Sunday Report Time!

December 30, 2007December 30, 2007 Wild Rose Quilter9 Comments

I cannot start this post with “I did not buy any new fabric”. I did buy new fabric. Yesterday, on a trip to Pampa, the LQS was having one of it’s two annual 40% off all fabric in the store sales. I didn’t, however, start buying willie nillie, like a chicken with my head cut off. I needed more neutrals in my stash, so I went straight to the neutral section and picked some out. I also bought some thread. I’m ok with this purchase…no feeling guilty at all.

Stash use and project progresses or completions were:

I finished this lap extra long lap quilt I made for my son, earlier this year, by making the binding and machine stitching it onto the quilt (which you can see in the second pic that I’m not that good at doing), and I added a very “professionally” done label 😉 Yes, that is sharpie written directly on the back of the quilt. This is a use me/abuse me quilt. I hope he wears it completely out one of these days.

I finished the quilting (if you can call it that) on Greg’s quilt. Prepare yourself, this may hurt your eyes…I give myself an “F” on the quilting. I was completely uninspired when I began quilting this one…to borrow Carla’s term…my “artistic harmony” was nowhere to be found. Anyway, done is good in this case. One positive that came from it, is that I was finally starting to get good at the “swirly” border! I even successfully turned the corners with it. Other than that, I really can’t say what I was thinking…

And lastly, I started working on this Eleanor Burns project. So far, I have used 10.5 yards from my stash! When I’m done, I will have not one, but two new king size quilts for my bed. You can also see part of my leaders & enders in the left bottom corner of the second photo.

I think that wraps up the quilting portion of my Sunday Report. However, I have some other “stash enhancing” to report. Though I did ok, I think, with the fabric purchasing at the quilt shop, Walmart is where I went a little stupid…lol.

I’ve been wishing for something else to work on at night, when I’m not working on a binding, or when I need something a little more portable, so I’m giving knitting another whirl. Yes, that’s right, I said another whirl. Hopefully, this time, I will have something better to show for my efforts than this “beautiful” afghan I made in college 🙂 I do remember feeling quite proud of myself at the time.

So, now that I’ve horrified you with crazy bad quilting and crazy wild knitting all in one post, I hope that won’t scare you from coming back to visit me again. With that, I conclude my Sunday report!

Christmas · love of my life · machine quilting · quilting

Oh Santa Baby, I Love You!!

December 25, 2007December 25, 2007 Wild Rose Quilter12 Comments

My husband made me cry…like a little girl…I got cooking pots! And a wok! From Pampered Chef!

Ok, so if you are thinking “I would cry if I got cooking pots for Christmas, too”, and you mean that in a not so good way…let show you my old cooking pots.

This is like Extreme Makeover Cookware edition. I am 41 yrs. old and I have never had my very own, brand new to me, cookware. Now I do. My old ones are a hodgepodge of hand me downs from my Mom. I made mention one day to my hubby, after looking at a Pampered Chef catalog, at my hairstylist’s shop, (he was having a book party) that they had some nice cook pots. I said I’ve never had any nice cook pots. He asked if I got any…I said no, they are expensive. And that was the end of that conversation. Well, DH called our hairstylist and told him that he needed to know about these cookpots I saw when I was at his shop. Yep, I’m really, really proud of my cookpots. And I’m really proud of him, too.

Santa Baby also got me this platter I fell in love with, at a local Christian bookstore. He said it’s the only chicken I’ll be getting this year…lol!

My parents came this morning and just left about an hour ago. In fact Mom just called to let me know they are almost back to their house. We had a great time, and since I have DH’s Christmas present quilt still loaded on the longarm, I actually got to show them how it works. They have seen it before, but I’ve never had anything on that I could actually quilt in front of them.

Hmmm…maybe I should mention before Christmas next year, that I’ve never had a really nice mixer…. 😉

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

Sunday Stash Busting Report

December 23, 2007 Wild Rose Quilter2 Comments

I had a good week of stashbusting.

