Allison Glass Friday Finish

I sat down with a timer set for half an hour, determined
to finish the quilting. When the alarm rang, I had to run.
Back in the afternoon, I put on some soothing music,
and as you would have guessed, it started to be fun.
There was a moment of disappointment when I ran
out of empty space to quilt. After all that drama!

The light makes the back appear as if there is a lot of
bunching, but there's not. The are one or two little places
near the edge where it's not 'perfect'. If I was marketing 
this quilting, I would tear it out, and fix it. 

I changed my sandwiching process this time. I taped my
backing down to the concrete floor first. The ironed
batting was next, and also held with its own tape. Then 
the top, and also taped. All layers were taut. I used
large saftey pins, and not even quilter's pins at that,
to hold everything securely. I pinned about 5-6" apart.
This was much more successful than spray basting
on this size quilt, but I know I still need to use more
pins toward the edges next time.

My machine sits on top of a table, and I believe having
it countersunk would be a vast improvement in the 
ability to move the quilt around. I might have to ask 
for help with that one.

I was very happy with the stitching by the end.

 The late afternoon sun threw some heavy shadows,
but there aren't really big wrinkles there.

Two of the girls have had to break it in already. It passed.

Today I'm going to a friend's house for a fabric swap.
It reminds me of when I was little trading Barbie clothes.
I'm taking some fabrics that aren't my favorites in colors
she's looking for, and hoping she has some odd things
I'm looking for. 

Doesn't that sound like fun? That way you not only shop your own stash, but someone else's, too. Frugal and effective.

Today's Tips
Today's tips for navigating on the new Pink Doxie page. 

Use your keyboard letters j and k to move between posts. If you simply use your keyboard letter j, it will take you to a previous post. Tapping the letter k will take you to the next.

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Stop back tomorrow for the Pet Project Show. The linky will
open at midnight tonight EST, and run through midnight on
Monday night. Show us your pet project of the week.

Until then...
Come on, Doxie girls.
Let's go sew.

Linking up~
Blossom Heart Quilts
Sew Can She
WIDTW
Fort Worth Fabric Frenzy
Quilt Shop Gal
TGIFF
Crazy Mom Quilts
Free Motion Mavericks
LAFF
Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Allison Glass Quilt & the Inner Brat

Friend to me: "How's the quilt going?"

Me to friend: "It's going."

That's how I'm feeling about this one. 

I'm very thankful to have it well underway, but the

tiniest displeased with the FMQ. I really wanted a 

large looping design on it, but it isn't physically

possibly with my sit-down Janome. All I can manage 

are smaller loops, and you should see how I'm 

hunched down in my chair to see under the machine 

arm. I'm spoiled by my one episode using a long arm. 

It's awful. I should be working on it. It would

only take a few hours to get the whole quilt done.

But have you ever had your Inner Child, the bratty one, 

throw a hissy fit while your logical self says to suck it

up, and get it done? My daughter say this is definitely a 

First World Problem, and she's right. Time to discipline 

that unruly voice, and to say with gratitude I'm 

sincerely thankful for all the blessings in my life. 

I am thankful.

My backing is creatively pieced, and looks a bit

like it fell out of the 80's, but most of it is excess.

There should be just the smallest border around

the edges of the backing. The center is a pale

grey in the same tightly woven fabric as the front.

You can see I've left plenty of room. I learned my 
lesson on the "Chicago, 2007" QST quilt when I 
shorted the length by an inch, and had to add fabric 
after the quilting was finished.

I quilted this with an Iris thread in a citrus green. I love

working with colored threads, and my supply is starting to 

move across the palette. Defy rules that state your thread should always be one shade darker than your background. These days, all but the most traditional quilters are comfortable saying the lines are blurred on 'what works' for them. The only area I stay away from purchasing is varigated. It's not that I haven't been happy with my quilts done in varigated thread, but once you've purchased them, they are definitely harder to match with another 

quilt top.

I'm about 1/3 or more done with this, and it would
make sense to get it finished today. The problem is
that awful Moda company sold a pattern called
Modern Building Blocks, and it's not my fault it
sucked me in. 

We will have to have a talk about 
that sometime soon--after I quiet my Inner Child.

Until then...
Come on, Doxie girls.
Let's go sew.

Linking up with~
My Quilt Infatuation
Quilting Jet Girl