I finished the most recent piece I was working on; I wanted it done so I could photograph it and submit it to the member show at the Tubac Center for the Arts this December.
Last time I posted, I’d straightened up the quilted desert marigold piece. This past week, I picked up where I left off.
I used a zig-zag stitch to attach 4 strips of quilt batting to each side of the marigold center, making a large rectangle; I then put a piece of yellow fabric on the bottom for the backing, and I cut matching strips of the fabric I dyed last week on top of the strips of newly attached batting. Here you can see the quilt sandwich in process, I’ve just started laying down the pressed strips of fabric on top:
Once I attached a strip, I machine quilted it with an abstract stipple pattern; I guess this is the “quilt as you go” part of the process:
Then I cut 4 strips of green fabric from my hand dyed “stash” of fabric, the green strips bring out the green flower stems; I carefully measured and placed each strip over the areas where the raw edges of the fabric were exposed. Then, I straightened up all 4 sides:
Finally, the last step is the binding. There is apparently some sort of quilt sprite or elf at work in my studio space, because out of nowhere I found a pre-assembled binding strip, abandoned from a prior project. Finding this saved me a bit of time! I’ve always liked a black binding with faint polka-dots. I think it’s my universal binding and I tend to use that fabric often for bindings. I just had to press the binding strip I found (it was perfectly long enough) and then draw a 1/2 seam allowance line along the length of the strip to keep me on track as I sewed it down:
Here is the almost-finished piece: not the best photo, as you can’t see the entire binding, but it is straight and hangs nicely: all I have left to do is whip-stitch the binding to the back of the quilt. This was good enough to photograph and submit to the Tubac show.
I would’ve probably gotten more done this week, but Thursday night I made 15 pounds of German potato salad for a big family reunion this weekend in St. David, Arizona; my mother’s 9 siblings and some of their families are in town for a memorial service for my maternal grandmother, who died earlier this summer. Luckily I have a big enough fridge to accommodate all 15 pounds. I also roasted a turkey breast (sadly, I could only afford a commercial factory bird) and made cranberry sauce.
Now it’s time to put it all in a cooler and get ready for a long weekend with family!
it all looks great!