Things are Perking

It was a busy weekend and week so far, two family birthdays and a trip to a quilt show, then evening appointments two nights this week.  While it seems I have suspended my Three for September project, actually I am still working on several at once. 

My sister, sister-in-law and I snuck off on Sunday to attend the Santa Barbara  Coastal Quilter's Guild show. It was very well organized, with many volunteers and good vendors.  We had lots of fun shopping and signed up for some of the prizes.  My sister played on a new longarm machine and is contemplating upgrading.  I didn't take too many photos, but loved this quilt.

Yes, this is a quilt of a reflection.  The Santa Barbara Mission is a beautiful active mission and the site of many events through the year.  I loved this smallish quilt, measuring maybe 24x30.  We had a fun couple of hours seeing everything and bumping into guild members.  I found some bargains and a possible contender for one of the Three for September WIPs.  And my sister Kathy later received a call saying she had won the Singer Featherweight drawing prize!  How about that?  She is so excited.  I hope to get my hands on it occasionally too. 

For the Go Four It quilt I bought this Jan Patek fabric from The Rusty Crow.  She packages up yard size cuts and discounts them, $8 each.  My layout calls for 3.5" setting squares and also outer setting triangles so I bought three packages.  I did not want to have too small of a print in the background, but also not one too distracting that would overshadow the pieced blocks. 

I think this subtle colored print will work.  Opinions welcome.  Have I mentioned quilt MATH in awhile?  I have counted and recounted and recalculated the numbers for the square in squares yet again, to find that I have over a dozen extra of the colored sort, and am short by about a dozen of the neutral.  Jeez.  I'm very pleased to have found a background fabric at last, though, so this WIP will move along.  

Sunbonnet Sue Goes to the Orient got more attention too. I found this quilt facing tutorial on Terry Aske Art Quilt Studio site (terryaskeartquilts.com).  I cut the facing strips two inches wider for the top and bottom, and two inches shorter for the sides as suggested.  The tutorial included cutting out a very small piece of ONLY the batting from the corners, this is about a 5/8" square (I forgot to get a picture before I sewed on the facings so it is laying on top)

The pieces are stay-stitched to aid in rolling the quilt front to the back a smidge.  The top facing will overlap the side piece when  folded to the back (this pic shows the top piece on the right).

Look how sharp that corner turned out.  I cut my facings wide and will trim them down a bit before handstitching to the back. Getting close to calling this a finish!

I spent a couple of hours today sewing a binding on another Thomas  Fire Quilt.  We still have people requesting quilts.  At work we had a patient today who lost their house in the fire.  He was very excited that their house plans have been approved by the City and soon they may start new construction.  Grant and I took a drive up into one of the worst hit neighborhoods the other day, and while there were lots cleared not much new construction has been going on.  We saw dozens of lots, many of which are for sale; most of the neighborhood went up in the 60s and original owners now in their 80s are not rebuilding.  I'm sure it will be years before the hundreds of homes lost are replaced and insurance settlements satisfied.  We will keep giving out quilts until no more requests come through.