Back to my Regularly Scheduled Quilting

Seems like I haven't loaded a quilt in forever....
I started on this one for Carolyn this evening and it's a beauty!



More door prizes for Spring Break in Vegas have arrived:





Julie and Marla are going to have their hands full giving out all these wonderful door prizes!

Design Wall Tuesday

Yep, It's Tuesday, and I'm just posting my design wall. Here's a nice closeup of one of the blocks from a few weeks ago with some applique pieces on it. I have border fabric ordered from Hancocks of Paducah and it should be here later this week. Then I can get it quilted.



The bias stems have Steam-a-Seam ironed on the back side and I purchased a heat resistant piece of plastic at Joanns, traced the shape of the stem and cut that part away. So, I could lay my stem down in the cut away part and iron it down without tracing on my block or using some other method. This idea worked pretty well for me, but that plastic does get very hot so you have to move your fingers quickly.

Festival of Quilts

The Old Tippecanoe Quilt Guild will hold thier biennial quilt show on Saturday, March 24, 2012 from 9 am - 4 pm at Christ United Methodist Church, 3610 S. 18th Street, Lafayette, IN. The show is an exhibit of members' work and will feature demonstrations, a trading post with gently used quilting items for sale, special exhibits, an opportunity quilt and a merchant mall with over 15 vendors.

Here is a slideshow of the 2010 quilt show.



Check out our Facebook page
If you would like more information regarding the show, contact the publicity chairman. That would be me, so just let me know if you have any questions.

Grizzly Jacks Grand Bear Resort

I took 3 of my teenage granddaughters to Grizzly Jacks this weekend and we had a wonderful time. We stayed in a Family Suite in the Lodge. The Cabins and Villa's looked wonderful, but it was nice being right in the same building as the water park and arcade. I was worried that they would be bored, but I shouldn't have, as they really enjoyed themselves. I enjoyed the lazy river and wave pool myself. The very reasonable price included admission to the water park and indoor amusement park. They set up a video room every evening and we watched Despicable Me last night, and even had a bag of popcorn to enjoy with the movie.
Our overall experience with Grizzly Jack's Grand Bear Resort was excellent, we have every plan on returning. The property is well maintained, the staff is friendly and make you feel welcomed. I give this resort a big thumbs up! Wish it was a bit closer though!

Catching Up from Last Week

I forgot to post about our Valentines Day. When I came home from work I was surprised to see new towels in the kitchen



and a heart shaped pizza being prepared.



New cozy socks and pink gloves, too. Thanks honey!



Last weekend I spent some time making these luggage tags. They were made from a great tutorial from IHAN, Thanks Kelly for the tutorial. I see more of these in my future! I made some for Dan to put his business cards in and he actually put one on a machine that he serviced before she picked it up on Saturday.

Cathy's 2nd 1600 Quilt

Here is the 2nd of Cathy's 1600 quilts from our guild jelly roll race. She used all batiks and I can't imagine what her batik stash looks like. I'll bet she has 100's of different ones.



I used Angel Wings panto because it was on the table from when I quilted Caren's, which I didn't get pictures of, darn it.



Mother Goose PermaCore thread and Hobbs 80/20 batting.

Design Wall Monday

Yesterday it looked like this:



Today it looks like this:



When making these blocks, I found it useful to crease the blocks in order to place the traingles is just the right place. Worked like a charm!

Stashbusting 2012 - 2/19

Fabric Added this week - 1 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date - 11 yards

Fabric Used this week - 1.5 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date - 3 yards

YEAR TO DATE STASH USED: -8 yards


Used 1.5 yards this week for the backing of another charity quilt. I bought 1 yard for the vines of the quilt I'm working on and have used .75 yards of it.

