QUILTERS' SEW-CIAL FOR INTERNATIONAL QUILTING DAY

I got up this morning and checked some blogs.  Sewcalgal is having a  virtual "Sew-cial" to celebrate International Quilting Day!  To participate, you spend time quilting, and then post about it on your blog.  Then, you link your post to Sewcalgal's blog.  I thought it sounded like fun, so here is my post.

I got up at about 6:00 AM, a little later than usual, so decided to get started right away.  When DH got up, I told him about what day it was and that I was "required" to quilt all day!  I'm lucky to have a DH who understands me.  Hee Hee!

It was still dark outside, so the light is on  in my sewing room.  (Notice the poster of the "Dear  Jane" quilt on the door.

I started getting my March BOMs ready for appliqué - 12 little basket blocks.  Here are some with freezer paper ironed onto the fabric.

The Quilt Show  was  airing all their programs FREE in honor of the day, so I watched about 3 episodes while I prepared the baskets.

The Quilt Show

As some of you know, I have tried several methods for the applique and decided that spray starching the seam allowance to the back was working best for me.  This time I decided to use some clear template plastic to see how it would work, because after reusing the doubled freezer paper, the paper starts to fold over some.

The plastic template worked pretty well, except the plastic got warped from the little iron.

Some baskets with freezer paper ironed on ready to starch.

The curve at the base of the basket has been the hardest part to get smooth.  I think I'll get some plastic that can withstand the heat of the iron to try next month.

Here are all the baskets ready to appliqué!

After lunch I started quilting my Civil War quilt.  At this point, I'm stitching in the ditch around all the blocks.  I have been watching a Craftsy class taught by Cindy Neeham and for this quilt, I have been following her advice on basting and quilting.  

So, I feel like I had a pretty productive day.  I took a couple breaks to do some non-quilty chores and take a walk, but pretty much kept quilting.  After watching 3 episodes of The Quilt Show and one episode of Cindy Needhams class, I was excited to get some quilting accomplished.

Did you participate in the Sew-cial today?