Shower Garden and 2nd finish for February

Whew, my second finish for February....just in time.


I applied the binding and hanging sleeve on this 31" x 33" wall hanging last night and plan to give it to the new mother this weekend. I just love striped fabric for bindings. This one is just perfect for this quilt. I had planned to do a pieced border of squares of all the fabrics used, but decided that it might draw away from the focus of the flowers, so, it stays as it lays....and I like it!

Quilt of Valor and Baby Shower Signature Quilt

I finished this quilt of Valor last night and love how it turned out. I used a new panto called Whirlygig, a Willow Leaf Studios pattern by Jodie Beamish, Permacore white thread and hobbs 80/20 batting. This is the small one and I would like to order the large one soon. Or maybe I'll wait and get it in Kansas City at MQS in May.





Then I loaded this little baby shower signature quilt that I made. I used a pillow tutorial from Don't Look Now as my inspiration.



The Shelley's baby girl will be born today and I still have to put the binding on, so she won't get it for a couple days.

Deployment

I got a call last night from my daughter-in-law Dané letting me know that Jeff arrived in Germany. We are now one day closer to them coming home.

Superior Threads Giveaway

WOW, Superior Threads is having another giveaway. This time you could win a $100 gift certificate. Now face it, we all use thread and wouldn't it be wonderful to get some for FREE!

Music Quilt

This is a quilt that Rami made for her daughter and it is cute as can be. I used the pantograph Music (Notes Only) by Dave Hudson, PermaCore Spring Green and QD Poly batting.

Stashbusting Report #8

February 16-22, 2009

Fabric Added This Week - 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date - 37.25 yards

Fabric Used This Week - 2.25 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date - 62.375 yards

YEAR TO DATE NET TOTAL: 25.375 yards

Making a Bib

Several blog readers have asked me about the process for making the bibs I have shown HERE. I made another one tonight and took some photos to show the process. The knit ribbing is cut 3" x 12.5". The circle is 5" and is cut 3.5" down from the top of the towel.

I try to buy the towels after the holiday/season when they are on clearance. This one is from a set of 3 from Target that I bought last fall when they were clearing out the summer stuff.

Here's a little video showing the process. I believe that it took me longer to create the video than to make the bib!

The Diaper Cake and the Baby Shower

I made a Diaper Cake for the shower and it was a HIT! I was so proud of it and it really wasn't that hard to make. I used 68 diapers, each one rolled up and secured with a ponytail rubberband. There are 2 bottles in the center and large rubber bands holding each round of diapers.



We played the game where you have to remember everything on a tray, but, I used the cake to display the items, rather then place them on a tray. They were secured with some pretty pink ribbon and look how cute that bib fits over the top bottle.





This is an idea that I will use again!
I'm so disappointed that I didn't get a picture of Shelly with her quilt, but she loved it.

Here's the cupcake tree:


Vicki holding Elizabeth. You can't see it, but she is smiling!


Here's Trinity, the soon-to-be Big Sister:


Here's how you eat a cupcake "Andrew Style!"

CT Sew-In

My guild had a sewing day today and I got to go for a little while this morning. I didn't get much sewing done, but got some fabrics ironed onto freezer paper to take to the baby shower this afternoon for guests to sign. I purchased a purple tote bag and decorated it with some fuchia ribbon and a "I'm the Big Sister" iron-on for the baby-to-be's 7 year old sister.

We had a nice turnout for a cold snowy day.

Pink Popcorn

How's this for a cute baby quilt. It's made of flannel, minkie and cottons and quilted up just wonderfully, using Permacore white thread, popcorn pantograph and Hobbs 80/20 batting, in just a couple of hours.







Quilt Camp
I forgot to post photos of the spacious room we had for our retreat last weekend. I have a hard time at retreatw where we don't have any room to spread out. This one was quite the opposite with plenty of room for everyone.


The bottom right photo is Christine, from Camp Tecumseh, who finished her 2nd quilt Saturday night. I love that quilt and she did a wonderful job of putting it together.

