Connecting rows for Quilt As You Go

I forgot to show this row from Ellicott City Sew Vac as I pieced it and now its already quilted!

I chose to make a 2 sided quilt. So I sandwiched 2 rows back to back and quilted it.

These 2 rows are joined forever too.

I purchased these awesome binding fabrics at Mare's Bears in Lewes, DE as I picked up their row.

Cut each binding strip 1 1/2" wide by length of quilt plus 2 inches. Fold WST in half and iron.

Pin with raw edges to edge of quilt. Pin one on each side of the quilt. 

One will show on the front of the quilt and one will show on the back.

Sew through all layers with 1/4" seam allowance.

Abut the 2 sections to be joined.

 Using a piece of folded fabric as a bridge, pin sides to hold them together.

Use several bridges to hold the sides together.

Sew together using a wide zig zag stitch.

Fold the binding toward the joined piece and iron. 

Repeat for both sides. Pin through BOTH bindings. 

Check the bottom side to make sure the binding has been captured by the pin.

Sew the folded edge down. I used the serpentine stitch to secure both top and bottom.

The binding is is now holding the two halves together.

Day trip to OC (plus quilt shops)

Friday we did a day trip to Ocean City, MD. In Trappe, MD there is a quilt shop, Quilt Vine, about 1/10 mi from the highway. Barely a detour at all!

This is the kit, pattern and license plate from the Quilt Vine. Cal and Riley went into the quilt shop with me so I could purchase 2 patterns/kits.

Then on to OC where I dropped Cal and Riley at Putt Putt. They were going to play, walk down the boardwalk, have lunch and shop while I drove to Delaware. 

The Serendipity quilt shop in Dagsboro, DE had their pattern stuffed in a red drink container that had the shop logo. I picked up the pattern, bought the kit which was a small bundle tied with a ribbon that had the shop name on it. They offered this row in different color ways. I chose batik--of course!

The Mare's Bears shop in Lewes, DE gave me this pattern. Not nearly as polished as other shops. But hey it was free. No kits and no license plates in stock. But I paid for one and it will be mailed to me.

So I drove back to OC and met up with the kids at the end of the boardwalk. We enjoyed the beach, made a sandcastle, had dinner at the Doughroller--funnel cake fries are YUMMY!! We shopped and drove back. A good day.

The Delaware row went together fast this morning and is ready for quilting...

More rows and license plates

Today I finished a row of fish and then began sewing the license plates with other fabrics.

For the license plates I used leftover scraps from the original kit to go around the quilt shop and then used a pack of Kaffe Fasset strips in summery colors.

I plan to use these with each row to remember where each row came from.

This fish row is from Prints Charming in Fulton, MD. I mis-cut one fish and had to substitute another fabric for it. Oops. I also didn't follow the directions to cut pairs of the background fabric with right sides facing so the water all flows one direction. Oops. My fish are in a whirlpool. Well...maybe a motorboat just zoomed by and churned up the water....

I might add eyes to the fish after its quilted.....

Now I'm off to Boston for the weekend to see 3 Red Sox games. So no sewing... until Wednesday.

Sewing day for Row By Row FUN!

I sewed all day today. Yay!! I started by finishing the adorable sailing regatta from Cottonseed Glory.

 Aren't these boats cute?? I made one of them the PARTY boat. How appropriate for Cottonseed Glory to have sailboats since they are in Annapolis. The Chesapeake Bay is dotted with these boats.

Next on my list was the yellow background with 5 flowers in pots from Bears Paw in Towson. I ran into some problems because they had cut the background fabric 10" x 36", so it was 1/2" too short! I improvised with some extra striped fabric and a yellow spacer.

See the extra piece of yellow fabric on the bottom border? I made it long enough so I could take the extra small bit and add it to the top border on the left side.

The yoyo flowers are to be added to the quilt after the quilting is done.

This is what it will look like when the flowers are added.

This is from Spring Water Designs in Columbia, MD.

I found this cute yellow batik with the green girls on it at one of the stores I shopped at yesterday!

I finished the appliqué for the Capital Quilts row. 

I used a white fabric that had gold sparkles in it so they reflect the fireworks above!

This row by row stuff is SO MUCH FUN!!! Happy happy happy.......

Row By Row Day 2--MD stores

Today I set off at 9:30am to drive to several quilt shops in MD. Yesterday in northern VA I drove 136.6 miles to visit 9 shops in 6 hours. Today I drove 159.2 miles to visit 6 shops in 6 hours.

