Design Wall Monday~Feb 25

Monday Blog. I blog most Mondays. It helps me to have a plan. Whether that is for blogging, exercising (don't ask how that is working for me!) or even quilting.  I love that we have so many options with our on line communities. There are monthly quilt blocks, quilt block a day groups, every other week Row Alongs and every other permutation you can think of. All these options allow anyone to fit quilting into there life.

And then there are those of us who have "over quilted". Probably not an accurate term, in my case it would probably be "over topped". I've made a lot more tops than I've quilted. Many people have UFO's that are in all different stages of development. Mine tend to only be unquilted tops. But this is my year of finishing up those tops. Before this week's end I will have finished four which means I am still meeting my goal. I know it's only two months into the year but....I still feel good about this. The baby quilt UFO that I am finishing this week, picture next week, is my oldest UFO. It is at least twenty years old. My oh my! I've thought about donating it many times but just can't. See, my sister Joanne helped me piece this top and even tho' I lost interest in it, I just can't give away this memory. So this week, it will be finished.

This is a picture of my third UFO finish. Nothing exciting, but fun, bright, colors.

It will be donated to "Quilts from Caring Hands" when I send my donation box to them at the end of March.

Oh! And, all the years I've quilted I've finished the bindings by hand, but the last three finishes I did by machine. Fun, easy, fast and totally appropriate for baby quilts that will be washed many times. If you have not tried it, you should. There are dozens, literally, of tutorials on how to machine bind. I'm not going to go into depth here but I used a method where I sewed the binding on the front first, turned the binding to the back, making certain the edge was past the sewing line of the front, pinned and then sewed from the front, in the "ditch" created there between the binding and the quilt top. This method worked very well for me! Even on the mitered corners. I might try another method at some point but right now I was so happy with this technique that I can't imagine why.

We are getting close to the end of Lori Holts Row Along. There have been so many cute blocks. I can see me utilizing them in more small quilts. Thanks Lori! See these cute baskets!

Enjoy!
Toni