Another Charity Quilt

Sue G gave me 2 of these quilts at our January meeting and I'm just now getting them quilted. I'm not sure who made them, but they are very nice. I LOVE the colors and I think they would make great Quilts of Valor. I recognize some Thimbleberies fabrics in them.



I quilted this one with the Circle Lord Baptist Fan templates. I haven't used them in ages but I thought it would be perfect for this quilt. Omni Safari thread and Hobbs 80/20 battiing.



Were ready to take off for a long weekend in Tennessee with some of our children. I'm looking forward to stitching on some binding and getting some much needed R&R.

See you on Tuesday.

Carol's Quilt of Valor

I signed up again to quilt one quilt a month for Quilts of Valor. I did that for several years, but took last year off. I decided it was time to get started again. Carol from Ohio sent me this quilt and it is a great pattern. I'm not sure of the name of it but I like it. Her piecing is perfect and it was a pleasure to quilt.



She didn't have a quilting preference, so I chose Stars and Loops panto, Permacore white thread and Hobbs 80/20 batting.



I hope this lovely quilt brings comfort to one of America's finest soldiers.

Design Wall Monday

My design wall looks much like it did about a month ago!



I finished the new project this weekend and it's on it's way home today, but I can't show it to you yet.

The Starry Eyed quilt has 10 blocks completed and many more partially complete.


The one on the wall is for Carol and I'm appliqueing fussy cut fairy squares to the borders.

The Sewing Machine Service Guy's Wife

I'm sure you've heard of the car mechanic's wife driving a car with problems, or the plumber's wife putting up with a drippy faucet. Well, the wife of the sewing machine repair guy is much the same.

Last week Dan said, "You're machine probably needs to be cleaned." I replied, Maybe, but you can do if after I get back." Well, I got to the retreat and noticed it was quite noisy. I was usiing my walking foot, so I attributed the noise to that. Once I finished that project and changed the foot it still sounded the same and I couldn't stand it any more. So, I took the needle plate off and YIKES, I guess it did need to be cleaned.



I was able to get most of this cleaned up and added a drop of oil. It sounded much better and off I went. Maybe he needs to do routine service once a month on my machine.

Summer's Trellis

I just love this quilt! The more I look at it, the more I love it. Summer's Trellis was designed by June Dudley and was featured in Quilts Made from Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, Spring '12 magazine.



This quilt (with binding, of course) hung in the old Tippecanoe Quilt Guild's biennial show this past Saturday, March 24, 2012. If you didn't get a chance to see the show, like me, you missed a great one. I have seen some photos and the quilts looked wonderful. Thanks so much to everyone involved in putting on this great show.





The applique is raw edge on the flowers and leaves, and the vines are bias strips, all stitched down on the longarm. The blocks are stitched in the ditch.

Stashbusting 2012 - 3/25

Fabric Added this week - .5 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date - 22 yards

Fabric Used this week - 4.25 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date - 10.25 yards

YEAR TO DATE STASH USED: -11.75 yards

Making my way out of the red, slowly but surely! I'm counting the Countdown to Christmas this week because all the pieces are cut and it's well on it's way to being done.

I bought 2 FQs at Yoders and used one of them already.

Quilt Show Quilts

My 3 quilts for the quilt show have labels and sleeves and they are ready to go.



Unfortunately, I would be able to see them hanging at the show because I got a last minute chance to go to Shipshewana for the weekend. I'm not one to pass up Shipshewana even if it is only from Friday afternoon till Sunday noon. I have a project all packed and ready to finish up. I also packed one more project, just in case I finish the first one early.

When I return Sunday, I must quilt some customer quilts, but by then I'll be refreshed and ready to quilt away.

Design Wall Monday

My design wall is much like it was last Monday, the Starry Eyed quilt is still in progress.



My sewing machine table is another story, as I've started another project and the Starry Eyed quilt will have to come down.

Stashbusting 2012 - 3/18

Fabric Added this week - 1 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date - 21.5 yards

Fabric Used this week - 2.5 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date - 6 yards

YEAR TO DATE STASH USED: -15.5 yards

I bought another yard of Kona snow for the Starry Eyed quilt and used half of it. I used 2 yards for the backing on the Quiltmaker quilt for myself.

Getting Ready for the Quilt Show

I quilted 2 quilts for Cherry that she wanted to the upcoming Old Tippecanoe Quilt Show this coming Saturday.



The first one is batiks and I chose to do some line dancing on the blocks, CCs in the star points and I used a ruler to make the elongated pointed ovals in the sashing



She provided the batting and I'm not sure what kind it was. The thread is Lave.


The second one has 3-dimensional cherries, leaves and stems. Very CUTE!



CCs in the blocks, a loopy meander in the cherry blocks, ribbon candy in the inner border and a leafy meander in the outer border.

