Gracie's Robbing Peter to Pay Paul

I finished this one last night and am so happy with the results. Sometimes, you just have to go with your gut and that's what I did. I spent way too many hours thinking about how I could do a custom job on this quilt and in the end, it didn't need custom.



Hobbs 80/20 batting, PermaCore mother goose thread and Fay Feathers panto from Lorien Quilting.

A Little Help Here????

I loaded this last week and started quilting it.
I was doing ruler work, straight lines from the corners to the center of each block, and SID around the circles/partial circles and then I was planning to use the Circle Lord to make a couple concentric circles/partial circles inside them.



The backing is a rust color and I had a white bobbin in the attach the batting to the backing and I forgot all about it until the machine beeped at me remind me that my bobbin was low. It was at that moment that I remembered that I had white thread in the bobbin. YIKES.....I spent hours Sunday taking out all the stitching.

Most of the quilt is not like that first corner though, it's more like these photos.




Without a zillion stops and starts, there's a lot of backtracking to get that kind of quilting done. Any ideas about other quilting ideas???

Jeff and Dané

Jeff and Dané were in Indiana yesterday and the family all got to see them at Julie and Jim's. They are just back from Aruba and weren't too happy with our current weather. It was so good to see them and get a chance to visit with family I don't see often enough.



Pictured above are:
Andrew with my IPhone (which he loves)
Jeff and Dané (dressed for the weather)
Andrew and the IPhone
Grandson Tony and his girlfriend Kelsey (aren't they just the cutest couple)
Andrew (ready for just about anything. Do you think he has seen me wearing my glasses like that a little too much?)
Grandpa Jack with Andrew and Elizabeth

Nickel Quilt

I've started my first nickel quilt this week and I sure do like how it's turning out. They are still in pieces...Four patches and half-square triangles because I will want to do some re-arranging, I'm sure. I picked out all bright fabrics and lots of tone-on-tones from my nickel stash. The background fabrics are al WOWs. In addition to last years guild nickel swap, I was in an online one several years ago and have quite an accumulation.

Mabel Has Company!

I received a batting order today and look how it fills up Mabel's room.
Some of them will be picked up by other longarmers in the area and the rest will go to our storage unit.





Yes, Gracie, that's your quilt ready to be loaded.

Hand Binding to do!, Valentine's Day, and a Block of the Month

I finished quilting this little baby quilt yesterday and the binding is ready to hand stitch. Maybe tonight watching the olympics.



My valentine got me some over the knee socks and they sure are cozy! I wear a short nightgown most nights and he thinks my legs look cold. Thanks Honey!!! I got him a gift card for Culver's because he has a Butterburger every Saturday and Sunday for lunch.



A local Quilt shop is hosting a 1930's Block of the Month and today I stitched my January and February blocks. If you make a miniature block, your name goes into the drawing an extra time, so I made those also. They will make a cute doll or baby quilt.



Here's a Block of the Month Pet Peeve of mine:
This has happened to me before at another LQS. The salvage and fold edges are both on the lines of the mat. Just look at the waste on both sides. Of course, if I didn't care that the cuts were on-grain it wouldn't matter, but I usually take pride in making my cuts straight across the grain of the fabric. I did have plenty of fabric for these and they turned out very nice, so I guess I'll quit belly-aching.

Stashbusting 2010 - #6

Fabric Added This Week - 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date - 5 yards

Fabric Used This Week - 1.25 yard
Fabric Used Year to Date - 15.75 yards

YEAR TO DATE STASH USED: 10.75 yards

I didn't get much sewing done, but got a lot of cutting done in preparation to the upcoming retreat.

Nickel Fabric Swap

This years nickel fabric swap in our guild is a different theme for each month rather than just colors. I spent a couple hours yesterday cutting up my nickels for several months....over 7 yards of fabric. Some months have 2 sets because I bought fabric and then realized that I already had some for that month. This afternoon we will be sorting the January snow nickels and there are some lovely snow fabrics in the bag.
January – Snow
February – Hearts
March – Pastel
April - Polka Dots
May - 1930's
June – Batiks
July – Patriotic
August - Flower Power
September – Asian
October - Fall Leaves
November – Thimbleberries
December – Christmas

A Baby Shower Memory Pillow

I attended a baby shower for a friend a few weeks ago and took along fabric squares with freezer paper on them for the guests to sign. I usually make a wall hanging with these, but thought I would try something different.

