More of those T's

Here are the last of the braid quilts. When photographing them a friend commented that she didn't like the bright yellows in the braids, and she said they seemed to jump out. I don't think that is the whole problem. I think the yellows are too close in value to the muslin background and they disrupt the design, leaving a "hole" in it. I think your eye goes there because it is drawn to the disrupted part of the design.

I stitched up all the old leftovers of trapezoids that were facing one direction into picket fence blocks.

I have tried to use the yellows in the center section of the blocks so that I won't have the same problem with this quilt design.

Part of my purpose for starting this blog was to share some of the tools and tips that help me in my scrap work. There was a real challenge in squaring up these blocks. They should be 6-1/2-inches, but I had to square up to 6-1/4-inch. When working with a block that is divided as this one is, cutting off the outside can lead to elements not matching up when stitching the blocks together. I was fortunate that the center section was just a bit smaller, too, so I used a square-up ruler which I remarked with a red permanent pen. I marked where the center secition of the block needed to be, and used the diagonal line on the ruler to position the ruler on the diagonal of the center of the block. To square up the second side of the block the block was turned and not the ruler. I marked where the new outside line would be so that I was not having to hunt for it when cutting the second sides of the block.

My messy pile of blocks has grown in the past few weeks until after stitching all one night (SADD dysfunction) I decided I had enough of these blocks.

After they were all pressed and squared up I counted them--245-and here's the kicker--just enough to make 5 quilt tops with no leftovers!

I'm stitching the blocks into pairs, then foursies, then into sets of 3 x 4 quilt tops. Meanwhile, back at the machine...


I took a class from a noted national teacher who had designed a set of rulers that worked together to cut very wide strips. When students asked her if she wouldn't put out a shorter 12-inch ruler she touted that she would not as her rulers were not designed to "work that way." She later did produce this very ruler, and I have used it a great deal in my work. Rulers may be designed for one purpose, but should not be so limited as this instructor saw them. I often use rulers designed for one purpose to meet another need.


I have had to cut more trapezoids as my color selection was getting too thin and needed to add some more so that what I had cut was able to be used. I chose to use this EZ International ruler made to cut diamonds to make my diagonal cuts easily. I used freezer paper taped to the ruler so that the ruler could be aligned with the strips that I cut. The ruler was rotated for angle and straight cuts along the strip.

Permanent pen marks are easily removed with rubbing alcohol, and paper pieces can be removed easily. There are many useful tapes available for marking, but I find they move too easily when many repeated cuts are required and often do not show up as well as my eyesight requires.

Trapezoid Fever

In 2001 the quilt market was flooded with tin cans packaged with 2-1/2-inch strips of fabric called "worms" as a result of Debbie Caffray's book "Open a Can of Worms" featuring scrap look designs using these strips. Today it's "Jelly Rolls", but the idea is the same.

Our quilt group had a year-long exchange of "worms" where we had a planned theme of prints or colors for each month's exchange. After a year of collection, we each had plenty of fabrics, so we started to use one of the quilts in the worm book each month for our community service project and at the same time learn the techniques for each design.

My records show that in March of 2002 I presented the "Friendship Braid" pattern. After completing one top I set aside the pieces I cut until I uncovered the stash last month. OH MY! I had a huge shoebox full of cut pieces, both of prints and muslin for background, and a large pile of strips sewn together. Since our monthly quilt group challenge was trapezoids, I decided to accept the personal challenge and use up my stash of cut pieces.

I discovered that I needed to piece a few more strips to have enough for three quilt tops, so piece I did. I really did not enjoy the joining of the strips or adding sashing as all of the outside edges of the strips were on the bias. I have decided that I will work with the "Picket Fence" design that I started before the pieces were put away years ago. I must have tired of the braids and the bias edge even then.

I have completed three braid tops now, and they are ready for quilting. I think I really must stop piecing and quilt! The first top I made six years ago is not quilted, either. Although I am not done with trapezoids, I am DONE with this pattern for braids.
I had torn yards of stripe fabric that had been donated to our group into strips of various widths due to the type of print, so had plenty of fabric to set all of the quilts. In fact, I'll have to come up with something else to use all of these strips up! But all those strings from the torn edges! My sewing area is a mess with dog ears and strings. I'll think hard before sewing hundreds of trapezoids and tearing yards of fabric again.

