PattiSure wrote:
I am loving retirement! I told my husband that if I had known I would enjoy it this much I would have retired 5 years ago. I do miss those lovely young faces but I live in the community where I taught the last 10 years so I see my students often and I FB with many of them! I love having more time to sew & quilt.

Maryjo;

Wow, way to go! Can’t wait to see the photo of your quilt! King size, whew who. . .long arm quilting machine? I still haven’t finished my HSQ quilt, need to layer & quilt but had to finish birthday quilts for two of my Granddaughters (so they could open them on their birthday!) & still quilting my daughter’s birthday quilt. Her birthday was in the beginning of March I got to see my Granddaughters open their birthday present on i-chat & heard one of them say to the other, “Oh! It’s a quilt!!”. I never get tired of it! It is so heart warming to hear your 5 year old Granddaughter say it to her 4 year old sister who then displayed a huge smile & hugged the computer, i.e. me

Yay MaryJo! Can't wait to see it. Are you liking retirement?

Patti

WooHoo, MaryJo!

Way to go, Maryjo! Congratulations and can't wait to see your beautiful quilt in Carol's book/DVD!
Hugs,
Shirley

I am so excited to say that my HST king size quilt is finally complete, binding is done all I need to do is sew on the label and then find a place large enough to get a photo. I am smiling ear to ear and celebrating with a cup of coffee! Thank you to Debbie & Clara and all the sorters who helped transition me into retirement with this great project. Debbie I will soon get another AAQI quilt done and then I can post them and send them off.

Jan, I was about to write you the same thing Kathy did but she beat me to the punch. I love the colors and the types of blocks you made--it is truly lovely. I think when you make your adjustments with the border, you are going to fall in love with it again. I usually take three measurements of the width of a quilt and then do an average of the three measurements and that is the size I cut that border. That way, if one side is longer than the other, with the border they become the same size. You might have to ease one side in a little but at least your borders will all be the same size. I'm not very good at explaining it , but you probably do that already. If not, maybe someone else can pipe up and give a clearer explanation. Renata

Jan, I've done that a couple of times. I had a quilt that rippled very badly on the top and bottom border. I guess the fabric stretched a lot, when I recut and resewed it was better. Sometimes that's just what has to happen! When you're finished with it, you'll be delighted!
Kathy

Thank you for saying it's nice. I think I will take it apart and measure and cut borders to match the actual lengths of the Star and pinwheel blocks. Then I don't know who it is for and or what to do with it. Thanks, Jan

Jan, your quilt is small enough that you can steam block the top and get the major seams straight. When you baste, keep them straight and then right away, ditch quilt them. Any other quilting you do, the constructions seams will be straight and perpendicular. I noticed that if I have "poochy" areas that kind of puff out, if I work the fullness out away from the center, it just spreads it toward the edges, making the edges distorted. I try to flatten the puffiness locally and quilt it down right where it is. Your quilt is turning out very nice!

Kathy

Rosemary, your quilt is wonderful. Those flying geese add the perfect touch! As for the basting technique, I prefer spray basting. . .who wants to take all that time pinning then then all that time to unpin when quilting is what needs to happen!

Thank you Rosemary. My computer speakers aren't working so the youtube videos will have to wait until my son comes home from school and fixes it. My printer is also not behaving. Hope you are having a great day. We are having lots of sunshine lately and it is close to 70 degrees which is good for March in New England. Jan

drj2athome wrote: It does look pretty.

If you head on over to here [url]forum/i-need-quilting-related-advice/5207-cutting-sashing-for-blocks-made-by-many-others[/url] although the problem is a bit different, I believe the solution is the same. Read all the posts - you will come to a happy ending!

This is my second HST small wall quilt. It is wonky and needs to be ironed into submission. My mom said try steam ironing it. Hopefully I can figure out how to quilt it into submission as well. Anyone have any experience in these matters? I will ask before I take it apart and do it over.