Dancing With The Stars

Not the TV show, but Rosemary's latest quilt. We chose feathers, Bountiful Feathers to be exact. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love this pantograph. It was very windy outside this evening, ao I don't have a great photo.



I think it's a great fit for this quilt too. Quilters Dream cotton batting and Permacore Khaki thread.

Spring Break in Vegas Projects

It was a wonderful retreat and I'm ready to do it all over again. My committee members Julie, Marla, Angie, Debbie and Peggy were great and although I hesitated to delegate too much in the beginning, I appreciate all their work.

I did get a couple things finished at the retreat, but not very much.
I made this wall hanging for my stepson and his wife to give to some friends who are moving.



Then I sewed these pieces that were leftover from this quilt together using the Baby Bricks pattern. I have this terrible habit of keeping leftovers thinking I'll make something else when I should be cutting them into strips or nickles, or 2.5" squares or something. I have a basket of ziplock bags full of this kind of thing. Anyway, I'm happy with the results here.




I got a good start on my Starry Eyed with Countdown to Christmas fabrics. I ran out of kona cream because I had put kona white in the tub by mistake. Luckily, I had some cream leftover from the above wall hanging so I could get started. I had another piece at home so I have worked on it a bit more this week.



Sunday afternoon I finished the borders on this one, which I must quilt this weekend after I do 2 quilts for Cherry.

Carla's Baby Quilt

This is just about the sweetest baby quilt I've seen. The center is a panel and I'll bet the cornerstones came from the same panel.



I just quilted a meander in the blocks and around the blocks taking care not to stitch over the printed rick-rack.



The border is wavy crosshatching to mimic the rick-rack

LOVE IT!

Day two at spring Break in Vegas

Day one - Spring Break in Vegas

Having a great time!

Here's a link to all the Day One Photos

All packed and ready to go!

The 40+ goody bags are packed and ready for our retreat tomorrow. My car is FULL!!!
I'm so excited and hope I can sleep tonight. I'm taking the little laptop so I'll be able to post lots of photos.

March 7, 2012

Today is the Big Reveal Day

You may remember that in December I was working on a secret project. Quiltmaker magazine asked me to sew and quilt a quilt for an upcoming issue. I completed it in 3 weeks and very sadly, I shipped it off to them to be photographed. Lucky for me I had almost enough fabric to make one more for myself. I had to order more border fabric from Hancocks of Paducah and it arrived just so I can get the top completed before I leave for camp on Thursday.



The Quilts from Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks magazine hits the newsstands today and you have a chance to win a copy of it on the Quilty Pleasures blog.

Here's my name in print:



Here's a picture of the whole quilt:



And here's my current quilt in progress:



The flowers will be raw edge appliqué, done on the long arm and the vines are bias strips and will be stitched down on the long arm also.

Design Wall Monday

Lotto Blocks for the Retreat

Here are my blocks for the lotto at the retreat. The theme is Spring Break in vegas, so of course, we had to make a card trick block. I actually used this tutorial that I found with some some really great instructions for this block. You cut the pieces larger in this one. The exact cutting come after piecing each of the nine-patch sections.

The other two are just nine patches, but I think they all look great together.

Stashbusting 2012 - 3/4

Fabric Added this week - 9.5 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date - 20.5 yards

Fabric Used this week - .5 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date - 3.5 yards

YEAR TO DATE STASH USED: -17 yards

It wasn't a good week for me stash-wise. One of our quilt shops is discontinuing fabrics, notions, books and patterns. I went with Dan to take back a serviced machine and had to look around. They still had some Countdown to Christmas and I have been looking for that to make the Starry Eyed Quilt, so I bought some half yards. I also bought some Pure fabrics and Kona cotton to make a wall hanging for Kale and Lynn to give to one of their neighbors as a housewarming gift. And a couple of 1930's FQs.



I did cut up a kit to take to the retreat on Thursday, but I didn't count that yet and I made 3 lotto blocks for the retreat.

Carla's Scraps quilt

Carla made this quilt with scraps leftover from other quilts and what a pretty quilt they made.



Another one with Bountiful Feathers because I thought it was the perfect panto for these romantic floral fabrics.




And the back


When I recorded the quilting of this one in my book, I realized that the last 6 quilts I have quilted have been for quilters whose names begin with the letter "C"

I will be breaking that pattern with Gayla's quilt that is loaded now.

Carolyn's Quilt

Carolyn made this beautiful quilt for her daughter, who picked out all the fabric. I suggested Bountiful Feathers panto and she agreed. It turned out just wonderful and now she says she has started something and will be making quilts for all her children.



I used PermaCore Mother Goose thread, which looks good on the background and the darker fabrics, and Hobbs 80/20 batting.



The backing is natural muslin which shows the quilting well.



I have another quilt started with the same panto: