Zig Zagging in the Sewing Room

I'd call it flitting from project to project, but I'm not that lithe or speedy!  Ignoring the big pile of binding was easy, as the weather was still pretty toasty.  I played with more squirrel projects last weekend when it was too hot to sew under the hot lights or to iron.

 I had a container of precut 2.5" squares, mostly green prints but also some solids, and laid them out with the "garlic knot" shape as I used in grandson Hunter's quilt. 

The final layout included more white and some knots turned the other way.  I can't say when these squares will get sewn together but they were fun to play with.  It's almost looking mid-century inspired, to me.  

The upcoming County Fair is upmost on my mind.  As usual, I'll be working up to the last minute to get my projects done.  #1 task was to get my Metro Twist quilt ready for quilting.  I made a quick trip to the fabric store last weekend for thread and spray baste, and got the sandwich made on Thursday.  It seems I got more spray baste on my fingernails than anywhere else, but the sandwich did get made before work.  Saturday morning I got my machine all set up for quilting and started in. 

Metro Twist is a pattern using the QCR ruler from Sew Kind of Wonderful.  The neon orange was from a guild challenge a couple of years ago.  I stitched in orange abutting the print pieces, then switched to gray to stitch 1/4" inside the curved pieces.  I decided to quilt straight lines in the background and marked them with my Hera marker and a ruler.

I used some Steady Betty quilting bands to help move the quilt around as I stitched. 

I plan to round all the corners with the QCR ruler and bind with a bias cut purple binding.  The entries are due next Sunday so I've got a lot of work yet to to.  This quilt finishes at about 45x48",  so about a baby or wall size.  I have a bunch of threads to bury, binding to cut, make and apply,hanging sleeve and label to add.  

We had a family barbecue Sunday and I enlisted daughter Erica to help me with border choices for the Yarn Over mini charm pack runner.  I want to enter it as well in the Fair.  

She liked the brown print with the green linen.  I hope I have enough of the linen to make a matching binding.  Another not-yet-finished piece is Sue goes to the Orient.  I have dragged my feet for months adding some embroidered detail to the background, but finally got some lanterns traced to quickly stitch up. 

I thought Sue looked like she was in a doorway, so needed something behind her.  I'll backstitch the lanterns in black floss, then make a mini quilt. If I can manage it, I'll finish the binding on three remaining placemats---I've got the binding stitched to the fronts and pinned to ditch stitch.  Oh, and if there is any time left, I want to make a pillow out of the Broken Dishes blocks I sewed up some weeks ago. Wish me luck!

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