quilting

One down, two to go…plus a little video


One more client job finished, two to go before I take “Christmas break”.  I had hoped to have this one finished a little quicker, but between Thanksgiving cooking and spending time with family, I didn’t work on it at all this past weekend, until Sunday.  My son and his girlfriend actually wanted to spend some time with me, playing Monopoly and dipping pretzels in chocolate and almond bark.  Those times are few and far between, so when the opportunity presents itself, I take it.  We made some good memories.  I’m thankful that the quilters that I quilt for are such sweet, understanding people.  🙂

Sana’s, here is your quilt! I will give you call in a day or two to see when & where you want to pick it up.  I will be working in my out of town office the first half of this week.

I love the effect of the rope quilting.  Even though stitching freehanded with a ruler, the backtracking isn’t always completely perfect, I think it still looks nice.

While I was working on it, I made a short little video showing how I did the stitching in the stars.  I thought those that don’t machine quilt, or machine quilting “newbies” might enjoy it.

Next up is a brightly colored pinwheel quilt! Fun, fun!

quilting

A is for Applique


This block (from Blackbird Designs’ Quilting The Garden book) is really starting to come to life.

Right now, the pieces are secured with Liquid Stitch.  Once I have them all in place, I will machine applique them down.  I’m trying to decide if I want to use a poly mono thread, for invisible machine applique, or use embroidery thread in matching colors, and decorative stitching. The latter would definitely take longer.

Sana’s quilt is also coming along.  I finished all the crosshatching and SID today, and got more of the rope border done.  I’m slow…I know.  Too many projects…too little time!

Tomorrow, it’s back to the grindstone, with another work week beginning.  But, it has been a blessed weekend at home again.  Mom  (who is progressing quite well)  has other family helping this week, which has been really great for me.  My house was in terrible disarray, due to my lack of attention to it, with all that has been going on.  I was able to make progress on it, and spend time doing things I love…which is certainly good medicine for my soul!

applique · crafts · embroidery

From One Project To Another


I have numerous projects going, and this weekend, it seems my goal is to do a little of everything.  I completed my “homework” for next month’s quilt guild meeting.  I completed the next “block” in my project for our block of the month challenge.

This was a fun block, once I got past the frustrati0n of learning to machine blanket stitch the stars halfway decently.  The points really gave me fits to start with, and I don’t know that I ever got them “right”, but I’m happy enough with them.

While I was working on those, I had my embroidery machine running, making these angel parts:

This is going to be my ornament for the guild ornament exchange at our Christmas party this year.

Speaking of quilt guild, I have to give mine a shout out.  It seems that a topic that pops up a lot in online quilting forums is ugliness of one kind or another at quilt guilds…hatefulness among members, etc.  Well, my quilt guild is awesome! The camaraderie is something I look forward to every month.  It’s really a special group and I’m thankful to be a part of it.

I also worked on Sana’s quilt, from the previous post.  I have almost all the crosshatching finished, some more rope border done, and almost all of the SID.  Once I’m completely finished with those things, I will go back and do the rest of the star blocks.  I only did the first two, to make sure I liked the design.  Then, I went back to the crosshatching and SID to get the whole quilt stabilized.

And, after all that…I treated myself to a little time to spend on an applique project that I have started.  I found a yummy kit at Material Girls fabric shop in Borger, for a yummy quilt by Blackbird designs.  I needed another project like I need another hole in my head…but…well, y’all understand don’t ya?  I also discovered that the girls from Blackbird designs have a nice blog, too, called One Stitch At A Time.  They even love the caterpillars that eat their dill and parsley, and then turn into swallowtail butterflies, just like I do! Their pattern is for needle turn applique, but the only time I tried that, I found it to be a very frustrating experience.  Not my strong suit, at all.  So, I’m doing it the way Sharon Schamber teaches in her book, Piece by Piece Machine Applique. It involves special wash away stabilizer and Elmer’s washable glue sticks and Liquid Stitch.  I’m pretty slow at this, so I will probably still be working on this a few years from now.  I hope I stay with it…I really like the quilt and want to finish it.  I think it will be so much fun to quilt on my longarm!

I even did some laundry and housework today.  Yep, it was a good Saturday! Hope your weekend is going great! Thanks for stopping by!

quilting

Just a Little Quilting


I finally had a weekend that did not involve a hospital or a hotel…just home.  Yay! I got started quilting a top for a fellow guild member,  Sana.  Sana and I both have full-time jobs in criminal justice,  and are both longarm quilters.   I feel very honored that she asked me to complete this quilt for her.  Sana, I hope you like what I’m doing to your top! 🙂  I am enjoying working on it!

I auditioned a few stencils for the strip pieced blocks, but then I realized that the most effective quilting for those areas would actually be some type of straight line quilting.  I think the crosshatching is working well, and does not get “lost” in there like a stencil motif would have.  And, it doesn’t complete with the star blocks.

I think I spend as much time upside down checking out the back, as I do looking at the top!

I hope everyone is having a great week! Thanks for stopping by!

quilting

Mom is Home!


She got out of the hospital today.  Still has a long road to complete recovery, but she is going the right direction.  I was on such a roller coaster ride last week.    I feel I have been through the wringer this week, and then some.  Today…was a nice, (mostly) normal day.  I was like….oh…I remember this…this is my life.  I could use a few of these all in a row.

Anyway, I wanted to pop in and let y’all know that Mom is much better.  It was really horrible for her there for a few days.  But, then all of sudden, she began to turn the corner.  Whew!  Thank you all for the prayers and support.  Hugs!