Getting ready for QuiltCon

Yesterday I sat at the machine and quilted and finished the table topper I made on retreat. Karla from Cherrywood Fabrics gave me a Sweet and Sour cherry roll and yardage in Pewter to make some samples for my demos in her booth at QuiltCon. After making some place mats and a table runner (due for attention today) I took some of the leftover squares and pieced them together…

It finishes at 20 1/2″ square with a binding of Kaffe Fassett woven stripe from Westminster Fabric.

I stabilized all the open seams with some simple shadowing in Aurifil grey 50 wt thread and then took my 12 wt thread, also from Aurifil, in lime green to make a spiral over the entire piece.

It’s so much easier to make a good spiral when the piece is already stabilized. I threaded all the ends in with a self threading sewing needle. At one point I went too fast and broke my thread and I even managed to hide the join!

Here’s a closeup of the bold stitches made with the heavy weight thread.

I keep the 50 wt thread in the bobbin and use a 100/16 topstitch needle for problem free sewing. The extra space on my Bernina 820 helps me keep the piece moving smoothly!

In other news my copy of Quilting Arts TV series 1500 arrived yesterday afternoon.

If you watch the series on PBS I’m afraid you’ll be missing a treat… I’m the Bonus Segment.

Yes, you need to actually buy the DVD or digital download to see me in action making a little needle case with some crazy quilt embroidery stitches.

Update on the snow…

We had another inch or snow yesterday afternoon with more forecast for today. (just started!) We had a visitor on our deck overnight…

The footprints come from one side and go off the edge and along the house.

Looks like a tail was involved. Any ideas?