Wedding Quilt - Flimsy Done (Well, Almost)

It's a bad picture, but it's really just to show that I've sewn it together. 

The living room floor was probably covered in toys or blocks or dog hair, so quick throw on the couch and TaDaa! Proof that it is a (wrinkly) flimsy. (Except I guess it's not a complete flimsy because I'm probably adding borders.  Shh, it's a big accomplishment for me.)

til next time...

I'm Working it Out (aka I need your help!!!) GillyWhig Quilt

It's sewn and basted!

I'm so excited by it!

Don't worry, that long edge (the hypotenuse, you could say) is not supposed to be straight.  It's for the edge, which will be trimmed into a circle.

All my huge chunks sewn together.  I decided to go for the random color wheel.  I found that when I had it in a rainbow formation, the orange/red/yellow side was really heavy.  The huge orange sun-gig in the center probably doesn't help!  So I went more random and I think it's much more balanced now.

All sewn together.  Officially a flimsy!  Also definitely more of an octagon right now.  

So how do you get a circle?  Make your own compass out of string, a safety pin and a pen.  I tied a length of string onto the end of a safety pin and pinned it to the center of the quilt (on the wrong side).

I then measured out how long I could make radius of the circle and marked it on the string.  (As you can see, I had to shorten it a few times because I started on a longer side I guess.  I had given myself extra room, so it was ok.)

I proceeded to mark lines as I slowly moved the 'compass' around the quilt.  The hardest part was maintaining consistent pull on the string (since it was embroidery floss, it had some give to it and the fabric easily pulled up off the floor).

But I finally got all the way around and ended in just about the right spot.  Not too shabby, eh?

Then just cut on the dotted line!

And you get this beauty!  It looks so awesome as a circle!!! (Can you tell I'm a little excited by it!?)  It's not a perfect circle, I'm sure, but I didn't measure, so in my heart it's perfect.

I just finished basting it (though I have a small section on the back to smooth out.)  AAAAAHH! I don't have any pictures of the back!  Next time, I promise!

So now, the quilting question.  I was thinking of doing spirals coming from all the pinwheels and overlapping a little in the blue around the center gig.  Do I use one neutral thread color or do a thread to match each whirligig?  What do you think?  HELP!!  Does the decision making ever end??   (Though I do already have the binding bought, cut and pressed, so that is one done deal.)

See you soon!

(...with some great quilting ideas?)

Straight A's and a (WiP) flimsy

I can sometimes be very impatient, so when my last final ended a week ago, I was checking for my grades every day, sometimes a few times a day (maybe they'll post them after lunch?)  For the last few days I have almost not wanted to check for fear of a disappointing empty space where the grade would be.  So very half-heartedly I decided to check this morning, trying to expect nothing.  But they were there!  And I got straight A's!  That hasn't happened in a while.  I was really nervous about my Probability class, and I must have really aced the final to get an A in it.  I'm so excited!  Now I can fully appreciate that classes are over and move on with my summer!

Or really get on with this quilt.  It's officially a flimsy now!  (Look at me knowing quilting terminology!)  The top got sewed together last week.  (It's on a queen size bed, but it's meant either for a twin or for a 'cozy up on a couch' size.) My husband would go off to work, my brother (who was visiting for the week before he started the summer semester) would sleep in until 1 or 2 (yes, pm) so I had all morning and early afternoon to sew and cook.  We fattened my brother up 6 pounds the week he was here.  He needed some good, home cooked food.

He was very helpful and went with me to JoAnn and picked out these lovely shades of Kona.  The backing will be mostly berry, with a horizontal stripe of turquoise in the center to make it big enough, and the binding will be turquoise.  He picked a beautiful blue thread to quilt in and suggested a really cool way of quilting, which I'll attempt to explain (or just show) in another post.

This is an artificial view of what it looked like when I was sewing 6 blocks simultaneously.  It was usually bunched up behind the machine as the next strips were laid out in the space to the left.  But I was sewing on the last strip, so I made a pretty circle.  I don't get much natural light in this room - except early in the morning, which is not when I sew.  And there always seems to be something obstructing the light when I have it.  Working on that. 

It felt awesome to stack all the blocks up.  I hadn't ironed them yet, so it made the pile taller.  Which made me feel better, of course.  I didn't get a picture of the ironing process, which was: after I laid the squares out in an order I liked, I sat on the floor with a portable ironing board next to me and scooched (which is apparently not a word) down the rows, sitting on un-ironed rows.  It was fun.  Strangely fun.  

See you soon!

(With a pieced back and basted quilt...?)