1. I didn’t buy any fabric, even though there was another sale at Thousands of Bolts.

2. I made the binding for my Simply Leaves wallhanging, and got that fabric out of my stash. I also attached said binding, and a label, thus completing that WIP.

3. I made the binding for a lap quilt I made for my son, earlier this year, as well as the binding for my New York Beauty wallhanging, which has been bindingless for quite some time.

4. I added the borders to the courthouse steps top. The inner border was strips that I already had cut for it, a long time ago. I used 3.5 yards of fabric, from my stash, for the outer border. I used 8.5 yards of fabric, from my stash for the backing. That quilt is currently loaded on the longarm, with quilting in progress.

5. I have continued to whittle away at the scrap pile, turning it into strips, and leaders/enders, some of which I’ve already started sewing. I usually remember the “leader”, but have a tendency to forget the “ender”. I’m working on that.

Thus concludes another successful week of stashbusting.

Libby · longarm quilting · love of my life · machine quilting · nature · pets · photos · quilting · quilts

What a Difference a Day Makes!

December 22, 2007December 22, 2007 Wild Rose Quilter2 Comments

Wow, yesterday I had that gorgeous sunrise to enjoy, and today, this! Good thing the Princess of Serendipity is keeping Flat Stanley home til after the holidays 🙂 It was not foggy, that is just blowing snow making visibility very difficult.

One of us was enjoying it! Yeehaw, says Libby as she dashes through the snow, at a high rate of speed!

I’ll let this picture speak for itself!

Ok, I’m ready to go back in now!

I took all these early this morning. It’s now almost 3:00 pm, and the sun is shining again!

In quilt news, I have the courthouse steps loaded on the longarm, but I decided to stop kidding myself. No way that it is getting finished before Christmas. I was making myself cranky by putting so much pressure on myself. I told DH today, Merry Christmas! This is your gift! He said he loves it! I sure love him!

longarm quilting · machine quilting · quilt top · quilting · quilts · stash busting

It’s Almost Vacation Time!!

December 20, 2007December 20, 2007 Wild Rose Quilter8 Comments

One more day at my day job, and then I get to take a few days of vacation. I really need it!

I’ve been busy as a bee, trying to finish up some projects. I should have a good stashbuster report this week. I had to do a last minute fleece blanket for a customer. Got that loaded & quilted Tuesday night, trimmed & fringed it yesterday. I’m trying to finish my courthouse steps as a Christmas surprise for my DH, but I think that might be pushing it. But I’m trying!

But I do have a finish to report! I finally bound & labeled Simply Leaves. If you have Kim Stotsenberg’s “Just Leaf It” book, you will find this little quilt on the last page. It wasn’t finished yet! Anyway, it is a practice piece I did, trying to do leaves like Kim. I was surprised and thrilled when she asked to include it in her book. At least I finally got that binding done!

I am exhausted today, but I thought I needed to post something so you weren’t seeing the same old same old day after day.

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

Sunday Stash Report

December 9, 2007 Wild Rose Quilter9 Comments

1. The biggest news is that I finished quilting my Starry Log Cabin! And,….I already have the binding stitched to the front, and I have started the hand stitching! Yeehaw! Pics will follow, at the bottom of this post 🙂

2. I have made further progress on my courthouse steps blocks. The stack of strips left to attach has grown much smaller.

3. I was weak, and went to one of my favorite online sources for a fabric fix. I told myself I would “just get some neutrals”. Afterall, my stash is lacking in those, so it wouldn’t be so bad to get some of them. I even started picking some and putting them in my “wishlist”. BUT I STOPPED! I did NOT put them in my cart!

So, mostly this week I guess I have stayed focused on the projects at hand, determined to have finishes and not a continuing, growing pile of UFO’s in and amongst my stash. I think it was a successful week.

Now for the quilt pics. There were three pantos in the running for this quilt, but I feel confident that I chose the correct one. I love the movement Hermione’s Fantasia gives this quilt.

