Work Day

Today was work day for my bee. We get together on the first Monday of the month and bring our machines and projects to work on. Anyone in the group (and others who we invite) can come and go as they please from 9 am - 4 pm. I have never been there at 9..usually because I have a kid or two in tow. Today, Jack had his 18 month check-up (all is good), so I headed over with both kids after we were done there. It is actually easier to take both of them than just one of them because they really do play well together when we're there. The room is big, so there is plenty of room for them to run around. Jack always does seem to gravitate towards the power strips at some point in the day, but it takes a lot longer for him to do when Jenna is there too. They both took a good nap today, so I had lots of time for sewing - hooray!

Today I made some great progress on a couple projects I was stuck on. The first is the wall hanging for my friend Sara. She saw this fabric at a local quilt shop when we were shopping with her mom for another quilt and I said I would make something for her with it if she bought it. Well, her mom was so excited by the prospect that she actually bought (most of) the fabric. We've since added to the original purpose. The outer border is on the bias, which is the part I needed help with. I didn't know how to fold it to get the longest possible strips, but a couple friend there today showed me how to do it...let's just hope that I can remember long enough to be able to do it again next time. Here's a picture of the finished top. Any thoughts on how to quilt it? It has to be easy, because I am going to do it myself and I have only FMQ'ed a couple things. If you have any ideas, please leave me a comment!
I also made progress on my patchwork illusions quilt, but that will have to wait until I have the top together for the big reveal...I am getting closer, so hopefully in the next few weeks, I will be able to post a picture of that.

Here are pictures of a couple of the other projects that some of the others there were working on.

Barbara's paper pieced wonder - she is entertaining different fabrics for the border.




Kathy's fabric foundation pieced blocks...getting close to all done,

but she didn't like working on the fabric foundation at all!


Comments

Moneik said…
Love the wall hanging. I'm making that pattern right now. It's so easy and yet looks really cool.
Jen said…
Your fabrics look great!!! I love the wallhanging and the stripes. Hmmm, how to quilt it. Since you're not comfortable with FMQ, we'll leave that option out. Hmmmmmmm, what about grid quilting? Or just basic stitch in the ditch? You could echo stitch (like 1/4 inch apart) around the small rectangles to make them stand out a bit. Maybe do two lines around the outside and two to the inside?
Moneik said…
I would SID the grid of the big blocks and then either echo (1/4 or 1/2") around the small squares or SID around them. I would definately follow the diagonal of the border when quilting straight lines out. I love the quilt! I got my blocks done last night for mine.
Deb A said…
That wall hanging came out great. Glad you got so much sewing time. I hope I can have that much when my kids get a little older!