Little House top done and other progress

I found a border fabric I like for the Little House quilt and it now has mitred borders

and the bias binding is prepared (since the fabric has strips, I decided mitring and bias were in order). 

I had another reminder about how often I don't put mitred borders on quilts -- it took almost 2 hours to put borders on a 32 X 37 quilt.  Then was the fun of calculating the length of binding, how big a square does it take.  Pulled out my Quiltmaking Tips and Techniques  book and the formula is

A = Calculate the perimeter of the quilt 2*(length + width) plus 24 - 36 inches
B = Multiple that number by the width of strips to cut
C = Take the square root A*B

Round that to a nice easy number to cut.  I cut the square a little bit bigger.  I'd rather have too much than not enough.  If I'm not making bias binding, the its just A and cut strips of the required width until you have enough to add up to that length.  For smaller quilts 24 - 36 is overkill on the joining and turning corners bit. 

When making the bias, I have a dress maker sleeve roll that I use to help press the seam open when the floppy piece has been joined into a tube.  I used similar fabric for the $10 quilt a few years ago.  Its in the quilt me pile (already sandwiched).  When I make its binding I'll take photos. 

 The third block is done for the Friends of Chelsea Lane quilt.  Mom had a light box (I think Dad made it).  I brought it home for me.  Its opened a one end and an old florescent lamp is inside.  Pull it out a bit to turn on and move around where needed.  I used it to trace the applique shapes. 

I missed a really important sentence in the pattern instructions -- the directional shapes have been printed in reverse for fusible applique. Discovered that after I cut out the directional shapes and they didn't sit right on the block. For two of the piece there was sufficient left overs to re-cut in the same fabric. For the other piece, I just used a scrap from the same tone value. The print is bigger but that's OK.

Since there won't really be too many options about how to sew the blocks together, I've stitched the first three together.  I have the shapes prepared for block 4 and am almost finished prepping block 5 as well.  I think I'll take the blocks to the sit & sew Friday evening and get all the prep work done so I can just applique.

Saturday was the first of this year's $10 quilt class for O Tannebaum.  (Elaine has info about it on her blog here) You pay $10 for the class in month one.  If you do your homework each month you don't pay anything else.  If you don't finish the homework, you need to pay $10 to continue.  (Dad thinks its a badly misnamed class since it sounds like the quilt is going to cost $10).  It looks like it should be a really fun quilt.  Part of this weeks to do will be to work on one of the houses (or both). 

The other goal for this week is to quilt the little wall hanging from the Guild Thread Painting workshop.  Its been sandwiched and ready to quilt since the a few days after the class was finished in May 2009 but I still haven't quilted it.  I'd like to finish that one this month.