Hanging a Quilt Without Sleeve

      I am use to sewing a hanging sleeve on quilts to hang them for display whether at a show or in my home. My church group SQG recently wanted to improve the way we display a quilt.  Online I had seen drapery ring clips so I went looking locally and found the perfect ones.  The rings have attached tiny metal clothespin type clips.  The rings slide onto the rod.  

It was very easy to clip rings onto a 60" wide quilt.  Then the rod was lifted to the holders.  This was a super way to hang a quilt for display without having to sew on a hanging sleeve and it will be easy to change the display.

      This evening I finished the class sample for a JoAnn Fabrics Quilting Trend class.  I have taught a couple of Beginner Quilting 101 classes where students construct a "Hole in the Barn Door" block and have enough fabric to construct 2.  This class is designed as the next step.  After they complete 6 blocks,  they will learn how to add sashing, cornerstones and borders to piece a small quilt top that will finish approx. 38” by 53”.  It would be a good size for a baby quilt. 

      This makes another finished quilt that was not on my list for 2012.  Oh, well.  
GCQ is starting a challenge in November to encourage members to finish their UFOs.  I turned in a list of 16 and then thought of several more that could be on the list.  I will do well to finish my list.  I will post it later and hopefully, do better about finishing ones on the list instead of starting new projects. 

String Hearts Finished

My bright String Heart quilt is finished.  I finished quilting yesterday and finished hand sewing the binding today. 

I hope you can see some of the quilting.  I used the walking foot to stitch-in-the ditch outlining the hearts and borders.  I also used the walking foot to quilt the wobbly lines in the strip border. 

I hope you can see a little of the FMQ loops I did in the small borders.  I did FMQ loops and hearts in the yellow and FMQ heart shapes inside heart shapes on the red, blue and purple. 

Finishing Up Projects

    One more UFO finished.     

     I participated in Hancock Fabrics BOM in 2004 and the finished quilt is on my bed. Since I made the quilt I planned to make pillow shams to match.  I made 2 more blocks but got no further.  I had all the leftover fabric and pieces in a box.  I finally pulled it out.  Today I Free-MotionQuilted the tops and added the back so I now have 2 finished shams.

Here is a photo of one top with quilting.

The FMQ shows up much better on the muslin backing that is on the inside of the sham.

Each block on the quilt has a different quilting design so I continued that on the shams.

Comfort Quilt Finished

    Yesterday I free-motion quilted an adult comfort quilt for GCQ and today I finished the binding.

I pieced the top a couple of months ago.  It is made from scrappy 3 1/2" squares and 2 1/2" strips.   GCQ usually makes adult quilts from 5 1/2" squares.  I wanted to do something different, and one day we cut a few strips and squares from color groups of fabric scraps.  This design goes together in 12" finished squares for simple construction. 

Mug Rugs

   Today instead of sandwiching a larger quilt for quilting, I needed to do something more free so I pulled out some fabric for mug rugs.
    I had promised to make a mug rug for a friend of a friend with many cats.  I thought this large print fabric was perfect and it let me practice free-motion quilting. I did not focus on stitch length but following lines and drawing with the sewing machine.

I also pulled out some specially fall fabric and enjoyed free-motion quilting to enhance a couple of them. 

In all today I finished 4 mug rugs for gifts.

Another Child’s Quilt Finished

     I feel very good that I have accomplished a lot in the past few days.  Today I quilted and bound another child’s quilt for my church group.  If it looks familiar it is because this is the second duck quilt I have made.

  The quilting is different though.  I tried a meandering free-motion design that I hoped would look like water ripples. 

    I also sewed the rows together on the string hearts and added a narrow border.  Right now the top measures 40 by 46”.  I am thinking of adding a scrappy border of red, blue and purple squares to make it larger.  I’m not sure.   It can wait awhile so that I can get another top quilted. 

Using Scraps

      I finished a couple of small quilts today.  I sewed on the binding for my class sample for the Beginner 2 Block Quilt class.  It will make a nice comfort quilt for a child and it was ALL from my stash. 

