Quilting

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    Tweet Dreams

    ByHeather Bailey

    Looking at that photo of Charlotte playing with her kitty doll (in my last post) reminded me of the treasure trove of Freshcut projects I haven’t shown you yet.  Last October, when my sample fabric came in, I went into a creative frenzy and made up all kinds of fun projects to photograph for an inspiration book.  I kept the photos aside for a bit, hoping to put together an amazing website with all-new photography.  But, seeing as it’s been nearly six whole months and my website is still on the backburner, why wait any longer? 

    Birdieblankie2hb

    So, here’s the quick little kitty who dreams of birdies – orange ones. This ruffled blankie is pre-doll-quilt-craze of ’07.  The weekend I made this, I was miserably sick with Strep and could barely move.  The design of the quilt (being mainly applique) was majorly determined by my need to remain on the couch and my inability to pull myself up to the sewing machine.  The birdies hearken back to the ones I began to stitch on this blanket, but haven’t shown you yet either (they don’t have eyes yet).  Terrible, I know.  I confess all.

    Birdieblankiehb

    But there’s hope.  I made up two more doll quilts last weekend at the impassioned request of my good friend’s daughters.  I needed a break and doll blankies did the trick.  My point?  I figured I better show the original birdie blankie before posting its derivatives.  Isn’t it tweet?  (Love those orange roses on the bed too.)

    More blankies to come.

  • Garden Report

    ByHeather Bailey

    Grandmothersflowergarden

    Ok, folks, here’s the state of my Grandmother’s Flower Garden quilt-top
    after last weekend’s hexagonal fixation.  I made the flowers about
    three years ago on a trip we took to Jamaica to photograph a wedding.
    (Know anyone getting married in an exotic location?  We could use more
    trips like that.)

    Grandmothersflowergarden2w
    My many-hours’ devotion this week have only produced the limited green border of which you see about half.  Tedious.  But, you know, tedious projects are perfect for grab-n-go vacation entertainment.

    At the rate we’re going, it looks like it may be a few more years before the next vacation, so don’t expect much progress on this little blanket for a while to come.  My goal is to have it done by the time granddaughter #1 makes an appearance – in what, twenty years or so?  Oh my, is that why it’s called a Grandmother’s Flower Garden?  Is it impossible to finish one of these buggers before then?

    Come to think of it, maybe a nice pillow will do.

  • Bind Away!

    ByHeather Bailey

    It’s Tute time again. I’ve put together a printable one-sheet on how to bind a quilt with continuous binding. Please don’t give your next quilt hokey corners, like I used to, just for fear of trying something new. When my mom first offered to show me this technique, I completely blew her off. It wasn’t until I saw the glorious mitered corners that resulted that I got on board. I’ve never looked back.

    You can cut quilt-binding strips with the grain of the fabric or on the bias. Bias-cut bindings are most-enduring if your quilt is to be used and laundered frequently. And, a bias binding is necessary for quilts or projects with irregularly-shaped edges (scallops, rounded corners, etc.). There’s a neat trick for prepping bias binding, where you sew your fabric into a tube before cutting it into binding-strips. This technique is not in my instructions, but here is a link to walk you through it.

    Instead, I show you how to attach a binding along the edge of your quilt in such a way that you can achieve glamorous corners too. Remember – no fear! And, feel free to print yourself a copy to keep handy for your next quilting adventure.

    For the Continuous Quilt-Binding Tutorial, click here. Or visit the “Continuous Quilt Binding” link under Freebies at www.HeatherBailey.com.