Ok, I know it is actually Thursday, but whatever.
I did very little quilting this week again. I am entering four quilts into the MQ show next week and it took forever to attach hanging sleeves, labels, etc. etc. etc. One quilt (Squirrely Dahlia) in the Judged show, two quilts (Citrus and Pineapple) in the non-Judged, and one mini/wall hanging in the MQ Challenge. They are all done as of this morning, though. Yay! I can’t wait to see my quilts hanging at my first show!
So I finished binding my MQ Challenge mini this morning. It is about 12″ x 13″.
The weather was very crappy today, so the photo is not the best. I really, really like the quilting! It is too bad it made it extremely stiff. No good for a bed quilt. To give it that kind of hand-quilted look, I increased my stitch length to 3.0 mm, used black thread in the bobbin, and increased my tension so the black would be pulled up a bit to the top, creating “space” between the stitches.
I am not super-thrilled with how this turned out, but I suppose it will do. I think the applique that I added at the end made the difference between it being so boring I want to set it on fire, to marginally acceptable. I think others had lots of problems, too–there are supposedly only 36 entries this year!
The only other sewing I did was teacher’s gifts. For Johanna’s teacher, I made three zip pouches. The circle pouch pattern is here. I didn’t add the topstitching because it was being really fiddly and I thought it would not come out nicely.
Now that the MQ show stuff and teacher’s gifts are out of the way, I have to finish Alfred’s quilt by next Thursday for our guild meeting. I am not in great shape for that… I kept changing the design, and last week decided to rip out the corners of 48 blocks.
I bought some Kona Lime to replace the corners, and of course the dye lot had changed from what I wanted. I gave up and dyed a couple of yards of the exact color that I wanted instead. Now I have to finish the top tonight or tomorrow or I have no hope! I am hoping that next week I will have a finish to share!
