The quilt topper is done!

I have successfully completed the Art quilt topper. The border has been added and I choose to do mitered corners for the border fabric. On this particular quilt the mitered corners add the least amount of distraction from the pieced body. I just took my time, used some patience and all 4 came out beautifully.

I then spent a large amount of time on Sunday evening pinning the three layers together. The 3 layers are the topper, polyester batting and the back fabric. I like to do a safety pin basting on my small quilts. All I can say is that I must be getting old because my hands actually hurt on Monday after putting in the 100+ safety pins. And I even used the curved pins that are supposed to be more ergonomical and easier to put in place.

For my backing fabric I choose something out of my stash. It is a cotton dyed fabric. It gives it a little bit of interest.

The 3 layers pinned together, with part folded over to show the background.

Up close shot of the pins at the nicely mitered corner.

Next to be done is the actual quilting part, maybe I will start on that tonight.

More Art quilt work

I ended up working on my Art Quilt again today. I was originally planning on letting it sit for a while so I could ponder. However, I was just feeling inspired... so I went with it. (it;s always so nice when you get that inspired feeling!)

I decided to couch on 7 different strands of fibers, some feathery, some metallic, some like fat yarns, just a nice range of interesting embellishments to add some interest. I had picked these up quite a few years ago at a quilting show because I liked them and was glad to have had them in my stash. :) They came on a card and were called Adornaments: Fun Fibers for Fabulous Effects.

I sewed them down using a 7mm wide x 4mm long zig zag stitch in clear filament on front and off white all purpose thread in bobbin.

I also decided on border and binding fabrics. You can see them in the photo's.

couching in upper right half of quilt

(Hard to see in the photo... 3 lines of fibers along the gold colored fabrics)

couching in lower left corner


close up of fibers

The border and binding fabrics.

A little Friday evening sewing

My dear hubby is sick... and even dosed up on Nyquil he is still coughing and tossing and turning. I put him to bed early and I headed into my sewing room, iPod set eith some Norah Jones, a cinamon candle going and the nice satisfying hum of my sewing machine.

I have been able to slowly work on piecing the quilt strips together. I put them together in groups of 5. I did the first group last week before the trip to NOLA. (for more on the NOLA trip see my other blog) Yesterday I got another grouping done, and today I was able to finish up the last 3 groups and put them altogether.

I am quite pleased with the result so far. There are definitely some 'oops' spots where the seams don't match up perfectly, however for my first quilt of this type I am happy with it.

Partly finished top

The completed top

The next steps are to decide if I will add any borders or just trim and bind, what type of quilting do I want to do, and whether or not to add any decorative stitching...

All good things for me to ponder, I have some very good ideas on how I am going to proceede. I just want to 'think' on it for a while until the picture comes clear.

In the meantime I have some other projects sitting on my worktable and begging for my time.