Loretta's Wedding Quilt

This quilt was designed and made by Loretta for the upcoming wedding of one of her children. I can't remember if it's for a son or daughter, but anyway it's pretty stunning. She said at the workshop on Saturday that she rarely uses a pattern when making quilts.



I didn't get any closeups when I hung it to photograph because it was very windy and I intended to take some inside, but then she was here to pick it up and away it went. Here's a couple shots of it during the quilting process.

The Charity Sewing Day

Here are some photos from our sewing day last Saturday.

The Quilters:


And the quilts:


These are the 6 that I worked on:


The upper right photo is a disappearing nine-patch and I forgot to take a pic of the nine patches before I cut them....darn.

Stashbusting Weeks #39

September 21-27, 2009

Fabric Added This Week - 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date - 136.5 yards

Fabric Used This Week - 9.25 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date - 196.875 yards

YEAR TO DATE STASH USED: 60.375 yards


Well, I'm almost at the 200 mark, now if I had just not purchased any this year, I would be feeling great. I need a couple of good stashbusting weeks.

Show Us Your stash!

I got home from our charity sewing day today, where I used up quite a bit of stash to find that JudyL has posted a "Show Us YOur Stash" challenge. So, here they are folks, pics of my stash, or most of it anyway. I do have a couple tubs that have Christmas and patriotic fabric that I haven't taken a new photo of.

This is most of my stash, in drawers mostly by color and includes pieces from half-yard to about 2 yards. The 2 bottom drawers are a mess right now. The left one is holiday and the right is novelty/Kids prints.



These shelves hold larger cuts for backings, fat quarters and some UFOs. The lower right basket holds homespuns, the long basket above it holds fat eighths from guild swaps and the top right is my poor Baby Jane quilt.

Shipshewana Retreat 2010

OK, the Shipshewana Registration Form is ready and I am very excited to be coordinating this event.

The dates are Thursday, October 21 - Sunday, October 24th, 2010 and we are staying at the Farmstead Inn.

Retreat Cost: (Includes Lodging, 3 Continental Breakfasts, and $15 non-refundable sewing room fee)
Single = $350
2 persons/room = $175/per person
3 persons/room = $127/per person
4 persons/room = $103/per person

I have a block of 20 rooms reserved and your deposit is due by January 2, 2010.

Don't forget, there will be a JudyL mystery quilt.

The retreat is not affiliated with any one group, so, if you have any friends that would be interested, please let them know. We're just quilters getting together to sew, eat and shop in Shipshewana. There's no better place to do all 3 of those, in my opinion.

If you've never been to Shipshewana, you're in for a real treat.

Design Wall Monday – September 21, 2009

Well, I guess I was just too speedy this week as there is nothing on my design wall.
Yesterday morning it looked like this:



And they were soon cut into these:



Waiting for the next step in this mystery. Guess I better get busy and put something else up there.

Stashbusting Weeks #37 & 38

September 7-20, 2009

Fabric Added This Week - 4.75 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date - 136.5 yards

Fabric Used This Week - 6.25 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date - 187.625 yards

YEAR TO DATE STASH USED: 51.125 yards

I still haven't counted either of the mystery quilts I'm working on, but will do that maybe next week.

Boot Camp Feathers - Patty's BOM Quilt

This is Patty's Block of the Month, from Quilter's Harvest, I believe. I tried the over and back feathers that I learned at Boot Camp from Suzanne. This is the first time I've tried them on an actual quilt and all I can say is, "It's a good thing the fabric is busy."



The blocks were quilted with freehand continuous curves....one pass per row of blocks, which I love to do.


The batting is Hobbs 80-20 and the thread is So Fine on top and Bottom Line in the bobbin.

Thanks Suzanne for all your help with these feathers!

Where did the week go?

