USA Quilting 1

I got my least favorite part of the quilt process done yesterday - the sandwiching of the layers.

I was going to use a white backing, but the fabric I had available was white-on-white one of which was too thin and the other to painty. I opted for a red Ikea cotton sheet that I had already pre-washed, but needed ironing.

While I was wishing that I had some really white batting in the stash, it occurred to me that easy stitching was priority because of all the piecing.  I decided to use another piece of the wool I've been saving.  Interestingly, I think that the patterning of the white-on-white backgrounds stands up more with that cream colored layer.

I also discovered at this point that despite my careful stitching, the outer border has a little bit of a wave to it.  It's the result of having a bias edge of triangles all around the outside.  That problem should quilt out with this somewhat lofty batting.

I pin basted and started with a block near the center.

Windblown Square for North Dakota

Algonquin Square for Rhode Island.

After the outline stitching, I plan to do some echoing like this but in a way that merges with or flows to the stitching of the next block.

Third finished block for Sunday was Salt Lake City, for Utah (obviously).

 You may remember from a previous post on this quilt, that there are several rows that got off-grid from the others.  I can see now that there's going to be some clever stitching to camouflage the problem.

This block, for example is about 1/4" smaller than the one below it, but lined up on the right side. It's only noticeable when you try to line up the center points of each block.   A little "fool the eye" quilting and no one will notice.

Spring Break - Update 2

I spent all day Saturday quilting.  Never even got out of my PJ's.  Now THAT's a vacation.

Made great progress on the NH Ashley quilt (Garden of Stitches, Lisa Bongean - Primitive Gatherings).  I have been working on in 4 quarters, to make it more manageable for lap quilting.  Yesterday, was the process of connecting 2 sections, then quilting the connection section.  I was feeling quite pleased with my progress about 11 am, but by evening was only seeing what still needed to be done, rather than what was finished (the whole half empty/half full thing).  I'm also going to run out of the varigated green/lime thread I've been using on the border.  Still deciding if I need to buy more, or find something in the stash that will work.

I think that another long day or several evenings will get this 1/2 done.  But today, the sun is shining and it's supposed to get to 65 degrees.  Going to bundle up and hop on the back of the Harley for a date with the hubby.