Off to a trying start

Not much time today for quilting.  I got up early and pieced the back for the Blitzen quilt.  Unfortunately just as I was ready to load it I realized the fabric was directional and it was going the wrong direction.  What a bummer.  Not only did I waste a lot of time, but also a lot of fabric.  Hopefully I’ll be able to salvage it by piecing it with another fabric to back a different quilt.  I don’t usually piece backs for quilts I plan to sell on Etsy.  It’s more time-consuming, harder to align on the frame for quilting and some people just don’t like pieced back.  Personally, I think they’re more interesting but not everyone agrees. 

After piecing another back I got the quilt loaded on the frame.  I decided to quilt a simple feather in the border.  I got halfway finished with the first border and there must have been some glitch with the bobbin because I had bad tension for about a foot.  Luckily the tension was so bad in that spot it was easy to rip out.  I got the border finished and decided to just quilt an overall meander in the center.  It really doesn’t need anything fancier as the fabric is pretty busy and it wouldn’t show up anyway.  I’m using a pale green Glide thread and it just melts into the fabric.  Maybe a little too much—I have to really pay attention so I don’t quilt over a section I’ve already quilted.

While I was piecing my last top I discovered another use for flower head pins.  I always use them to mark my rows (and columns) but this time I used them to remind me to sew the top border to the top of the quilt and the bottom border to the bottom.  I had a pieced border so I put a pin on the border and put a matching one on the quilt top.

Can you see the two orange pins.  This showed me to sew these sections together.  On the bottom I had two green pins.  It was very helpful—I sewed both top and bottom borders on correctly!

This quilt was made from the Vintage Modern line and I just love it.  I’m almost finished with the binding and then I’ll post a picture.