I used Signature cotton thread in Cranapple. I love the way it looks on the blue border. The stitching shows up nicely, but doesn’t jump out at you.

I really like the way the pattern shows up in the red diamonds, and makes them really standout.

And finally, the backing, that wasn’t really my first choice, but I already had these two fabrics in my stash, in abundance, as I have a bolt of each. I used 3.5 yds of the burgandy, and 7 yds of the tan. And now that it’s all said and done, I like it. Gives it a little touch of whimsy, which suits my personality perfectly.

And I think Hermione is right. This panto would make a very pretty wholecloth! For those of you that have asked, and may have missed my response in my comments, the quilt pattern can be found in an older Leisure Arts book, called Quick Method Liberty Quilts.

longarm quilting · machine quilting · quilt top · quilting · quilts · sewing · stash busting

WIP Wednesday

December 5, 2007 Wild Rose Quilter12 Comments

I started the quilting on my Starry Log Cabin. I’m using Hermione Agee’s (Lorien Quilting) Fantasia panto. Let me tell ya, I am LOVING this one. I’m so excited about how pretty it is stitching up. Here’s some sneak peeks…it’ll be a few days before I have it finished. I only have four rows done, it’s an eleven inch panto, my top is 115″, so I have a ways to go yet. (yes, I’m sure that’s not “proper” English, but it’s how I talk…so if I want to write that way, too, I can, it’s MY blog 🙂 Call it creative license!) Anyway, I digress…back to the pics!

I’ve also made some more progress on my courthouse steps blocks some on my lunch breaks. I mailed my cousin’s quilt today, and said prayers that it makes it to them safely. That was hard to do, let it go off like that without me along to protect it. I’ll be so glad when I get a call that it made it! And that wraps up my Wednesday report. Have a great rest of the week!

longarm quilting · Lulu · machine quilting · quilt top · quilting · quilts · sewing · stash busting

Sunday Stash Busting Report

December 2, 2007December 12, 2007 Wild Rose Quilter7 Comments

Well, I am happy to report that I have had a pretty good week on the stash busting. I finished my starry log cabin top, that I have been working on, on and off, for almost ten years. So not only do I have the blocks finished and out of my stash, I used 3.5 yards of this beautiful blue fabric, from my stash, for the border. I will also be using about another yard for the binding.

I also shopped my stash for backing fabric, using up another 10.5 yards from my stash! It wasn’t my first choice of backing, but I decided it would work fine. You will see the backing once I have it quilted and post final pics of this project.

I also pulled out another UFO, a courthouse steps made from scraps from other projects, and made some forward progress on it. This is froma Marti Michelle “quilt as you go” pattern, but it took me two blocks to decide quilt as you go isn’t for me. I started it before I owned a longarm. After getting the longarm, I decided it would be much more fun to sew them together the regular old way, and quilt it on my longarm.

Once I have this center done, I will use the same border fabric she used on hers. And the fun part is, I already had a bolt of the border fabric in my stash, when I realized it was the one she used! How cool is that!?

I also posted some more stashbusting from the week in my Thursday post from this week. And if you want to see my out of control stash, it can be seen in the post prior to this one, so just scroll on down for it. 🙂

This pic was just too cute not to include. Look what I keep finding under the Christmas tree.

Oh, I almost forgot! I finished my cousin’s quilt! Bound, labeled, washed and dried. I just have to get it shipped off to her and pray that nothing happens to it in transit. I can’t wait to hear what they think of it.

Christmas · daily life · longarm quilting · machine quilting · quilt top · quilting · quilts · vintage tops

Good Sunday Mornin’! Edited to add some Stashbusting

November 25, 2007December 13, 2007 Wild Rose Quilter14 Comments

One last day in my four day weekend. I’m so sad to have to go back to work tomorrow. Yesterday, I did something fun. A few months ago, I was watching one of my Linda Taylor dvd’s of her PBS series, Linda’s Longarm Quilting. She had an episode on quilting vintage tops. That set me off on an Ebay binge…lol. I finally got an opportunity to work on one of them. Isn’t it a beauty? I tried to keep it as square as possible, but it is a little wonky. Now it goes on the WOB list (waiting on binding). I hope it also qualifies as part of my stash busting effort, as it was on the shelf with my stash, and I used backing fabric for my stash, and will use the same for the binding.

