Triple Rail Fence is tied now

I love the look of this quilt.  My sis came over with her young uns and helped me tie it.  Friday night we worked on it and again on Saturday, while the kids played and competed for our attention.

after the tying was done, I tried the tutorial I found at Flourishing Palms blog (see post right before this one).  I even used the school glue for basting, and let me tell you it worked great.  My DH gave me a hobby table cover for Christmas, one that you can iron on, and it was a great help with the heat setting of the glue.  There's not enough space on the ironing board to stretch out a whole quilt, I really needed table space but didn't want to use our dining room table for ironing..  With the heat proof padded table cover, I could use a utility table I usually use for cutting for ironing surface.  After glue basting, I sewed on two strips of binding so I could try the folding and marking, and here's how that looks:

I sewed on the markings, turned it right side out, and there you go, perfect mitered corner.  I can't tell you how happy I was to find this!  I have struggled and struggled with bindings, it is heartbreaking to take all the time to do a qult and then have a binding that is not up to standard.  I finally feel proud of a binding I've done.

Isn't that beautiful!

when the whole thing is done, I will proudly post a finished picture.  Wouldn't you know I have run short on the pink fabric I'm using for the binding.  A green was chosen originally, but it just didn't look right after I had it all cut out.  Back to the LQS! 

Interlocking circles

My next project, a blue and brown baby quilt will come from a Quilters Academy lesson, a small quilt called interlocking circles.  It is really beautiful and intricate looking, but only uses squares and nine patches.  I had the great pleasure of meeting one of my swap partners, Charlene, as she passed through my town over the weekend. She helped me pick out the blue and brown fabric, and I visited a new to me quilt store near where I live with her.  Thanks Charlene for taking the time to meet me!

Quilters Academy homework

The next lesson for me is drafting. I love playing with this, the graph paper and the colors. It was fun to start that way, as the book said, with colored pencils and graph paper, but faster to change colors on the computer, so as soon as I had the basic rules down i moved back to my computer and a spreadsheet program. I wanted to convert the interlocking circles quilt to Halloween colors, and it was difficult for me at first because I only chose 3 colors, black, orange and purple. No matter what I did it didn't look right. Then I went back to Harriet's pattern, matching color for color and discovered she had 4 colors in the circles, not 3, so after that it was easy. I already have the fabric I want to use, after I finish the bindngs on my pink and brown quilts I will get started on this one, with the intent to finish by Halloween.

Lesson 120

I am so glad I purchased this book! The instructions and illustrations are very specific and make perfect sense put into practice. I need lots of practice, already my measuring skills are improving. It was frustrating to me, measuring and cutting and things not turning out exactly right. My results aren't perfect yet, but I am getting better. The book clears up a lot of things for me.

This first lesson was strip piecing one rail fence block, which sounds simple, but is the perfect way to tell if you are going wrong, easy to measure and tell if something is "not right" just by looking before you even get the ruler back out. The next lesson will be more strip piecing but a bigger sample. If I were to grade myself on this one, I would give myself a B minus. B because the colors look good, the strip blocks are all the same size, and finished size is exact, but minus because my corners don't quite fit together, and my seam allowances are wobbly. I have a good seam guide and can follow it, but I get distracted or nervous or something and they aren't as straight as they should be.

quilters academy

In an effort to improve my process I've ordered a copy of the Quilter's Academy Vol 1 by Harriet Hargrave. I met someone who happens to work in the same building I do through my guild, who actually met this author and has a signed copy of the book. She (my co-worker) proposed the idea of meeting together and working through this book. I am so impressed with her! Not only her quilting interest but her leadership qualities as well. Two other ladies in my guild have joined our little group, and maybe others will join us as time goes by. I have ordered my book, and can't wait to read it. Since I am mostly self taught, and learned things on an as needed basis, I have missed a lot of basic knowledge that so many quilters I meet seem to already possess. It will be a welcome change to work on the same project with others at the same time instead of just muddling along by myself. I will post here as I learn new things, so stay tuned!