Red Star Quilt Extension Update 1

The Red Christmas Star Quilt is such a heavy quilt!  I made it with Warm and White originally and it makes my muscles protest every time I move it around the machine, a big round of applause to people who make quilts this size on a regular basis!  So far I have attached all of my extension strips both to the front and to the back on all sides of the quilt.  I have also quilted two of the sides leaving me half done with the quilting.  Here's how it's looking (full of pins and only close-ups for now)

Before Quilting

After Quilting

 I was inspired by Sue's Swirls so much I tried to apply it to the red quilt.  I knew before I started the quilting would be demanding but I felt it would be worth the efforts.  Somewhere along the way I lost a bit of the wind look to my quilting as I thought more about my mother and her likes and dislikes.  She has never done well in cold climates so my swirls look a bit more like crashing waves.  To move over the quilt I found sometimes I had gaps in my quilting - tiny ones to small for a swirl but a little bit bigger than I'd like to leave empty so I started filling those with a bit of flame work, nothing complicated and perhaps nothing very noticeable but to me it created a fire and ice theme.

At this point the quilt has many pins.  I remove the pins as I quilt but there are always stray ones that stay in, so I try really hard to place a pin cushion like this away from cats, children, and grownups alike.  That has always worked out well in the past as I seem to be the only one that gets poked by the pins.  This is the biggest quilt that has ever been in my house and of course it's willfully working on being even bigger so it's harder to keep out of the way.  As you can see my efforts to keep family members (or meowbers in this case) from harm haven't worked out so well.

Perhaps Tiny thinks she knows best!

The 100 Inch Star

Sometimes we come up with a great idea.  Like this one I had...  Oh yes let's double a 50" pattern so we can have a star to cover my mother's entire bed!   When your brain tells you this is a good idea, take a second and think about what a 100" star looks like.  Okay well you don't really have to do that, instead you can try to look at mine.  Taking a picture of this quilt is like trying to have a nice conversation with my in-laws.  You think you've done it, you really do, but nope there's the zinger. 

The 100" Star

I have added a video clip especially for my fellow Fall Festival Quilt Visitors so that you may see this giant beauty. 



I made this quilt for my own mother two Christmas's ago.  It has a prairie point binding and the pattern, before I jiggered with it was called Wintergraphix Star by In the Beginning Fabrics.  It truly is 100" square designed for a Queen sized bed.   Now this not so little wayward quilt has come home to me (all the good ones do) and I have learned it wants to be a KING sized quilt.  I'm inclined to agree if only because this 16 point star could benefit from a bit of a drape down the sides thereby allowing the star line flat, shining on the top of the bed.

Tiny my Five year old Model

I am fully prepared to allow the prairie point binding to remain attached and visible in spite of the new 10" extensions.  How will I do it?  Well I guess you'll just have to check back in over the upcoming weeks to find out.

Thanks for Stopping by!

BIG RED IS FINSIHED!

The Red Quilt is all done! Finished, complete hooray! I'm feeling quiet a bit worn from the final push to get it done, so it's nice to know I can move on to the blue quilt now. You're not seeing things the back is natural muslin.
Rob took all these photos so I didn't have to wasn't that nice? It's a shame he already knows he's going to have to help me baste up the next one. Basting even spray basting is not his favorite job.

So these are prairie points, the ones I'd been talking about for so long. Making the points is easy but time consuming. Then you sew the points to the quilt, and then because I didn't look up the directions on how to bind with them until after the quilt was 80% quilted, I then affixed a small strip of doubled over binding on top of the points. I was low on the fabric and tried to make it work but another inch in thickness would have really helped. You can see the red there in the first photo the solid row. I personally was hoping it would "border" the back and it did, so I'm happy. :) These are individually made, alternating, slightly nested, binding finished Prairie Points, with my own personal twist on the corners and the binding. I got my tips from Quilter's Cache

My friend Mary said "just when I thought it couldn't be any more beautiful" Isn't that nice? It warms my heart. :) Here's hoping it will be well appreciated by the recipient.

