Pineapple and Fruits & Veggies Quilts

Monday night Peggy picked up the pineapple quilt and I has sorry to see it go. I think I'll make one for myself.



Last night I worked on Cathy's Fruits & Veggie Stack and Slash. I used Permacore Olive thread and the Feather Me panto. It's coming along nicely, I think. I only have one more pass to do and then I will load Carole's Oriental panel again and finish it up.



I worked on my Orange Crush a little last night also.

Speaking of Fabric at Paducah...

First we had a great dinner at Rafferty's.



Some of my friends seem to have bought a bit too much and didn't have room for their luggage. Sue had space in the back of her van and offered to drive the fabric home for them.

Here's the before shot of their van with no room for all their luggage:



And here's the whole scene...........it was just too funny not to video!

Stashbusting Report - 4/28/08

I did really well on the fabric front at Paducah last week, I purchased a small black (20x20) and a queen size wholecloth from a vendor at the Rotary Club (which I'm not going to count cause it's like buying a quilt top, in my opinion), one FQ from Tammy Tadd Designs, one 5/8 yard panel from Hancocks, and 2 yards of polkadots, for my guild fabric swap, from Eleanor Burns tent and last but not least, I paid for all of the booth hop blocks (but, unfortunately didn't get all of them because most booths ran out), which amounts to 2.5 yards for a total of 5.375 yards. NOT BAD FOR A TRIP TO PADUCAH!!

Fabric Added This Week - 5.375 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date - 18.75 yards

Fabric Used This Week - 1.375 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date - 148.625 yards

Net year to date: 129.875 yards used!

Ooops, I took a backslide this week, but only because I was SO busy with customer quilts early in the week and then went to Paducah, which I wouldn't have traded for any amount of stash used.

Back from the Quilt Show

We made it home this afternoon, wow, what a great time!

I re-loaded the pineapple quilt to finished the last border and spent 4 hours tying and burying threads.
More tomorrow.....picts and video!!!!

Pineapple Progress and Prizes

At 11:00 last night I unloaded it, but still have to put it back on to do the side borders. There was a brief moment when I thought that I would just go ahead and do it last night, but today is a big day and I didn't want to be too tired. I'm just happy that it is finished to this point as I didn't want to leave it loaded while I'm at Paducah. I'm not sure why I didn't want to leave it loaded, as I'm sure there are longarmers who work on quilts for weeks, but I've never had one loaded for more that 2-3 days.



A while back I entered a blog contest at Judy's blog Sodypop's Creative Journey and I won. Yesterday I received my order from Columbia River Quilting and I couldn't be happier. I got a set of Jaws to use when realoading a quilt for borders or heaven forbid you notice a missed section, and a Square Spiral & Leaves panto from Keryn Emmerson. The Jaws will certainly come in handy when I reload this quilt.
THANK YOU JUDY!



Well, unless I think of something really important to say before noon, have a great weekend and wish me safe travels to Paducah.

Spring Flowers

While I was quilting Dan was mowing the lawn for the first time. He came in to tell me about all the flowers blooming. I went out to see them, with my camera of course.



Here are some orange tulips in honor of Bonnie's ORANGE CRUSH MYSTERY.

LEQ Applique Helper

I worked on a BIG pineapple quilt last night. It might be the largest I have had on my machine. I used Chantilly Lace block patterns for the blocks, Linda Taylor's Applique Helper for the swags in the sashing, and continuous curves in the cornerstones. This is pretty new stuff for me............I can usually do a quilt in a day following a pantograph pattern, but I loaded this one Monday night and did the first border and then I worked on it for about 4 hours last night. I am a little over half done, so I guess that's not too bad.


I put double stick tape on the back of the ruler and then a strip of shelf liner. It didn't shift very much at all. Dan was so amazed that he shot this little video with my camera.

I'm Going to Paducah!

It's official, I'm going to Paducah again! We'll be leaving Thursday afternoon and arriving late in the evening, so I will miss having Strawberry Shortcake with some on my online friends. But would love to meet up on Friday or Saturday if you're going to be there. Drop me an email if you get a chance and I'll try to remember to wear an ORANGE RIBBON in honor of Bonnie's Orange crush mystery!

It's going to be a busy couple of nights as I need to get some quilts finished first!

More Feather Me and Popcorn

Sunday I quilted this one for my online friend Sandy. The pattern is Buttons and Bows by JudyL and the panto is Feather Me, the thread is PermaCore Eggshell and I'm not sure of the batting, but it sure is soft.


Last night I loaded this little quilt made by a guild members granddaughter. I used the Popcorn panto and PermaCore Canary. Such a cute little quilt and I see some Funky Monkey fabric in it!!


As always there are more photos in my webshots albums.

String Fish Aquarium

I attended a strip/string workshop on Saturday and was amazed at all the different designs. I had seen a fish quilt made with strings here and wanted to do something similar. So I drew the block on an 8.5x11 sheet of paper and figured out my measurements. I like having each row offset and the fish going in a different direction.