Trees Again

Here hang seven beautiful autumn tree quilts ready for quilting. As I reported in an earlier post, our group has been working with a new technique each month, and trapezoids were the challenge for October . I designed the block and wrote the instructions to go with the pattern and then started to cut for a sample quilt. Did I write "a" sample quilt?
The trouble is, when you get out a piece of fabric, cut out a few pieces, fold it up and put it back, the whole process has to be repeated over and over until that piece of fabric is used up. That is a huge waste of time, especially when you are wanting to use up the scraps and get nice quilts done at the same time. So, the result is the seven quilts you see here, an 8th new one now hanging, and a 9th on the way because some blocks were left over or squared up too small. The blocks are cut and will be stitched soon.

A photo of a tree in my front yard shows that the traditional "pine tree" shape works to represent the autumn theme by use of other colors, even though a shape that represents another type of tree was used in the quilts. It's amazing to see all the qhilts hanging in one row and view all the colors and fabrics used that one would not think of as representing "trees."

You will notice that not all of the trees are alike. When I started to run out of a fabric so that I did not have enough for four tiers of trapezoids, I just cut a wider top and loger trunk. The ladies in the quilt group did not notice that right away, and it was quite a surprise when they discovered the changes. They were subtle, but provide more interest in the quilt top.

I stitched up about 130 of the tree blocks during the month, and I amazed myself with what I got done. I should almost be a master at trapezoids now, but I'm not. I need to get out that "point trimmer" from my notions box to inprove accuracy.

I used donated quilt room fabrics and stash to make the tops--and it did not seem to dimish the pile at all. Why is that?

Autumn Sewing

I found this delightful pre-print while shopping with a friend in a local fabric store, and just couldn't resist it. I found a piece of blue solid that matches the background, and did some outline quilting by machine. I even added a spider-web to the quilting. I bound it in a solid black. It decorated the walls in the New Friends quilt room for the fall season.

A few years ago I learned of the "Picket Fence" at a guild meeting in Provo, Utah. I was just learning to use my quilt software and started playing with value shadings. When I came upon this shading, I saw dancing monsters and "had" to create one. The orange I had just purchased because I liked it, the yellow and black were leftovers from something else. As the design "came to life" I added buttons for eyes. I hung the completed piece in our group quilt room and had the ladies suggest names for the quilt. We had a vote of the group of my favorite names. I didn't make the label, so I don't remember the selected name, but one of my favorites was "Mrs. Arachnids Garden Party." Fortunately, in my files are the ballots and the chosen name, so I can still label the quilt properly. It is fun to get it out at holiday time. It is a quilt that is never missed visually.

The scarecrow is another "cheater" that I loved. I have been a "crow" collector, and this print was appealing because it can be used all fall season. I did a quick-turn of the backing, front and batt, and then hand-stitched down the backing and batting all around the edge so that the backing would not roll to the right side. I did some outline quilting with monofilament on the top. I forgot to change the bobbin thread, so it has crayon-colored variegated thread on the back--not that it matters at all. Tubes on the back hold dowels that will keep the head upright and the arms extended. I was rather pleased that I got both of the pre-prints completed in-season this year!

The small pumpkin wall hanging is a design that was taken from an instruction book a few years ago; a project that was presented as a quilt group workshop. I had the top finished except the border for a couple of years before it was finished . I have another waiting for border and completion that I made at the same time. I guess I need a recipient and a deadline to get going on the completion.

I will take them all down on Tuesday, as it will be the last group meeting for this calendar year. It's time to go through the quilt collection and find something to hang up to start the new year. The theme for our instruction this coming year is "Everything Old is New Again" so maybe this is time for some of my old uglies?

Trees

I have not blogged for a couple of weeks, but I have been sewing. Although I do not have pictures to share today, I have stitched up over 100 tree blocks, and have the first lap-zize quilt sewn. Several members of our quilt group have also sewn up blocks, so at the end of the month we will be setting several quilt tops.

I got out a box of Pioneer Braid strips that have been paired and pinned ready for stitching. The pattern was from "Open a Can of Worms", and trapezoid pieces were cut for it. I've sewn all the braids I want to do--after these strips are sewn into a quilt top--and so I was playing around with the "picket fence" design. I have at least a shoe box full of cut shapes. I've been stitching them together while waiting for some machine embroidery to be completed. I have two machines front to front, so I can turn in my office chair from one machine to another. My main problem is focus on the task at hand when moving from one machine to another. Older brains do not function so well at changing gears!

