Thursday, March 21, 2013

Moving Right Along

I'm beginning to feel better. I've started carrying the cane inside the house more than I am using it. I figured out a way to get into the driver's seat of the car without hurting my left knee or the hip area. Maybe if I don't wrench it several times a day it will all begin to heal faster? I hope so. The flu like illness that started it all is gone, and my energy levels are almost back to normal as well.

And I've gotten back to the sewing machine. I've got the binding sewn onto the table runner. I decided to finish it by hand. I've pretty much gotten the first round of sewing a binding on down pat.

Will you just look at that final join! Almost perfect and no one will be able to tell it from any of the other joins except that it goes the opposite way. But I know how to fix that the next time, or at least I think so.

Once again, the mini-class at The Quilt Show web site taught me a method that is so easy you could cry, and the result will be almost perfect every time. But mostly Easy, Easy, Easy.

I trimmed the Mug Rugs that I made out of the extra blocks too, and zig zagged around one of them. The others probably will get done later today or tomorrow.

I've got another finished project to bind, and some fabric to cut for the hexagons, and then I'm going to make a start on one of a couple of projects I've been thinking about.

I think I would like to make a bed sized quilt, but I've got no idea how I'd get it sandwiched. I can't stand up very long, even when I'm not using a cane. I really don't want to send it out to be quilted because what I think would work on one of the quilts I'm thinking about is straight line quilting, and I could easily do that myself. And I'd enjoy doing it.

I have ordered the fabric and the batting for that large quilt, and I'd like to actually make it. But I need to do some thinking through before I do.


Take care all.

12 comments:

  1. The table runner and mug rugs are very lovely!

    Have you considered a "quilt as you go technque" for a bed-sized quilt? For this you make and quilt the blocks as you go leaving the edges open and then sashing strips to join them on the front and back. There are several good tutorials out there and books in the libary that show how to do this. Have you picked out a pattern?

    Hope you continue to feel better and get your energy levels back. It has been a long winter with many illnesses here. So far I have escaped the flu and such, but I am feeling so achy and tired of the cold.

    May spring turn warm soon ... :) Pat

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  2. Are there any church quilting groups in your area, and if so could they be of help to you? Could you teach your friends how to help you? I, too am a widow, but believe I'm much older than you, and I know the pain of care giving and of loss, but I had local support groups I could attend. My husband had Alzheimers disease and I was able to care for him at home except for the last 13 days when he was hospitalized with pneumonia, and never recovered.Do you know about GriefShare? Check out www.griefshare.org. There is a daily devotional and you can find where groups meet. I have a strong church family that has helped a lot.

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  3. Hi Stella,
    I did quilt as you go, and it worked well. It's the 70's quilt I posted on my site a few weeks ago. The only thing I would do differently would to find instructions for sewing both sides of the sashing on the machine. You might recall that I had to sew all the sashing on the back by hand; about the same as binding.

    I think the church idea would work. I've gone to my church sometimes to get bigger tables so I can set my quilt out all at once. You might look into batting that has adhesive on one side. You just press it
    onto the back of the quilt. Or the using a spray adhesive to attach the binding to the back.

    Hope that this helps!

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  4. I am so glad you are feeling better. Usually libraries have rooms for meetings that have tables for use too if you you ask. Or if your quilt shop has a classroom area you could probably use them for an afternoon.

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  5. I love the colors in your table runner. And the finish on the binding is great. I was also going to suggest using quilt-as-you-go techniques to finish a big quilt. I've done a couple tutorials on my blog and there are lots of other people that have done them, too.
    Hope your knee and hip get to feeling better soon.

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  6. What a beautiful runner! I love those colours and you did a great job on that binding join! If you know a longarm quilter, you could ask if you & a couple of friends could pin baste your quilt on the longarm. I just did that for another friend last weekend (it's in my linked post) and it took us about 30 mins to do a queen-size quilt. I was happy to help her out and you're likely to find the same. Good luck!

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  7. I watched a video on YouTube (try searching Sharon Schamber Network for quilt basting). She uses a technique with boards that I want to try sometime, and it looks like you can do it at a table.

    Your runner turned out great! Glad to hear you are feeling better!!

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  8. Hi Stella!
    Your table runner looks great!
    Why don´t you sew a "quilt as you go" quilt.
    I have it hard to cut much at the same time and to handle too big quilts in my machine, but when I do "quilt as you go" it works well!
    Hope you´ll get better soon!
    Hugs//Maja

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  9. Sew glad to hear you are healing up and feeling better. Love the idea others have commented on - quilt as you go. I have never done one yet, but it sure does sound like your best bet! It's great to see your progress on this table runner and mug rugs...

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  10. popping over from Anything Goes, and your Going Good !

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  11. Visiting from Anything goes...glad to hear you're getting up and around. I've not been keeping my machine company much these days either. Lovely job on the runner. I say little steps...doing something is better than nothing.

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