Category: machine quilting

longarm quilting · losing dad · machine quilting · quilting

I’ve Been Stitching!

Wild Rose QuilterLeave a comment

Life has been sooooo busy. I think about my little blog, and I want to write more in it, but finding the time has not been easy. I will tell you that tonight I started a draft for the post I promised I would write after my father passed away last year after battling Alzheimer’s. I got quite a good start on that post this evening, but it’s going to take a bit longer to write than my normal posts, but at least I have the draft going. For anyone that wants to read it, I plan to have it finished by the first anniversary of his death, which is the 22nd of this month. I warn you, it won’t be short. It will be the longest blog post I’ve ever posted in the 10 years I’ve been blogging here.

All that said, I have done some quilting in between the work, housework, family visiting, and caring for my mom in her failing health. Life is full of ups and downs, but I strive to focus on the ups! There is beauty in all of it, and my mantra lately is that my worst days are so much better than many people’s best days, and I must be mindful of and grateful for that!

I finished the quilting on another QOV for my guild. The next local QOV presentation put on by our guild, Friendship Quilt Guild, will be in October. I initially agreed to do the quilting on two, which is all they asked of me, but the first two went smoothly and quickly and I easily fit them into my schedule, so I offered to take another one. I truly enjoy participating in this worthy cause.

Here’s a little peek. I won’t show the whole quilt since they haven’t been presented yet. I chose Star Swirl panto by Michelle Wyman and Terry Watson. I love it for patriotic quilts. I also love the side lighting in my quilting room in our new home.

Also, I have been working on the piecing of Baby Z’s quilt, my newest grandson. I started this quilt just before or just after he was born. He’s almost 10 mos. old now. I must hurry and get this quilt done! Today, I made the blocks for the final row of chevrons, but they are not sewn to each other yet. I also decided the order in which I want to sew the different color rows, and have them laid out in that order. I’m getting so excited to get this top finished and on to quilting!

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That concludes this Sunday rundown. Stay tuned! I will be back! Have a great week y’all!

freehand quilting · longarm quilting · machine quilting · quilting

Successful Sunday Funday

Wild Rose Quilter1 Comment

In between the worship time, cooking, and the eating, and the cleaning, and the shopping, and the tending to elderly parents, and the sorting, washing, folding and putting away of the laundry…I did some stitching today! Slow and fast! I made some good progress on hand stitching the King size binding, and I did a little longarm quilting! What a blessed Sunday at Casa de Ortega. ❤️

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Circle Lord · feather quilting · longarm quilting · machine quilting · quilt top · quilting

Saturday Stitching

Wild Rose Quilter3 Comments

Did a little longarming.

Did a little piecing. The center portion of my Fons & Porter Stars & Stripes Sampler is finally complete and ready for borders.  The piecing has some issues and I will have some challenges to “quilt out”, lol. Nobody to blame but myself, hehe.

Before I left town for my work trip, I also did a little online shopping. These little gems were waiting for me when I got home, and I can’t wait for the right project to try them out! Lisa Calle’s Quilter’s Groove rulers…these things seem like they will be awesome to use!

Other than that, not much to say today. Hope your weekend is great!

daily life · family · longarm quilting · machine quilting

Been Busy, Busy…and Sick

Wild Rose Quilter22 Comments

Meant to get another blog post up before now, but life had other plans.  Of course, there was district golf, and traveling for that.  I happily and proudly present the 2010 District Champs!

The first one on the left is MY golfer.  Hopefully, I will be on the road to Lubbock Sunday, for the regional tournament, Monday and Tuesday.  I say hopefully, because I have been down for the count since Wednesday evening with some nasty flu.  I managed to get out of bed around 11:00 this morning.  I was up and down all night with a horrid headache.  I tried ice, I tried hot bath water…nothing would ease what felt like a vice squeezing my brain.  And the nausea.  Yuk.  My poor DH has even been home with it since mid-afternoon Wednesday.  I am praying that Derek does not get it.  At least not til AFTER regionals.  That would not be good.

I finished the quilting for the guild’s donation quilt.  The pattern is Lucky Stars, by Terry Atkinson, with an added applique border.  I think the guild members were happy with it.  I used Quilter’s Dream blend batting, Superior’s Rainbows thread on top, and Superior’s So Fine thread on back.  The top is all batiks, and the backing is a wide batik backing from Sew Batik.  It was wonderful to quilt.  I was worried about using a fussier thread with all those batiks, but I didn’t have any troubles.  I started out with a larger needle…a size 20 titanium from Groz-Beckert, and that seemed to work very well.  I had fantastic tension, top and bottom.  I was very happy with the way the quilting looks on the back.

Here are some block close-ups so you can see how lovely this Rainbows variegated thread looked on this.  I was using the color Rain Forest, in the stars and borders, and Sand Castle in the background.  The Rain Forest blended so nicely with all the different colors in this quilt.  I love it!  The Sand Castle was a perfect match for the range of colors in the batik background fabric.

