Done, done, and done

Fred was afraid to look...but notice his ears aren't covered, so no bad words were said.   ;o)

My grand-niece's quilt is done!  I found the perfect lavender-purple oh-so-soft flannel for the back.

Lessons learned:
1.  If you are going to quilt separate designs in the borders remember what those designs are. If you have to unroll a quilt to see what you did it does not re-roll as tightly.
2. Turning a quilt is not too difficult.
3. Professional long-arm quilts are worth every penny per square inch they charge. Quilting, even on a frame is hard work.

Matching pillowcase is done!

 

Vintage looking dishtowel is done! This is the little project I mentioned a few posts ago. I haven't embroidered in a long time. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy it.

 

Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...but wait, I have someplace to go. I was suppose to leave for my Mom's today, but the weather is truly frightful so I'll leave tomorrow instead. My car is all packed up so I can't drive anywhere, so I'm stuck in the house all day (not that I'd want to go out is this frightful weather). What to do, what to do...





 

 

 

I'm such a Grinch

Everyone is decorating their houses for the holiday, both inside and out.  Here's my Christmas tree:

Plugs into my computer, USB powered LED, changes colors. LOVE IT!

Okay, so maybe I have a few other Christmas decorations out, but this one is currently my fav.

Bah Humbug.

Done

It's a top...a big top...

 

 I haven't quilted anything this big on the frame...

It should be interesting. If you hear any cussing and swearing it's probably me.

Bad Bad Quilter

I have not done any sewing for over two weeks...I'm a bad bad quilter.

I went to the River City Quilters Guild quilt show yesterday (forgot camera) - there were lots of really nice quilts, you would think that would have inspired me...nope.

These represent my unfinished quilts...I think I have two scrappy quilts that don't have binding shown here. I try to make my binding as I make the quilt top and I keep them all together in a single drawer so they don't get lost.  You'd think getting them done would inspire me...nope.

Christmas is five weeks away, you would think that would inspire me to get Brooklyn's quilt done...nope.

Nancy is going to pick up FIVE finished quilts from her long-arm quilter and drop off FOUR more quilt tops, you'd think that would inspire me...nope.

I have been doing a very very very little bit of hand work. I'll show it when it's finished.

I'm a bad bad quilter.

Thread

I received a large box full of thread...

This isn't even half of it.  Most of the threads are JPCoats Dual Duty cotton covered polyester. There is also a lot of Gutermann 100% polyester. Lots of different colors. The original owner was not a quilter, she made clothes. I think most of these were purchased at Walmart or JoAnn's.

I have mixed feelings about all of these threads. I've heard you should only piece with 100% cotton thread. Would you use these to piece a quilt? I don't make heirloom quilts, so do I really need to worry about what type of thread I use?

Would you use these for piecing quilts or save them for other miscellaneous craft projects?

Boo, Boo Hoo

Boo! I did have a Halloween stripe fabric. Here is my version of Stacey's towels...hers are cuter, but I do like how mine turned out.

 



 

It's almost time for lemon aide, lemon curd, lemon pie, lemon bars, lemon chicken...

 

 

They are starting to turn yellow, they should be ripe in about a month.





The boo hoo? I put what I thought was the last row on my grand-niece's quilts then took a closer look...hmmm the cat fabric is directional, if I "stand the cats up" the quilt is wide and short. Not a good thing, I like quilts either square or long and narrow.  Boogers. The difficult solution is to take squares off the side then add squares to the top. The easy solution is to add two more rows.

Guess which one I'm going to do.

Boo

Aren't these towels cute! Stacey make them. I had to share them.

They are all from the same fabric...a Halloween stripe....

...I just checked my stash...I have a Halloween stripe...wonder if it's wide enough...Hmmmmm.

PIQF - The End

Some of the quilts were so life like...



 Wanna cracker?

Looks like a photo...all thread play. Amazing.

These two were just to cute...



And look at the quilting!

Si and Am.  Hehehehe

And the most important part of the day...

THE SHOPPING!! The pashmina shawl was my only impulse buy.

These are for my next project.

At the end of the day I was very happy (my feet were very unhappy).

PIQF - Phase II

Lets see what Blogger will let me (not) do today...

Button, button, who's got the button?

Old and new buttons and beads.

There were lots of star and mariner's compass quilts this year...

 

Either that or those were the types of quilts that drew my camera this year.

 

Phase III tomorrow.

PIQF

Warning photo overload!

 I'm going to start with my favorite. I loved the middle eastern look of this quilt...

 Then I took a closer look...

All hand appliqued....

Amazing.

Okay so Blogger won't let me add any more pictures...hmmm. Phase two tomorrow.

More Progress

 

I made lots of progress on Brooklyn's quilt yesterday.  Here you can see the "corner flowers" I mentioned the last time. I think it helps tone down the white a lot. I'm making the quilt smaller than originally planned. I'm a little worried about quilting it, if I make it as originally planned I will have to turn the quilt on the frame...I don't think I'm ready for that yet. It will still be around 60 x 70 inches.

Do you sew under these conditions?

He knows he is not helping because he won't make eye contact...won't budge either.

Once I moved his rear to the side a bit I did continue sewing.

Progress

I'm making progress on Brooklyn's quilt. The main blocks are done, now I have to add the corner "flowers". It will be easier to show you a picture later than try to explain the flowers.

 

Adding them will probably take longer than making the blocks...the cat fabric is directional, so I have to make sure I don't turn a star and I have to keep the flower blossoms together.

I feel like there is a lot of  white in this quilt...the stars float in the white so I could trim them down to a smaller size. What do you think? Trim or not?

I had to buy it...

It called my name.

hehehe

New Guy in my Life

Isn't he handsome. His name is Ramen and I got to babysit him over Labor Day weekend. Look at the size of his feet! You know what that means don't you?

Six toes! It almost looks like he has thumbs. Such a sweet boy.

I've been working away on my great-niece's quilt. I really like how these blocks are coming together. 4 down 38 more to go.

I have to show you my lemon tree...there are so many lemons on each branch that the branch are starting to fall down from the weight!

I have no idea what I'm going to do with all those lemons.

Now I Got Something

Besides bad grammar.

Finally finished the silk ribbon blocks. I didn't do much in the way of quilting, just a little bit of in the ditch.

I finished the smaller table runner.

And tried a few new-to-me FMQ designs. I like how this turned out.

The next quilt was a bit of a challenge. All of the quilts I've quilted on the frame have had flannel backs, this is the first with a flannel top. It kept stretching and moving under the FMQ foot. I'm hoping after it is washed some of the bunchiness goes away. Again another new-to-me quilt design. The wonky leaves were fun to do. I also used a variegated thread which I really liked.

A few finishes and a new start. My great-niece requested a quilt: pink, purple and cats.

I'm hoping this works...she's really picky.

I Got Nothing

I've been told I need to post something...but I got nothing.

I could show cat pictures. Can you tell these two are related?

Can you tell these two don't really like each other? But do like being next to any quilt on the floor.

Or I could show what Nancy has been working on lately...

These were taken over a month ago....

She has borders on both of them now and they are on their way to the quilters.

Me? I've made a couple of quilt backs and loaded a quilt on the frame...whoopee.

Maybe by the end of the weekend I'll have something interesting to show.