About.Com Quilts

Photographs of my Southwestern Pueblo Treasures and Hunter’s Sports Tees are in the About.com quilts photo gallery.  There are many great photos of quilts made by others.  You should check it out for inspiration and if you have any questions relating to making quilts.

Eureka!

I finally finished the quilt top and backing of my Acoma Quilt. Unfortunately, it wasn't finished in time to get it to my quilter to do a custom long-arm quilting treatment, so took it to someone who can get it turned around in time for the quilt show by doing pantograph quilting.

Spent all day Tuesday wrestling with the large pieces of fabric that make up the top and backing. Trying to iron, clip stray threads, and run a lint brush over everything (there are huge deposits of cat hair as you can imagine) can wear a girl out. When I finally got that part done, I hung everything on a hanger without taking a photo first. By then, I was so ready to just ship it off to the quilter and out of my hair for a while. However, I love sewing bindings to my projects and look forward to that in a couple of weeks.

Kitty and Lace

Once again, Ranger found a way to help me. After looking for lace in this plastic storage box I turned around from my ironing board and there he was in the box. He was nowhere in my sewing room when I pulled out and dug through this box, but in seconds, just like magic he appeared cuddled up among all the ribbons, hankies, lace, and miscellany just like he had been there sleeping for hours.

My architectural draftsman husband serves as an invaluable advisor on my quilt projects. His keen eye for detail can immediately catch an error I never saw on a project I have been working on for hours or weeks. He is also helping me with my border on the Acoma quilt, especially after my little faux paux (not sure where this is the correct spelling - spellcheck doesn't have French words on it I guess) on the first border cut. Now he thinks I need a block in each corner of the border to keep the border striping from crossing each other on the corners. I'm making a test block now to put on the design wall with the top border strip to see if that's going to work for me. I'll keep you posted.

Uh Oh!

While cutting out my borders, trying to center motifs and be precise, I discovered that something wasn't right. The first one I cut, which is shown on the left of this picture, seemed okay until I compared it to my border "audition" photo. Uh oh! The orange stripe was in the wrong place. The correct border piece is on the right of the photo. The pyramid-like motifs have two different types of repeats that I didn't notice while laying the fabric on my cutting table.

There are only three groups of motifs in this 45" wide fabric in the yardage I ordered, so guess what? I had to order more fabric! Thank goodness Hancocks-Paducah still had it. It is on its way as I type. Should receive it early next week. In the meantime, I will measure, cut and sew my backing for this quilt.

This shirting fabric that I found at Lone Star House of Quilts reminded me so very much of some of the painting on Acoma pottery, it seemed perfect for my project. See the thin stripeing on this pot?

Quilt Show Entry Time

Since I missed my last guild meeting due to hospitalization (I'll get to that later), I mailed in my entry forms for the upcoming September quilt show. The Acoma (now known as Southwest Pueblo Treasures) quilt is not finished, but I'm making progress. It lacks the outer border, backing and quilting (oh is that all?). If I put a deadline on it, the work goes faster. Don't know why a deadline pushes me to finish projects - must be related to my paralegal days when EVERYTHING is on a short deadline. Go figure!

Also entered my Jo's Little Women's Club project, a 25" square wall hanging called "Baby Rose," which is complete except for a hanging sleeve. Not a very good picture, but you get the idea. It has been rolled up for several months so it was wavy when photographed. I better leave it unrolled for a while.


I had intentions of making a quilt for the Guild Challenge involving log cabin blocks. Alas, there won't be time. Pattern and fabrics are selected, but that's as far as I got. Once I get the Southwest quilt to the quilter, I'll start on this log cabin quilt anyway. It probably won't be finished in time for the Show this year, but there is always next year!