I'm getting better at getting the trapezoid ends aligned correctly so the opened pieces lie straight and flat. After all of these pieces for the trees and the picket fence blocks, I should be well experienced in this technique!

Autumn Trees

Our quilt group is woking on mastering trapezoids this month for our technique challenge. Sometimes no matter how hard you prepare, things just go wrong. I made a nice instruction page and used my quilt software for the tree block so we could measure seam allowance requirements to understand better how to use them. I used my home computer for the master, but somehow my print settings were off, and the design was innaccurate. I found myself looking into 20 confused faces which was very disturbing.

I chose to use our community service day to try to undo the confusion and so cut 126 tree blocks (15 pieces in each block) so that we could stitch them up together to master these trapezoids. Well, wouldn't you know it, I shorted each block by 2 background pieces, so had to rob from some kits to give enough pieces for others. It took another whole day just to get the correct number of pieces back into the kits. Since I had used quilt-room donated fabrics there just was not more background fabric to be cut for some of them.

We got a good start at our monthly community service day, and quite a few blocks went home with members to be completed. With a corrected copy of the pattern and with better cutting and stitching instruction, hopefully this project will lead to at least 5 more lap-sized quilts for donation.

Oh, just a C&M note, the ends of the strips where the 45-degree cuts were made for the tree trapezoids? They are being sewn up to make triangle units that will finish at 1-12-inches. Now just how can I use all of these autumn-color triangle units?

Creative Surge, Cont.

Here is the second chicken bag, front and back. Inside are several pockets made with the navy lining fabric. I've decided that contrast fabric pockets would be better as it is easier to find them when looking inside the bag. Bag #1 is now in Texas with it's new owner, and this one is hanging near my recliner for whatever purpose meets my fancy.

Fleece hats for my grandsons with flashing pumpkins fastened to the brims, a fleece jacket for my granddaughter with a scarecrow applique and slashed edges all around, and Halloween pillowcases made their way to New Hampshire to be enjoyed this holiday season. The jacket was a little snug in the sleeves, but the mom has been advised to cut out the sleeves, do a stay-stitch like was done around the jacket edges, and slashing to finish the edge and she will have a vest to enjoy another year. The granddaughter wore the jacket to have her school pictures taken in, so we'll enjoy this vest for a long time.

I have to admit that these projects all came out of "scraps" starting with the scarecrow applique that was from a pre-print leftover, and the fleece was given to me by a friend. The printed squares of the border of the pillowcases was given to me, as well as the yellow for the small accent strip. I always find that when working with scrap, you usually "get to shop" to get something to go with them. The black print and the orange and purple stripe were my purchases.

Creative Surge

This weekend I was feeling a wee bit creative. I had found a piece of chicken print fabric that seemed perfect for a pieced bag. I don't know where it came from--one of those common donations of scrap that I receive, I guess. The print was just right for cutting between the chickens on the border print to make the whole outside of one bag and the front for a second. I had purchased a fat quarter selection at a Jo-Ann Fabric's sale a few months ago because the stripe and prints in the package were perfect for a pieced bag, especially the stripe for a top. I was delighted that the two fabrics paired together so well.

While I semi-watched the series re-run of Project Runway I started developing the ideas for how to assemble this purse. Working with a pattern is sometimes frustrating, but when you are designing and stitching and making up everything as you go along, the process can become very complex. For instance, I forgot to stitch handles into the bag top as I added the stripe. Okey, I guess it will be a shoulder bag instead of a hand bag, and so then I had to hunt up the D-rings I had in the supply drawers--somewhere--and had to figure out how to attach them so as not to ruin the nice top trim. The handles had to be made to fit the D-tings as both sets were slightly different in size. I used batting trimmings from a friend (leftovers from a commercially quilted quilt that were just too large to throw away) in the handles, and I should have used more in the bag and trim . Lining and pockets were another creative decision and I used the leftovers from my grandson's quilt I made earlier in the summer. Then since I only had half a bag of the chicken print I had to decide how to back the bag, and how to do a pocket, or pockets on the outside as well as the inside. Then how far do I box in the bottom to make the purse bottom and sides.

Fitting in my C&M concept, I have about a 10-inch square of the back, lining and handle fabric, and a 2-inch strip of the stripe fabric left following my creative surge. It seems to me they about evened out with this project!

I'll have to post pictures of the second bag later. The camera has been used too much this week and the battery has to be charged. In the meantime, know that the bag will be visiting in Texas with my friend, Cathie, who used it today while driving me to funeral services. I have to admit it looked pretty nifty, and presently holds some holiday redwork so it will serve a useful purpose!

