Squiddle's Rainbow Quilt

The menfolk, tall and small, have been tucked into their beds and lay dreaming.  I'm the only one awake, still working on the last Christmas quilt, Squiddle's.  This is my own choice - it's in a state now where I could give it, quilted, bound, and labeled.  But I want to get the last four rows of interior quilting done as a point of pride, and at the moment I'm redoing a section of the binding that I pulled too tightly on the inital pass.

The quilt is a little bit bigger than it needs to be (roughly queen sized, and Squiddle sleeps in a full bed) but it will likely shrink up a touch when I toss it through the washer and dryer.  And I love it so much that I'm actually considering submitting it to a quilting magazine.  Even my father-in-law gave an impressed "bloody hell" (according to my mother-in-law) when I sent them this in-progress picture:

I've been using black thread for most of the quilting - circling every dot in that center panel, a line of quilting on each side of the black stripes, and zig-zag quilting in the outer border.  For the rainbow stripes I'm color-matching my thread and doing a different motif for each color.  So far I have infinity eyes in the purple and waves in the blue.  The binding is rainbow stripes.  The back is a red flannel - Squiddle's (current) favorite color.  And even though it looks like it in the picture, the color stripes aren't all from the same fabric line!  Only the red and yellow match.  The orange and blue are batiks, and the green and purple are Keepsake Cottons from JoAnn Fabrics.

I don't have matching pillowcases for it yet.  And I like to do those when I give a bed-size quilt.  But I'd need to get more black fabric from JoAnns first, so I think after I give it to Squiddle I'll ask if he wants me to make them or not.

But for now I think I'll get my sewing machine threaded with green, start the dishwasher, and go to bed.

Feathers!

This afternoon we made an outing of it today and drove across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge over to the (bigger) Joann Fabrics, where I did in fact find a suitable orange batik for Squiddle's quilt!  I also purchased a wide flannel backing so that I won't have to stress over seams.  And I let myself have one splurge: a yard of this Star Wars fabric.  (Wonderful Husband: "Han Solo says gay rights?")  It's quirky and I'll never see it again, so.

Last night I got the quilt for my mother basted.  (And this morning I steam-mopped the floor to get up any excess spray baste.)  I had tried marking circles on the alternate squares with the water-soluble markers I had, but they were old and heading toward dried out, so it was an uphill battle.  I got new ones at Joanns, and oh my they made such a difference!

You can kind of see the triple circles I marked (using a dinner plate, a soup bowl, and a small canning ring) to use as guidelines for feather wreaths.  I got four quilted before the boys turned in tonight.  Thirteen more to go!  They're being so easy because there isn't any seamline bulk to fight against.  Of course, I had to remember how to do them, so maybe don't look too closely at the first one. ^_^;  And in the picture above, you can see the fabric I used for the backing.

Progress Made, Progress Stalled

 So!  Bad news first.  I started in on Squiddle's Christmas quilt, and got the first two rows (red, then black) around the center panel added on.  But when I cut out the next row (orange), I ended up 11.5" shy.  And this is a years-old fabric, I can't get any more of it.  I was at Joann Fabrics up in Port Orchard last week, they don't have anything suitable.  And I've gone through my stash in the garage.  And the only quilt shop here in Gig Harbor closed.

F*ck.

However, I looked on the Joann Fabrics website, and if it isn't lying to me, the store over in Tacoma (so across the toll bridge) has some possibilities.  So the plan is to go there tomorrow and hope.  And if that doesn't work, go farther afield to The Quilting Fairy in Puyallup, which I recall was a pretty big store.  (I looked at the website for Shibori Dragon, in University Place, which is closer, but again found nothing that would work).

So since I can't work on that today, I'm going to get the quilt for my mother basted and labelled.  I found about eight yards of a backing fabric in my stash, so I got that seamed up and pressed ready yesterday.

Here's the quilt top as I pulled it out of the stash:

Pretty well made, obviously a sampler quilt, but not a great size for any of my parents' beds.  Also, I found a pin my grandmother left in it!  So I've set that pin aside in a special location because I am a sentimental being.

Here it is after I added borders:

(Forgive the lumpiness from the toys scattered all about under it.  I wasn't in the mood to stop working to clean them up.)  The near and far final white border are each 2" narrower than the same border on the sides.  Otherwise it was going to drag on the floor while draped across a bed.  I have some of the blue from the bottom left square prepped as the binding, though I'm still debating if a dusky pink might work better?

A WIP, a Book, and an Argh!

 I've been working on the quilt top for my mother's present.  It started at 60"x84"... which is maybe a good size for a twin bed.  But my parents' home doesn't have any beds that size!  So I'm adding a white/floral stripe/white border to embiggen it to 80"x104", which... if their bed is the same height as ours, will be brushing the floor on the sides.  Hmm.  Maybe not?  I've got the white and floral stripe on, which takes it to 72"x96".  Wide enough for a queen (18" overhang) but not quite long enough.

Wonderful Husband suggests a slightly wider final border on two sides.  That might work.

In any case, I did my first mitered corners on this quilt!  I wanted the floral strip to look nice, and it does.

Also, and unrelatedly, I finally got the book I'd requested from the library!  Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston - about a romance between a theoretical First Son of America and a younger prince of the British royal family.  Its enemies-to-lovers storyline had me thinking it would feel rather fanfic-ish, but to my surprise, it wasn't!  Though at certain points it was very very much escapism from the hell that has been the last four years of the American political landscape.  The secondary characters are well fleshed out and I found myself thinking I'd happily read stories about any of them.  My only minor nitpick was that the prince was the Prince of Wales, which I believe is a title typically given to the heir to the throne?  So it should have been his brother's title if I understand correctly?  Otherwise, the British parts of it read well to my ear.  I ended up very much liking the book (418 pages) and wishing there was more.  I'll happily read her next novel!

And, finally, in assembling fabrics for rainbow rings on Squiddle's quilt, I've had to compromise on a red-orange.  But I knew I had the perfect orange in my stash.  So I went and dug and found it!  But I'm pretty sure it's not enough. ;_;