I am working on a king sized commission quilt. I admit I'm proud of myself for getting it pin basted last night. I've never made a quilt this large before but I'm loving the challenge.
D was home and helped me move the couch out of the living room and get all of the layers spread and even. It's going to be 108 inches wide by 101 inches long. I'm making it a bit larger to allow for shrinkage in quilting and washing.
There is a lot of negative space to fill with quilting and that is a bit intimidating. I'll quilt it with groups of wavy "straight" line quilting. I want the wavy lines to be close enough to interact with each other but I think quilting the whole quilt that close could be a bit overbearing visually. I discussed quilting options with Gwen Marston last week and she suggested doing the quilting in groups with a space between them. I thought that was a great idea.This afternoon I marked some straight lines to help me maintain some order while quilting. I mentioned to D that a chalk line like those used in house construction might be helpful but that I didn't want to risk the chalk not washing out. He went to the basement and came up with this nifty laser level tool. I think I may be adopting it to live in my sewing room.
Isn't this the greatest tool EVER??? The boys came in with a friend this afternoon and I heard the comment "woah, EXTREME quilting!" I love when quilting impresses the boys!
I was wondering how to make sure I trim the quilt straight and square given that there are no blocks or borders to measure from. Problem solved!! I love that.
Liberty Tool
B took us to a very interesting shop, Liberty Tool, not far from our camp site.
It was filled to the brim with tools and other old interesting things.
I am pretty sure they would have just about anything you might be looking for...do you have a tool with a broken handle?
Do you need a hammer?
Or maybe a saw?
It was a great place to browse.
The first floor was pretty much all tools but the upper three, yes there were FOUR floors to this place, had more variety. There were lots of books but we also saw an unusual piano, an early style bike, and a huge floor loom, and a number of things that I have NO idea what they were.I liked that most items were displayed in old wood crates of all sizes.
If you are ever in the area it is definitely worth a stop. There is even a great ice cream shop around the corner. They make all their ice cream on site.