Stars and Loops, and the Nickel Swap

Alice’s granddaughter made this quilt top and it is just cute as can be. I quilted it using Permacore white thread and the Stars and Loops pantograph. I made a quilt using a panel of smaller blocks similar to this one when I first got my longarm and this is the panto I used. That’s what gave me the idea to use if for this one. I hope she likes it!






The Nickel Swap
By the end of the year you will be so sick of hearing me talk about the Nickel Swap.......... anyway......on Sunday, Janet, Shelly and I sorted the nickels from January. There were 54 sets and the first thing we did was count the nickels in each persons ziplock. Then we collected 15 pairs of nickels for each person. It took us a couple hours to finish and we discovered that counting twice is a good idea BEFORE you put them in the ziplock, so you don’t have to go back and open and recount each package when you end up with some extra nickels at the very end.

Stashbusting Week #7

February 9-15, 2009

Fabric Added This Week - 0 yards (Not bad for going to quilt camp where there was a vendor!)
Fabric Added Year to Date - 37.25 yards

Fabric Used This Week - 8.375 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date - 60.125 yards

YEAR TO DATE NET TOTAL: 22.875 yards

Quilt Camp Summary

What a great time we had at quilt camp. Rossville Quilts sponsored this one and it was held at camp Tecumseh, which is a wonderful place for quilt camp. A great big THANK YOU to Marcia, Kyla, Martha, and Charlotte from Rossville Quilts and Christine from Camp Tecumseh, who all worked hard to make this a successful event.

Bibs
My first project wasn’t really a quilting project, but one that I wanted to get finished. I put ribbing on these cute tea towels to make bibs for Andrew and Elizabeth.....cute, don’t you think. If you have babies, be sure to pick up tea towels when they go on clearance to make some really cute bibs. I only took one color of ribbing, so they all got the same one.




Pillow Cases
This was my next project and I’m only a couple months late in getting these finished. They were made to go with Jeff and Dané’s wedding quilt. Another quick, easy project, and I taught Christine from Camp Tecumseh how to make them and she made one for her brother, who is in the US Navy.



Marlene’s Memory Blocks
Next up was finishing the swap blocks for memory quilts. I completed the last 20 blocks for this, but somehow didn’t get a picture of them.....Later, I promise.

One Block Wonder
This one took FOREVER! I can’t believe how small it is, and how long it took me to assemble it. I couldn’t decide on borders, so this is how it sits for now. I have fabric to do another one, but the blocks will be MUCH LARGER for the next one.




Fall Leaves and Birds Table Runner
This was a kit that I won at a retreat several years ago. I believe the name of this pattern is 1st grade, but I could be wrong. I love how the center fabric looks three-dimensional. I hope it still has that effect after it is quilted. I am thinking of adding prarie points on the outside edge also. The inside ones took quite a bit of time, but I really lik how they turned out.




Bistro Table Runner
I had 4 blocks made for this quilterscache.com table runner called Christmas Star and decided to only use 3 of them and make it a bit smaller than the original one. I plan to use a border print from the Bistro line for the backing and then it will be a gift for a co-worker. I can make something for myself with the leftover block.




I feel good about the projects I finished and look forward to quilting some of them

I'm Off to Quilt Camp

See you on Sunday!

Curved Binding

This is a new one for me and I thought I knew how to do it, but looked online and found some wonderful Sharon Schamber videos. She is just amazing and so very generous to share all her videos with us.

This is an OLD one that needed some TLC. Several of the yellow patches were work through and I appliqued new ones on top of the originals. There were also some worn spots on the back that I patched. My customer will do the hand stitching, but wanted it ready for that hand stitching. I did just a bit of it to make certain that it turned just right.

