Finish # 2 for 2019.............

I finished the hand stitching on this rectangular colorwash last night.  I think I am keeping this one.  I don't have a colorwash hanging in my house and need to remedy that.  It is 24" x 38.5".

I got the orphan block top loaded on the quilting machine yesterday and got the quilting done.  I have taken it off the frame and trimmed it but haven't chosen binding.  It will be all by machine so hopefully this will be finished by tonight.

I mentioned yesterday that I was going to do meandering with occasional hearts.  You may need to enlarge this photo to see the heart.

They are casual free form hearts, not perfect ones.  This is the kind I like best.

Friends day..........

I'm at the slow part of the colorwash quilt.  I got out my teeny tiny scissors to go with me to the living room to work on this.  They are usually in a little travel sewing kit that I have.

While my 2 friends were here yesterday I worked on a backing made with the leftover strips from 4 previous backs of quilts.  Sorry for the crooked photo........

I loaded the backing on the longarm and cut the batting and loaded it too.

It will be the back for my batik orphan block quilt that I made back in 2016.  It will get a simple meander plus hearts quilting pattern so it should quilt up fast.  I think medium gray or beige So Fine thread should be good for it.

Binding cut...........

I'm having too much fun sorting through things and didn't do any sewing yesterday.  I did find a binding fabric and cut the strips though.

I took a picture of my winter garden on the kitchen table last night.  The red Amaryllis is in full bloom and the next one in line is going to be white flowers again.  It has 3 bud stalks started.  This one was marked Stargazer too, a red and white mix just like the other one that turned out to be white.  The one in the center has 3 buds started too.  The closer pot on the left is my Paperwhites.

Qulting, basting, sorting.............

I finished quilting this colorwash about a half hour after taking this photo.  I pulled out the bastings and will get it trimmed and choose binding today.

I got the next one basted while doing laundry.

I'm going through boxes and found some old quilt books from around 1990.

They were all great books in their time period.  In fact the Seminole Patchwork book is still one of the best on the subject.

The Fons and Porter Ocean Wave book is from 1989.  All of these will probably go to Goodwill.

This book is autographed by Marjorie Puckett to me.  It was the book that was influential for my Sampler Quilt class.  The book is from 1975 and that is the year that I started teaching quiltmaking.  Most of these books have printed pattern pieces without seam allowances added.  That's the way it was in the beginning for me.  We had to work a little harder to make our patterns from cardboard or sandpaper and try to add an accurate seam allowance to them.

First finish of 2019...........

Kaffe Colorwash 2 is finished and I love the binding fabric I used.  It is 33.5" square.

I love the backing fabric too.  There are a few of the Kaffe fabrics that don't look that great cut into small pieces and this is one of them.  This is my favorite coloration of the print too.

Found a binding fabric.............

I ended up choosing an old out of print Kaffe fabric for my binding.  I got it sewn on and started the hand sewing.

This shows the backing fabric and the portion of binding that is hand stitched so far.

I got the next one basted and ready to quilt on my Pfaff.  This is a batik one made with 1.5" x 3" rectangles.

Quilting, blooms, and how much yardage do I buy?...................

I finished the quilting on this Kaffe colorwash last night but haven't trimmed it or chosen binding fabric yet.

The white blooms are almost done and the 8 red ones are just opening.  I have 2 more growing plus I got some Paperwhites for $1.50 and started them too.




Two people yesterday asked in comments how much fabric do I buy for backings when I find fabric on sale.  I knew I had addressed that issue on my blog before and in searching found it in 2007.  That was the year before I got my longarm so some info has changed for me but it still works for people who quilt on a sit down machine.  Here is what I said:
 I buy most of my backing fabric when it is 40%-60% off and I buy 4 yards for lap quilts and twins less than 87" long with the seam going crosswise. For longer twins (up to 96") I buy 5.5 yards and seam lengthwise. For double bed size 80" wide or narrower I buy 7 yards and divide into thirds and seam crosswise. For queen size I buy 8 yards, again 3 pieces seamed crosswise, and for a square king (not CA king) 9-10 yards depending on its size. 
At this time if I want to quilt on my longarm (and I don't do all of them on the longarm) I have to add extra inches to the backings plus I almost always have the seams running the long way on all backings so it takes a little more yardage than in the info above.

The main thing is you have to know what size quilts YOU usually make and that determines how much YOU should buy.  If you send them out to a longarmer you need the extra inches too.

Price makes a lot of difference too.  If is is still $8 on sale I'm more likely to buy 4 yards.  If it is $5 or under I might buy 5.5 yards or even 7 yards.  I keep my most of my large yardage pieces together so when I'm looking for a backing I have one place to go to look at all of them to see if I have anything the right color with the right yardage.  Buying in advance and speculating that I will eventually make a quilt to use these pieces is the way I work.  I rarely ever pay full price and buy a backing when a top is finished.  The quilt police have never taken me to jail for having too much fabric on hand.