rotary cutter and a ruler and I was so bone-tired that I could only look on with intense gratitude. Thank you, Roseanne!
When that wide chocolate floral border fabric had finally come in from being back-ordered, there was also a one yard piece of a red stylized floral by Molly B's Studio from Marcus Brothers that came in the same package. Yes, I had ordered it. But it was just a red on sale from Hancock's of Paducah to fill out my order and make the shipping charges worthwhile. But when I saw them together, I was thrilled! The Molly B is the perfect red for this binding!!!!!!! Wheeee!
The binding is all prepared and ready to be sewn on, it's just waiting for me to find the energy in this "too-warm-for-me" weather. And it's supposed to be torrid and horrid by Wednesday; nineties and tropical humidity, UGH! I want to live in New Hampshire, not Costa Rica. Oh, well. Hopefully it will snow soon.
Stay cool and quilt on!
But I still lacked the confidence to do mitered borders on my own. Ellen personally coached me and they came out great! Thank you, Ellen!
Ellen loaded the quilt onto the big machine for me and got me going once we had the wide floral borders on the quilt and pressed neatly. Roseanne, who also knows the machine, stayed with me while I quilted because Ellen herself had to get to a teacher's meeting that had been booked months earlier.
It was a big quilt, I think nearly 84" square, although I still haven't measured it with my big steel tape. The cream floral backing was from Thousands Of Bolts and Only One Nut online here.
I am still very much a novice at loading the machine or tinkering with the tensions.
The quilting was done with loops and hearts, mostly to please Felix, who had turned his nose up at the big spirals on the Muddy Milky Way, LOL! Geez, everybody's a critic!
The fabrics in this quilt are mostly charm packs of the "Crossroads" line by Jan Patek for Moda. I used two charm packs and then supplemented them heavily from my own stash.
For the pattern to work, I needed dark enough darks in the blocks so that the twinkles would be visible. The rich tans in the collection, alas, weren't working! I tossed those out of this project.
By the end of the 2 1/2 hours that it took me to quilt this, my back, legs, ankles, and feet were screaming for me to stop! I sure was grateful to Roseanne and Linda for all their help winding bobbins, re-threading the top thread once when it shredded suddenly, and for cheering me on!
Roseanne even took some great pictures for me to share with you here, thanks, Roseanne!!! When Roseanne heard me say that I usually trim my quilts with scissors kneeling on an asphalt driveway, she was horrified and insisted on doing it in the studio. She did a great job with a rotary cutter and a ruler and I was so bone-tired that I could only look on with intense gratitude. Thank you, Roseanne!
When that wide chocolate floral border fabric had finally come in from being back-ordered, there was also a one yard piece of a red stylized floral by Molly B's Studio from Marcus Brothers that came in the same package. Yes, I had ordered it. But it was just a red on sale from Hancock's of Paducah to fill out my order and make the shipping charges worthwhile. But when I saw them together, I was thrilled! The Molly B is the perfect red for this binding!!!!!!! Wheeee!
The binding is all prepared and ready to be sewn on, it's just waiting for me to find the energy in this "too-warm-for-me" weather. And it's supposed to be torrid and horrid by Wednesday; nineties and tropical humidity, UGH! I want to live in New Hampshire, not Costa Rica. Oh, well. Hopefully it will snow soon.
Stay cool and quilt on!