Red Star Quilt Unveiled

I've been working on quilting the Red 16 point star quilt for a couple of days now. The end is in sight, perhaps I will reach it today or tomorrow. Of the quilting part that is, after it's all quilted it will still need a binding of sorts. I really like the look a nested prairie point binding, but I'm not certain if I'm going to commit to that. If I don't it will have a traditional Amish binding where the muslin backing is pulled forward to the front to bind. You can see that I planned for this because of the extra muslin all around. This is the detail of the quilting. I used the quilting guide from Rob's old sewing machine that has long since left his possession (he has all the feet though). It's new to me, but it's going quite easily. All of the white areas are being quilted with that foot. All of the red areas are being quilted with a decorative stitch on my new sewing machine. It's a wavy stitch which means it goes way faster than normal stitch in the ditch. You can see the wavy lines over the quilt label below. Last but never least, and certainly not forgotten is the quilt label. I appliqued the label on and now have quilted it in.
My knitting had to be all pulled out, but I don't mind. I've learned my mistakes and corrected them. Once I was certain I had the hang of it I pulled it all out and began again. It's nearly 9" long and already looks so cuddly.

The Row Robin is growing up just fine. So far I'm two people shy from being a full group for the small quilting group and half way from full for the larger quilt group. I haven't joined either group yet, but I will when I know where the need is, perhaps both? I'm still playing with ideas. I'm so excited about this, it's open to all quilting techniques so I'm really planning to push myself to new levels.
Every time I pull out the camera Jessica wants in the photos, so here is the latest one of her. I love her for it, because I know even though it can make me crazy the day will come she want want me to NOT take any pictures of her.

The 16 Point Red Star Quilt Sneak Peak!

So today I SMACKED right into the window of my own limits. Seriously. I doubled the Wintergraphix pattern, and in retrospect that was a huge no no. I had never made the pattern before so I didn't know anything past the stars I've made in the past.

Here's what happened. Doubling the pattern, doubled the seam allowances on everything. This star has so many seams it has put me "out" by nearly three inches. So now while my brain screams "HELP" I know the real answers. Answer one seam rip all the points I've already made (8 of them as I have done half of my 16 point star) and make them smaller, or go with the over sized and let the points run into each other that 3 inches at the upper intersections thereby allowing the outer most points to be free and perfect. The latter has the most appeal to me as it is the "simplest" fix, and because I know doing this will help blend away a few places where this same problem manifested itself. From the photo seen here the quilt will grow from it's current 70" square 34" as I add a row of blocks also known as the "points" all the way around.

My daughter loves to tinker with my sewing machine. I keep an eagle eye on her the entire time, she is just so cute to watch, as she does everything with the thread I do. Or at least I'd like to think I look that cute sewing! ;)

This morning Jessica was roaming the house in her daddy's boots. This is not something he relishes, but something I felt needed to be photographed so in years to come we can all talk about how cute she was.

I took this last photo out of the sheer silliness of it, I bet you have never seen anything quite like this. The cat in the bird bath is Bobby the neighbor's little boy, my guess is it never occurred to the man to leave water out, but I could be wrong, I try not to go snooping on other people's porches. The standing cat is an extremely shy little boy, a half brother of my dearly beloved Sunny. I had just been thinking we haven't seen many birds using the bird bath! I suppose it's time to wash it out.

Hiya Folks!

Been a while since I was here, hmmm, let's see! I've been working on the machine quilting for Jessica's baby clothes quilt. Oh did I not tell you? I've decided to do the quilting myself. The blocks (25 total) will be machine quilted (I'm 2/3rds of the way done) and all the sashing will be hand quilted hearts. Everyday it's more and more quilt like. Simply amazing really. Perhaps that toots my own horn, but it is more soft, cuddly, warm, and wonderful than I would have ever hoped for.

I've been hard on the trail for the fabrics for my mother and sister's Christmas Quilt. This is a red I just love, it's a Christmas fabric, but I think it would be pretty all the time, don't you? Next up for your enjoyment is ... This is the Red swirl I loved from the Wintergraphix star I'm planning on making. The quilt will use the Wintergraphix pattern, but the only color I'll be using from the pattern is that red swirl (also called white on red eyelash!) Once again this is a Christmas fabric, but I'm sure it would be beautiful gracing a quilt all year long.

Of course my sister's quilt is a showcase of blue fabrics. The pattern of which has been a co-op with dh and I to create and draft it. So you'll have to wait and see the pattern, but just look at those colors! All the blues are from Thousands of Bolts So they are all around $4.00+/- (whereas the red is more like $8-$10).

Currently DH is sanding down the bathroom door, as the original finish has long since pealed and looks well nasty. He's going to sand it and paint it the bright baby blue that we trimmed out our bedroom with. Completely because it's the color we have, so it doesn't cost anything. It could very well be the only home improvement done before Jessica's birthday party on Monday.

Yes, that's what I said Monday. We're having a "dog love dog" party and if the invites I wrote are any indication we'll be having the latest Dog movie (any suggestions what that might be?), tearing open presents, and digging in the dirt.

TTFN!