New Year of Quilting

Finally had some time to spend in front of the sewing machine last weekend. Holidays and work have not been cooperating and I have not been doing much quilting. I did manage to finish a couple of projects that had been started some time ago.

The first one was a kit that I picked up on the appreciation sale that the shops in the Des Moines area had last fall. It is called Windows on the East, and yes, it has inset seams. I did the windows a different way than the pattern showed. The directions seem confusing to me, so I just decided to wing it. I think that it turned out OK

I think that will be able to do the quilting on this top as it is small. I need to get it done though if I want to show it at the guild quilt show in April.

I finished a second top that I had started last summer. It is from the book Livin' Large by Heather Mulder Peterson. This is the link to her books http://ankastreasures.wordpress.com/books-and-patterns/. I had to finish the applique and was hung up on how to do the rick rack. I didn't want to just sew down the middle because then it would roll up when the quilt was washed. I finally used free-motion sewing with a matching thread. It worked out quite nicely.

This top is going to my local quilter. I just don't have the time to quilt all of the tops that I make.

The top is on my design wall, which is actually a queen sized piece of quilted flannel that is attached to nails in the wall near the ceiling by using binder clips. I just fold up the wall when I don't need the whole thing, or stretch it out to full length when I need it. For the pictures the quilts a small enough that they just stick to the wall, if they are bigger, sometimes I have to pin them up.

I just finished all the blocks that were given away by the shops in the Northwest section of the 2010 Quilt Minnesota Shop Hop. I need to add one more to make 12 block in order to have a number that will work better for making a top. I want to see if I can make a block by just using scraps from the other 11 blocks.