Spiderwebs!

It took me a long time to decide how to quilt the old Beetle. I finally settled on spiderwebs - it just seems to suit him. When I doodled, I couldn't figure out a way to quilt spiderwebs without starting and stopping. When I googled, I actually found a blog that has a spiderweb pattern so I looked at that - starting and stopping there, too. So I am starting and stopping - not a continuous pattern.

And - as usual - I'm just free-handing - making it up as I go, so there is really no specific grand plan. Just a lot of webs. In general I like it. But Harley and I are still making friends (that is I'm still learning how to control the machine - it's a long learning curve when you aren't working at it full time, which I'm not) so it's a bit rough in places. I hope people will think it adds to the charm. :)

I think I've quilted about half the quilt now. Should have it ready for binding in another couple of nights.

I entered four of my quilts into the Heritage Park show - Beetlejuice is one of them - so now I HAVE to get him finished!

Back to the Beetle

You will recall that Beetlejuice is a rather irregular quilt. The challenge I have is to get it on Harley for quilting. It would be much easier to load up and quilt a rectangular quilt than an irregular quilt. My theoretical solution is as follows:

Pin some "disposable" fabric to the back of the quilt top, aligning the "straight" with where the imagined vertical of the quilt top runs. (Those four black things are shot bags. These are relics of my days back in the late '70s, early 80s as a draftsperson. They are some of the most useful sewing tools I have! Much nicer than soup cans to hold things in place.)

It looks like a boring tablecloth at this stage.

Here it is flipped over. I stitched all the way around the edge of the quilt top - less than 1/4 inch in from the edge.

After stitching, I flipped it back over and trimmed out the "disposable" backing close to the stitching.

Finally, I trimmed it to a reasonable rectangular size. This will be what I load onto Harley for quilting.

I've got the backing ready - washing the batting. By tomorrow I should be ready to start loading Beetlejuice for quilting! I hope my theoretical solution actually works! [added later: it did work!]

I've decided to submit a few of the quilts I have kicking around into the Heritage Park show in May. This will be one of them. Good incentive to get it finished!

Four of the Divas went to the Red Deer quilt show yesterday - more on that to follow.

Making Clean-up Progress...

I've been moving furniture, organizing, cleaning, it seems, forever! But it's really only been about a week after work and this past couple of weekends. The reno is almost finished so I can do some serious cleaning. Getting rid of all that dry wall dust is a challenge - but has to be done because it's driving me crazier! I'm a very slow cleaner/organizer. I have to overthink everything, move things around, then decide I don't like it. And I hate to throw things out - but I am proud to say, I have been.

So... I moved Harley around - not sure if this will be his final spot, but it's a LOT better than where he was before. Note the picture frame that I found at a craft sale before Christmas! Now I will have to find some good "quilting pix" to put in it. I should also note that the quilt on Harley is one of the Divas quilts we made a few weeks ago. This is actually the second one. I quilted the first one a couple of weeks ago. This will be the first thing I do when I get back to sewing is to get this guy quilted too.

And the pix below is of my "office" desk. I took this for Kristie - she will be shocked that the surface is actually visible! I had to take a pix though because by the time she's here again, it will be six inches deep with paper again.

I really want to get this cleaning done! I want to get back to sewing!!!!