I can't believe that my last post was way back on Monday. What did I do all week?
Well, I joined the YWCA and just got back from water aerobics this morning. Janet and I also went on Tuesday and Thursday evening. I went to the first part of guild on Wednesday. I worked on Part 2 of Bonnie Hunter's Christmas Lights mystery, a little each evening. Last night we enjoyed dinner at a Mexican Restaurant on Underwood Street. I can't remember the name of it right now, but Chef Salano does the cooking. He's the chef from Riehle Brothers Sunday Brunch years ago. Needless to say, it was very good food. No longarming at all this week, but I will load a quilt for Patty this afternoon.

Here's my Christmas Lights progress:




One thing that always amazes me about Bonnie's patterns is that the pieces fit together perfectly....no easing needed. I can't wait to see this one finished. It's all from my stash and I haven't recorded any of it yet, but may do that this week.

I am also working on another mystery quilt and have sewn 4 of the required 12 stratas together. Picts of that tomorrow, maybe.

Have a GREAT weekend! The weather here is absolutely wonderful.

Jigsaw Planet

P1070754

This is a realy cool site. I used to do lots and lots of jigsaw puzzles before I was a quilter. And I certainly don't have much spare time to be fooling around with this, but it's fun anyway. You can upload a photo and it will create a jigsaw puzzle for you to complete. I uploaded a photo of a block that I completed this past weekend at quilt camp. I couldn't show the block to you yesterday because Marcia didn't have it up on quilterscache.com yet. But it's there now, so I can show it to you.

Here is the wallet that I completed for a friend of Dottie's after I got home and found some black velcro.


And the inside:

I'm back!

Boy, did I have a good time, but it sure is good to be back home and I can hardly wait to jump into bed tonight. There's nothing like your own bed.

So, how did I do?, you might ask.
Pretty good, I think!

First up was the Storyteller quilt and I got it all put together and the borders added on. I had to go buy a FQ of light green fabric from the store upstairs because I didn't have enough of the greens from the FQ tower from this quilt.



Very pretty, I really like it. Thanks again Vicky for the Fat Quarter Shop gift certificate.

Next up was the log cabin blocks from 2000. I made these blocks about a year after my first quilt. It seemed to me that I had accumulated way too many blue fabrics and I decided to make these blocks. (I must confess that I probably have 5 times more blues today than I did then!) Most of these fabrics were from Joanns or walmart, because I had not discovered quilt shops at that time.



By this time, I was ready for something easy, so I made the Pooh book for Elizabeth. These always seem to take me longer than I intend as they are NEVER printed straight on the fabric. I had to remind myself that it's a book for a nine-month-old. She came to visit with her brothers and her dad on Saturday and it immediately went into her mouth. They had to make a visit because Julie forgot her foot pedal for her machine. We first met Dan at the BGCC on Friday evening and he brought her my Janome Jem Gold to use. Jim was planning a trip to Lafayette on Saturday, so he brought the cord and her littletable then.

Next up was the bag kit that I won at MQS in Kansas City in May. I'll not be teaching this bag anytime soon. It seemed to take me forever.......maybe because the front, back and 4 pockets had to be quilted. I love it though and will be carrying it as soon as I switch things over from my placemat purse.


The inside pockets:


Ah, now for something fun....
The giraffe quilt! I am so happy with how this turned out. I may add another row of squares to the outside, but maybe not. It's a nice size, Julie says crib size, but I might want to make it a little bigger. I'll have to sleep one it. Mine is for a boy, so I didn't add any flower petals, just more leaves.

This is a free pattern by Red Rooster Fabrics.



A close-up of the appliqued leaves:



Julie and I left early today so that we could take Jessica to lunch and then shopping for her 13th birthday. The 2 things I didn't even get started were Andrew's car holder and the Floral Sorbet quilt.

I didn't get a photo yet of the Purdue wallet because I forgot to take velcro, so I couldn't finish it at camp.

I did get some done on the vegetable garden quilt, but didn't get a picture of it either....maybe tomorrow.

Almost off to camp...

After I get off work at noon, it's lunch with Dan and then I will pack my car and off I'll go.

