I have spent most of this week quilting my Sunflower quilt top. The only thing that was on my mind other than getting that done was also coming up with some additional quilting stitches beside the serpentine stitch I have used on my previous tops. I have a membership in Craftsy, so decided to take some time to watch Jacquie Gering's Next Steps class on using decorative stitches for quilting. Her advice was to make a sample of stitches.
There are some interesting ideas here. I think I will try some of them out on a smaller project and see how that goes.Sunday, June 4, 2023
QUILTING SAMPLES AND THE LEFTOVERS
Sunday, May 28, 2023
THE SUCCESSFUL WEEK
This week has been very productive. I finished last weeks project and also started a couple of my own quilts and made good progress on them as well. I love this time of year, we processed some apples and they are in the freezer ready to make apple crisps and apple pie, and some cherries as well. Our tomato plants are growing like weeds and we even harvested a couple cherry tomatoes, and the vegetable stand we love is open and has all sorts of yummy veggies to purchase.
I purchased these two patterns and fabric kits from Connecting Threads. I wanted some fast and easy projects finished up for upcoming gifts.I got the first one completed and I have been working on quilting it.I am brand new at quilting my own quilts so I am very much in a steep learning curve. I purchased this Quilters Select ruler some time ago, stashed it in the drawer and pretty much forgot about it. But drawing lines with various markers has been a chore. This rulers is extra thick, and it has a surface on the back of it that sticks to the fabric. I can line up ruler to the side of my machine foot and guide the stitching with no issues at all. With the large holes in the center I can grip the ruler and guild the machines foot right along the edge. This one is 2 by 8 inches, so I just ordered the larger size of 3 by 12.This is the second kit I purchased. I like this one even more than the first. In fact the pattern is so nice I have cut another out with some of my own fabric stash.And yes, last week's Project is complete, and it is off to the ladies that asked me to make it for them and they will quilt it. I will get it back to bind and do the handwork. It is destined to go to some charity event as a fund raiser and be auctioned off.
Sunday, May 21, 2023
THE PROJECT
I have spent this past week working on a project for my Warm Wrappings charity group. The two ladies in charge of the group asked if I would make a quilt kit up for them that they were not able to manage. Sure, sounded like fun.
Now, that situation did surprise me a bit, as both these ladies are very experience and exceptionally good quilters. But, I did know both were going on a couple summer trips and I figured timing to get it done for possibly an upcoming organization doing a fundraising auction event was a reason to ask me to do it for them.Sunday, May 14, 2023
ALL FINISHED
Still having some blog comments not going through to my emails. I apologize to those of you that comment and I do not reply. I have found that I can reply through my Mail AP on my computer, however it is a new computer and for the life of me I can not get it to work. Time to call in the IT guy (youngest daughter's husband), maybe he can get it to work.
Over the weekend I worked on making a couple of these fabric gift boxes. It took several very frustrating hours, I had lost the pattern and spent the entire afternoon trying to recreate it from a prior made one. The pattern is all one piece 11 inches by 21, of outside, lining, and stablizer. The zipper is on the 11 inch sides. Once the zipper is in then just boxing the four corners and inserting the handle is all that is left. Lesson: Write things down and keep them.Sunday, May 7, 2023
BUTTERFLIES AND YORKIES
I spent the better part of this last week quilting my Butterfly quilt. Having managed to quilt myself the Wonky Block and a baby quilt over the last couple weeks, I am feeling really accomplished at this.
This one is bigger than the last two, but it is going really well. I think the real key at least for me is moving that machine out to the dining table. Lots of room to work has made it so much easier to manage.I finished the binding on my recent appliqué project. Just in time for some rainy spring weather.
Yes, a mug rug for Zoey. Actually an 8 by 11 inch water bowl place mat. I could not resist using this doggy fabric. Was she impressed, no not really.
And here she is, all 8 pounds of her. Just back from her spa day at the groomers. Hair cut and manicure, still not impressed. Life is really bothersome some days when you are a Yorkshire Terrier.
Sunday, April 30, 2023
ONE DONE AND ONE TO START
Blogger continues to give me issues. Comments do not go to my email. I have fused with settings and still not much progress. I have always liked to email back and let commenters know I appreciate them. Now, very few seem to go through. Just to let those of you know that do make comments that I appreciate them very much and would love to know what is going on. I sure cannot figure it out.
I enjoyed quilting my Wonky Blocks quilt so much last week that I decided to put together a baby quilt for my charity group and quilt it as well. Fun little quilt 36 by 36. A perfect very quick and easy finish.It is time to start a new appliqué project. Appliqué really is what I prefer and love doing out of all the different quilting processes. Fabric choices seems to be the one real chore for me though.
I have a small stash of Australian fabric, and picked up on sale some Batiks that I thought might really work well. Not really sure right now how this is going to go together. I still need some sort of background fabric. So I think shopping for some interesting background beige or tan fabrics is in order. Not sure where this is going as of yet.
