After some discussion with my hubbie, Tim, and a short discussion about a helix and how that is a model for DNA and how the pattern of the French braid twist looks like this, I came up with the name "Nature's Helix" for this particular design. The other decision that needed to be made was how the binding was going to be attached. Over the years, I have become a whole lot less ridge about how binding gets attached to a quilt. I found this wonderful YouTube video that gives step by step instructions in 6 minutes and 6 steps on how to make a continuous bias strip and how to attach it to your quilt http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWh90tXr7g4. I have tried other methods of binding that does not use a continuous bias strip and the results are less than satisfactory. If you have spent the time making a wall hanging or quilt, it deserves to be finished with a bias binding. If you have made a home made piece of crap, no wonderful binding is going to change that..
Sent away for some black batting which will work well in a lot of the projects I have planned but also wanted to use black for the French braid I made a new weeks ago (see April 30 & before blog entries). I got the sandwich made and some of the quilting done on inside and outside of the yellow and orange twists. As I was sewing I was contemplating what I should name this quilt. Since it is a twist on the French braid quilt and it is a mishmash of green and blue background squares, some of them batiks, I thought about "Tropical Twist". Along the same lines, are "Citrus Twist" since the quilt has an orange and yellow twist.
Today several more fabric coasters were made and then a small bowl. The beginning is getting a bit better and also the adding on of a new strip is going more smoothly. The finishing where the fabric gets twisted the best that you can around the end of the rope and then the tucking of the end point under AND trying to make is as less obvious as possible, then sewing over it and then backstitching is still a bit of a crap shoot.
After a lengthy phone conversation last week with my friend Margaret, who makes fabric bowls, I figured it was time to try again. Since the most challenging part of making the bowls is the starting and the finishing, it was suggested to make coasters until I got more adept at it. This would give me LOTS more practice at starting and finishing...makes sense to me. The other words of wisdom is that Margaret NEVER cuts the end
One of my favorite blocks has always been the log cabin so this afternoon I spent playing around with it a
little I had made a chili pepper apron and wanted to make a matching hot pad so I thought it would be fun to throw in some white and also a black dot to the orange and and green. I think it came out looking rather interesting
I started making market bags a couple of years ago. They came about in the same way as the aprons did. I could not find a decent apron that wasn't flimsy and looked like it would fall apart the first time I washed it so I made myself one and since I wanted a good quality attractive apron, I assumed other people did also.
I saw this market bag in a fabric catalog. I liked it because it was quilted AND lined so I knew it would be sturdy. I purchased the kit to make one since the veggie fabric in the kit was ADORABLE. With careful cutting, I managed to get two bags, not one, out of the fabric in the kit. That second bag found a home last week so it was time to make another bag, this time out of chili pepper fabric.
Time to assemble the quilt top. Sections numbered?...check. A French Braid is assembled on the diagonal and each section is stair stepped up half the width of the adjacent accent. The finished squares are 2" so I measured in 1", put a mark and then lined the mark up with the seam of the adjacent section. When I made the sets, sewing end to end, I was careful to attach the sets on the salvage so that when I started the assembling, which is attaching the sides together, I would be dealing with the bias and would be able to stretch it to match it up. I was pleasantly surprised that not much stretching was required! Since I was careful about the labeling of the sections and also about keeping the labeling numbers in the proper perspective (right side up), it went together easily.
Yesterday I spent the day enjoying May Day activities since my husband, Tim, is a Morris Dancer. But today, it was time to get back to work on the French Braid wall hanging....only sections D and B were left to make. Section D is exactly the same as section C but with yellow squares where the orange ones are. Section B are these long strips that go between the sections, sort of like sashing. I was quite excited to get both of these sections done because it meant that I could then start the layout on my design wall and finally see how this was going to end up looking.
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After some discussion with my hubbie, Tim, and a short discussion about a helix and how that is a model for DNA and how the pattern of the French braid twist looks like this, I came up with the name "Nature's Helix" for this particular design. The other decision that needed to be made was how the binding was going to be attached. Over the years, I have become a whole lot less ridge about how binding gets attached to a quilt. I found this wonderful YouTube video that gives step by step instructions in 6 minutes and 6 steps on how to make a continuous bias strip and how to attach it to your quilt 
Sent away for some black batting which will work well in a lot of the projects I have planned but also wanted to use black for the French braid I made a new weeks ago (see April 30 & before blog entries). I got the sandwich made and some of the quilting done on inside and outside of the yellow and orange twists. As I was sewing I was contemplating what I should name this quilt. Since it is a twist on the French braid quilt and it is a mishmash of green and blue background squares, some of them batiks, I thought about "Tropical Twist". Along the same lines, are "Citrus Twist" since the quilt has an orange and yellow twist. 
Today several more fabric coasters were made and then a small bowl. The beginning is getting a bit better and also the adding on of a new strip is going more smoothly. The finishing where the fabric gets twisted the best that you can around the end of the rope and then the tucking of the end point under AND trying to make is as less obvious as possible, then sewing over it and then backstitching is still a bit of a crap shoot. 
After a lengthy phone conversation last week with my friend Margaret, who makes fabric bowls, I figured it was time to try again. Since the most challenging part of making the bowls is the starting and the finishing, it was suggested to make coasters until I got more adept at it. This would give me LOTS more practice at starting and finishing...makes sense to me. The other words of wisdom is that Margaret NEVER cuts the end
One of my favorite blocks has always been the log cabin so this afternoon I spent playing around with it a
Time to assemble the quilt top. Sections numbered?...check. A French Braid is assembled on the.JPG)
diagonal and each section is stair stepped up half the width of the adjacent accent. The finished squares are 2" so I measured in 1", put a mark and then lined the mark up with the seam of the adjacent section. When I made the sets, sewing end to end, I was careful to attach the sets on the salvage so that when I started the assembling, which is attaching the sides together, I would be dealing with the bias and would be able to stretch it to match it up. I was pleasantly surprised that not much stretching was required! Since I was careful about the labeling of the sections and also about keeping the labeling numbers in the proper perspective (right side up), it went together easily.
Yesterday I spent the day enjoying May Day activities since my husband, Tim, is a Morris Dancer. But today, it was time to get back to work on the French Braid wall hanging....only sections D and B were left to make. Section D is exactly the same as section C but with yellow squares where the orange ones are. Section B are these long strips that go between the sections, sort of like sashing. I was quite excited to get both of these sections done because it meant that I could then start the layout on my design wall and finally see how this was going to end up looking.