Packing Up!

Today, I'm packing up four quilts!  I've spent a lot of time this summer sewing together quilt tops so I'd have something to keep me busy this fall.  Tomorrow I'm flying to Chicago to move in with my mother-in-law so I may attend all of my son's senior year of football games at Wheaton College.  Now, it's time to pack them up!

First, I worked on that wild fabric that I mistakenly purchased to make a quilt for my daughter which I was able to fashion into two bunk bed quilts instead.  See my "Wildly Quilting" blog, dated July 15, 2011 for a closer look at that project.

Next was a queen-sized quilt top that subsequently turned into two separate quilts. I purchased that fabric in June when my friend, Mary. spent an afternoon with me at our favorite quilt shop in Alden, Kansas, known as the Prairie Flower Crafts shop. 

Prairie Flower Crafts in Alden, Kansas
Photo courtesy of Jan Hutchison

There's not much left in Alden anymore, just a grain elevator, a post office, a Methodist church and the Prairie Flower Crafts Shop which takes up the west side of its entire downtown block.  However, if you check the shop's sign-in logbook, you'll find that the Prairie Flower Crafts shop has a BIG reputation.  Quilters from all over the United States and beyond have visited this beloved shop for its outstanding fabric collection and the wonderful service of its employees.

Mary helped me choose fabric to make a Nine-Patch Stripe quilt for my guest bed since I'm hoping we'll have lots of company while we're living near Washington, D.C.

This Nine Patch Stripe pattern needed some careful thought to position its squares so I laid it all out on my carpet before I sewed it together.  It also required matching a lot of corners. 

I've discovered that the best way to make corners meet is not to pin them, but instead iron the seam allowances so that they lay in opposite directions when joined. 

The adjoining seams nestle together easily as you feed them through the machine.

Voila!  The corners come out perfectly matched every time.

When I finished my patchwork Nine Patch Stripe, I realized that I had almost enough fabric left over to make a second quilt in the same pattern.  To stretch my scraps, I had to purchase an additional 2 yards of light background fabric, but I found an inexpensive cream that worked well.  I was also short of the blue flowered calico so I opted to cut center blocks from my red scraps to make my Nine Patch.  That adds more interest to the overall design anyway. 

It might be fun to sandwich these two tops together to make a reversible quilt with the cream background on one side and the gold on the other.  By layering them together, I could dress my guest bed with the cream background on the top during the spring and summer months of the year and flip it over to the gold during the rest of the year. 

If I carry through with this reversible quilt idea, I'll need to figure out a free style quilting pattern to hold the two tops with their batting together.




So my four quilt tops are done!  They are the first items I've packed in my suitcase.  Hopefully, I'll be able to squeeze in my clothes and toiletries as well.  But regardless of my packing abilities...Chicago...here I come!