Apron Panel

When I went on a 2 quilt shop road trip a couple of weeks ago, I bought 2 apron panels.

This is one of them. It is all printed along with the instructions on one yard.

The colors show up better here. I had to take shep photos without the flash and the green against the gold is a bit off.

 Close up of the pocket and ties

 The neck strap and and applique motifs to put on the lining on the reverse side .







The other apron panel is hiding, it was right on my table yesterday; maybe it is camera shy. It is the same except for the colors it has blue instead of green and some other differences. I am going to line the both with yellow, maybe a solid or print that reads like a solid.
The designer is  Mary Mulari   The pattern is Chatterbox Apron and she has  number of patterns for sale. If you do a google search you can find the panel at different places on line. I bought mine at Polkadot Pincushion in Richfield Ohio

Not Straight

My panel wall hanging is better after blocking but not perfectly straight. After thinking about why that happened, I decided that maybe there were too many interruptions when I was trimming it down at the beginning and I missed a step.  IT WAS ONE OF THOSE DAYS!

I hung it anyway and it is where it will always be seen up close where the eye is drawn to the center and not the edges. That makes the fact that it is not square less apparent.  I does what I wanted t to do, add color to a blank, colorless area.

I replaced my camera a few months ago but my photos were not much better, too much movement as I hit the button. I bought a tripod and I think my photos are better but it is hard to tell.  My stitching matched the fabric and doesn't show up much in most places.
This second photo was taken with the flash off.   The color is a little duller but a little more detail shows up.
I think I am never going to be much better at photography.

Autumn Panel

I finished quilting the Autumn panel and sewed the binding to the front but have not finished sewing it down on the back. I wanted to block it first because it did not appear perfectly square. I am not sure why I had a problem as I trimmed the panel all around and it was square and the 2 borders were square after they were sewn on. It is pretty densely quilted and maybe that is where the problem lies. I outline quilted all the leaves, maple seeds, tree limbs, the bird, and all the lines between the light rectangles and the dark background.  The veins on the leaves are quilted and the light rectangle areas are free motion quilted with echo quilting and some pebbles where they are distinct. All the dark area and the borders are quilted with straight parallel lines about 1/2 inch apart.

This is a photo of it up on my design wall. I pinned it and sprayed it with water until it was damp all over and then worked on pulling it square and flat. I reworked the upper and lower right  corners again after I shot this photo.
I am hoping for the best. I am pretty confident that it is going to hang flat. If it is not square the inner border will likely draw attention to that. At any rate, for better or for worse, it is going to hang right across from  my front door where it will be seen by all who enter.

A Finish and a Start

I finished the Kitty Pinwheel baby quilt.The quilting went quickly as it was simple and didn't require many stops and starts. I am loving my new strip lights on my machine more and more, everything is so much easier now that I have better light.

This measures 34 inches square and the back of the quilt is the same as the background fabric.













This is my new start. I bought a panel that I am going to use as it is, only trimmed  down to fit a space inside my front door. I added the narrow green and orange/black borders to lighten and brighten it up a bit.  I have something else in mind for the space where this will hang but it is still in the planning process and it is not going to happen soon.
Once in a while I use a panel as is when I like it as it is and want something without spending a lot of time piecing and agonizing over details. I don't consider these "cheater panels" I consider them "smart panels. This will give me some practice doing free motion quilting , which I haven't done much lately.

I  usually go into overkill when it comes to pin basting and this is more than most and might turn out to be a pain in the neck.  I wanted to be sure there was no shifting with the quilting, especially around the edges. I made the backing before I did anything with the top and changed my mind about how much to trim way and then added the inner border. I had to add an extra strip in the plaid fabric and a strip at the top. I barely squeaked by on the width, If worse comes to worse with the quilting I will trim the border a little bit.

I pieced the backing using odd pieces from my box of black with color fabrics. I think the Debbie Mumm strips are from way back  (over 25 years). Jack asked why I  fuss about the back since it doesn't show anyway. Why not use  something else or why not just go and buy a bigger piece of something.  Well for one thing I am happy to be using up some of my odd pieces since I seem to be unable to just get rid of anything. Beside that I like the back to be fun, JUST BECAUSE!