Sister's quilt - my part done

I squared it up this morning and sewed the binding to the front. My part is done. I hope she likes it!

Sister's quilt in progress, Part 2

The quilting is complete! I've made the binding, she is using the border fabric as the binding also. I will attach the binding to the front for her and she will stitch it to the back herself. I just did an all over large stipple for the quilting. If I had more experience and/or a long arm machine I could have done a more interesting pattern. But I think this will be sufficient for how she plans to use it. In the shot below you can see the backing fabric she chose. It is a nice complement to the top.

Sister's quilt in progress

I'm taking a break from quilting my sister's quilt. My hands and wrists get tired after a while since I just have my regular sewing machine to quilt on. Her quilt is bigger than I thought. It filled my basting tables so that's about 72" by 80". My machine does not like one of the fabrics she used. It's a white on white she used as background for the pieced blocks and an inner border. The fabric is not a true print. This means that the little white stems and leaves are applied to the white background and are slightly raised. I don't know how this kind of fabric is made but I think the appliques are fused to the background somehow. Anyway, this fabric gums my needle and was causing my machine to drop stitches. She chose a flannel for the backing which didn't help. I was panicking until I realized that my machine was only dropping stitches when I crossed a seam that involved this white fabric. I quilted one hole length of the border with no problems. So off to the quilt store to purchase every kind of needle they had in a 90/14 size. I started with a quilting needle in the 90/14 size which is what I usually use with flannel backing. So far the denim 90/14 needle is working fairly well, but I'm on my second one. I don't know if the first one had a defect or what, but my top thread kept breaking. Thus far with the second needle I haven't had that problem. On the up side, I am getting lots of practice at starting and stopping while quilting.

Working

I don't have any pictures to post today. I have been working. My students are suppose to work 9 hours per week on ALEKS. I check their hours on Wednesday mornings and send them an email update on their progress. At noon I meet with which ever of my students happens to show up in the computer lab for assistance. Today that was nobody, but usually I have 2 or 3.

Next semester I will most likely be teaching two classes using ALEKS. My Wednesdays will be even busier. And I may have to work another day a week too. We'll see.

My sister's quilt is still on the basting table. I got as far as winding several bobbins and threading my machine with the thread I will use for the quilting. I hope that tomorrow I will actually be able to start quilting it. However, I have chores to do tomorrow too - grocery store and laundry.

This Mornings Work

This is what I've been doing this morning, basting. This is my sister's quilt. She won the fabrics used to make the center about 10 years ago - about the time kid number 2 was born. She now has 5 kids. When she got the top made, I told her that I would quilt it for her as a gift. She provided the backing fabric, a nice blue flannel, and the binding fabric. After I quilt it I will make the binding and attach it to the front for her. She wants to whip stitch the binding to the back herself. I had to piece the backing. I decided to iron the fabric before piecing it and it's a good thing I did. There was a small hole in the fabric so I had to cut that out and piece in another section. Luckily my sister bought plenty of backing fabric.