UNITED SQUARES FINISHED

 I finished up the quilting yesterday.  Today I trimmed it, made the binding and sewed the binding and sleeve onto the United Squares of America quilt.

It's all done and I can submit it to Quilting Mayhem's UFO Challenge as this month's quilt.

UNITED SQUARES

I started the quilting (finally) on The United Squares of America quilt.  This is the quilt that needs to be finished by the end of the month for Quilting Mayhem's UFO Challenge.

I had to press the top a bit first, especially the back.  All of the seams are ironed open, and needed a fresh pressing.

I'm attempting to quilt it with what would look like topographical lines.  It's not as easy as it seems, especially since I'm doing it with a continuous line.  

ST PATRICK'S DAY

It's Sunday, St. Patrick's Day.  Darrell and I went  to Ballard for breakfast at Portage Bay Cafe, one of our favorites.

I ordered the special of Green Eggs and Ham.  Eggs with pesto.  Excellent.

It was a beautiful day, it's finally starting to warm up after our extended period of colder than normal weather.  We did some yardwork and then I went up to finish The United Squares of America.  Finally.

One good thing came from doing this project.  I had to learn, quickly, how to sew an accurate quarter-inch seam allowance on my new Bernina B770, which I did.  I can see the difference from where I started and how much I had learned by the end.  It was a very well-written pattern and it went together very easily, as long as you can do an accurate quarter-inch seam allowance!

ALASKA

I visited Alaska today...sorta.

MORE CUTTING

I spent my time, yesterday and today, cutting up the rest of the fabrics for United Squares of America.  And I'm still not done.  

One more hour and I should be done with the cutting and I can start sewing.  The gal that sold this kit to me said the top could be sewed together in six hours, once all the fabrics were cut and ready to go.   Ha!  We'll see.

CUTTING AND SORTING

I spent a few hours cutting the fabrics for United Squares of America into little squares.

The pattern strongly suggests cutting all of the fabrics before beginning to piece them together.

There are a lot of one inch squares!

I didn't get very far.  I got A through D done - it goes to P.

NEW PROJECT

I bought the "United Squares of America" quilt kit at Quiltcon last week.  It has a pile of solid fabrics from American Made Brand and the pattern to make the quilt.

I, of course, had to prewash all of the fabrics, which are quarter yard and eighth yard cuts mostly.

I sorted and marked the fabrics, each having its own number.  I think there are 72 pieces.