Even More Door Prizes

This weeks goodies so far:



I really appreciate the generosity of these wonderful companies. Their response has been great. I started this whole door prize donation project 3 years ago when I took over coordinating our guild spring retreat. I was pretty sure I could get some products donated, so I sent letters to companies I had done business with. Each year I add a few companies to my list. Many continue to support us and some need to drop out, just like I must turn down an occasional free quilting request. I understand that they probably get hundreds of requests just like mine.

Design Wall Monday

There is something on my design wall for a change. It feels really good to be working on something for myself and I know it will be finished rather quickly because the quilt show will be here before I know it.

These blocks are just placed on the design wall and will not be going together this was, but I think they look great like this!

Stashbusting 2012 - 2/12

Fabric Added this week - 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date - 10 yards

Fabric Used this week - 1.625 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date - 1.5 yards

YEAR TO DATE STASH USED: -6.875 yards

The only fabric I can count is the backing for a charity strip quilt made by Caren. I used some of the football fabric I purchased at Joanns a few weeks ago with this quilt in mind. A couple weeks ago I ordered two 15 yard bolts of muslin from EE Schenck. I'm not planning to add that to my stash until I use some of it for my quilts. I will sell some to my customers, so it's not really in my stash, but I may use some.

Sewing Machine Repair

You probably know by now that Dan services and repairs sewing machines. He took a class from Ray White last year and has really enjoyed this new adventure. One of his online aquaintances is offering a sewing machine repair class in May 2012. I think Dan will probably attend this class because there's always something to learn. If you think you might be interested you should check it out.

This link will take you to his website. The 3-day classes are in Toledo, Ohio. Ray from singeronline

A little something for myself

I finally got a chance to start on a project for myself. Thursday evening I got all the pieces cut.



Friday evening I pieced all these segments. They have to be pressed and assembled, but it sure was good to be back to stitching for myself. I hope to have this quilt finished for our guild show March 24th.



SPAM
Is anyone else experiencing spam comments? I have had 5 or 6 in the past couple of days. They all included a link, which I did not click on, were from male names that included an initial and they were all detected as spam by blogger, so they did not appear on my blog.

Carol's Flannel Quilt

This is one beautiful flannel quilt made by Carol. It's the first one I've quilted for her and I'm just tickled at how it turned out.



I quilted longarm feathers in the rail fence blocks.


Continuous Curves in the star blocks and the outer border.



The inner border is e's and l's.



And look at the back:



Now, Dan said these looked like something other than continuous curves.

Janine's Quilt

Janine found my name on Quilters Cache and followed the link to my website and then blog. She then called and made arrangements to send me this quilt. I'm happy she did. I'ts a great scrappy quilt and she plans to sell it at Keepsake Quilting. (which I didn't know one could do.)



I suggested Bountiful Feathers and after looking at many designs she agreed that was a good choice.

Stephanie's Baby Quilt

Here's another baby quilt that Stephanie made.



Just as cute as the last one! She requested Bountiful Feathers as the panto and it quilted up just beautifully! Omni Pear White Thread and Hobbs 80/20 batting.

Carla's Sisters Quilt

I believe this is the first quilt made by Carla's sister and it's a big one, 104 x 108.



I chose Feather Me panto, which I haven't used in quite a while, but I really like it. Omni Pearl White thread and Hobbs 80/20 batting.



There was a bit of fullness in her borders, so there are a fe tucks that she can hand stitch down. It's much easier to do that than try to futz with it as I'm stitching.

2011 Summary - Finally

I have been very negligent of my blog so far this year. Now sure why, it just seems to be time for bed before I know it lately.

Anyway, before taking down my finishes for 2011, I put the list into a spreadsheet to see what I accomplished.

wall hanging - 3
baby - 7
lap - 9
twin - 5
queen - 3
king - 1
Total Quilts - 28

+ 26 miscellaneous projects including burp cloths, pillowcases, valence & bed skirt, bags, mug rugs, sweatshirt jacket, dresses & hat for Liz, pillows.

The quilts listed above are part of the 152 that Mabel and I quilted in 2011.

Yep, it was a very busy 2011.