My first 2 quilts are done! I finished binding the second one last night. I bound my quilt—the one with many Ohio stars—by sewing the binding on the reverse by machine and hand-stitching it onto the front. I bound my husband's completely on the machine, starting by sewing the binding onto the front and stitching in the ditch on the front to affix the reverse.

It is easier to bind completely on the machine...but it's still a little tricky. It is tricky to stitch in the ditch on the top of the quilt and catch the binding on the reverse side in exactly the right place, i.e., actually catch the binding and catch it at the same distance from the edge of the folded-over binding. There was only one tiny spot where my stitching didn't catch--yay!--but there were a couple long stretches...inches and inches...where I had not sewed the hem on the front at exactly 0.5 inch (I like this better than 0.25), so on the reverse the binding was wider. I did try to counteract this when I pinned the binding down, but I wasn't perfect...apparently.

I did find it a lot easier to press the binding after I had sewed it on to the first side, then fold and press it on the other side before stitching. I guess it wouldn't have helped any with the hand-stitching finish but it was 100% required with the machine binding. Stitching in the ditch and expecting to catch the binding in the right place would have been madness without pressing.

I enjoyed hand-stitching the quilt. I did it at night while watching Columbo episodes with my husband. It took 2 nights and about 6 hours I would say. Yikes that's a lot of TV. Actually, the first night he went to bed after 1 episode and I stayed up sewing and watching I don't know, Home Town probably.   

Here is the front of my husband's quilt.

Here is the back with the machine finished binding.

Here is mine with the hand-stitched binding on the front.

I am pretty damned pleased with these quilts. I had a lot of fun making them, and I am very excited to start another quilt. The fabric choices are overwhelming and this will be my sticking point. But I do want to get going soon.

Aside from needing to be more precise with the machine-bound binding, the one disappointing discovery I made about my technique has to do with the overlapping of seams from the pieced stars. I tried not to overlap but there are a lot of intersections and it was too much for my brain to figure out on my own. I should have really studied some YouTube videos and got the principle down or followed some pattern that explained that bit. After quilting and pressing there are some very hard corners, quite noticeable and not at all nice. Scott says "it's on the front, not the side against your skin, so it shouldn't matter." I hope that is so. I hope they will soften with washings.

At any rate, I had a blast making these. To think a few years ago I couldn't picture myself being able to take the time to piece a quilt top together. It's not bad at all.

We remodeled the kitchen and I sewed some curtain tops for the windows. We looked in the home dec fabric section of Joanns but didn't see anything that would work. So we went to the quilting fabric and found something we could agree on. My husband because it had the colors he thought would work and me because it has cute birds on it. I'm not much a fan of the colors of the fabric for the kitchen. They don't really add much and I would prefer some excitement. He was all about tying the gray countertop and the brown walls together. Anywho, that's what we got.  

I have an apron that came from a restaurant. I like it because it's simple and it works well--it covers, it's comfortable, and it's absorbent so I can wipe my hands on it. Well, it's rather stained after all these years. I got a bright idea to make a new one...out of terry cloth...because if I wipe my hands on it...why not make it out of towel fabric? 

Finding terry cloth--supposedly one of the world's most-made fabrics (?)--not so easy. Yes, I could get it online but it's hard to be sure of the quality from an image on a computer screen and the description when one doesn't know how to decipher the weight details and such, which I don't. Aside from not wanting to wait, or pay, for delivery, I saw something that dissuaded me from buying this online. I was on fabric.com looking at one fabric, supposedly made in the US of A out of premium cotton, and put it in my cart. At checkout, it said fabric.com was an Amazon company so I thought I would check out Amazon since I could get free shipping. But on the  Amazon site the very same product was listed as 100% polyester. Ew. A towel made out of polyester. So I got spooked. 

Then I stopped at Joanns. They had terry cloth. It was 100% cotton, not all that nice, but I figured what they hey, I could try it. They had no color I wanted so I got white and some gray die. I dyed the fabric and it turned out light blue. Irritating. 

Then my husband and I were at Menard's getting something for the house and I looked down and saw terry bath towels in the perfect shade of gray. They were cheap--cheaper than the Joanns fabric not to mention the dye--so I got them. 

First I made the apron using my restaurant apron as a pattern. Then I dressed it up with the fabric I made the curtains out of. 

So maybe a terry cloth apron was not the best idea I have ever had. But it should do the trick for a while and I think it looks kind of cute.

​UPDATE: A terry cloth apron was one of the best damn ideas I ever had. 

I love a hanging towel. I had one in the old kitchen...can't find it right now...but it wouldn't have matched the new digs anyway.  I noticed my hands are always dripping with something...cooking stuff, dishwater, clean water, food...and if the towels are behind a door, that something is going to drip on the cabinet doors. No, not my new, clean, white cabinet doors! So I made new hanging towels that matched using the scraps from the towel I made my apron from. I searched for a pattern and wouldn't you know it, found a free pattern right away on this site. Turned out cute, though these are quite luxury as they were made from a bath towel not a kitchen towel, so they're thick. But that's an awesome bonus. 

My quilts have been quilted and they look amazing!!! This is a picture of one of them, hanging in the window of the quilt shop where I got them quilted. The owners hung it up for Valentine's Day. I was away on an RV trip, and when I came back to pick up my quilts, the owner showed me this picture. Pretty cool, huh? I was so tickled and pretty pleased with myself.

The shop that quilted them is the Quilting Bee in Lakewood. It's owned by two sisters. Suzanne (I think) helped me choose the quilting patterns for each quilt, and she chose the scale. Gosh, she did such a good job! I am so pleased with the different patterns we chose for each quilt.  

Here is the quilting pattern on the 20-block quilt. I love how the swirls contrast with the straight lines of the triangles and squares.

Here is the 1-block quilt. The quilting pattern is different, and I love it, too. Notice how the pattern lines up so perfectly cool on the triangle blocks. Suzanne did a great job!  

Here is the back of the 1-block quilt. If you look closely, you can see the red thread of the middle-most block and the white thread on the surrounding blocks. Red thread was used on the border around the block.

Here are some more pics. Not sure why I took these, but they're fun to look at (for me anyway).