Here is what I drew to make these blocks. The foundation pieced fish body was trimmed to 6.5 and then I used 5.5" squares cut in half for the triangles. The striped fabric tail could be paper pieced, but I just cut the pieces to fit and sewed them. I added a 2"x9" spacer to each tail section.

Stashbusting Report - 4/21/08

Not much fabric used this week, but none added!
So I'm still heading towards my goal. My goal...........hmm, I really haven't set a goal, but maybe it's time. I'll have to think about that this week.

Fabric Added This Week - 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date - 13.375 yards

Fabric Used This Week - 4 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date - 147.25 yards

Net year to date: 133.5 yards used!

If you didn't come here through JudyL's blog, you should check out all the other stashbusting reports here. She is our Stashbusting Hostess.

FeatherMe Pantograph and Fabric Strips Workshop

OK, I have a new favorite pantograph as of last night. I quilted another Vision of Hope quilt, this one made by Sue G. and used one of my new pantographs, Feather Me, by Merideth England from Golden Threads. It is a 9" design and I just love it. Her back is white muslin and really shows the design well.



I attended a strip workshop today.......not exactly what you are thinking! These were fabric strips and everyone was working something different. I chose to make fish with my strips, but don't have a photo yet. They are gonna be cute though!

Shaking in Indiana

We had a 5.2 earthquake this morning, which I slept right through. Dan woke up, but didn't know what it was and it was over, so he went right back to sleep. It's pretty uncommon here in Indiana!
It's been fun to come to work and hear everyone's story about it.

Birdseye Pantograph

I wanted to load something that I could do in an evening, so I loaded this little 35x60 quilt of Carole's and used one of my new pantographs, Birdseye by Keryn Emmerson is 9.5 inches and does what looks like 2 passes of the design in 1 pass. I bought this one at the Chicago show from Golden Threads. I used Permacore yellow thread and warm & natural batting.

Blog in the News

I had the honor of having my blog being featured in the local newspaper. I want to thank my friends, near and far, for the nice comments regarding my blog. I am very much enjoying blogging and certainly enjoy your comments.


Yesterday was a great day around here.
As far as quilting goes, the only stitching I did yesterday was on the binding of my navy/burgandy half-square triangles UFO.

Chantilly Lace

I quilted this one for Kathy Monday night but just got picture last night. I used the Chantilly Lace Panto, which is just PERFECT for this quilt, PermaCore eggshell thread in the top and a prewound bobbin. This was my first time using the prewounds and it worked like a dream. The batting is Hobbs 80/20 and will look perfect after washing.





I love her pieced backing.

Quite Quilted Giveaway

My online friend Doodlebug Gail at Quite-Quilted is having a big celebration giveaway in honor of her 2 year blog anniversary, her 200th post, and the start of her very own business. She has photographed her quilts and is selling notecards with the beautiful photos on them. I'm ready to order mine, how about you?

Rockingham Dragway News

My son Jeff, who lives in North Carolina, owns two Dodge Dakota trucks. He took one of them to Rockingham Dragway on Saturday and Sunday to compete in The 17th Annual Mopars at The Rock. If you want to see his truck in action, the photos are rwk_1974 and rwk_1975 and here he is with the Dakota R/T trophy.


CONGRATS JEFF! and HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Guild Mystery Quilt

I finished putting together the guild mystery quilt Sunday evening. The pattern called for using only 2 fabrics and it may have looked better had I done that, but it stays as it lays! It's not one of my favorites, but it's in the to-be-quilted pile now.


Here's a picture of the birthday boy eating his cake. I'm told that he took his first steps yesterday........look out Julie and Jim, cause here comes Andrew!

The Birthday Boy

Andrew is 1 Year Old

My grandson Andrew's 1st birthday party was yesterday and what a fun afternoon it was. I made the cakes for the party and even though it has been a while since I did any cake decorating, I think they turned out cute.

He got to wear the bib that I made especially for his birthday. I embroidered the design on a piece of terry cloth and then finished the edges and added ribbing to the neck.


Here he is with his Funky Monkey quilt and sock monkey.


It's a good thing that he has a toy room because he received a lot of new stuff. Let's just say that he won't be bored or run out of new clothes to wear for a long, long time.



He really enjoyed clapping after opening each gift.

Stashbusting Report - 4/13/08

Not much fabric used this week, but not much added either. So I'm still heading in the right direction.

Fabric Added This Week - 1 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date - 13.375 yards

Fabric Used This Week - 3.625 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date - 143.25 yards

Net year to date: 129.5 yards used!

I WON!

Sodypop's Creative Journey, a blog I read regularly, had a contest celebrating the 10,000th visitor and I'm so excited to say that I won!

Thank you so much Judy!
You have a great blog and you are so very talented.

Charity Quilts

I worked on these 3 almost-identical quilts today and did each of them different.

The first one is the pantograph, Popcorn, because it was already on the table.


The second one has wavy lines dividing it up into squares. As an afterthought I added the side-to-side stitching on the spools.


The third one has a feather, double stitched with meandering around it in all the background areas.

The Quilt Show Summary

The quilt show was wonderful, of course. The quilts were just outstanding and some of them looked like paintings rather than fabric.....so much talent!

