Where Have I Been?

Here, there and everywhere! Everwhere but here, that is. I've been away on a whirlwind tour of the Los Angeles area - we did Miniature Golf, Disneyland, Universal Studios, Olvera Street, Dodger game, Hollywood Park, two movies, visited both sides of the family and drove over 3,000 miles in 12 days. Talk about burn out! Not to mention working like a fiend to get several sewing jobs finished before leaving and having a custom quilt to finish on returning home. Whew, I need a vacation to get over my vacation! But it was very fun, and I loved seeing my sister and her family, and all of my husbands family as well.

The custom quilt was an Alchemy order through Etsy. I made a quilt for a double bed from all of the cute clothes of a baby girl's first year. Mom and I both liked snail's trail block, so I tackled it - using some pink fabric for foundations. It was an interesting job and came out quite well in the end, though I think I would choose an easier pattern next time!

I used fabric from two different outfits for each of the blocks, sewing them to a fabric foundation. I traced the lines on the fabric from a pattern I printed out from EQ6. I ended up making 30 blocks, then bordered it with 6 inch blocks to bring it up to the proper size. I used a pair of maternity slacks for the binding. Believe me, there is a good reason that we don't use stretchy fabric for bindings. I will not do that again, believe me! I ended up making it a single fold binding, sewing it to the back, then using a zig-zag to attach it to the front. Not the best way of doing it, but I was committed to using those pants, so I made it work!

The quilting went all right, despite the variety of fabrics in the top. The foundation helped, but the lightweight stretchy knits wanted to bunch up, and the heavy weight stretchy fabrics caused skipped stitches. I used a big meander and got it done. In retrospect, it might have been easier to use the longarm at the shop to quilt it, but I was concerned that I haven't practiced on it for a while and didn't have a great deal of time to mess with it. At least I'm confident in problem solving with the Juki!

As of right now the quilt is on it's way, and the owner loves the pictures - hopefully the reality lives up to all her expectations!