Thursday, September 27, 2012

Mill Quilt (Completed)

Quilting 015 by basketcasejoy
Quilting 015, a photo by basketcasejoy on Flickr.

This quilt is part of the Mountain to Sea Trail exhibit created by members of the DOQ Art Bee for the 2012 Durham Orange Quilt Guild Show. The show runs from October 18 - 20, 2012 at Bay 7, American Tobacco Campus, Durham, NC. Admission is $5.00.

My quilt depicts Glencoe Mill, Burlington, NC. The river section shown at the top is my portion of the actual "Trail." This piece was quite the test of my creativity! I was afraid to begin for months. (If memory serves me correctly, the challenge was issued in August 2011.)

I was finally able to wrap my mind around the project in April 2012, when I went out to the site to take some photos for inspiration. These photos were then translated into a "quilt pattern" in June (Thanks, again, Hilary!) and I finally began the task of turning my vision into a completed quilt. Ultimately, I am pleased with the result.

All of the fabrics came from my stash. I used quilting cottons and even some bits of an old T-shirt or 2 from a T-quilt that I made last year. The only fabrics not in MY stash came from my good friend Britt, who can often be found "shopping" in my stash, too.. (Thanks, B!)

Remember, if I can do this... so can YOU.

Happy Quilting!

Sunday, September 2, 2012

NTB4 Quilt Retreat

Last weekend I was off to my Quilt Retreat.  I packed up all of the quilting "stuff" on Wednesday night, can't recall when I packed up the projects, and packed up my clothes on Thursday night.  Friday morning I was off to my regularly schedule Knit Group and got home in time to load the car for the trip.

My driver and I were the first to arrive.  We set up the sewing space and unloaded our gear.  We each chose our spot and set up our machines.  The minute everyone else arrived, we were off and stitching!

I got a LOT done on my 100-Patch quilt.  Too bad things were a little wonky!  It turns out that I may have to rip out all of the stitches that attached the sashing to the pieced blocks.  :o(

When I noticed there was a problem, I trimmed everything down.  Under normal circumstances, that might have worked.  This time?  Not so much!

The next step in the process is to add a pieced border onto the sashed blocks.  Well...the border pieces no longer match up to the sashed blocks.  :o(

Not a problem!  If you sew, so shall you rip.

Ripping off the sashing and cutting wider sashing pieces will be my next step in the process.  I'm not happy about it, but it will look a LOT better than the mess that I now have.

Adventures in quilting...you've gotta love it!!!

Until next time...
Happy Quilting!