Squaring and Binding

I decided to tackle the squaring up of this old quilt this weekend. I knew it was going to be a hatchet job because the quilt was so dreadfully uneven, despite the additional strip of muslin I added to each side. Thank goodness for that, or the star points would have to be amputated!

Now I have quite a few quilted strips about an inch wide that can be made into bookmarks, cuffs, or something else. I will not throw away all that quilting!

I chose a blue for the binding, which blends nicely with the blues in the star points, and is the Carolina Blue of my brother and sister-in-law's alma mater.

The binding is about two-thirds hemmed down by hand to the backing. I got a lot of it done during the Super Bowl.

I also almost finished quilting my secret class project. I used both the longarm and my new Janome 6600 for the quilting. On to the embellishing phase next- my favorite!

Sometimes I Amaze Myself...

I never would have guessed that this old quilt top would turn out so pretty! It is off the machine now, waiting to have the thread tails trimmed, the binding put on, and, oh, yes, it needs a bath after spending the last forty years or so in a plastic bag!


This was not my favorite quilt to work on for many reasons, but now that the quilting is done, I'm singing, "You Are My Sunshine, My Only Sunshine..."

The Quilters' Dream Puff backing was a good choice to fill in the saggy areas of the quilting.

The backing is white muslin, and it looks very textural and frothy like a wedding cake!

This quilt has a twin that is waiting for the same treatment...but I am going to do a few other smaller projects first before tacking such an intensive project again.

Quilting Progress

Yesterday, I decided to tackle the problem of the thread breakage I experienced while working on this old quilt top from the seventies. It was so frustrating and making me mad. Pretty soon I was going to have to wash my own mouth out with soap, if you get the idea!

I finally got it to a tolerable level. Here's what I did.

1. Went up two needle sizes to a 5.0.


2. Loosened the top tension by only going once around the tension.


3. Moved the thread guide above the needle.


4. Put a couple of lines of Sewers' Ease lubricant on the cone of thread and also above the needle.


5. Sprayed the back of the top, both sides of the batting, and the backing with Silicone spray. Since I float the top, this is all accessible even though the quilt is mounted on the machine.

I'm not sure what solved the problem, but I suspect the larger needle size was the best answer. All of the fabrics used in the stars appear to be from old clothing or curtains. Debbie loves this, because she can recognize some of the dresses and shirts that Grandma Helen made them from. I don't love them because sometimes my needle will go in and just get stuck while the motor makes a loud noise. Twill is not a great fabric to use for these pieced stars!

Anyway, I am now halfway through, save for a couple of the star diamonds that I couldn't quite reach on the last pass.

The curvy line dancing on the stars is helping to disguise the rather wonky piecing, and definitely taming the fullness in the centers.

The next problem is that Grandma had pencil-marked a stencil design in one of the huge white squares between the two rows of stars. Since this was done decades ago, that pencil mark is kind of smeared. It is a huge rose design. I originally thought I might try to quilt that design, and I traced it to put in the other block. But now I think I will try to put a big feather wreath in the squares, and then try to wash out the pencil marks. Anyone have any success with removing pencil marks?

Last night was the monthly meeting of the Capital Quilters Guild in Raleigh. I took all the quilt kits that I had at home for the Quilts on Wheels table. Quite a few were picked up by generous quilters. The guild is also having a charity quilt sew-in day on Saturday.

It is fun to see the quilts coming in that people have donated. Some were made from our kits, but others are from quilters' stashes. We got two lovely quilts that were just beautiful oriental fabrics with an inner and outer border. What a great idea for that fabric that is too pretty to cut!

I also like the scrappy ones, like this one from all triangles.

The color is not right on this one, which actually was much brighter, but it looks like a relatively easy pattern that makes a striking quilt.

We were hoping to go up to our mountain cabin this weekend. I have not been since November. But it has been pouring rain here, and they are having an ice storm up there this weekend. So, we are staying home. Today we are planning to go see The Blind Side, the Sandra Bullock movie about the white Alabama family that takes in a homeless black football player. Charlie will be attending a seminar soon in which the keynote speaker will be Sean Tuohy, the real father of the family whose part was played by Tim McGraw in the movie. He thought he should see the movie before hearing the speaker. Looking forward to our second movie date in one week!

