Caley's Quilts
 

Instead of opening a thread each time I have a new picture, I will just have this thread from now on to post pictures of my creations.

My first isn't new. I showed the front previously. Now I have it quilted and bound.

Binding had been a problem for me, but I think I have it figured out. I did the corners when sewing on the reverse side, like I did on the front side. I had watched a video from Missouri Quilt Company that showed that wen you reach a corner, you stop sewing 1/4 inch from the end, and turn your quilt so that you are now sewing at the corner. I did the same thing on the reverse, and my corners look much better. The material laid flatter, and was easier to sew on the machine.

I've named this my Black Diamonds quilt. It's small, so it is just a lap quilt, or can be a wall hanging.

It was created from eight identical panels I cut from fabric purchased at WalMart. I then cut our squares, and then half square triangles from those squares, then pieced the eight together. After the squares were sewn together, I then trimmed the finished squares. This was my very first try at this type of quilt

The quilting is a variation of stitch in the ditech. What I did was use my walking foot edge to sew on either side of the "Ditch". It definitely is a thread hog when done this way. But I like the results. Oh yes, the lady at the Calimesa Cherry Berry Quilts store is the one who suggested I try this.

The quilt is 49x55 inches. The backing is from P&B Basics (Bella Suede Wide, the lighter version).

That is a lovely quilt! Panels are becoming a good thing to have around. https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images...es/biggrin.png

QW44, I guess I wrote things incorrectly. I used fabric yardage purchased from WalMart. I had to match up eight identical pieces by pinning matching marks on each of these. It is very tedious work. I think I used a 12-13 inch wide strip that measured the normal 42 inches long. The 12-13 inches was the distance where the markings started repeating. I probably picked out a dozen points before cutting things into squares. Sorry, I can't remember the size of these squares. Each fabric is different, and you need to calculate just how large each block will be to get the most out of those eight layered strips of fabric. I think it took me a whole day of thinking, measuring, and calculating before I made my first cut.

Kind of a variation of a "Four Patch Posie" then and lovely at that. You did a great job and the quilting was a perfect idea from your quilt shop.

A lovely quilt. I love the use of your Black and Whites. A real inspiration.

That’s beautiful!

A wonderful OBW quilt and one of my favorite blocks to make, love this in your black and white you did a great job, beautiful.

I like the effect of SID on each side of ditch!

It turned out beautifully. Great work.

That is my only way to stitch in the ditch. Turns out neater for me. However I don't do it often, I prefer FMQ.

Thanks Everyone. There are actually five colours in this quilt. The black diamonds are black and white, with the wide border also black. The squares that look white are actually Bella Solids Silver. Then there are two shades of gray used. One shade of gray for the triangles, and the other for the binding.

I like the name you gave your quilt...black diamonds! It is precious! https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images/smilies/tongue.png

Oops! I posted one of my new thingies at https://www.quiltingboard.com/pictur...t316561-2.html post#19.
Should have been here. Sorry about that. Will try to put my new thingies here when I get them done.

I finished two lap quilts, that I will gift to someone. Just need to find someone who might want a pair of them.

I learned my lesson when it comes to piecing strips of blocks together that have short borders between them. Always pin them to ensure nothing stretches. Both of these quilts stretched lengthwise, so the blocks got staggered. Good learning experience though.

I keep learning little things each time I make a quilt.

OK, now that you've read this, put on your slumglasses, as these two are very bright and colourful, made from a stack of Batiks charms.

Good job on these. The black sashing makes those batiks pop

CJ, Thanks so much. Yes, I tried just putting th3e Batiks together, but it just didn't look right. And yes, the Black fabric made them stand out nicely.

Like I said before, I keep learning something every time I make a quilt.

That’s so good! I’ve been quilting almost 18 years and there is always something to learn, a different method to try, a new product to help or not (but I try them!). I don’t ascribe to “I was always taught to …” if that method doesn’t work well for me and something else does. Someone will try a relatively unorthodox technique and I will try it! Keep it up! Nice quilts.

Happy New Year to Everyone.

