How Not To Baste

Wrestlemania was rather disappointing, but we had fun anyway.

I've had a splitting headache all day because of the saw that goes through cinderblock.  They got the last window in and will finish up the detail work tomorrow. 

Despite my headache, I attempted to baste my embroidered quilt.  It didn't go quite as planned. 

I baste on my living room floor as it's the biggest room in my house.  I move my furniture as far back as it goes, lay the backing down and smooth it out.  If it's a queen size quilt, I smooth out to the sides as far as it goes until I hit the couch and the bookcase.  

I got the backing laid out and started taping the edges.  I usually start in the center and work out toward the edges.  I got this far and took a picture.  I still have ripples and smoothed them out after the picture was taken.  I didn't really tape up the other edge that well and figured I could get away with it.

This is where I ran into trouble.  It was going just fine with pinning until I got toward the bottom and had a huge ripple.  The more I smoothed the worse it got.  Don't cheat yourself by thinking you don't need that much tape or don't need to do a side.  I had dozens of pins in that I had to take out today adding to my headache.

Once I had taken out the pins, I taped the backing down right and started again.

I got the batting laid out and then the top.  Generally my husband gets a great laugh at my expense as I'm kneeling and moving around as he watches TV.  He thinks it great fun to see me fumbling around.

After about another hour, I had my quilt basted and I'm ready for quilting.

I'm exhausted and my fingers hurt from having to pin this quilt twice.  I hope this isn't a quilt that I end up hating until it's quilted.  

Blackwork Quilt Top Done!

I got my Topaz back from the dealer this morning. It got the update it needed and she said the up-take lever problem should be fixed. I sewed on it all afternoon without any problems. So far so good.

I got my Blackwork quilt top done today:

From Blogger Pictures

I'm not sure I like the white border width. I'm planning to do some some decorative stitching on the white so maybe it will soften it up some. If my editing skills were better I'd take some of the designs from the blackwork and put them together as a border.

Blackwork Quilt Top

From Blogger Pictures

I took Gina's advice and didn't add the sashing. I put blue around the quilt and I think it's looks stunning. I LOVE this quilt so far.

My plan is to add a white border with blue stitching going down the center. I've got a couple of designs on my Topaz that might work. Then to add another blue border to finish it off.

Another Version Of My Blackwork Quilt

Another DUH moment. My friend Gina suggested to strip piece and cut the star sections (which I had thought of) but my EQ6 measurements would come up as 2 3/16 or some odd number. After trying several variations of blocks and going crazy of why my rotary cutting measurements kept popping up this way, I realized that I had the 1/16 inch mark checked. Sigh. It must be a default setting that I missed.

Now if I do the stars, each strip is measured at 7/8 cutting not some wacked out number to the 16th. I'm not sure I want to cut those measurements.

I may do this layout to keep me from having to deal with stars. I'll try strip piecing a star and see how it goes. I do like this one. Remember that the blackwork designs are around the blocks. I'll do some special quilting on the edges. And there may be sashing involved.

I did design the block below although I know it exists under a different name. I just needed it to be a divisible of 8 to make it easy to piece. I've had enough of odd size numbers. LOL! I do like this layout and the blues blend better and is easier on the eyes.

Blackwork Quilt Designs

Been working on a new quilt. I love blue and white quilts and fell in love with a Blackwork embroidery set of designs. I stitched them out in blue and am working on a quilt for it.

Here's a block from the set of Blackwork designs. I haven't trimmed the block down to size yet.

From Quilted with Love

I played with several layouts and really like this one:
My worry is that the stars will overshadow the Blackwork blocks and they get lost. Paper piecing these blocks would take hours and I worry about losing interest in them.

The blocks are 8 inch blocks set on point. Even without the embroidered blocks, it would be a stunning quilt. I would just make the blocks a lot larger for easier piecing.

Here's another quilt that might work as well. It's much simpler but rather boring.