Stop the presses!! I’m actually Piecing a quilt top

I’ve always wanted to say that!  How exciting would it be to have something so beautiful and exciting come along that makes such a major change for the good that “Stop the Presses” is the best thing to say.

I can be a bit of a procrastinator sometimes.  I sure can.  Like a lot of quilters when my heartstrings are wrapped up in the quilt I’ll procrastinate a long time.  Two of my nieces are still waiting for quilts (they will get them).  Oh and another friend too…and these quilts are all sitting right there where I can see them.  I look at them and think in my head, “oh I’m not quite good enough yet to finish this quilt”.  Yes dear quilterly friends I have those thoughts.  Reality is I’ve had the skill to finish the quilt for a very long time, probably could have  finished it years ago.  If I don’t finish this quilt it will be a huge regret in my life.  HUGE.

You see this quilt is for my Gramma who turns 98 very soon.  I started this quilt right around her 90th birthday.  In my partial defense I’d been waiting for my dad to send me some of the family signature blocks.  I got those sometime after he died 6 years ago.  My plan was to make the quilt big enough for Gramma to use on her bed.  With (18) 8″ blocks I didn’t have enough and I didn’t want to add blank squares. The quilt needs to be interesting and make my Gramma happy.  Seriously Gramma will be happy with any quilt.  Just because she knows she’s loved and remembered.  One of the conversations with dad included asking her favorite colors: blue, orange….he wasn’t entirely sure.  So over the years I’ve picked up fabrics that I thought would work for this quilt and they’ve been snuggled up together waiting for piecing time.  That started yesterday.

The beautiful thing about waiting so long is that the freezer paper is peeling off the signature blocks so easily.  In pulling things together over the years I’d stuck in the box blocks from a teaching project I did with one of my guilds.  The (12) 12″  blocks are all blue & green coordinated with a Jinny Beyer border print.  I needed to increase the size of the signature blocks so I chose a blue and a peachy orange, cut 2 1/2″ strips – cut the blue into 8 1/2″ strips; the orange into 12 1/2″ strips.  I have a total of 30 blocks giving me a layout of 5 x 6 making a 60 x 72″ quilt.  I may add a border, but I’m not sure just yet.

As you know I’m stitching on Janie, my new BERNINA 780.  There are several features that I’m loving abso-freakin’lutely loving!  Seriously I’d love to kiss on the cheek whoever invented the knee lift.  I never thought I’d like the knee lift, but it does make piecing so much easier, being able to just lift the presser foot a wee little bit.  Which is particularly helpful since the newer machines don’t have the presser foot lever at the back of the machine.

With just a little nudge of the knee I can slip the fabric under the presser foot, line it up on that quarter-inch mark and keep stitching.  It is quicker than using the lift from the back of the machine.  You may note here that I’m not using the #37 foot.  I’m using the 8D, the Jeans foot, which has a somewhat similar shape to the 37 but is a bit more closed and does not have the same quarter inch markings.  The 37 doesn’t come with the 780 so I need to go get it.

I’m not sure if you can see here but I’ve got the dual feed engaged just to keep everything straight and flat since there are a couple of bulky seams in the blocks. 

The markings on the new tray table are amazing!  This is great for longer blocks and then long seams.  I haven’t decided how I’m going to quilt this yet.  I’m going to have to sit with the quilt for a few days or weeks.  We’ll see what happens over the next little while.

Go Quilt Your World!

more to the point go have fun 😉

Teri