I've been busy with my sewing for some time. I retired from my volunteer work so that I could devote more to fixing up my house, and to my hobbies.

So I decided that I needed to put something atop all the flat wood surfaces that get dusty. I live in the high desert, so I live in a dust bowl. No matter how much I dust, a few hours later, it looks as if I never dusted. And the wood was starting to look dull, even with the furniture polish.

So I have started a new project of making table runners that cover all the exposed flat surfaces. Can't do anything for the sides, but at least the tops can be protected. Table runners are a lot nicer looking than covering them with paper or plastic.

Here's the second runner that I've completed. I did one last year by piecing together several 12 inch star patterns I did when I first started quilting. This one is my first eight pointed star attempt that wasn't made up of two triangle pieces. I followed the instructions in a new book I purchased, "Diamond Star Quilts" by Barbara H. Cline. I also watched a few YouTube videos.

One other video I watched was on how to eliminate fabric bulk where so many fabric points come together. There were several ways to accomplish this, but I decided on the easiest, which was to after sewing a part of a block, to turn the block over, and carefully snip a sliver triangle away on the 1/4 inch seam allowance on both ends, while also snipping off the little ears that you get when adding triangles. I still haven't learned how to eliminate the fabric bulk you get on the corners with the binding.

I used fabric that was given to me by a very generous person on our Forum. The Backing was just some extra from 108 inch. backing that I got when I did a larger quilt. I used Moda solids for the border and binding. I added free hand wavy lines on the gree border. And I again, did 1/4 inch quilting along all the pieced lines, using similar colours to the fabric. I think you can see that in the photo.

Very nice. A black and white quilt is on my wish list.

julybaby8, Black and white, and thr associated grays can make some really beautiful quilts. My first attempt, made me very happy. I've a kit from Connecting Threads that is all those colours. I just need to piece it together. Wishing you lots of enjoyment with your first endeavour.

I finished another runner. I call it Cracked Ice Jewel Box Runner. The fabric was gifted me by a generous member of this Forum. The Pattern is free from Jordan Fabrics. I reduced the size of the blocks so it would fit atop my trio of pantry cupboards. I added an additional full block so that it was long enough.

I had been having difficulty sewing the backside of the binding on my previous quilts. So I experimented by first pressing the binding on the front side flat. The I folded the binding over to the back, and pressed things again. This flattened things out, and I didn't have any problems sewing the back side,

Thank you for the information about corners and stitching on each side of the seam. Sometimes I don't want to detract from the fabric design, and I'll remember how good your quilting looked!

SallyS, Thank you for your kind comments.

Some people like to do the binding by hand. But for people like myself, with chronic arthritis, machine stitching is the only way. Then there are those who will machine stitch the front of the binding, and then hand stitch the back. And there are those who will just stitch the corner seams by hand. There's lots of ways to do this.

But I find that machine stitching the binding works best for me. It's just been a learning process on how to do it properly with the skills and physical ability I have. I suggest you experiment like I have been doing, until you find what works best for you.

Since it costs so much to drive because of the cost of fuel, I've been staying home a lot, except for necessities. So I've been doing a lot of small practise quilts and runners.

This is one of my practise projects, Just Another Star. This type of star has baffled me quite a bit. But I think I finally found why it has been so difficult to get things to line up, as it did in this quilt. My cutting is fine. But I found that my pressing is causing a little fold over along the seam line. So I've had anywhere from 1/16 to as much as 1/8 inch folded, and that improper pressing causes the next step, cutting strips from the fabric to be off. I only found out about this when I stretched the fabric accidentally, and I got a piece of fabric pointing out along one edge. There was no way to remedy this error, so I just finished what I was doing, and will try very hard to do my pressing of the fabric more carefully, checking to see if I got any fold over the seam.

The quilting was supposed to be stitch in the ditch, but I couldn't hit it today. So I embroidered stars along the outer edge of the lone star, and along the seams that join the eight diamonds into the star. I haven't used the embroidery part of my sewing machine very much. I discovered today that you need to make sure there isn't any snagging of the fabric as the machine moves the fabric through the machine. I got some very poorly shaped stars. But I've just learned another way to quilt.