August Finishes

I finished a couple quilts last week and it's a good thing because I don't have much in the way of finishes for August.

Here is my butterfly block swap quilt. It was a UFO from 2005-2006. There were a group of us that met before guild and we each had a tote with fabric and ideas. My idea was butterflies....they could be pieced, appliqued, or whatever the maker chose. I put the top together in 2009, and it's been waiting to be quilted ever since.

Here's the backing, which has been hanging with it since Quilt Quarters (south) closed years ago.


I chose Circle Lord spirals for the quilting because of the movement it shows.



The next quilt is the first try at the soon-to-be-revealed ScrapSquad quilt. I didn't think there was enough contrast in some of the logs, so I started over with more of a plan. This one has been donated to the Duke Smyser Chili Blast. I've given a donation to this group for 3 years now and I think it's such a worthwhile cause.

Design Wall Monday

How about a design floor?
My design wall is FULL of these latest scrap squad blocks.(Which I can't show you right now)



I opened my row-by-row tote and decided to start the process of putting it together. Here are 12 of my rows:



I've been planning to assemble them in a medallion style and really had no idea how many of each size I had. Janet did Dresden fan blocks, not in the photo above, and I asked her not to sew them together. At first glance, I thought there was too much white in them, so I added snowball triangles and like them much better. I had three 6" rows and figured if I made the sashing around the center blocks 1.75", I could use all the 6" blocks.



I have five 8" rows and chose to take one apart and use 4 of the blocks for corners.
Here is my design floor as it sits right now.

Stashbusting 2011 - #35

Fabric Added this week - 3 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date - 93.125 yards

Fabric Used this week - 6.5 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date - 169.125 yards

YEAR TO DATE STASH USED: 73 yards

I bought some more WOW and used it already for the latest Scrap Squad quilt, which by the way, I LOVE!!!

Dan's Parents

I'm so glad I got lots of cleaning and quilting done last weekend, so I could spend time with Ed and Marilyn this week. They've been visiting from Boulder, Colorado and I'm just amazed at how many good friends they still have here in Lafayette. I even got Marilyn to run Mabel this morning, but Dan has the pics on his camera and he's dozing right now. We have enjoyed their visit so much and it's going to be hard to say goodbye tomorrow morning.



Don't they look great? I hope I look as good in 25 years.

I'm a Winner!

When I signed up to participate in the Hands2Help Project, I was just thinking it would be a fun thing to do, and it certainly was. I had a great time working with Cassie's fabrics and happily sent in my quilt in plenty of time before the deadline. Here's a link to Sarah's blog where you can find all the quilts completed. Thank you to Sarah for coordinating this project. These quilts will brighten the lives of orphans in Romania, taken there and distributed by Judi and Clint Madsen of Green Fairy Quilts.



Many thanks to Sharon at Voormans Quilts for donating my prize, a Robert Kaufman "brights" solid roll-up! Maybe I can come up with something to make at Camp Tecumseh.

This was such a fun experience and I'll be sure to join next year, too.

Thanks again Sharon!!

Dawn's Quilt

A far-away friend, Dawn, sent me this quilt to quilt. One of my guilds has a retreat at Camp Tecumseh in a couple weeks and Dawn got to know some guild members, (online I believe) and she has become one of our regular campers. She has probably been attending this retreat longer than I have, but anyway, she sent me this lovely quilt which she wanted baptist fan quilting.



The quilting is perfect for this one. I used Permacore Dyed Natural thread, after sending her pics of many thread choices. She couldn't tell by just looking at the thread cones, so I picked this one and I hope she likes it.


See you in a couple weeks, Dawn!

Eric's Quilt of Valor

Another injured service member from our area came home this week. Lois pieced this beautiful quilt for him and provided a busy backing, so I wasn't afraid to change thread colors. Carla will be adding the binding and it will be presented to him on Saturday, I believe.



I stitched in the ditch around the main points of these stars and did a lot of meandering.



Some continuous curves, of course.



A border design that I learned from Deloa Jones at Paducah. I've done one border or sashing like this, but she suggested doing a mirror image in next border.

Kelly's Pastels

I got a call on Friday from the friend of a friend and she had pieced a top for her daughter, who is leaving later this week for college. She had promised her daughter a quilt to take with her and just got the top finished. I knew my weekend would be very busy but I thought if I got Carol and Carole's quilts done on Saturday and Adrienne got hers done and I got Eric's done on Sunday, then I could possibly do it early this week. Told her I would call Saturday evening. Things went along very smoothly on Saturday, so I called her and asked what kind of quilting she wanted. Meander.......whew, I can do that. So she dropped if off Sunday evening and I loaded it and quilted it this evening. I got off work at 5:00 and Dan had dinner ready at 6:00 and the quilt was off by 7:00.



There are some quilts that I think look great with a meander and this is one of them.



PermaCore Eggshell thread and Hobbs 80/20 batting.

Carole's Chinese Coins

Saturday afternoon I loaded and quilted this one for Carole. Every time I quilt one of these coin quilts, I think of all the leftovers I have from projects and how cute they would be made up like this.



I picked the panto Daisy Swirl, Permacore Canary thread and Hobbs 80/20 batting.



And the back:


I knew I had to finish it up on Saturday because Adrienne was coming to quilt Sunday at 9:30. She quilted this very cute baby quilt, using Ribbon Twirl Panto. The baby is almost 4 months old and will love the bright colors.

Design Wall Monday

My design wall is empty but check out the other design walls at Judys.

I have just 2 more quilts to load and quilt and then I can take a break and get something up on my wall.

