QuiltQuest: Round Up Week 22: Log Cabins and Power Bars Quilt Finished!

In the second session of the In the Studio with Lauren class "Appliqué", she covered freezer paper appliqué. I again used a heart for my practice piece... I'm pretty sure I finished this while still in bed. So I didn't notice until I was done that the shape of the heart had bent while I was working on it. My concave and convex points need more practice, but this experience was sort of fun.

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Lauren's class gave me confidence to try my hand at stitching binding. I'm glad I finally did this..

I started and finished my first ever hand stitched binding! The quilt is about 36 by 40 inches, and was done as part of the second session of the online classes: In the Studio with Lauren "Log Cabins and Power Bars'. Without her classes I never would have had the nerve to try this, and I am sold! It perhaps took a few hours for two days - I had the TV on in the background while I worked for part and listened to The Wedding Quilt on Audible for some of the time too. Although I need to work on getting better corners, I'm very pleased with how the binding looks. I tried to sew the 2.5 inch binding 3/8 of an inch from the raw edge, but once I hit the corner could see that I needed to be closer to 1/4 inch. Next quilt I am going to try surrounding the quilt with a zig zag stitch instead of several victory rounds of straight stitching. Perhaps that will be easier to place the stitches for the binding. I sewed the binding to the back then stitched it down on the front by hand.

This quilt was made for our little dog, Buffy. She has already liked being under it - and for a while sat on in when it was in the sun. I haven't washed it yet, nor put a label on the project...

I realized after sewing a bit that being thrifty and using the needles left to me by my Mom was not going to work out. With each stitch it felt like there was a little tug - as if the needle had a rough spot on the side. So I actually went to a quilt shop to get new needles! While I was there I brought the Add a Quarter Ruler that I had purchased online and some gizmos that were supposed to make it easier to thread a sewing machine needle to the store. To exchange the Add a Quarter with the newer beveled edge version, and to get direction on how to get the needle threader to work. It turns out the online purchases have to be returned to the online store for online store credit. This was not clear to me at all when I made the purchase. But at least I have online credit. The threader took two people at least 20 minutes to get it to work. It did but not consistently. (I had gotten three of them since the shop owner said they worked so well. I was going to give two away as gifts.) But it took so long to get it to work - and the one we used got bent up too. So I returned everything (sans the bent one) to the store - so I have about $21 of credit now in the online catalog only. I am thinking of getting the Hex n More ruler recommended by the teacher of my next EBHQ class...

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Wavy blocks (from May 2021 EBHQ class by Marge Tucker) in white and pink WIP. I made a total of 21 6.75-inch blocks and decided to sew them together in rows of 4 x 5 (so I have one left over block) as I had really run out of the fabric I had in the right colors. It now measures 26 by 32 inches. I'm thinking of how to do the next part of the project - still trying to make it look like it was planned fabric, rather than being scrappy looking...

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Not Quilting

I had my hair cut and a pedicure!

The hair had been about five or six inches longer than it is now. When I made masks for neighbors, I found out one of them owned a salon - it was a very nice looking place - in a terrific location in downtown San Diego. Everyone wore masks - felt normal and nice to be out again. The neighbor wrote to thank me for my support of her business. Times are tough for businesses...

I did well with walking the first day of June. Passed some nice looking houses....