Just look at all the beautiful fabrics in here. I love them!

I used a repro backing that I got from Christian Lane Quilters.

The story, from the Ebay lister, is that she purchased this top from an elderly woman named May, who she reckons to be in her 80’s. But get this…there wasn’t just this one top…there are two of these beauties! The tops were pieced by her mother, from May’s and May’s sister’s dresses. She said there was no one left in her family that would want them. They are from somewhere in Missouri. The seller had them listed separately, and I won them both. Here is the other top.

This is a pic of the backside, showing all the handstitching.

Now then, if you are reading this, and have fallen on the floor hyperventilating because I dared “machine” quilt these old tops, sorry, but you will have to get over it. I know there are some that are totally against this, but please save yourself some time and do not bother to send me flaming comments. I know, as a piecer myself, that if years and years down the road, some future quilter comes into possession of some of my unquilted tops, nothing would make me happier than for her to love them and finish them in whatever manner suited her. I think May’s mother would be tickled to see her projects finally finished, and know that they are in a good home where they are loved and appreciated.

I had some spare backing and batting left at the bottom when I was done quilting, so just for fun, I pulled out a strip of scrap fabric and did a quick feather practice.

Yes, yesterday was a good day! I got some of the ornaments hung on the tree, set out a nativity scene, and made more progress on my cousin’s binding. I hope your weekend is goind great, as well! Even though I am not done decorating it, I will conclude this post with some pics of my tree and nativity scene for Kay.

Also, on the stashbusting topic, I would like to add that I resisted the tempation to even go look at the end of bolt Thanksgiving sale at Thousands of Bolts. When I got the email, I deleted it and did not go shop for more fabric!

Christmas · daily life · longarm quilting · machine quilting · quilting · quilts

What’s on my bed?

November 24, 2007December 13, 2007 Wild Rose Quilter5 Comments

I have a cheap bedspread that I bought from JC Penney’s. However, on top of that, I have a queen size quilt that I made. It’s an oak leaf reel from a Fons & Porter issue. Since my bed is a king, it doesn’t cover, so that’s why it is on top of the bedspread. Not the greatest decorating touch, but I am hoping that before too much longer the starry log cabin I am working on will take the place of both of these, and be the “star” of my bedroom.

Yesterday, I did get the binding stitched to my cousin’s quilt, and last night I began the handstitching to the back. The finish line is getting closer!

As I was complaining to my husband that I needed to put up the Christmas tree ( I am so not in the mood for Christmas decorating this year), he reminded me that we threw our old tree out last year! I forgot this! Why didn’t I remember when we were at my parents the day before, when I was five minutes from a Walmart, rather than an hour from one? Crud! So we go out shopping here for a Christmas tree yesterday. They had some really ugly, pitiful looking ones at our Alco, but they weren’t exactly “cheap”. Well, not proportionately cheap to the ugly, anyway. Then we went to the local flower shop. Beautiful trees, but I was gonna have to drop over $450.00. But they did have a 25 year warranty. Finally found a new tree the local True Value. And it was more than I wanted to spend, also, but I guess I’ll get over it. It’s prelit with the hinged branches, like the ones at the flower store, but no 25 year warranty. I might want a new one before 25 years is over, anyway. I thought I was never gonna finish “fluffing” the branches last night. Also, it looks much larger in my living room than it did in the store. I was kinda wanting to downsize, but I didn’t manage to get that one right…lol. We usually put the tree by the fireplace, where my new leather chair and ottoman are now. So I had to find a different corner to tuck it into. I guess I’ll start putting the ornaments on today.

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