Thursday, March 13, 2014

Forty-Nine Cents Postage

Just thought I'd post a quick quilt update to show my progress on my postage stamp quilt top.  I finally got the borders completed since I showed you last time around.  It almost seemed like the pieced border took longer than the center of the quilt!  It must be due to the fact I was really anxious to get this top completed!  This was all pieced one square at a time, a little more time consuming than strip-piecing, but I'm very happy with the result.  (No pattern available.)
There is an outer white border, too, it's a bit hard to see in the photos.  I am still learning when it comes to lighting and photography.  I don't have the proper lights in my studio for taking pictures, so you're seeing varied ranges of grays and yellows when you should be seeing white! 
Next, I plan on marking the quilt and then quilting it very soon.  I will do a lot of cross-hatch quilting and maybe a cable or two in the borders.  My stack of quilt tops is piling up and so it's time to motivate myself to start to tackle some of them and finally get them quilted.
 When I work on a quilt, I play around with titles for it, trying to come up with something a little creative and original that ties to the quilt and also to what might be going on in my life at the time.  I came up with "Forty-Nine Cents" for this quilt, which I think is appropriate since the cost of postage went up while I was making it!



























I did have a nice little surprise this week in the mail.  The catalog for the International Quilt Festival in Chicago arrived.  Since I have no plans on going to Chicago this year, I had just tossed the catalog in my pile of junk mail to throw away without ever opening it.
But at the last minute, something told me to open the catalog and when I did, I was so surprised to find my quilt, Fish Scraps, featured inside!  This quilt has gotten some mileage and has done more travelling than I have, it seems.  It is one of two of my quilts that is in the "In the American Tradition" exhibit that is being show at the Quilt Festival shows this year.

And one more bit of good news. . . .my foot has healed and I won't be needing surgery, so I am thrilled about that!  I can now go shoe shopping!  Hooray!

Happy Creating!