Lots of Binding

 I made the binding for Ginger Belle and it is put away until it's needed.

I made the binding for the quilt from H E double hockey sticks (don't want to owe the cuss jar more money).

As I mentioned before this is a "cheater" fabric. You buy it by the yard already pieced. The seams are serged and thick. My thread kept breaking in the minky areas. I noticed after I finished quilting it that there were some very large stitches...again only in the minky areas. I carefully removed the large stitches, and after adding the binding, went back over the areas that I removed with my walking foot.

I have three more of these "quilt tops" to quilt...not looking forward to it. 

I was able to load another quilt sandwich and finish it.

A little drab, but I'm sure there is a young boy out there who would love cuddling up with mountain lions. I used a new pantograph that I think gave the quilt lots of texture.

When Angela visited she brought me a cat puzzle. I put it together a couple of weeks ago but keep forgetting to show a picture.

Want to make an easy puzzle difficult? Don't lose a piece, add in an extra piece. It's not a duplicate piece either. Thanks Angela, it was fun to put together.

Almost Finishes

 The baby quilt is off the frame, trimmed, and the binding cut. I'll show the finished quilt next week. 

The Ginger Belle top is done, the binding is cut and the red wide back I bought a couple of weeks ago will go on the back.

I'm really pleased with how this turned out. It is 80 x 80. I'm not sure if I will attempt to quilt it myself or have someone else do it. It will fit on my frame, but I'd really be pushing its limits. 

I had a few 4-patches left over. I think I'm going to turn them into a little mug rug or table topper.

My leader-ender project is also almost done.

Scrappy quilts just make me happy. This isn't the final layout, I just wanted to get an idea of how it is going to look.

I also got my Christmas tree up.

Whew! it was a lot of work taking it out of the box and plugging it in. ;o)

Getting Closer

 Nothing new or exciting...we did have a nice Thanksgiving at my niece's house. Lots of food. Lots of leftovers.

Made progress on Ginger Belle.

I've been adding the pieced border as I go. I have one more row to add - it will take longer as it has the final pieced border added to each block before the blocks are sewn into a row. Probably takes longer that way but I know I will have a good distribution of colors.

Slow going on getting this quilted...mostly because I'm avoiding it.

Probably the worst quilting I've ever done. All the passes are left to right so taking a little longer and still having thread breakage. I think I have four more passes to make. The cuss jar is overflowing.

This is Bella's current favorite place to be.

Notice the heat vent above her...it's been cold here. Isn't it a law that you have to constantly complain about the weather...was too wet, now too cold...hate the heat. 

I May Have A Problem

 I went to an estate sale this past weekend...twice. The first haul:

Flannel quilt top. I think I've mentioned before I'm a sucker for orphan quilts and blocks.

Cute holiday flannel panel.

And 22 yards of fabric.  

The second haul:

Polar fleece to be donated.

Cute mini quilt holder. Actually, saw when I was leaving. It was out with some odd garden wire stuff, very cobwebby.

Orphan holiday placemats. Need hand stitching to finish binding and some blind stitching to close sides.

Two books and 12 more yards of fabric.

Plus a few puzzles. Coulda brought home so much more but I didn't want to look greedy. 

Loaded one of the cheater quilts onto the frame.

I might have to install a cuss jar in the long arm room. There were a lot of bad words said. This fabric is all bias and stretchy. It also has thick seams. I started off using one of my Aurifil threads...after it kept breaking, I switched to good ole Omni. Got the first pass done...no problems, started heading back...more thread breaks. I think I'm going to have quilt the whole thing going left to right. I had directional issues with my Juki on the old frame, this is the first time I've had it with the Moxie.

I've been making more progress on Ginger Belle. Laid out on the design floor.

Attaching the pieced border as I go...it will take longer but I want to keep the fabrics / colors random.

Hmmm...it's bigger than I thought it would be.

Little Finishes

I finished two more blankies - hard to think of them as quilts since they are only two pieces of fabric sandwiched together. I think I finished one of these two weeks ago and forgot to show it here. 

Both were quick finishes. The hardest part about both was finding binding fabric in my stash.

All the chain blocks for Ginger Belle are finished. Now I have lots of pressing to do. I also made a little bit of progress on my leader ender project. Hopefully both will be finished by the end of this month (I know, I said that last month).

I was really good today. I took a few things to put on the guild free table and didn't bring anything home! I can't say the same for last Friday's Quilts 4 Kids meeting.

I brought home four more sandwiches. These are really cute - made from a cheater fabric you can buy at JoAnn's. 

Busy Week

 Doctor appointments, house cleaners, shopping, birthdays and family - it was a busy week. But not much sewing.

My mom turned 89 on Saturday. My cousins from Stockton came up to help celebrate. It was so nice to see them. My niece and her family were also here Saturday. We played cards, cooked and ate too much. Overall, I think my mom had a really nice day.

I did get more of the chain blocks made. Seven out of twelve are done. 

I loaded a quilt on the frame today just so I'd have a picture to share. ;o)

Retail Therapy

 This has been me this week:

Sorry for the bad picture.

I got lots of prep work done...story of my life. I swear I spend more time prepping to sew than actually sewing. I have all the chain blocks laid out ready to sew. Cut strips for the additional 4-patch blocks I need to make. Cut the background fabric for my leader-ender quilt. Cut and ironed all the leader-ender strip sets I'd already sewn...yup, enough for two quilts. Loaded a quilt on the frame.

And didn't sew a single stitch.

One of my favorite not-very-local quilt shops is going out of business. I think I was her very first customer as I showed up one day before she had actually opened for business and she let me shop. I don't get there often but every time I've been there she remembered my name. 

I may have gone a little bit overboard. Lots of wide back fabric, lots of Aurfil thread, and some other fun goodies. The red wide back is for the Ginger Belle quilt. The blue is for the quilt Donna gave me last year and the other three were nice neutral fabrics that I know I'll be able to use someday.

The black print is for my next quilting project.

Donna gave me the aboriginal fabrics a few years ago. I bought the pattern a few years ago. Last month someone posted their version of the quilt with aboriginal fabrics on one of the Facebook groups I belong to and I thought Bingo! Love the combination and found the perfect background fabric at the sale. I so want to start making this quilt NOW!