Working on a "Heritage" Quilt

Today I decided to tackle a quilting project that I have been avoiding for awhile.

A year and half, to be exact!

This is the first of three more quilt tops made by my sister-in-law Debbie's late grandmother. I have already finished three of these in the past. By the time Grandma Helen made these, her vision was starting to deteriorate, and the piecing is not the best. But, Debbie would love to have these finished so they can be used.

Debbie, if you are reading this, don't faint, I have finally gotten started!

This is the first of two almost identical Blazing Star quilts, approximately twin-sized. You can see the center of the star does not exactly meet up...

and there is lots of extra fullness in almost all of the seams. This can lead to puckers, pleats, and an uneven quilt. By the way, those yellow diamonds with white lines through them appear to be either a coarse linen dish towel, or perhaps a 70"s pant suit fabric. My thread does not like it!

I decided to try a puffy polyester batting to take up some of the fullness. It is appropriately named "Puff" by Quilters Dream. It is soft and fluffy and relatively high loft.

So far, my biggest problem has been thread breaking. A lot of thread breaking! I should have used a thin polyester thread like The Bottom Line or So Fine. However, it looks nice. Pardon the thread tails in all these pictures. I will deal with those after quilting.



I used a stencil to make feather circles and parts of feather circles in the white areas along the top edge. Lots of tight quilting in between to flatten the quilt and make the feathers pop out.

Here is one corner with a full circle wreath.

In the star diamonds, I am using one of Diana Phillips' Line Dancing designs.



This is going to be slow going, but I am determined!

A Look Back at North Carolina's Quilting Heritage

If you ever glance at the sidebar of my blog, you will notice a new award today: Top 100 Quilters Blogs! I'm not sure what I did to earn this recognition, but I'll take it! Not only am I on the first page, but I'm number three. Probably something to do with alphabetical order, LOL!

On to the wrap-up of the Ashe County Piecemakers Quilt Guild Show last weekend in West Jefferson, North Carolina. I really enjoyed my quick visit to see these quilts and the vendors. One of the vendors was Karen Comstock of Raleigh, a member of my own guild. She has a fabulous line of quilt patterns called Quiltricks, and had a large display at the vendor mall. I most recently blogged about her trunk show at Etc. Crafts in Cary, NC.

I certainly enjoyed the large exhibit of antiques at the show. Mountain people have a long quilting heritage, going back to the times when women suspended a frame on the farmhouse or cabin ceiling, and lowered it down by pulleys at night to add stitches to the quilts they made to keep their families warm. My husband's family from Rutherford and Cleveland counties in North Carolina had some quilters, but the descendants did not value these homemade "blankets" that were passed down. I think that during the depression, people had to make do with "homemade," when they could not afford store-bought. My late mother-in-law used her family quilts to pad furniture in the moving van, or to sit on at the beach. There were only two left when we cleared out her household. One was being used under the mattress on the convertible sofa bed. That one was in rags. The other I have restored as much as possible. It had many brown "age spots" or water marks that I finally reduced after many efforts with a paste made from denture cream! I will have to get some photographs of those quilts and the hooked rug made by my husband's grandfather.

So, it was delightful to see some treasured family heirlooms that have survived the generations. Here are some of the assembled vignettes of times past at the quilt show.

Here is an old chair and painted table. The china teacups brought back memories of my own mother's collection of dainty cups and saucers, which miraculously remained intact even in a family with seven rambunctious children.

The quilt on the left reminds me of one of my heirloom quilts, and the green one in the middle is much like a quilt top that my sister-in-law's grandmother made and I quilted.

They certainly had an array of hooked rugs to show with these charming old quilts.

And some braided ones, too. Look at the lovely Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt on the rack. And the card table cover and napkins...I have inherited several embroidered card table covers from both Charlie's grandmothers and my own. Bridge, anyone?

And here is my favorite of the antique vignettes...with a beautiful old Singer treadle sewing machine.

Great show, Ashe County quilters!