FINISHED MY MINIATURE QUILT

I just put the final stitches into the binding of "My Path", and took its official portrait.

 My little quilt finished at 10 1/2 inches square.  The drunkard's path segments finished at 5/8 inch.  I plan to make more miniatures, using this method.  I found a collection of blocks made from drunkard's path block units, so I plan to make a sampler quilt,  to show off the variations.
Here is a close-up of the machine quilting......

I also completed the quilting and binding on one of the panel baby quilts for my guild's community quilts program.  That makes 2 down, and 3 to go!

LARGE POLKA DOTS

I've always been fascinated with Drunkard's Path blocks, and found a pattern, using polka dot fabric to make a miniature Drunkard's Path quilt!  I've been hunting for 1 inch polka dots in opposite colours (eg. red with white dots and white with red dots), for a while, and when I found them, it was usually only available in one colourway.  The polka dot fabric also has to have enough background around each dot to cut the blocks.
On my trip to Kitchener-Waterloo, I found the right colourways, but only in 3/4 inch dots. 
So here is how I drafted a template to cut the small blocks.

I began by drawing a 3/4 inch circle.  I used my perfect circle templates to do this, but chose one a bit smaller than 3/4 inch to compensate for the ink line.  Then I drew a vertical line through the centre of the circle, then another at right angles to the first.
When I check the original pattern, the distance from the edge of the quarter circle was half the partial diameter.  The quarter circle was 3/8 inch, so I added another 3/16 inch to the left of the circle.  That made the finished block size 9/16 inch.  I then add the 1/4 inch seam allowance to all four sides which made the cut size  1 1/16 inch square.
I made a second template and taped it to the corner of my small ruler, using this to help line up the corner on each polka dot.  With my fabric, I found I could only cut every other row of dots.

  These are the two blocks that are needed to make the quilt.  I made stacks of pieces, and then made up the simple 4-patch blocks.  These two blocks alternate to make the quilt top.  There are 12 of one block and 13 of the other.

 Here is my finished quilt top.  Mine ended up at 10 1/2 inches square.  I didn't have any fabric the matching shade of blue for a border, but pulled this great dotty fabric from my stash.  I added tiny yellow piping , using the "Piping Hot Binding" method.  It will finish with yellow binding as well.
Now I have to find other drunkard's path variations to play with more polka dots!

Design Wall Monday

I finally got back to work on this miniature feathered star.  Last fall, I was looking through some old Miniature Quilts magazines, and rediscovered this project.  At some time I had drawn all the foundation pieces and tucked them into the magazine.  Of course, I didn't start it until we were doing the final packing to return north for the summer, so it got tucked away in a bag with fabric, magazine and paper piecing tools.  There are four of these blocks in the quilt, and according to the pattern, they finish 4 1/8"!  I think I am insane......
Check out what others are working on at Judy's blog.
Someone asked me if I quilt on a long-arm machine.  No room at the inn, plus spending life in two different locations would make this impossible.  For my piecing, thread painting, machine applique, I use my Pfaff 2048.

 For machine quilting I use my Juki.  Right now it is sitting on my old sewing table.  

DH made me a sewing table so that it can sit flush to the table surface.  When I got my new Pfaff, I found out that it was a bit taller, so we used the quilting extension table to provide a level working surface.  I sewed for many years with my machine on a table, and suffered many headaches and neck and back pain from the hours that I stitched.  My machine quilting has improved dramatically since DH made my new table.  When we are at our winter place, I use an old plywood banquet table, so DH cut a hole in it and made a box to attach underneath to hold my machine.  The table no longer folds, but it works beautifully.

Mt. Dora Florida Quilt Show

Yesterday, my DH drove me and six of my quilting friends to the Mt. Dora quilt show.  They had a good turn-out, very crowded at times.  Two members of the group had never attended a quilt show before, so they enjoyed seeing all the different quilts, as well as shopping at the vendors' booths.
Since Mt. Dora is almost 2 hours from home, we took advantage of the trip to visit two quilt shops and a cross stitch shop in the area as well.
On the way home, we also stopped at Ron's Miniature Shop in Orlando, so I could introduce the ladies to my other obsession!  We rounded  out the trip with a stop at Joanns Fabrics on the way home, and managed to arrive home in time for dinner - a full, tiring, wonderful, fun day!