October 29th Meeting Update

 There was a small group at Marybeth's on the 29th which included Nancy, Sue, Penny, Marybeth, me and our special four footed guest, Willow.

None of us were doing any hand work and there was no show and tell but I did bring the dog bed I recently finished for Willow to try out.  No complaints from her so I guess I can pass it on to Max.

Here is a photo of Willow on the bed playing with Sue .

I just made the cover like a pillow case with an end that tucks in.  I'll let my sister put a zipper in it or a velcro closure if she decides that's needed.

Right now I am finishing off the blue/red/brown heart quilt.  I just need to finish off the quilting in the border and put on the binding.  Then it will need to be washed a few times so I might get that underway tonight so that I can bring it tomorrow.  Just as with the last two heart quilts I am nervous about that final stage in case washing will destroy all the work that went before.  It has a navy blue backing on it which I prewashed but I am still nervous about that running.  I read an interesting blog post about fabrics that run and how to make sure they don't which I will post later.  I've always been good about prewashing my fabrics and after having a couple of our donation quilts ran during the washing it has made me think more about this important step.  I managed to fix those quilts but I definitely don't want that to happen with a donation quilt or one that I have given as a gift.

I also have another donation baby quilt that I am finishing off.  That will be a guild donation.  It's not particularly a cute quilt because the jelly roll I used was just too busy.  I should have added in some plain fabrics to calm it down a little.  Also, despite being warned about using a really high contrasting fabric for the little pinwheels that are created in the layout, my pinwheels all disappear in the busy-ness.  However, the one thing I really can say I like about this quilt is the spiral quilting I did on it.  That was my first attempt at the spiral.  Nancy showed it to us on one of her quilts during the summer.  I got some helpful hints from Youtube and I'm glad I did or I would have run into problems.  That was just a practice run because I finished piecing and sandwiching Carl's quilt and he has opted for the spiral for the quilting.  I'm not exactly looking forward to doing it on a big quilt but I don't think he will mind if there are some flaws in the quilting.