#1  Prints Charming in Fulton, MD. They had kits with different fabrics in several color ways so you could pick what your fish will be. I chose autumn colors.

#2  Spring Water Design in Columbia, MD. This shop also had 3 color ways for their row. They sold fat quarter bundles of each type. The row they had made in 30s prints was cute but too light. So I chose their original color way.

#3  Cottonseed Glory in Annapolis, MD. I have seen Cottonseed Glory at quilt shows for years and shopped there but I had never been to their shop in Annapolis! It was very cute and PACKED with fabric and patterns everywhere. I bought several items along with the kit for their adorable row of sailboats.

#4  Bears Paw Fabrics in Towson, MD. Getting to this shop was a bit scary. I went through a tunnel and paid a toll and drove in the crazy Baltimore beltway traffic. The yellow row with cute flowers in pots was a must have --otherwise I wouldn't have driven way up there in that traffic! Nice shop and yes they had a kit! Yay.

#5 Ellicott City Sew Vac in Ellicott City, MD.  Along with the row and kit, I found several other neat things in this shop. Although I enjoyed shopping there I probably won't go back since it's 45 miles from home.

#6  Patches in Mt Airy, MD. I shop here from time to time so I'm familiar with this adorable shop. I was tired by the time I stopped there so I just bought the kit and headed home.

But I wasn't too tired to start on the adorable sail boats from Cottonseed Glory! Tomorrow I'm staying home to sew some of the fun things I bought.

Row By Row Begins!!!

Yay! The Row By Row shop hop began on July 1st. There are 1,250 quilt shops participating. Each shop is giving away a FREE row pattern and many of the shops offer a fabric kit for purchase to go along with the pattern. They also have a unique fabric license plate for sale. The plates are what I'm primarily after. I picked these up on day 1 as I did a northern Virginia drive around.

I purchased 2 from each shop. I might use one with the row and use the other in a different quilt.

In Manassas, VA I went to Suzzie's Quilt Shop, Aurora Quilts and Old Town Needlecrafts. I was disappointed in Aurora Quilts because it was LOCKED with a note taped to the door saying, "Be right back, went to Hancock". That was at 10:25am on the first day of the row-by-row!!!

These are the patterns from Manassas. Suzzie's didn't have a kit available but I picked up the pattern. The next shop had kits for the 3 different versions of their row. I bought the kit for the top row shown.

Next I went to Nokesville, VA to the Daffodil Quilts and Fibers shop. Their kit has buttons and trims.

This bookshelf row is from The Quilt Patch. No kit and no license plate! :(

They did have a cute shop though. 

LOTS of TRAFFIC in Fairfax! 

I made my way to the next shop in Fairfax: The Quilters Studio.

The Quilters Studio had a kit for their row celebrating the state bird (cardinal) and tree (dogwood) of VA. They had a really nice shop too. But the TRAFFIC!!

So next I was on my way to the 2 shops in Alexandria, VA. 

Just after I got on the capital beltway heading EAST there was a huge crash in the lanes going WEST with tons of BLACK smoke. The traffic on that side of the median was stopped --all 4 lanes of traffic was stopped....then the rescue vehicles passed me going to the crash. I hope everyone was ok. The cars involved were totaled.

This row is from Artistic Artifacts. I didn't realize I needed to purchase the cute doohickey and paint to stamp my own butterflies on the white fabric. My row will NOT look like theirs. I didn't buy the extra stuff mostly because I wasn't told about it. I do like learning new techniques but this one will not be on the list this time.

Amber Waves of Grain is from Bonnie's Sewing and Fabric. I bought the kit which was 3 fabrics. She didn't tell me until AFTER I had completed checking out that there is a SPECIAL RULER needed for this block. Yeah, whatever, I'll figure it out.

Not bad but my middle points don't always match. Especially the last block because I cut one with the fabrics wrong side up on that one. Who knew it would make a difference. Still it looks nice.

On my way home I passed the wreck. The burned out car was on a tow truck and traffic was moving along. Time for one last stop at my favorite local quilt shop.

Capital Quilts in Gaithersburg has a very patriotic row. I was going to wait until the 4th of July to piece this one but couldn't help myself! I bought the kit and started on the stars. There wasn't enough of the dark blue to piece all the outer points on both stars. I used their fabric to piece the 4 identical parts that are above and below the center star. I used one of my fabrics (also from Capital Quilts!) to complete the block. Next I need to prepare the appliqué to go over the fireworks fabric....

Maybe tomorrow.