Stashbusting Week #6

February 2-8, 2009

Fabric Added This Week - 4.75 yards (4.5 for Nickel Swaps and FQ as a door prize)
Fabric Added Year to Date - 37.25 yards

Fabric Used This Week - 9.25 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date - 51.75 yards

YEAR TO DATE NET TOTAL: 14.5 yards

Not a bad week considering I was at the Sewing Seminar in Noblesville on Saturday and there was a room full of vendors.

Memories of Marlene blocks

I have joined a group of online friends to make quilts to honor our friend Marlene, who passed away on January 23rd. Marlene loved reproduction fabrics and that's what we're using to make 3 different blocks for each person, so a total of 30 blocks. I finished my first 10 blocks yesterday and am quite happy with them. Last week I purchased a few FQs to use as the outside triangles, but decided to just use muslin instead.



Quilterscache
HERE is a link to the pattern for this test block I made last week.

Quilted Wallets

I finished the wallets for Dottie last night and don't you agree that these would be a very nice gift for a Purdue Boilermakers fan. One of our guild members, Lucy, gave a workshop several years ago and there were dozens of wallets being produced. I have made about 6 of them so far.

Catching Up On Some Blocks

Will you look at this? Here it is only the 5th of the month and I already have my JudyL's Star Block finished. I think this is the quickest I have finished one of these.

Those cutting instructions which include 16ths are a pain in the ___, but I have to admit that they sure do make a pretty block. And they are not that hard to cut once you wrap your brain around the fact that you cut in-between the marks, not on the marks. Here it is....Block #11:


I also worked on a quilterscache test block this evening and I'm sure Marcia will have it up in a day or so. The instructions for this one were perfect, as they usually are.

Now, I must go finish a couple of wallets for Dottie.

What a Wonderful Day!

Not much sewing or quilting going on for me yesterday, but, I did have a wonderful day.

Julie and Marla went to the Home Show in Indianapolis to see Kate Goslin, of Jon and Kate Plus Eight, and I had the pleasure of watching Elizabeth, Andrew and Matt. Now I know why Julie doesn’t get much quilting done. Watching those babies is a full time job! But what a wonderful, rewarding job it is. I had so much fun and I hope they did also.



Can you tell he really likes to watch SpongeBob Squarepants?

Marty's Irish Chain

Here is Marty with the Irish Chain she quilted on Sunday. Her plan was to do a design in the white blocks and the something else in the chains....but that was going to be a bit more than she was ready for. So, she chose the Chantilly Lace pantograph and I think it turned out very nice.





NEXT:
After Marty left on Sunday, Janet came over to get some assistance in putting her sashing on the Rossville BOM quilt. Here is the layout without sashing and she now has the sashing and borders finished and I can't wait to see it tonight at Old Tippe Guild.

Stashbusting Week #5

January 26-February 1, 2009

Fabric Added This Week - 5.5 yards (I had to buy border fabric for the kansas troubles)
Fabric Added Year to Date - 32.5 yards

Fabric Used This Week - 15.5 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date - 42.5 yards

YEAR TO DATE NET TOTAL: 10 yards

Yea, I'm in the black again and on my way. This should be another good week for me as I plan to get some quilting done and that means using lots of my stash for backings.

King of the Battlefield

This is exciting....this photo of Jeff (on the right) is in the Paraglide, the Ft. Bragg newspaper, which you can read online. The article and photo are on page B3 of the 1/29/09 edition.
For those of you who have asked me what a Howitzer is, well, here it is, a picture and a great story.

His unit deployed for Afghanistan last Monday, but he won't be leaving for about 3 weeks and will be accompanying a fleet of Howitzers.

Blue Star Banners and StripTwist

Yesterday I led a class at Rossville Quilts making Blue Star Banners. My lone student, Jennifer, did a very nice job at making her banner and quilting her first project.



Today is the Quiltville SuperBowl Sunday Strip Twist and, of course, I am participating. Marty is quilting an Irish Chain on Mabel and I'm sewing all these strips together. My Strip Twist will be all shades of purple and WOW and it will be donated to the Vision of Hope center for girls here in Lafayette.