Quilted and Bound- The last "Tease"

My December Challenge quilt is finally quilted and the binding is on.  I even remembered to put on a label. (Yaay me!)    It will be a day or two before I can go on a photo safari and get the glamour shots of this quilt.    So here is a little teaser shot.

 You can see that I used a two color binding on this one.  The dark fabric is from Graphic Gems line from Island Batik.  The lighter one is from the Electric Desert line of Island Batik.  Most of the colored fabric in the quilt is from the Electric Desert line. I love  this line of fabrics. 
You can also see a little bit of the quilting in this photo.  I did a bit of custom quilting on this quilt because I wanted the quilting to enhance the design.   This challenge is "3D" so I am hoping you love it as much as I do. 

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Down Time - But the best kind

I have been quilting as I have time on my December project.  Since I am not showing that yet,  let me share a photo from my Thanksgiving weekend.  We basically had two celebrations.  The second one is where I met my newest Great-Nephew.  (It makes me feel old saying that. Ha ha.)

He is an absolute delight!  When we first arrived he was sleeping. After a bit, my niece said "Do you want to hold a sleeping baby?"  (silly question!  I almost always want to hold a baby.)  He slept for a nice while in my arms as you can see. When he woke up,  he wasn't fussy at all.  During the day, I held him several more times.  One of those was when he was sleepy and I sang softly to him and he drifted off to sleep.

I gave him this quilt as his first "Made by Uncle Gene" quilt.

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Quilting it!

My December challenge quilt for the Island Batik Ambassador program is moving right along.  I finished the top using the pieces from the last post.   Then I layered and basted it using a Hobbs Silk Blend batting. 
The next step was some ditch quilting to stabilize the quilt sandwich a bit more. 

Now the FUN part has started.   With the quilting in the ditch, I can start anywhere on the quilt for the free motion quilting.  So I started in the upper right corner on the black background.  I have decided to do LOTS of pebbles on this quilt.   All of the black in the interior will be pebbled.  It makes a wonderful texture that I just love.

Another great thing about pebble quilting is that it pushes the background down and lets the design part of the quilt seem to pop forward.   And since the theme of the challenge is 3D,  it also adds a nice 3D texture to the design.    I am hoping to have the finished in early December so that I can share it with you.

The design is a variation on a classic quilt design that I have wanted to make for a very long time.  I am excited about this quilt - so excited that I really want to share the top with you right now.  But I am going to show some restraint.....and build  your an-ti-ci -------------------pation!

Happy Thanksgiving my dear ones. Be sure to thank whoever creates dishes of the food that you enjoy on Thanksgiving.  And also thank the farmers and others who work to get that food to your table.  We have so much to be thankful for. 
And I am thankful for you readers who keep me inspired with your comments.  Blessings to you.

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

A little Bit of Piecing

Things happen and life gets busy. Sometimes I don't have either the time or the inclination to sew on a given day. 
But I did find a bit of inclination and some time to sew.  I have a project for December in the works and part of it has been in the "hmmmm, what do I do next?" stage for a while.  But as I was sitting in my recliner playing a game of solitaire,  ****WHOP****  the muse struck me.  The answer was so simple.  I had some strips that were already precut to 2" wide. Those were cut into 3 1/2" sections and pieced into rows.  Ooops, well it seemed like a good idea - but if I flip one and put it against the other one the middle color matches.  (the muse speaks) - " Silly boy, add one more piece from a sixth fabric."  I found a piece of the same line and added it.   Now I have four of these sections.

Perhaps in the next few days I can take these and add them to the project. 

Of course you may be noticing that these are Island Batik fabrics.  All but the yellow are from the Electric Desert line by Jackie Kunkel.  The yellow is an Island Batik blender. 

This will likely be a part of my December Challenge quilt.  So stay tuned to see what becomes of these lovely strip sections.

I also have a plan to make a quilted binder cover.  I found it on Happy Quilting.  Melissa made hers for a recipe binder, but mine will be for my music notebook.  I collect songs for playing on my ukulele and jamming with my brother who is learning guitar.  If mine is  a success, I will make one for his binder also.  And just like that I will have one Christmas present sorted out.

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.