Another binding done!

I was hired to do another binding on a wallhanging.

And it's done!  Hurray!

I would have gotten it done 2 days ago, but 2 days this week I came home from work and I didn't have enough mental energy to pet the cat!

I usually hand stitch that corner miter fold closed on both sides.  I've noticed that you can really tell when I sew it down because the thread alters that nice fold line.  So this one I didn't stitch the front, only the back.

Maybe I need to start collecting silk thread for stitching the miters.

Teach yourself Facebook in 10 minutes.

I've been working on the Facebook Group and Page for Minnesota Quilters.
But what I want to know is how does a 200 page book teach you facebook in 10 minutes?
Guess I'll have to read really fast because it's not a picture book.

Tried Nancy Birgers binding technique

 I don't think this is exactly how it should look if I followed her instructions precisely...which I didn't.
First I prepped the binding with the colors the wrong way.  It would have been an orange binding with a teal-ish piping.
So then I had to do alot of messing around, which included starting to sew it on and the piping part was too big.  So I ripped that out.
I think in the end it's okay.
But I'm going to have to talk to Nancy Birger again.

And you know Nancy Birger hates to talk to anybody.

I taught Jenna her first driving lesson up at the farm.

Jenna is so happy to drive in circles!



Everyone watching us drive around in circles



Quilt Binding Complete

Another one binds the quilt,
Another one binds the quilt,
And another one bound and another one bound,
Another one binds the quilt!
Hey, I'm gonna bind you too!  Another one binds the quilt!

Yeah, I know, I need more sleep...

Back in the sewing room again!

mncontemporaryquilterS.net



The letter S for MCQ, approx 3" x 10", stitched embroidery floss and fiber by hand.

 "And it's about time!"
Minnesota Contemporary Quilters needs a banner.  Kathy Faust has designed a way for 26 of MCQ Members to each make a piece of that banner by creating a unique system that was inspired by the spectacular River Quilt made by the St Cloud Quilters (pictured farther down). 
At the last MCQ meeting Kathy arranged to draw the names of the hopeful participants (so it would be fair) for each person to come up and pick out the letter they wanted, mine included the blue fabric. 
S is for Svedberg.  Of course!
Kathy wants to sew the individual pieces together side by side, so the sides of my piece are actually unsewn and only basted for my picture. 
Easily undone with the pull of a thread.

The lighting in this picture is dreadful.  The 16 Quilters each got a 'pattern' with the width of the piece, the marks for where the river must start on the left side and marks for where it would end on the right side; and the rest of the sheet was blank!  Each quilter decided the height and where the river went within those boundaries. 
The different styles of interpretation were fascinating, the level of skill was impressive, and the variety of technique covered almost everything out there!  Each piece was numbered and had to go back in that order for the river to flow; and yet the cohesiveness was beautiful.
The only constant between them is the river, and even the river was interpreted with different techniques in each piece.
I'll update this post tomorrow with more credit towards the River Quilt.

Cute pattern, if you're into all that stitching!

Free Tree Skirt Pattern from AQS

Not enough time being creative lately.

Points of View

Points of View 35.5 x 21.125"

I had a tough time deciding which way it should hang.  Currently this is it, but I created the sleeve so I could attach another sleeve to any of the other sides.  I'll have to get the tripod up to take the picture straight, this is the best I could do. 

I don't know if "Points of View" should be the name. I'm also thinking of "One Point of View: Many Points of Perspective".  People have so many different points of view on any one subject. 

On the news this morning they showed yesterdays Minneapolis Gay Pride Parade, and the issue of gay marriage going forward in New York...that's a subject with a million different points of view!

If it only represented that one volatile subject, I would have made some of the buildings crumbling with decay.

And which side of the subject would the decayed buildings represent?  Well that would depend on your personal point of view, wouldn't it?

Scraps with different points of view.

I haven't been blogging because my computer monitor died.  I got a new one yesterday so here's what I've been doing in the mean time.

I put together this piece with the leftover scraps from making "Buildings".  While I was making the "Buildings" piece, continually rearranging them, I was thinking how a piece would be if the 1 point perspectives were all messed up.  Really like the points of view on any given subject some agree, most don't agree, and until you've walked a mile in someone else's shoes... 

I only put a few of the buildings from different 1 point perspectives close enough to touch the other, but in real life I believe most are over lapping.

Still there were more leftovers (lots and lots) so I ripped a couple long swaths of white fabric 5" wide and started applying all the leftovers to that.

By the end of tonight it's either going to be a border or a binding, but I don't know yet.

That and laundry and work to do yet...

"Buildings" hanging at Minnesota Quilters Annual Show

It's done and hanging at the MQ show.

Never satisfied!

I keep changing it, moving them around, then I need a new one, then I don't like the flow...

So after I'm all done making the buildings and pinning them to the wall, how the heck am I going to take it down from the design wall???

When your design covers the guide drawing...

I pin ribbon on for floating guidelines when I get to the point where they're covered:

Floating guidelines.  By going past the corner, I have freed the corner from having a pin that might interfere with adding design elements.

The ribbon going all around the design.

The lady had a little too much red bull!

I've been replacing some screens on the house...and I have to agree, if I had known how easy it was, I would have done the entire house years ago!  It literally takes 5 minutes and the screen is perfectly flat.

This old package of fiberglass screening with the scary looking lady had a Target price tag on it for $1.99!  So how old is that?

I guess the screen company had a demographic of a-little-bit-too-happy, one-armed, single, caucasian women with long red fingernails (and no wedding ring!).  Of course, if she did have wedding ring on, we'd know she married a bum of a husband because, following traditional gender rolls, he should be doing the screens so that she doesn't break her fingernails.  And if she were married, she probably wouldn't be wearing red lipstick and a pearl necklace... 

And I had to use a file on my nails after I was done...so that's why they don't have her thumb in the picture, I'm sure she cracked that nail...

Still working on Buildings