The ladies at the guild did a great job putting this together and it was a pleasure to work on it.  I fell totally in love with it, and it sure was hard to give it back! Just a couple more…

It will be a lucky person that gets to take this Lucky Stars home with them!

On a final note, thanks to everyone that took time to vote in the Circle Lord Challenge contest, whether you voted for my quilt or not! And thanks to those that have sent me good wishes and words of encouragement, and did vote for mine.  Now, we just have to wait til the winners are announced.

Hope everyone has a good weekend.  Think I will go lay back down for awhile.

feather quilting · longarm quilting · machine quilting

Better this way?

Wild Rose Quilter23 Comments

Or this way?

I’ve only done the one, so not too overwhelming if I have to pick it out.  DH likes it better without.  If the “with its” win, I do see that I need to branch the feather fronds out a bit farther on the last edge…didn’t quite touch out to the point like it should.

One more pic to help you decide:

Now just use the handy little poll below! Thanks!

Edited to add a little clarification: I’m really not sure what the final quilting plan will be for the rest of the quilt…part of that will depend on whether or not I decide to keep the feather in this motif, or not. I basically just want to know if the feather looks good in that individual design to you, or not. Keeping the feather, or getting rid of the feather, will affect my decisions for the rest of the quilt.

longarm quilting · machine quilting

Stash Quilting Report

Wild Rose Quilter9 Comments

I have been working away on some of my stash quilts.  I’m still stitching the binding on my first Gracie’s Star quilt.  A bit more to go, a label, and it will be a finish.  I’m hoping to have that done before this year ends.  I really enjoyed making that quilt, so when a friend asked me to make a commissioned baby quilt for her, I thought it would be the perfect choice for to showcase these western themed fabrics I already had on hand.  And, the pattern clearly states you may make them for personal use, OR for profit…so no copyright worries.  Gotta love that.  If you like the pattern, you may purchase your own at Quiltin’ Tia.  I’m not affiliated in any way. Just a a happy customer. And now, the quilt.

I quilted it with the Stetson & Boots panto from The Pattern Man.  I used red Signature cotton thread.  See the boots and hats?  I use this pattern frequently and it stitches out nicely, and fairly quickly.

I used Quilters Dream “Dream Angel” flame retardant batting for the first time.  I fell in love with the feel of this batting as soon as I took it out of the package.  So soft.  I will definitely use it again. I also did my first ever binding on the longarm.  It went pretty well.  I will definitely do that again, as well.

Yesterday, I sewed all day long, just for me.  I needed some instant gratification, so I finally pulled out that stash of fat quarters that has been waiting to be made into a chicken quilt.  I just used the Turning Twenty pattern, and now I have another flimsy to be quilted.  A few little peeks at it.  It’s not my usual color choices.  Mostly browns and golds…very warm, for the most part.  I think it will look lots better after quilting.

Some of the chickies:

And, I think I am just three and 1/4 blocks away from having enough blocks to make my mom a decent size lap throw.  This is Bonnie Hunter’s Oklahoma Backroads pattern, and I have been making these blocks using the leaders/enders method from her site. I went all out scrappy with this one.  I think the next scrappy I make might be a bit more planned, rather than using any and everything.

I am only working Monday and Tuesday this next week.  Then, I am off on vacation! Yes! Between the holiday days, my vacation days, and the weekends, I will have eleven days off.  I hope to get more done on my projects during that time.  I am really looking forward to it.

And that concludes my stash quilting report for this week!

longarm quilting · machine quilting · quilting · quilts · stash busting

Sunday Stash Quilting Report

Wild Rose Quilter19 Comments

I have stash reporting this week! I finished the quilting on my Gracie’s Star quilt.  The pattern is from http://www.quiltintia.com.  I quilted it with Jodie Beamish’s Rosie panto.  Seems I use that one a lot, but this is the only quilt of my very own with it.  Today I got the binding stitched to the front, ready for nighttime snuggling under it, while I do the hand stitching, watching TV.  I used 8 yards backing and binding.  I am going to enjoy using this quilt.  It just makes me feel good.

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I used the red in this star for the binding.

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I love this fabric, that is in some of the blocks, and I used it for backing, also.

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I’m getting kind of antsy to start some new projects, but I’m trying to make myself finish some first.  I want some finishes before this year is finished! I do need to start a commissioned baby quilt soon, though.  I keep forgetting about that, and the baby is due the end of January.  Better start picking some fabric from my stash for that!

My Mom delivered the comfort quilt I made, for our friend with breast cancer, to her today.  She loved it.  She had a mastectomy a week ago Thursday. The test results have revealed that she had two different cancers in that breast.  There will be some chemo, but I think the prognosis is still good.  She has an appointment tomorrow, so maybe we will know more after that.

I’ve had a wonderful weekend, here at home, with my family.  I hope yours has been good, as well!

YTD totals:

  • Incoming Yardage to date: 75 yds.
  • Outgoing Yardage to date:  64.25 yds.
  • Total Stash Busted to date: -10.75 yds.