Quilt Two, Three and Four

 

Lots of quilting and binding this past week.

First up...Exploding heart is finished. This is my current favorite, even with purple flannel on the back.

I used left over scraps for the binding.

I quilted and machine bound the flannel Yellow Brick Road quilt. 

I donated it last Friday. I hope the bright green doesn't keep the person who receives it awake. ;o)

I didn't have enough fabric left over for binding so had to go shopping. I swear in the store the purples matched. Oh well, it took forever to hand stitch this down so I'm not changing it.

This quilt is also my June UFO Challenge quilt...although it really wasn't that old and all I needed to do was sew the binding on.

For the last three days you would have thought I lived in Arizona...

Yesterday's temp at 3:32 p.m.  This is crazy. It was 108 on Saturday and 103 today. Roseville was cooler than here! I do not want to see my electric bill this month, luckily it is auto paid.

My friend Angela is crazy lucky when it comes to garage and estate sales. She was checking the free furniture list on Nextdoor Sunday and found a dresser she liked. The official estate sale was over and the people had everything left over in a dumpster (not a lot of donation places open in the SF Bay Area yet). She found a dresser, and other furniture, plus...she texted me that she found a small Singer sewing machine in a box.

Be still my heart...I asked her to open it up and send me pictures...

It is in excellent shape and runs great. Has lots of attachments.

 Per the serial number it was made in 1937. I repeat...in a dumpster, for free!!!!

Quilt One

 

While at Donna's she quilted two of my quilts on her Gammill...I helped ;o)

I also had three quilts at my local long arm quilter that were finished while I was gone.  I have lots of binding to sew on. All but one of the quilts have been trimmed and are ready for binding. The first one finished is the General Jack quilt top I made last year.

We used a double layer of wool batting on this quilt so it is extra puffy. We quilted it with lots of feather designs using a gold thread that I thought was perfect for the quilt.

I had hoped the center star would show up a bit better with the dense quilting. 

The binding is the same fabric as the back...cause I thought it didn't have binding already made...I should know me better, with a few exceptions, I ALWAYS make the binding when I finish a quilt top. I didn't remember making it so I didn't even look. I found it when I when looking for the other quilt's bindings in the drawer I store all my binding in.

I'll show you the rest of the quilts as I finish up their bindings. Which may take a while cause it is supposed to be in the high 90's all this week and over a 100 all next week.Yikes! Little warm to be hand sewing binding on large warm quilts.

The one quilt that I didn't trim looked like this on the back.

I let the long arm quilter know she had tension problems and sent her pictures. She has offered to refund the quilting fee and re-do the quilt. It is a small quilt and it looks like, out the four passes across the quilt, only two have tension issues so hopefully it won't be too bad to take out the stitches and redo.

Oh My Goodness

 

I was not bored last week. I just got back a couple of hours ago from spending a week in Star, Idaho. I visited with Donna and her husband for the last week (she visited me last year when everything was on fire). We shopped and sewed, and shopped and sewed, and shopped and sewed some more.

In no particular order...

I made a pop-up basket.

Donna has a computerized Gammill longarm. We got the Exploding Heart quilted.

 

 

This is the pattern I chose. The quilting is a really light green.

Donna has been looking for something to store her Red Snappers in...we found a naval shell casing at an antique mall. It was perfect and a great conversation piece.

Donna setting the boundaries on my second quilt.  I'll show both finished quilts after I get the binding put on.

(out of order) Bella didn't miss me at all. She was too busy warming her belly to come see me when I picked her up at my mom's.

I bought this quilt kit (on sale) LOVE the fabrics.

Donna has an embroidery machine and made us each a little post-it note holder.

I found sashing and backing fabric for the blocks I won a few months ago.

Couldn't not buy these William Morris fabrics.

There was a lady in the area who had an online shop that she was closing who had a "garage sale" of sorts. These are a bit different but I loved the colors and designs.

More garage sale finds.

Batik rayon and top pattern. For some reason I've been wanting to do some garment sewing.

Some other odds and ends purchased.

This was a glass front sliding door I found at a thrift shop. I thought it was interesting and might work as a frame for my finished blackwork project.

 

Donna had a project portfolio that she made over 20 years ago at a retreat. She uses hers for her wool travel projects. The one she made was pretty ratty looking and she wanted to make a new one (with a few tweaks)...but didn't have a pattern or remember how she made it.

My job this past week was to figure out how to make it. We bought the fabrics and foam board yesterday morning and finished making them about 8 p.m. last night. This is mine. I wish I had taken a picture of Donna's as hers was much prettier.

Busy week! Lots of fun! But I'm happy to be home and looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight...not looking forward to all the laundry tomorrow. ;o)

Still Pretty Boring

 

I got two more backs made last week...here's one:

 The colors are really off, honestly, they all match and look good together in person. The other back was a solid purple flannel - no picture. Hopefully, now that the backs are made, I'll have some finishes for you soon.

I found an ad on Facebook from a quilter who, after 30 years of quilting, decided she was burnt out on quilting and was selling all her fabric and quilt books. 

She had a wonderful room just below her house for sewing (stole this from her Facebook ad)

Loved the cubbies she had her fat quarters in. She was selling the mini bolts for $5 each regardless of the amount of fabric on it and fat quarters for a $1. She told me one person was there earlier in the week and bought over $300 worth of fabric...almost all of her batiks. Believe me it was very difficult to not go nuts. She had lots of bright colors in prints, stripes, and polka dots. Since I didn't have a specific project in mind when I got there, while I would have loved to go crazy and buy tons, I didn't. I already have a lot of single fabrics I've bought over the years that I look at now and think "okay, now what?".

So this is all I bought.

I think I'm going to make a tote with the two fabrics on the far left. LOVED the little leaf print. The two gold batiks match a set of batiks I already have, and the rest would "go" with some other odd fabrics I have.

She's gone for the next two weeks. I'm thinking about buying some more but I'd like to have a few actual projects in mind if I go back. The prices are hard to pass up.