I also worked with some fleece and pre-print scraps during this surge, but will post about them later as the package has not been received by the intended "victims" so will post after they receive it.

Perfume on a Pig

Here are versions two and three of the rail fence using the muslin strips as the center. These would make great lap quilts for hospitalized teenagers or pre-teens, as the muslin centers would be the perfect place for signatures and best wishes thoughts. Although each are set alike, the prints differ depending upon which scrap fabrics were being added to the stash as the quilt stitching progressed. The last version has many more reds--I think I was running low on other colors.

These quilts were made from a more calico-type print that was rescued from scrap contributed from unknown sources and from a box falling from the garage because of a borken door. A friend took one look at the relative "ugliness" of the quilt in comparison to the other versions and wanted to know why I had chosen the blue print as setting fabric. Well, it's because I cut it for the former variation, found it not suitable and took out what I had sewn. I used it for these quilts because it was already cut--you know, I had cookies and milk.

After completing the "grandma style" top I decided to perfume the pig and add some Grandmother's Flower Garden hexagon motifs I had on hand, adding a vine and leaves for good measure. Yes, Jo, I did it all by hand! Beauty is always in the eye of the beholder.

There is quite a bit of distortion in the top so this quilt may have to be tacked instead of quilted. I'll know better when I lay it out to baste it.

This version is made with the same background, but the center of each block is the same print calico in a dark value. The eye rests more easily in this version with the repetition of the same fabric. I decided this needed no "perfume" so it will be finished just as it is now.

This final version uses the same 2 x 5-inch strips, but uses a partial seam technique to add the strips around a square. The blocks finish the same size of the rail fence, and when I show them side-by-side, observers puzzle over what is different. The center is a 3-1/2-inch square. The same selection of strips was used to make this quilt as the first rail fence quilts. The surrounding black setting and border give it a bright dramatic look.

The box is still full of these 2 x 5-inch pieces as I seem to be adding to them all of the time. I'm thinking that a Pioneer Braid would be another fun design to use with the accummulated strips. Now let's see--do I have cookies or milk?

A Finish, At Last

I completed this mock barjello this weekend. Choosing how to quilt this design was a challenge for me, as I don't follow markings at all well, but stitching just the columns of piecing just was not enough. I decided to so some diagonal stitching to emphasize the design, which got the quilting close enough together to wear well and it didn't have to be marked. It is about 32 x 44" in size.

This little quilt was made of a strip of a pre-print and some blue print, both donated to our quilt group. I had 8 squares, so made the last one by sewing two end strips together. I had a lot of distortion in my top, so did some fre-motion quilting after outlining the central shapes, and then bound it in the matching print. This quilt finished at slightly under 30-inches, just right for the NICU where it will be donated. With a dot print flannel back it will be soft and cozy.

I was the recipient of a box of carefully hand cut 3-inch squares and some strip sets started by an 90-year plus dear woman who was dedicated to humanitarian service. Her sister gave me the pieces, and I tried to complete a project that was worthy of all her careful cutting, piecing and pressing. I completed this quilt top by piecing a few more strip sets to complete the design. The top is now ready for basting and the future machine quilting.

In our area we once had several clothing factories and their cutaway fabric was sold in outlet stores. I believe these pieces came from JoLene Co., or Mini World. They are mostly light-weight poly blends, so require careful handeling.

As is almost always the case, there were pieces left over, so in Cookies and Milk style, I created two more 30-inch square baby quilt tops. I'm starting to get frightened now, because at the end there was only 1 piece of the red dotted print left! This is the 3rd time in 3 months this has happened. But I didn't let it go to my head. I started a 4th quilt with the leftovers, ran short of 2 pieces, so far, but used a close substitute, and need to go to my stash now for another two reds to complete this top. I found some red dot factory scrap from JoLene Co. in the quilt room today, so need just a few squares of red to finish up. I'n sure I will find something without leaving too many leftovers that will require a 5th quilt!

From a distance the quilt looks like a checkerboard, but close up you can see diagonal rows of prints in the piecing. I will use the red dot from the quilt room for binding as it is in 45" strips and the same weight as fabric used in the quilt, even if it is not an exact match. Now, even though I have completed two projects, I have worked myself into four more--and that does not count the rail fence variations which I will post about another day. I'm told"It will all come out in the quilting."