I made this little pillow, well, it's not so little.....about 5" x 24"
Rolled up some batting scraps and stuffed the roll in and hand stitched that last seam. The fabrics are all leftover from the quilt I made for the shower.

And, It's done and Picked Up!

Alice picked up her quilt today and was pleased. Here's the front and you certainly can't see the quilting on this shot.



So, here's a close up:



Now, I think the back is just as pretty, if not prettier, than the front.

It's off the floor!

My goal tonight was to get enough quilting done on Alice's quilt so that it was not resting on the floor anymore. Well, it is quite a ways off the floor and I just ran out of bobbin thread so I thought this would be a great place to stop for the night. I'm probably 2/3 of the way done.



On another note....so far, the big snowstorm we are supposed to be having has missed us, going more to the North. We did get some snow and it is blowing quite a bit, but nothing like they have in Washington DC.

Some Freehand Quilting! and a Stashbusting Report for Week #6

I'm working on a quilt for Alice and it's pretty slow-going. At least it's slow for a quick and easy panto quilter like me. It is turning out very nice though.



Stashbusting:

Fabric Added This Week - 4 yards (2 yards of paper doll fabric in NC and 2 yards of a nice background in the Clearance Rom at Always In Sitches.)
Fabric Added Year to Date - 5 yards

Fabric Used This Week - 1 yard
Fabric Used Year to Date - 14.5 yards

YEAR TO DATE STASH USED: 9.5 yards (Yep, it seems like I'm going backwards, but I haven't had much time to sew lately)

More Retreat Stuff...

You are gonna get so sick of hearing me talk about this retreat.

For the past several years we have had a massage therapist come and he always says, "My wife askes me where the quilt is when I get home." So, last year we decided that we would make him a quilt instead of paying for the massages this year. He met Laurie and I at Cheryl's Quilt Shop a couple weeks ago and he picked out the quilt and fabrics that he wanted. I did the figuring cause he wanted a queen and the pattern was for a lap quilt, and Laurie took it home and cut it up and put the blocks in zip-lock bags. We paid $5 for a set of 2 blocks and will make the blocks and give them to Laurie at guild this month. The top will be assembled and hopefully we will have a quilt for him at the retreat.

Here are my blocks:



More Door Prizes
This week I received packages from Olfa, Calico Point Quilt Shop, Walmart, Rossville Quilts, Marvy Markers, Nancy's Notions, and Janet. Thank you so much for your generousity.



OK, can you stand one more photo of the Cobblestones quilt. Here's Jeni with her new quilt. Matches her hair pretty well, don't you think. She loves it and her daughter loves it too.

A Little Pre-Retreat Sewing...

I tried out a couple of items that we may use at our upcoming guild retreat, "Spring Break In Hawaii." Of course, it's not really in Hawaii, but that's the theme and it will be fun to pretend...in Indiana...in March! I bought a roll of pet screen at Lowe's this weekend and thought I'd try to make a small beach bag. It ended up being 14" wide x 9" high x 3" deep.

I didn't buy a pattern for the bag, just figured how big I wanted it and started sewing. The next one will be larger and have straps that go all the way around the bag.



FYI - if you have plans to make more than one of these bags, it is much more afordable to buy the stuff at a hardware store and not a quilt shop. My 36" x 84" roll was $12. I've seen this same stuff online for $5-$7 for a 18" x 36" piece. They also had a 48" wide roll for $17 or $18 that I may buy next time.

Then I got out a pattern that I may use for name badge holders. I think the instructions for these is off somewhat.



They say to stitch the velcro 1" below the top stitching on the inside pocket. Well, that means you sew the other velcro about 3" from the lower edge of the flap. It's not where I would have put it. Oh well, I still think both projects turned out well, and it was fun to just sit and create after dinner.



On another note....I just love how crinkly this quilt looked when it came out of the dryer: