Finally some (almost) finishes!

fabric panel

 Finally, I have a few (almost) finishes to show.  It's been crazy busy here, and, I'm glad I have something to show for at least part of the crazy busy time.  I bought this fabric panel back in October, on a shop hop.  A couple in my church are expecting a baby girl in December.  I was just going to quilt the fabric panel, and put some borders on it, but, I changed my mind.  Since the blocks weren't 'square', I decided to make them 'wonky' and twist them so that they wouldn't show up as 'un-square' blocks.  Oh darn, that meant that I had to go buy some more fabric. 

quilt top #1

quilt top #2

 One of my quilt guilds had a 'sew-in' last Saturday.  I used the time to make these two baby quilt tops.  I also worked on my Santa blocks for the quilt top that is due Dec 5th.

(almost) finished baby quilt

I purchased some fuseable batting so that I wouldn't have to baste the quilt top before quilting, since I was going to try to machine quilt this top.  Well, the fuseable batting doesn't work.  I read the directions several times, then followed them, but, I just couldn't get most of the quilt to fuse, front or back.  After wasting half of Sunday afternoon on it, I finally pulled out my safety pins and pin basted the quilt. 
I used variegated thread and some cute stitches on my Janome and machine quilted this.  Since I don't machine quilt (I stink at free motion), I just quilted next to the seams and around the fake rick-rack on the blocks.  I tried some free motion around the dresses, just following the lines of the dresses and purses in the corners.  Not the best, but, not too bad, either.  I'll finish binding it over the Thanksgiving holidays.

basted table runner

I started this table runner last fall.  It was made on my first treadle, a 1896 Singer 15 Series treadle.  I wanted to make something on the treadle, and I'd never made anything 'Halloween' before.  I actually made three table runner tops, and several placemats like this, but, they aren't done yet.  After Halloween, last fall, I just put them aside and worked on some other projects instead. 

(almost) finished table runner

close up of hand quilting the spiderwebs

I've carried this poor table runner all over the place, trying to quilt a bit here and a bit there.  There are five spiderwebs quilted across the runner.  Well, my bit here and bit there finally became a finish (almost).  I'll finish the binding over Thanksgiving and maybe add some spiders to some of the spiderwebs, too. 
 

I'm hoping to get a chance to show off some of my treadles and hand cranks at one guilds quilt show in March, and, I need some examples of what I've made on those machines.  I'd better get a move on on the other projects from those machines. 

Sorry I haven't blogged much.  It really has been crazy busy around here.  I don't expect it to slow down until after Christmas.  I still have a few deadlines before then.  We'll see......

Happy Thanksgiving!