Try Again

A friend suggested that my description of how I prepared my freezer bags for the sorting and short-term storage of squares as I cut my scrap fabric was not very clear. I'll try to give better illustrations this time.


When I stitch two bags together, the top edge of the front bag is placed directly below the zipper seal of the back bag, and then I stitch the two together. This staggers the bags slightly, and leaves the zipper area of both bags clear so they can be sealed shut if necessary.

Here several bags are joined together, each in the same manner. I only do a few together, 4-5 at the most, doing several sets to accommodate the number of sizes of squares and values I sort When the bags are staggered this way the lanels on the top of the bag are easily read and it is simple to insert the correct size and value into the bag. Several sets of bags can be placed in my shoe box and because of the way they are sewn I can place them under each other in a row so all the labels can be seen when the box is opened.

I've had to spend a couple of weeks as caretaker preparing for and following surgery of a family member. I've been in withdrawal not being able to cut and sew for such a long time. I started work on another rail fence top, #4. amd it is truly a "Grandma" quilt, using mostly calico style prints. Here's a start. Gotta cut more setting fabric before I can go farther. Again I am using 2 x 5-inch rectangles which gives a 4-1/2-inch finished block.

Cutting Fabric Again

I am on my 3rd rail fence variation now, and as I discovered a box of scrap falling out of the garage (through the broken door which won't go up or down which needs repair immediately) which needed to be rescued, I ended up with more "stuff" to cut up. Scraps from someone's dressmaking project gave me enough pieces for the center of a set of rail fence blocks, so this will lead to a whole new variation.

I thought I would share my cutting table area storage and sorting system for scraps which allows me to quickly put away the random squares that are cut from leftovers from shape cutting.

I have sewn with a 3-step zig-zag stitch a few zip-top freezer bags. The top edge of the first is sewn to the area right below the zip seal on the second bag, the third bag is sewn the same way. This way the tops are staggered, and the labels on the top of each bag are easily seen. I only do a few in each segment so the row of bags does not get too long. The freezer bags are more heavy duty and last much longer. and the tops can be closed if needed. The rows of bags are placed in a plastic shoe box with a sturdy snap-on lid which keeps everything from spilling all over if it gets turned over.

As I am cutting fabric into shapes I cut the remainder of the scraps into usable squares so that it is all cut up. I put the cut squares into my marked bags in the shoe box, sorting the dark from light of my smaller squares because they are harder to pick up and value sort later. When the bag/s get too full for the lid on the box to fit tightly, I remove the cut squares to larger shoe boxxes that hold only one size square, or to a pull-out drawer which also contains only one size square. Then my bags are ready to be refilled again, and only the shoebox with the plastic bags needs to be in the area where I do my cutting.

The other box shows the 2 x 5-inch rectangles I have been cutting for the rail fence quilts that I have been stitching. The scrapbook paper storage boxes have good snap-on attatched lids and stack well, so have een invaluable in helping me store cut shapes for specific designs. The blue print pieces I cut for the next rail fence variation are shown in the front of the box.

Quilt Room Scrap Barjello

I was asked an interesting question this week. The group was working on another variation of a mock barjello quilt, and I was asked if the design couldn't be created with strips. This was good thinking and deserves an honest reply. The strip segments that were sewn together in the first picture shows the sequence of pieces that were sewn. A floral print, a green print and then a pink stripe were sewn together, then four of these segments sewn together , and we pieced to the top and bottom what was needed to complete the strip segment in the sequence of fabrics required to maintain the design.

Although a little difficult to see, the first strip is constructed with 15 full rectangles which were cut 2-1/2-inches x 4-1/2-inches. The second strip is constructed with 14 full rectangles, and begins and ends with a square cut 2-1/2-inches . The odd-number strips are all 15- rectangles long, and the even-number strips are 14-rectangles long with a square starting and ending the strip to even out the length. The sequence of colors in each strip is determined by the movement of the color in the design. Yes, it would be simple to cut a 4-1/2-inch strip of the three colors and seam them, then cut them into 2-1/2-inch segments and the three-color sequence would be more easily constructed. Therefore, the answer to strip-piecing is easy. Now to our quilt....

