A milestone – but not mine

My aunt and uncle are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary next month, and it was my honor and pleasure to make a signature wall quilt for their celebration. Guests arriving to the party will be handed a permanent marking pen and asked to sign in a white space. The blocks are simple, as shown here in this previous post. I sewed them together on point, added triangles to create straight edges, and added borders.

The requested colors were shades of blue and shades of tan-to-brown. I am very pleased with the result, and I hope the recipients are as well. Once all the signatures are added, it will become a treasure they can hang on their living room wall.

Machine time today

I do become more motivated when a deadline comes nearer, so I was able to work on the wall quilt today and get the top completely assembled. I like how it looks, and it won’t be as plain when the signatures are added at the upcoming party. I just need to decide on a border, add batting and backing, machine quilt with stitch in the ditch around each white area, and add a hanging sleeve and quilt label. It sounds like I’m almost done!

DAY 31 OF MY 50 DAY CHALLENGE

Signatures, anyone?

Back to work at the quilting, and I have just a few weeks to complete a wall quilt. I have all the blocks done, and I was trying out different arrangements. Remember, I don’t have a design wall, I have a design floor – and I take pictures from the upstairs balcony. I’m dependent on natural light and the day was cloudy, so I apologize for the quality of the photos.

My original plan was to simply lay all the blocks going the same way. I also tried out the half-square triangles as a border, allowing the white halves to create a zig zag in the border.

My second thought was to have a center square, and all the blocks radiating out in the pattern. To fit all the blocks, I had to have an extra row below, so it isn’t exactly a centered square.

The third idea is the winner. I’m choosing to place all blocks on point and fill in the edges so it will be a rectangular quilt. I gathered the blocks from lower left to upper right along each row and numbered the rows. I started sewing the white triangles to the ends of the rows and sewing the blocks together when the usual happened – malfunctioning equipment. It’s not that my sewing machines break down often, it’s just that I make adjustments without realizing, and it takes a while to figure out what I did and make it right. It was time to quit for the day when that happened.

On a happier note, I’d listed two of my machines for sale and sold one that same day. I think the buyer was my sister in a previous life, and our love for sewing carried over into this one. She was as happy to see all my sewing machines as I was to show them to her. She got the nickel tour and promised to keep my phone number. It’s always good to meet someone who shares a hobby.

DAY 30 OF MY 50-DAY CHALLENGE

Maybe not a new idea, but new to me

I was cutting the small corner squares for the new wall quilt I’ve started, and I was concerned over the waste of the dog-ears that will be cut from the corner. I’d lay a 3″ color square right sides together with a 5 1/2″ white square, and sew from the color corner to corner, then cutting off a decent-sized piece of fabric. Not very big, to include in a stash busting quilt, but far too big to throw in the trash.

It hit me that I should make tiny half-square triangles from the dog-ears. I can’t be the first person to think of this.

I did a trial run. I sewed the first seam, then moved to the outer edge 1/4 inch to sew a second seam. I cut between the two seams and pressed toward the darker fabric. I can use the blocks for a different project altogether, or I can incorporate them into this wall quilt as a border or something.

DAY 28 OF MY 50-DAY CHALLENGE