Here's what I have come up with to work on:



Well, at least that's what I had picked out, but then I came up with a couple more projects that will stay in my car unless I run out of things to do or get bored with these.

I am so looking forward to spending quality time with my daughter Julie this weekend. This is a special thing we can do together and I cherish the times. I'm also happy her husband takes care of the 13 year old, the 2 year old and the 9 month old while she's gone.
Off we go....

Button, Button, Who's Got the Button?

I do, I guess!

Last night I spent a couple hours sorting out all these buttons:


I bought a button organizer at Joanns on Monday and I guess I should have picked up 2of them cause they didn't all fit. They are all nice and neat however. The black, brown and white are all together right now, but I think I'll pick up another organizer soon.



Tomorrow afternoon I go to quilt camp, so I better get busy and finish packing!!

4th & 5th Quilted This Weekend

These are the last 2 quilts I have for Carole and if I had finished them last night, they could have flown with Janet's husband Randy to Maryland today. But, I'll just send them UPS tomorrow.




I don't know the line she used, but it is so cute. The one above was done with panels that she cut apart and re-assembled. I only planned to do that one today, but once it was done, I figured I might as well do the other one also and be done with both. I used Popcorn by Jodi Beamish on both of them, Permacore Eggshell thread, and Warm & Natural batting.

Stashbusting Report #35-36

Aug. 24-September 6, 2009

Fabric Added This Week - 10 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date - 131.75 yards

Fabric Used This Week - 3 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date - 181.375 yards

YEAR TO DATE STASH USED: 49.625 yards

Last weekend I bought 6 yards of backing fabric at Alco to have on hand.
Janet and I shared 20 FQs at Rossville Quilts on Saturday to make these really cute giraffe baby quilts. Rossville Quilts has a special on Saturdays if you bring in food for the food pantry, you get 5 free FQs when you buy 5. It's a great deal, don't you think?

Christmas Tree Lotto Blocks
Then I bought yet another yard for borders for the Christmas Tree Lotto Blocks and this one I like. My original idea was to use a TOT green, and I bought fabric not once, but twice, without the quilt center and the greens just didn't go well. So, I chose a Christmas tree print at Joann's and it finally has borders.

The Fourth Quilt is Loaded

I still have a few rows to do on the 4th one this weekend. I spent quite a bit of time today organizing my sewing room and getting ready for camp and that set me back a bit.

Last night we made salsa and it is yummy!



Then I finished the binding on this Quilt of Valor. Still need to make a pillowcase for it and then it will be ready to ship out.


It was a really easy quilt to asemble and the quilting is just a meander, so the binding was definately the most time consuming process of the whole thing.



I also loaded up 2 more boxes for IBOL. I probably included a good 15 yards, but didn't measure any of it, so I won't be including in it my stashbusting report. Tomorrow is the very last day to send your boxes, so if you haven't sent one yet...better get busy.

I'm on a roll....Third Quilt of the Weekend!

This one is Carole's and was an easy one to figure out design and thread. I used Leaf Pile panto by Donna Reinharts, PermaCore Camel thread, and Warm & Natural batting. This panto has a nice flow to it and I enjoyed the quilting process. This may be the first time I've use this panto, but I've had it for a very long time.




And the back:

Second Quilt of the Weekend!

I finished Jennifer's quilt at 12:30 this morning. I guess I must be practicing sleep habits for quilt camp this coming Thursday, cause you know I won't get much sleep while at camp.


I used my circle Lord Swirls templates, PermaCore white thread and Hobbs 80/20 batting. I love how it turned out and hope she likes it.



This is her first quilt!! Nice, huh?

Love the backing fabric:

First Quilt of the Weekend!

This quilt of Karen's is just beautiful. The colors are so rich and she mitered those corners!!!! I chose to use the Whirlygig panto by Jodi Beamish and although it has a spining effect, I think it looks sort of like flowers opening and it suites this quilt well. I used PermaCore Mother Goose thread and Warm and Natural batting.



Oh, and I love how the back looks! Hope she likes it!