The floral pieces came from some pre-cut 5-inch squares that someone years ago had packaged and sold as quilt pieces. They were probably die-cut from some factory scrap by some industrious person. They were donated to the quilt room years ago and through the years they have been used for a variety of quilt designs. There was little waste of them for the mock barjello as the squares only needed to be cut in half and 1/-2 inch cut off the top. The stripe I selected I cut in 2-1/2-inch strips and cut the lengths so the stripes went across the piece instead of up and down. The position of the stripe is not as noticable with this direction as it would be running the other direction when the seams of two stripes meet. The gren print was from yardage, and could be cut in either 4-1/2-inch or 2-12-inch strips and cut to the required length. This quilt could not possibly have been strip-pieced in the traditional method simply because of the "scrap" fabrics that were being used to construct it.

Since the beginning of the year I have created several variations of this design. I have kept the size of the pieces consistent (not so hard to remember the size I am using when cutting a lot of scraps into different sizes for different quilts) but I have varied the ways I have used prints and background fabrics. There are no rules for the sequence in which to move the colors "up" or "down" or how many colors to use. I just decided that 15 rectangles down and 21 across made a nice size lap quilt for a child, and by making it this size I did not have to piece backing fabric.

I made a baby-size quilt of the leftovers which was 10 rectangles long and 17 rectangles wide. I made the design sequence different by dropping the color rows one more rectangle which gave more variety to the design. Would you believe it--I only had one stripe rectangle left after the piecing. However, with more packages of the floral print available, more quilts will be created using different colorways and designs to add variety to the mix. More quilts coming!

Fabric Cutting

This week I have been cutting fabric from my stash. I had a stack of light cream pieces that were factory leftovers that were a quilt room donation. I cut some squares from it for applique (another post on that project later), but there were skinny pieces left, so I cut them into 2 x 5-inch strips. I had seen a photo of a rail fence design like this once, so thought these newly cut pieces would be perfect for this variation. Again, leftovers from one project inspired another! I cut some fabrics that were leftovers from other things into the same size pieces, and stitched them into blocks, a print, muslin and then print. I love the on-point set of this design. One top later, and I have pieces left, of course. With a solid blue used for the setting triangles and a border, the lap quilt is very colorful and cheery.

I spent 13 hours one day pressing scraps and cutting them into the shapes. I've had a sore arm for a few days as a result. I don't usually do that much at one time, but wanted to get the mess taken care of at one time. I do have one rule about cutting scrap that I have found very useful, and that is that a fabric gets cut up all lthe way while it is on the cutting mat unless it is yardage or I have a specific plan for it. That means that I may be cutting a specific size or shape right now, but if it is scrap, the rest of it gets cut into usuable shapes now and these shapes are put into storage for future projects rather than getting folded up and then have to be pressed and re-cut at a later time. My focus this week was 2 x 5-inch strips, but ends of strips were cut into squares or 1-1/2-inch strips. All of the scrap I cut is taken care of, either the shapes I need now or squares and strips for a future project.

A friend donated some great new books on scrap quilting to the quilt room this week, and I brought a few home to browse through. I got a great new idea from each book! I have recently learned how to use my scanner so I have been scanning project ideas and saving them as computer files, and I am getting quite paperless! Ain't technology great? I don't have many skills (as friends comment they need to start charging me by the hour for consultation) but I love to be able to learn new things, especially when they help me save more space for fabric.

Today I was going through a binder of quilt designs that I had created for scrap quilts several years ago. It had to be a LONG time ago, as they were printed on my dot-matrix printer. Anyway, I discovered a 4-patch variation I had created and forgotten about. It is an interesting design, and thinking about all those squares I cut from the leftovers this week...

Good Week

This week I basted and quilted two baby Trip Around the World quilts, and bound four of them, completing the ten of them pieced this year by our quilt group. As soon as labels are on them they will be ready for donation.

In a fabric donation from a group member I came across a strip of the cute pre-print fabric that had a nice sawtooth border around the blocks. However, it was cut from the two ends of the strip, and there were only 8 motifs. I hated to lose that border, but with trimming and seaming two scrap pieces together I was able to get enough for this small baby quilt. I will bind it with the blue print, as there is just enough left of it for the binding. The top is ready for basting now.

I machine quilt my quilts using monofilament on the top. I recently acquired some lovely Superior Thread trilobal varigated which I have been using for bobbin thread and I love using it. My vision is not great, and by using the monofilament on the top my mistakes are not too obvious, and makes a secure quilt which will launder well. I quilt on a Juki industrial which is quick and gives me a wonderful stitch.

I have been working on four other scrap quilts this week as well. With the purchase of a new camera I will be sharing more photos soon.