Tasting Table Tuesday - Basting Wall Update

I have been raving about my basting wall for some time now, and while it worked very well for me, it wasn't very pretty.  If you remember, I hung two old (mismatched and discolored) cardboard dressmakers pattern boards on the wall, and pinned each layer of my quilt to the board with straight pins.  Then I would use quilter's safety pins to pin all the layers together.

The only wall space I have available in my house, is in our bedroom.  Those tatered, old pattern boards looked pretty nasty, I have to admit.  So I decided to upgrade.

Here is the OLD basting wall...

And here is the NEW, improved version!

I used these styrofoam panels from Lowes that are really designed to insulate garage doors.  The great thing about these panels is that they have a tough plastic coating on the exposed side of the panels.  That gives a nice clean smooth surface against my quilts, and keeps the foam intact when pinning.  They were a special order item but I learned that if you place the order from a store computer they ship for free!

I only had to trim the bottom two to fit my space.  The top four are right out of the box.  I put strapping tape around the outside edges of the panels to keep the edges neat and also kept the shop vac handy while cutting.  Those little bits of foam go everywhere!

There are eight panels in a box, and I only used six for my space, so I still have two panels left.  I will probably wrap each of them with a piece of batting and make a pair of portable design walls.

To mount the panels on the wall, I basically followed these directions for making a design wall that I found on The Quilting Edge blog, attaching them with Command Picture Hanging Strips.  So far, they seem to be working.  I'll let you know after I've basted a quilt or two if they stay on the wall.  I followed all the instructions, including cleaning the wall with alcohol first, applying firm pressure for 30 seconds, and waiting an hour before attaching the panels.  Hopefully they'll stay up...

This is a dual purpose wall, because if I want to use it as a design wall, all I have to do is pin a piece of batting to it and I'll be all set!

One thing I should point out, if you're considering these...  I chose them because of the size and the plastic coating on the exposed side.  I did not realize that there are grooves cut into the back side.  This allows the panels to flex when installing on a garage doors - their intended use.  I don't think this will be an issue, as there is still enough foam surface to pin into, but it was a bit of a surprise to me, since Lowes doesn't mention it in their product description.

Just thought you might want to know...

Cheers!

Tasting Table Tuesday - Stripping

I have several quilt projects coming up that all involve 1 1/2" wide strips, and they are all scrappy quilts.  So I am in the process of cutting and sorting by color.  These little baskets I found at Dollar General are just perfect for storing these strips.  And at 3 for a dollar, you can't beat the price! 

Last week, I went on a little outing with some quilting friends and we visited a new quilt shop in the area.  Perry's Patches & Quilting is in Sylvania, near Troy PA.  Laura is a sweet, friendly person, and we had the best time visiting with her in her new little shop.  She is working on a building to house her new business, but in the meantime she has converted her basement into a warm and cozy little quilt shop.  Her hours are limited at the present time, so check before you go.  She has a very nice collection of fabric and top-notch customer service.  Here are some "must-have" additions to my collection of gray fabrics that I simply couldn't leave behind.

Cheers!

Tasting Table Tuesday - Another dress from a shirt

I just finished making another child's dress from a men's oxford shirt.  I just love seeing these classic shirts transform into something so cute for little ones.  This one is for my 3 year old granddaughter.

I moved the pocket from it's original chest position, down to the hip of the dress, then added an overlayer of quilting cotton to the top just to make it cute.  It's a Tula Pink fabric, but I'm not sure what it's called.

Two down, two more to go...

Cheers!

Family Ties Finale

The series of Family Tie Quilts is complete.  In the past nine months or so, I've made four queen size quilts, all the same design, but with a different background fabric for each.  My client gave me about 150 ties to work with, and there is at least one piece of each tie in every quilt.  If you'd like to read more about the process, click here for past blog posts.  All four were quilted by a local friend of mine, Sue Brought of Studio Sue's Longarm Quilting.  I'm so pleased with how she quilted these!

One of the challenges was to make each quilt, yet keep enough tie fabric reserved for the remaining quilts.  At first, I wasn't sure if we were using the same design for each, so I had no way of knowing how much tie fabric each would require.  I guess I was a little too frugal with them, because when I finished the 4th quilt, I was a little surprised to see how much was left.

These tie fabrics were just too beautiful not to use, so rather than see them go to waste, I decided to make a little log cabin quilt with the leftovers.  This was a little added bonus for my clients, and from what I hear, they are thrilled to have it.  The blocks are 8" square so it ended up being about 40" x 48", just right as a wall hanging, or to drape over a chair.

I had fun quilting this one myself using a design I found on Pinterest - a really cool wonky square spiral design.  You just follow the logs, stitching diagonally from corner to corner, starting in the center and working your way out.  I marked the stitching line with a piece of blue painters tape to keep me going straight and it worked great!  I just love how this little quilt turned out - it was so much fun to make!  I think I see more scrappy log cabin quilts in my future!

Cheers!

A Finished Circle Quilt

There are two fun events coming up at my local quilt shop!  First is the "Fabulous Four Fat Quarter Tour", a week-long shop hop that includes four quilt shops in this part of the Pennsylvania countryside, from June 7-14.  The participants will collect fabrics at each shop, and each shop will offer a pattern that can be used with those fabrics.  This is the quilt that I designed and made for Needles Quilt Shop.

I really enjoyed quilting this one.  As many of you know, straight-line quilting on my domestic machine is my favorite style of quilting - but it HAS to be straight.  Crooked lines drive me crazy (unless they're supposed to be crooked, or course...).  I didn't want to mark the lines if I didn't need to, yet some of these lines were to long to stitch by eye, or use a ruler.  Blue Painter's Tape to the rescue!  I just stuck it down, from point to point, then stitched right next to the tape.  I could peel it off and move it several times before it would lose it's stick and need to be replaced.  It worked like a charm.  Blue Painter's Tape is my new best friend!

Now I can't wait to see what the other three shops have come up with!  Check in with Tracy at Needles for all the details about this shop hop and join the fun!

The second event that's coming up is the PA State Row by Row Shop Hop.  It's a HUGE shop-hop throughout Pennsylvania, as well as many other states.  It starts July 1st and runs through Labor Day.

Here is the row that I designed and made for Needles this year.  The theme for the festival is "Seasons", and Tracy chose summer, so here is "Summer Sailing".

Cheers!

Color Collection by Modern Quilt Studio

Do you love color?  I happened to pop in at Needles Quilt Shop today while a sales rep was there, and I saw the swatch card for this collection.  I'M IN LOVE!  I see a serious spending spree coming up...

Tasting Table Tuesday - a Circle Quilt

Here's a taste of a new project I'm working on for my local quilt shop.  I've got it all pin-basted and ready to quilt.  Stay tuned for more details, there's a fun event coming up real soon!

Cheers!