Tuesday, April 24, 2012

What I made in March

IMG_5640Remember these from early March?

I couldn’t show you then what I was planning with these because it was a gift and my husband assured me the recipient, who reads this blog, would guess right away that it was her birthday gift.  Now that the birthday has come and gone I can share.

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Around the table right side

The pattern is “Around the Table” by Karen Neary. The center mat is paper pieced in sections.  Apparently this is reversible too.  I was so focused on the piecing that it didn’t occur to me but it did occur to the gift’s recipient.

Around the Table reverse side

Friday, April 20, 2012

I should be quilting

My latest quilt is half quilted so I should be working on that but I couldn’t wait to share a picture so I’m blogging instead.

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Nothing except the outline quilting in the white star is quilted the way I had originally planned.  I had to unpick some of that original plan when I realized it didn’t look like I had imagined.  I like this much better. 

I’m happy to report that my freemotion is improving, with fewer miniscule stitches and better consistency in stitch length overall.  I still have to mark everything though.  Freehand just isn’t working out.  I don’t even do background filler very well.  I just can’t get the random look so I avoid filler.

I was rather critical of my work on Wednesday evening, focusing on the wobbles and inconsistencies in the quilting in the sashing and wishing I could make this spectacular like the quilts over at Tamarack Shack (if you haven’t been there yet, be warned, her custom quilting is pure eye candy and may make you drool).  My newly minted teen (turned 13 on Saturday, how did that happen?) looked at me and said “I like it.  Sometimes simple is best.  And this is what, your 4th machine quilted quilt?”  Yes. “And how long have all those other quilters been machine quilting?”  More years than me.  Trust a kid to put it all in perspective!

So here’s a picture of the kid’s 13th birthday cake, because he knows I posted a picture of his sister’s, though of course my two angels would never think of keeping track of such things!

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Thursday, April 12, 2012

No quilt, but cake!

No finished quilt yet.  I finished the center of the star quilt from the last couple of posts very quickly, but stalled at the borders. I finally settled on something earlier this week, then spent a good part of yesterday taking them off again.  I’ve read so many different books and blogs and tutorials about how to attach borders so they won’t ripple and the quilt will lie flat that you’d think I could manage it by now.  These particular borders made the quilt’s corners curl up.  I’m not looking for perfection, but all four corners really shouldn’t pull up like little cups!

I have had the satisfaction of completing something creative though.  Last weekend was my daughter’s birthday so cake decorating was in order.

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The inside was the really fun part!  Thanks to Megan at NotMartha for the idea and instructions.  This coming weekend I have to follow up with a cake for my son’s 13th…I’m still tossing ideas around for that one.  There’s nothing like the last minute!