Sew It Together, Mona!

Yesterday Mona and Beanie came over to lay out Mona’s first ever quilt.

Only she discovered how hard it is to lay out a quilt when Beanie purely wanted to be part of the action….oh, and the bone too!

This little dog brings so much joy, but sometimes that joy gets in the way of putting the quilt down the way we want it!

Still.  Take time out and love on the pups, they give us so much more than we give them!

Oh---and the story about the bone ---They were bought for Sadie.  Sadie has a very picky palette, which does NOT include raw hide chews, or evidently bones.  She turns her nose up at them and walks away.  So we saved this one for Beanie.

And wouldn’t you know it, as soon as Beanie left it alone, after getting all of the marrow out, Sadie decided it wasn’t so bad and decided she wanted it after all!  Funny dogs!

I’m so proud of Mona and the job she is doing on this quilt.  We started with simple rotary cutting of strips, sewing of strip sets, making 4 patches, assembling blocks and here we are laying it out for assembly!

Holy Moly, this thing is BIG!

Well you know me, any quilt worth using better be people sized! This quilt is destined for the guest bed up in Mona’s loft in her cabin.  Probably no borders.  Just a blue binding.

Her hubby Rick has been told to keep his feet off the quilt!

So happy to see these scraps sewn up!

Learning to “Web the top!”  Sew, Mona, Sew!

Because Mona’s cabin doesn’t have the floor space to lay out the quilt top, and it is bigger than the top of the guest bed, I’ve told her to just leave it on the floor at Quilt Villa and just come work on it when she wants.  I’ve got a spot for her to day-retreat with us next week while Lori and Randy are up with us.

So Mona, what is your NEXT project going to be?? Ha!

As all of this was going on, I was attacking the purple scraps!

I have had questions on my cutter, this is an Accuquilt Studio. What looks like random placement of scraps on the tray is really strategic. I watch for the blades in the die and load up the tray with the best placement for least amount of waste.  My Studio can cut through 8 to 10 layers, so I can process a lot of strips in very little time.  Anything too narrow to be a strip, but wide enough for string piecing goes into my string box.  I only had to toss very few margins.

Plastic sheet on top, roll it through!

A whole handful of 1.5” strips in this batch!

This is all in preparation for the 2015 APQ Quilt-Along, more info to follow!  Can you feel the anticipation?  There will be 3 projects showcased, so you can choose one of those, or go your own way using the units in your own creation.  I will be posting more details as they become available so stay tuned!  It’s going to be FUN!

Oh, the home front last night:  Some slow hand stitching on a Downton Abbey Night:

Happy to say I have moved the hoop twice during last night’s relaxing stitching!

I’m off to Georgia this morning.  And wonder of wonders, my route takes me right down I-85 through Charlotte and Gastonia.  Hello, IKEA!  I need a couple more lights!  Hello Mary Jos!  Hello any Antique Mall that comes my way – I’ve got all day to get to Clarkesville and it’s been a long time since I’ve had a driving trip and freedom to roam!  I don’t meet up with the Mountain Laurel Quilters until set up time at 11:15 tomorrow morning.  They gather at noon for their meeting that starts at 1pm.  It’s one of those driving trips that would have me leaving before 5am if I were to drive it tomorrow, so I’m going today instead so I’m not a complete zombie for my presentation.

The van is loaded with my own sewing projects…guess what I’ll be doing tonight?

Catch you from Georgia!

Click Here to like our Quiltville Friends Page on Facebook for more fun!

Click Here to join our sister group, Quiltville's Open Studio on Facebook, a place to Sew, Share & Grow!!