New Orleans House Project

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Sunday Night Wrap Up

Random thoughts at the end of the week:

My day started at 5 AM when all the dogs decided it was time to get up.  Being kind to DH, I got up and took care of everyone's needs (we currently have 2 dogs, one puppy and one cat).  At that point, returning to sleep was out of the question, so I switched on the Olympics and finished the binding on the cow quilt.  It was kind of appropriate that I was watching the Women's Marathon as I finished stitching down the binding on that huge quilt!

Next on the agenda was assembling the binding for another quilt.  I have been making memory quilts from my father's shirts and two of them are sitting in the binding queue.  I didn't have big enough pieces of fabric to create continuous bias binding and I don't like cutting bias strips and sewing them together.  So, I (gasp!) just cut lengthwise strips and sewed them together for the binding.  The Quilt Police might be rolling over in their graves, but I'm not worried about it.  This quilt will be more decorative than utilitarian, so I don't think the binding is in danger of wearing out before the quilt.

My local longarm quilter Cindy Braiwick did the quilting on this one.  My dad was an amateur musician, and this quilt honors that memory.  You can read more about this quilt here - scroll down to the second featured quilt.

Connie and I enjoyed several email conversations about sewing on vintage Singer sewing machines this week.  That inspired me to put one of my favorite vintage machines in the sewing cabinet yesterday.  This is a Singer Model 201K.  The K indicates the machine was made in Great Britain (Scotland to be exact) and the serial number dates it to around 1957.  The Model 201 was considered Singer's finest sewing machine for many years.  I love sewing with it because it's so quiet!

I did one more setting variation with the Greek Square blocks from the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I think this may be my final choice.  I need to finish the aqua blocks in the top row, and add at least another set of 4 blocks on the left.  I'll use the off-white blocks as shown - making a few more to properly round out the setting.  That will leave side and end triangles;  I'm thinking of using Laura Gunn Painter's Canvas or Moda Grunge in a variety of white for these.  

And now to work on stitching down that newly made binding while I flip between the Olympics and the New Orleans Saints pre-season game.  I'm sharing with Kathy's hand stitching link-up - go check out all the slow stitching everyone else is enjoying this evening!