Quilting in 2012

I've run the gamut of quilting in the last 60 years. English paper piecing, strip piecing on templates cut out of The Tuscaloosa News, making templates out of cardboard, hand piecing feathered stars, allowing a rotary cutter into my toolkit, creating quilts in the style of Judy Martin, Alex Anderson, Judy Niemeyer, Jacqueline de Jonge, Ricky Timms, Philippa Naylor, and so on and so on.


So what's up for 2012?


First, quilt the five tops I made this year. Finish, finish, finish.


Then, explore new fabrics, more duponi silk.


Then, more bed quilts, fewer sandwiches that don't fit anywhere in my house or any one else's. How many wall hangings and table runners can one use!


And then, if I'm not quilted out (and what quilter ever gets "quilted out"?), I'm going to encourage quilters to return to quilts that feel good to the touch and make them feel good when they're snoozing under them. My chorus will be keep your quilts away from those manic compulsive longarm quilters who add so many stitches that you can't see the fabric you fell in love with and lovingly guided into a beautiful top. Or, perhaps I'll find a longarm quilter who understands the words less dense, perhaps become one myself.


My New Year's wish for all my fellow quilters is that you'll find the joy of hand quilting a sandwich with wool batting (quilts like butter), take pleasure in your uneven stitches through the four-layer intersections, and wake up from a nap every Sunday afternoon under your snuggly palette of beautiful fabrics.

Dancing with the Stars

I'm posting this just to put it in writing that I'm one and a half blocks away from finishing hand quilting Dancing with the Stars quilt (see pictures in previous post). I plan to start the borders by Sunday, then binding, then whooohoooo, fini. I'll post pix when done.

Paper Piecing: faster, easier, better

I can't remember the last time I pieced a block the traditional way. Cutting little pieces of fabric just isn't for me. So, I turned the local BOM quilt into paper piecing blocks and zoom, zoom, zoom, I'm on my way.

Half way mark hit! Twenty-one blocks done and 21 more to go on this super fast project.

Then, there's my other project, hand quilting Dancing with the Stars so I can ship it off to our friends the first week of December. I've completed 15 blocks (half the blocks). Then there's the border. But I'm sure with such a capable assistant (Lily), I'll make it with no problems.