Sunday, April 23, 2023
YES! I QUILTED IT MYSELF
I don't normally quilt anything myself unless it is small, runners, small wall hangings and pretty much nothing bigger than 36 by 36. I watched a YouTube this past week on quilting on your domestic machine and thought I might be crazy, but I would give it a try.
I moved my Bernina 750 out to the dining room table. I knew I needed a good deal of space. This quilt had 8" blocks and was 40" by 48". I pinned pressed and smoothed out the first row and started quilting it proceeding row by row. Success! No wrinkles and quilted with a serpentine stitch approximately every 2 inches. Just finishing up the handwork on the binding.Lori Holt from the Fat Quarter shop had a YouTube tutorial on these 10 inch butterfly blocks so I figured that I would attempt to eliminate my Tilda stash. At this point I can only get 20 blocks cut out of my Tilda leftovers. I will have to turn the blocks and set 4 across and 5 down. It will require lattice strips of probably 2 inches. So should come out at 46 by 58. Well, if I was able to do quilt the Wonky Blocks quilt successfully I figure I can manage this Butterfly quilt.
I finished my other Tilda quilt last week. It will be turned into my Warm Wrappings charity group to be quilted, bound and distributed to 5 local agencies in our area in October. I had a goal of making 12 quilt tops for them this year and this completes my commitment.
This coming week I am making some spring placemats for myself and very possibly doing some more quilting of those butterflies too.
CONFESSIONS OF A FABRIC ADDICT
Sunday, April 16, 2023
FINISHING THEM UP
This week I have spent a good deal of time doing handwork on a number of finished quilts and runners. My stash of baby quilts that I keep for my daughters to give away as shower gifts once again was greatly in need of a few new additions.
This particular fabric has been in my stash for several years. I just hated to cut it up. When I ran across it again I thought it really makes a very pretty baby quilt.I also finished my linen and Tilda runner. I really love the textured linen I used as the background for the appliqué. I used invisible thread for the appliqué and did not think that any other quilting needed to be done.While going through runners to put out for this nice spring weather I ran across this runner. Not sure why it has been stashed in the closet for so long. Time to get it out again and show it off. The Gone Fishing quilts were given to my two grandsons over the Easter weekend. They were very happy with them.
Sunday, April 9, 2023
WONKY LOG CABINS & SPRING BOUQUET
I spent the majority of this past week getting the bindings on my two Gone Fishing Quilts. I still have my Picnic Under the Stars quilt that also needs its binding sewn on and the handwork done on it. But I took a bit of a break and worked on Wonky log cabin blocks.
I originally had three blocks done last week with the dark colored logs all the same print. I discovered that if I did that I would not have enough jelly roll strips to get 30 blocks completed. So did a bit of un-sewing and did them with two different dark fabrics. So a bit over half done with these guys.Sunday, April 2, 2023
GONE FISHING UPDATE AND WONKY LOG CABINS
I think the rain has finally stopped in our area. It might actually be the beginning of some spring weather. I may have finally got my blog email issue cleared up too. Technology is wonderful until it isn't.
My quilter published my finished Gone Fishing quilt on their Facebook site on Friday and I picked up the second one with the blue lattice on Saturday. Now to bind this thing, it is 74" by 94". I have been worried as both have to be done by the middle of this month. They are gifts for two grandsons, one for his birthday and the other just because I don't want him to wait until August for his. No small task to get the binding on this quilt. I moved my Bernina 750 to the dining room table and set up chairs to manage excess hanging over. I was greatly surprised that it worked really well. I had the binding on it with no problems at all. Now the hand work sewing the binding down and get the second one bound too.I had a really large Jelly Roll of spring fabrics setting around for several years. I recently purchased a set of Wonky Log Cabin rulers by Jean Ann Wright and decided to take a bit of time and try them out. The 10 inch size uses 2.5" strips.I only made them up to 8 inches with the 10 inch ruler as I did not have sufficient fabric to continue the third row of light and dark fabrics. But they are fun! I hope to be able to get enough made for a small quilt, but figure if that doesn't work I can make placemats or a table runner out of them instead.
Sunday, March 26, 2023
SEWING ROOM CHAOS
I have spent several days fighting with my blog's replies to post comments. They have not been coming through to my email in order to moderate them and post my comments back to those that make comments.Very frustrating as it has always worked for years before now and I have not made any changes. Still working on that issue. So if all else fails I have started a new project this week, and working on Flower Power too. Have three ladies coming on Monday to work on binding. I had them in two of my last classes and they are still having a bit of a problem with the concept, so volunteered to help them here at my home.
I have had this container full of Tilda fabrics left over from various projects in the past. They are pretty and spring colors so I thought to do something with them. That one container was not the entire stash of them either. Yes it does seem like a bit of chaos going on.There is a bit of a method though.The pattern is by Tilda and they offer a great selection of free patterns.And a great lay out for construction.And we have blocks 1 and 4 complete. Plus a bit of progress on Flower Power from last week too.