From Small Things: Episode 66: Out With The OId

Welcome back! This past week, I have been focusing a lot on hand quilting my Row Quilt. This one is taking me a little longer than usual, in part because some rows are more difficult to quilt through, and in part because I am struggling with my thread. I am using the same thread which I have used for years, but it seems that this batch has changed. It is constantly twisting, knotting, and breaking, and is making this a very frustrating process with a lot of wasted thread. However, I am still moving towards the finish line with this one, and it should be done fairly soon. I also went to the "free day" held by the local church which usually holds 50 cent sales. Once in awhile, they host a sale where anything you want is free to take, so I went to look for some cotton fabrics. I tried to be intentional and take things which would fill a gap in my stash, and came home with just 3 shirts, a little sheet, and a good number of pillowcases to use for fabric. I also found a couple of quilting magazines there, which were printed back in the '70s. In the basting room, I have temporarily skipped over basting my red and white Poinsettia Star quilt because I need to piece a backing for it. Instead, I went ahead and basted the Monkey Wrench quilt which I put together from blocks sent to me by a viewer. Pam has fallen in love with this one, so it already has a future home! It also feels like time to send off my pile of charity quilt tops. I thought of maybe adding another in order to fill a box, but this pile has been sitting around for quite awhile and I feel the need to clear them out and have a fresh start. I'll share again this little pile of tops, which I have been sharing in previous videos as I pieced them, and then I'll send them to my sister in Georgia for her guild to finish into quilts. Then I will start working on a new pile of charity tops. In fact, I already have! Before piecing my red and white Poinsettia Star blocks, I did a test block to see how the process worked. I kept that block, and recently made 3 more to go with it, and these 4 blocks will probably be a center medallion for a charity top. I will build it out to be a little bigger though, so there is more to play with here. I've also continued piecing more Log Cabin blocks from my little template, and have 65 made now. This should be enough for an outer border on a 75" quilt, which was my intention, so I am probably done making these for now. It will be nice to have these ready to go when the right quilt comes along. Happy quilting everyone!