I had a few 2 1/2" strips and some other scraps left over so I decided to use up as much as I could making more 12 1/2" blocks.  I used one 4 1/2" square from another fabric and finished 4 blocks.

They are a nice start for another child's quilt and the only bits of these fabrics left are very small pieces that will go in crumb blocks.

I also bound the quilt with the cheater fabric center. 

Two down but there are more tops waiting to be quilted.  I am determined to get more finished before I start a new project. 

Lap Trip Around World Finished

     I sewed the binding on this afternoon to finish the lap size Trip Around the World quilt for my church group.   All the top fabric was donated except the gold.  I was able to use fabric from my stash for the backing.

For the center panel I used a walking foot to quilt a diagonal grid.  For the border I practiced a free-motion oak style leaf.

I am happy to have this one finished but I still have too many UFOs.  I hope to finish several more before I start on a new project. 

Finished Comfort Quilt

    I am working on quilting and finishing my stack of comfort / charity quilts before I work on a project of my own.  Today I finished adding the binding on a manly one for my church group.  I used the walking foot to do some straight line quilting and then decided to add some free-motion wavy lines in between and in the middle of the bars. I like the combination. I did not take a close up photo of the quilting.

    Now is also the time to register quilts and other craft entries for the state fair and that got done.  I don’t have several to enter like I have had some years.  I also took time to get a couple of quilts ready to enter into my sister’s guild (Ashe County Piecemakers)  http://www.ashequilters.org/  show in September.  I still need to sew a label and hanging sleeve on one.

Comfort Quilt Quilting

I have at least 4 comfort / charity tops waiting to be quilted.  The past couple of days I quilted a child's comfort quilt for my guild.

 It started as a cheater panel.  I cut out the blocks, added sashing and cornerstones and a border.  I used a walking foot to stitch-in-the-ditch for the sashing and around the border.  I did free-motion quilting in the blocks thinking about the picture in each block.  For the center block which is crazy pieced I did a heart and echoed it several times. . 

Woodpile With Dresdens Finished

      

        Sister Miriam was here for the weekend to visit and spend time with Mom so I was free to spend hours quilting.  I quilted each Dresden plate as though it was a flower, FM stitching into each petal.  I hope you can see some of the stitching in the photo.

Meandering around the Dresden plates was a bit trying but it got done.  For the border I FM quilted a leaf motif that I have used before.

This makes #3 that I have made for the VA Hospice unit.  This afternoon I also took a short time to quilt the half-step bargello lap quilt.   It just need binding.  This is my sample for a simple bargello class I hope to teach. 

Now I can get back to working on the floral pinwheel quilt and the Day Bee mystery quilt.

 

Lego Quilt Finished

   It has been a while since I pieced the top.  Wednesday during sew day at church I finally got my Lego top sandwiched and the Woodpile top with Dresden plates. Thursday I quilted most of the day.  I did all over meandering on the Lego quilt.  Today I added the binding totally by machine so it is finished for the VA Hospice unit.   

       I used 2 1/2" strips instead of the 1 1/2" strips that some others have used.  I enjoyed these simple free pieced blocks.

One Block Wonder with Purple Tree Finished

    The GCQ guild challenge for 2011 was to finish our UFOs.  I finished about 9 from my list and the one I pulled out in December was a One Block Wonder top. One Block Wonders are created using the Stack N’ Whack method with equilateral triangle pieces ( the one block ).  Because you stack 6 identical layers of fabric, the 6 triangles form a hexagon with a swirl effect.  My top was pieced and left unfinished for about 2 years.  Then I was inspired by a lecture at the NC Quilt Symposium by fiber artist, Cynthia Corbin.  I drafted slices on a photo of the pieced panel, used my rotary cutter and sewed in purple tree branches.

Here is the BEFORE photo:

and here it is now - FINISHED !

Here is a close-up of the free-motion quilting in the borders.