Not quite two years and two finishes

I debated whether I could or should actually quilt a king size quilt on my machine.  In the end, I decided that it wouldn't quite seem like I made a king sized quilt myself if I sent it out.  It also was before I understood about bias edges and the importance of making things a little bit bigger and trimming down to size before piecing HST together.  I couldn't quite justify the cost to send it out for quilting for this particular quilt.  And I was a little scared that a long arm quilter might laugh at my imperfect piecing and pressing.  

I think my Viking has about a 6.5 inch throat and with lots of careful manipulation and an acceptance of less than perfectly straight pinwheels, it is finally done.  The resident quilt holder decided that he would be unable to hold it up himself for pictures so I currently only have a picture of it on the bed.  It's resided there since the quilting was completed even though the binding was not.  But now it is all done and washed.  

Since the first block of the Pinwheel Sampler was posted on February 20, 2010,  I barely squeaked this in under the two year mark.  And despite all the imperfections and all, I learned an awful lot with this quilt and am so happy to have it done, that it is usable and that I did it all myself (minus basting help).

Finish #2 is another Charm Square Baby Quilt from Oh Fransson.  This is destined for my nephew who hopefully won't be born for another month or month and a half.  Tomorrow is 33 weeks and hopefully he can stay in for at least 3 more weeks.  I quilted circles on the white sashing and then took the round zig zags from the owl chest for the quilting design on the charm squares.  Most of this is Metro Living and Urban Zoologie, with Bliss Flannel from Valori Wells on the back.  

Next up is the Big Zig quilt for my sister.  I have two trial zig zags quilted on the white part and hope to finish the quilting this week.  By the time I finish that quilt, I can start working on my Jewel Squares bee quilt.  I love all the blocks that are in the flickr group.  It's a bit weird to think that they are all coming back my way.  Guess that I am still not used to the idea of being in a bee and I can't wait until next month to make Alisa's block.  And if I can finish my bee quilt without starting another project, I will have no works in progress.  We'll see.  It is such a relief not to have the pinwheel quilt staring at me from the big clear unfinished bin.

Strong shoulders

It took 3 people two hours to pin baste a king size quilt last night.  Currently 4 squares quilted and 45 more to go.  Quilting a king size quilt on my machine seems slightly easier than I envisioned, but I think my shoulder muscles are going to be much stronger after spending the hours maneuvering it.  I am quilting 4 imperfect flying geese pinwheels in each block and stippling the sashing.  Knowing that it will never be perfect, makes the process a lot easier.  I think I am just fine with it knowing that I will have completed the whole darn thing by myself (with help from my mom with pressing, basting and trimming threads).   If all goes well, I hope to be done with the quilting by January 3rd.  Somebody needs to resume afternoon naps on a reliable basis though for this to be possible.  Binding may wait until April.

If you look carefully, you can see one of the two winter skirts that I made with Flurry.  I'm really not good at remembering to take pictures.  This one goes to my niece.

Melissa at Happy Quilting posted asking for people to respond if they might be interested in being in a bee.  It took a few days but I responded.  I need to be less of a lurker and more of a participant.  It may be full.  I might have waited too long, but at least I attempted, finally.  Now I should attempt to comment on other's blogs more often than I do.  And, start a list of all the quilty, crafty things I want to try to accomplish in 2012.

I asked my sister to trade me a hat for a baby quilt.  Feeling selfish, she decided that she wanted the quilt.  Either a shoulder quilt or one for her bed...After many questions and a few days, she either wants pillow shams or a bed runner.  So now, since her idea was sunset colors (aka oranges) and I don't have many of those, I had to order some fabric...