Carol's Snowflake Quilt

I LOVE this quilt!!



The fabrics are so fun and the pattern looks to be fairly easy, maybe made up of strips cut into 2 different sizes and stitched together.

She wanted an allover design and I told her I would find something Christmasy. I found the panto Winter White by Dave Hudson, which I had never used and it was perfect. I do have to say that making these snowflakes got a little monotonous. I generally love to do pantos, but I guess because there was such a quick repetition on this one. Anyway, I love how it turned out.



The Moda Marble on the back look great!

Stashbusting 2011 - #34

Fabric Added this week - 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date - 93.125 yards

Fabric Used this week - 0 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date - 162.625 yards

YEAR TO DATE STASH USED: 69.5 yards

Nothing in or out this week. I did so much customer quilting I didn't have time for anything of mine. This coming week should bring more of the same, although I do have to quilt a donation quilt, so I'll be using some backing and binding fabric.

Is there a frog in my studio?

Finally, this quilt is finished. I haven't had a chance to take a photo of the entire quilt, but will do that today. I can't believe this took me all week. I loaded it on Sunday and quilted part of the first border. I stopped because I didn't think it was going to work. Left it for a couple hours and came back and finished that border, quilting feathers into the setting triangles. My machine has an 18" throat and I couldn't get from the border edge of the feathers into the setting triangle withough advancing the quilt. Oh, I should have stopped when I had to do that the first time. But, oh no, not me, I kept on quilting and it wasn't until I got to the end and advanced the quilt only to find out that I was going to have to advance the quilt in each of the blocks also. So, after a call to my customer, I started clipping stitches on the backing. Dan couldn't believe that I was going to do that. I was on a mission and I thought that I could take out all the stitches and reload the quilt and quilt it with a panto in as much time as it would take me to continue the way I was, with all that back and forth advancing...........I was wrong, it took me about 13 hours of frogging Sunday and Monday. Tuesday we had relatives from out of town, so I didn't quilt much. Wednesday was quilt guild and I did quilt after guild a bit, but was in bed before 10pm. Last night I finished it and I think it looks great.
The whole quilt:

Design Wall Monday

The design wall is empty right now, but I wanted to show the status of what was on there last Monday.





All finished!

Angie's Turning Twenty

Angie made this great quilt with some fat quarts that Julie bought for her at Always In titches. They have this great sale where you can get 25 FQs for $30. She bought a set for herself and one for Angie.



Angie did a great job at distributing the colors and I love the Square Spiral pantograph on it.



Hobbs 80/20 batting and PermaCore Eggshell thread.

Stashbusting 2011 - #33

Fabric Added this week - 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date - 93.125 yards

Fabric Used this week - 6.75 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date - 162.625 yards

YEAR TO DATE STASH USED: 69.5 yards

Just wait till tomorrow wo see what I used this fabric for...........

Linda's 1930's

I finished Linda's quilt made with 1930's fabrics this week and it is so pretty. It will be a wedding goft to her granddaughter.



It was windy this week, so the pics are inside ones and not as great as if I had been outside.



I'm not sure of the pattern, but really had fun quilting it.



Hobbs 80/20 batting and Omni Pearl white thread.

What Is This?

Anyone have any idea what this is?



It was in the drawer of a sewing cabinet and has the word SIMANCO stamped on it.

Design Wall Monday

I had to move my design wall to the floor because the wall is full. I completed another 18 blocks this week, making my total 42.



Just so you don't think I moved the ones from the wall to the floor, you can see them both.

Guild Sewing Day

Yesterday one of my guilds had a sewing day. We worked on whatever we wanted and it was a great time. Unfortunately, I didn't get a lot of photos.....I was too busy making pineapple blocks. The fellowship hall we were sewing in is a wonderful facility with a great kitchen area. There are even outlets in the floor.



I consider myself a pretty organized person and working in a disorganized or cluttered space irritates me. So, while I was making these pineapple blocks, I would dump out the brown or pink or cream strips and keep them on my table until I was ready for the next color. That meant that they were in and out of the bags many times.



I decided to stick a safety pin through a bunch of them and hang them on a hanger. This worked like a charm. I would just reach up and clip one off when I needed it.

Stephanie's Diamonds in the Rough

I finished this beautiful quilt made by Stephanie this week. It is going to be a gift for her parents 40th wedding anniversary.



She requested Bountiful Feathers, so I bought the pattern and I'm sure I will use it often. The pattern is listed as 13.5" and I knew that I would run into trouble with that size, so I requested it to be 11.5" and that's what they sent. It's so nice that they will do a custom size for you at no extra cost. I really appreciate it.



Hobbs 80/20 batting and Omni Pearl White thread.



Anyway, back to Stephanie's quilt. I did have a little issue, well, really a big issue....I broke a needle. I have heard of longarmers breaking needles and wondered how they did that. Well, let me tell you, it's pretty easy, I guess. I was happily quilting along and BANG...that broken titanium needle was piercing the fabric. I wasn't near a thick seam or anything else that would have caused it. It's still a mystery to me. Hopefully, she can make the needed repairs with the Bo-Nash that I sent with her quilt.

Stashbusting 2011 - #32

Fabric Added this week - 2.5 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date - 93.125 yards

Fabric Used this week - 4 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date - 155.875 yards

YEAR TO DATE STASH USED: 62.75 yards

I had to buy a little more of the background fabric for the Town Square quilt and I have 20+ blocks finished. I did receive a Stash Enhancement in the mail this week, but haven't figured out how to count it as it's odd size pieces. I may sort through it and estimate, or I may not count it in or out. It will be used for mostly the same project.