I didn't have to re-mortgage the house, nor did I have to ship anything home. My purchases were limited to:

A great hat for Dan that says: She Quilts, I Fish

3 Pantographs:Feather Me, Jacobean, and Birdseye, all by Golden Threads. I'm really anxious to try them out.

An instructional video and starter kit for making Aunt Philly's Toothbrush Rugs. I have seen these before and actually took the time to watch for more than a minute and was very impressed. Imagine how much stash I can use making these.

A specialty ruler called the Key from Off The Edge Quilting for making continuous curves and half circles.

A Quilt Show Pin (I always buy one of these)

Of course we got to see Alex Anderson. My friend Tammy is a new quilter and was SO EXCITED to meet Alex. I had my picture taken, but it isn't one of my better shots, so you're not going to see my picture here. Here's Alex and Tammy!


On the way home the bus stopped in Merrilville for dinner. There are lots of places to choose from to eat, but we picked Bob Evans, which is where a few of us went last year. Tammy and I were seated first and then another group of four from our bus came in shortly after us, I said, "Chicken Pot Pie and Strawberry Shortcake" to them and they all said YUMM. Little did I know that I had just ordered the very last Chicken Pot Pie. They were disappointed, but not as disappointed as they were in the time it took to get their food. Oh well, we were all fed and made it home safe and sound.

What a wonderful day!!

Going to the Quilt Show

I'm leaving bright and early in the morning on a bus to The 2008 International Quilt Festival in Chicago. Here's hoping my willpower is strong......

Dan's Kayak

Well, we all have our passions (mine happens to be quilting, in case you didn't know that) and my husband's passion right now is fishing in a kayak.

Just like we add to our quilting machines, he has added accessories to his kayak. Here he is in a lake not far from us.



More pictures of Dan and Tom can be found at wazoogle.

Bibs, Mystery Quilt and UFO's

Last night Dan fixed a wonderful dinner of grilled/smoked chicken, Amish noodles from Shipshewana and steamed broccoli from our garden last year. So, I got to get a lot of sewing done. I'm so lucky he like to cook!!

I quilted this UFO for a while. Then the phone rang and I can't quilt with the phone on my shoulder, but I can sit at my sewing machine, so......



Then I went to my sewing room and made these bibs for Andrew. They are made with tea towels and ribbing. It probably only took me 20 minutes to make both of them. I have 2 more, but want to make sure they go over his head before I make more. There sure isn't a wide variety of tea towels with cute designs that are reasonably priced. I got the one on the left at K-mart for $3 and the other one came in a package of 3 for $6.99 at Target. My fabric purchase so far this week is the ribbing, which I got a Joanns. It's $6.99/yard regular price, but 40% off right now and a quarter yard will do 10 bibs. Of course, I wanted more than one color, so I got 4 colors. I'll be adding that yard to my stashbusting report this week. Maybe I'll buy some more towels and sell some on etsy.



I also want to embroider a 1st birthday design on one for him to wear on Sunday.




Then I made these 12 blocks that are part of a guild mystery quilt that I'm way behind on. I cut the fabric for it when I was putting away leftover project stuff and the background fabric is from a Pooh quilt that I did, and I knew that If I put it back into a drawer, it wouldn't get used. So, I'll have a cute quilt ready for the next baby girl.

SPRING AT LAST!

I think it's safe to say that spring has arrived in Indiana. The grass is turning green and we have hyacinths, beautiful white hyacinths. A photographer I'm not, but these were just too pretty not to take a picture of.

How's Your Spelling?

How fun was this.......... Thanks to Finn for the link.

Your Spelling is Perfect

You got 10/10 correct. Your spelling is excellent. You also have a great memory and eye for detail.

How's Your Spelling?

Stashbusting Report - 4/7/08

You can go through a lot of stash making backings and bindings.........

Fabric Added This Week - 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date - 12.375 yards

Fabric Used This Week - 11.375 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date - 139.625 yards

Net year to date: 127.25 yards used!

Backings and Bindings

Yesterday I spent a good part of the day piecing backings and making bindings.

I pieced a backing for the Cocacola quilt, but didn't get a picture of it before I hung it up, so that will have to come later. I also pieced a backing for a 57" square UFO using John Flynn's Diagonal Pieced backing method.

I took some pictures while I was making this, not knowing there were pictures on John's site. Oh well, they are on Webshots anyway.

I made bias bindings, just cut from strips, for my black and white March Challenge quilt because I wanted the diagonal effect. I made continuous bias binding for Andrew's Funky Monkey because I had a large enough square and I wanted the diagonal effect on that one also. I made plain binding for the cocacola quilt and the Scrappy Squares (oops, didn't get a picture of this one).

Old Tippecanoe Quilt Guild Show

The quilt show on Saturday was wonderful. I was very impressed with how quickly everything was assembled and ready to go on Friday. And how quickly everything was taken down Saturday afternoon. Very organized. There sure are lots of talented quilters in this guild!

I got a few good shots of my quilts and I have uploaded some to Webshots.