Whew! Just unloaded a huge client quilt from the longarm. 106” X 113” of snuggly flannel for a lucky little boy! Quilted with edge to edge digital design, Tire Tracks from Urban Elementz. This quilted up so nicely! I know my client will be pleased. She was so hard on herself about the quality of her work. This quilt is great! I’m telling her she needs to ease up on herself. Nothing is perfect, and it doesn’t have to be perfect to be wonderful, anyway! It was actually quite square and I had zero issues with it. Even being ginormous, lol. It was a joy to work on!
It pushed the limits of my leaders, for sure.
We missed the tornadoes Thursday, thankfully, but my heart breaks for those in Nebraska and Iowa that did not. Now, our neighbors in Oklahoma are under the threat today. Sure hope they are spared.
I finished two more of the 24” blocks for the Barn Star Sampler I’m making. This block was pretty fun to make. I didn’t have to use the seam ripper near as much as I did on the last block.
After I finished them, I took all the blocks I have so far and laid them out on the basement floor following the layout in the pattern. You can see I still have several little blocks left to make and two more 24” blocks to fill in the empty spaces. I mostly used fabrics from my stash, but I did have to purchase some extra background and some darker teal, as I just didn’t have much of that color in my stash. I think I’m going to be pleased enough with it once it’s all together.
One thing that frustrates me is that this one fabric isn’t photographing the way it looks to the naked eye. At least not the way it looks to mine. The fabric in the background of this smaller block looks like a nice dusty rose pink, very similar to the pink in the large block next to it, but in photos, it has an orangish or brownish tint, and just looks kind of yuck next to the other blocks. I’ve tried all different kind of lighting, and it doesn’t look good in any photos.
Finally, here it is again on top of the whole stack of blocks. It really makes me wish I had used a different fabric for the blocks I used it in, but I’m not going to remake them. Especially not since they look good enough in person. 🤷🏻♀️
I have been working on client quilts, as well, and will catch up sharing some of those here soon. I’m also working on a very special t-shirt quilt project for a sweet local family, but that is super secret for the time being. Eventually, I will get to share about that here. My “sewjo” seems to be in full swing lately, and I’m here for it!
We are under the gun today for potentially very severe storms. Some rain sure would be nice, but praying we dodge the bullet on all the bad stuff. They are saying on the radio, as I type, that we could have large hail and tornadoes. They are saying that we should actually hope for no rain today, because if we “break through the cap” enough for moisture, we will also see bad storms in this one. We have a 40% chance of wind, hail, and possibly tornadoes. 😬 😩
I have been very busy this past week. It was a good week, just busy. I started and finished a custom quilting job, but it’s going to a guild challenge, so can’t share just yet, tho I doubt any of the guild members are reading this. Probably better safe than sorry. I started yet another project. I can’t seem to stop starting fun new projects before I finish others. This was the absolute high light of my quilting week…one of my sweet grandsons wanted to do some of the sewing on this latest project I had going. I have been wanting to try the fold and sew method of making blocks with a layer cake and charm square pack. I chose the Strawberry Lemonade collection from Sherri McConnell and Chelsi Stratton. Here is my little helper at work.
And, some of the finished blocks.They are fun to sew, but I’m wondering if the seams are going to be a bit too bulky once I start sewing to to each other. Also, some of the prints on bottom do shadow through the top charm square, so I will probably trim out the center on the back of those. It makes a nice size lap quilt.
I didn’t get too very much accomplished, but I did get the blocks for my great niece’s quilt all laid out and ready to stitch together. It’s another Strip Mirage, (pattern from Sew Yeah Quilting) and I used a jelly roll I have had in my stash for quite a long time. A little bonus stash busting with this one.
I got the all the pieces for the next block in my Barn Star Sampler cut out. These will make two identical 24” blocks. And, I got to try out this nifty notion I ordered from Belle Bruner of Seams So Me. I follow her on Instagram and she posted these cool clips she designed to organize your quilt pieces. I love them!
They came in this cute little bag with a cute little sticker.
Here they are keeping my block pieces organized and identified.
They come in a set from A – N, and N was the only one not used for this block set.
I’m very happy with this purchase! They will join my list of favorite notions. Wishing you all a great week ahead! Thanks for stopping by!
I finished the custom quilting on my client’s Convex Illusions quilt and she is coming to pic it up today. It’s a gift for her one of her grandsons. This was a really cool one to work on. I had a lot of fun watching it change throughout the quilting process. 😃
Have a fabulous Friday! My plans today are some housework, some personal sewing time, and washing up a wide quilt back I purchased for a commission I’m working on. Thanks for stopping by!
I mentioned a few days ago that I would have some exciting news to share soon regarding a client quilt. Every year, the Ogallala Quilters Society hosts the Ogallala Quilt Festival in Dimmitt, TX. It’s a prestigious show and I have some clients that enter something every year. This year one of the quilts I collaborated on with a client won a first place ribbon in its category. I was so excited when she texted me saying “we won first place” on her Vintage Dreams quilt she entered. The category was Mixed Technique, wall hanging. Anyway, its just so fun and exciting to see a ribbon hanging on any quilt you had a hand in finishing! This totally made my day when I got the news. I didn’t want to share pictures until after the show. Congratulations, Cynthia Shattles on your blue ribbon! What a privilege to get to do the quilting on a stunner like this!
Thought I would share pics of the quilt I made for my great-nephew before and after washing. I love the post wash quilty crinkle glow up. What about you? Do you love battings that give that crinkle, or do you prefer the less crinkle. To me, the crinkle is part of what makes a quilt a quilt.
Before washingAfter washing 😍
Thanks for stopping by. I’d love to hear from you in the comments. Have a wonderful Wednesday!
This past week, my quilting attention went mostly to this lovely Optical Illusions quilt that I am quilting for a client. She made it for her 16 year old grandson. I felt a little intimidated by it at first, but this has actually turned out to be so much fun to work on. The center part is just straight line quilting through the intersections, in such a way as to enhance the 3D-ness of the piece. It’s just really cool. I’m doing all the black thread parts first, and then I will switch and finish up with the white. All I have left with black is the very outside border, and whatever I end up doing in the inner sashing. The outside borders will be the same as the pattern I put in the inside border corner pieces.
I’ll share pics of the whole quilt once I get it off the frame. I had to take a pause on the mermaid I was quilting because my client ordered little eye and mouth appliqués that she wanted me to stitch onto the face and we are still waiting on them. One of those times zippers on my longarm leaders came in handy. I was able to zip it off and lay it on my guest bed in the meantime, and move on to the next client quilt.
Last week, my Sunday Funday sewing time ended on a down note. I thought I was zipping along, making good progress on the diamond star blocks for my Barn Star Sampler. I was working on assembling the four corner units for each of the two blocks. Well, I don’t know how I goofed up so badly, but I sewed a total of 32 half square triangles into their units backwards or upside down. Good grief! I spent some quality time with my seam ripper, and felt for sure the pieces would then be distorted enough that they wouldn’t go back together nicely. I finished redoing them this afternoon, and I now have all 8 corner units done, and they didn’t turn out badly at all. The next step is to make 16 elongated flying geese units. Hopefully, I will get those sewn together without mishap. 😂
I’m no stranger to the seam ripper, but that was a much bigger mistake than normal. I’m ready to get these two giant blocks behind me. I was supposed to have finished my blocks in February, and then assembled the quilt top last month, according to the QAL schedule. Obviously, I didn’t make it on schedule. This block is month 9, so after it I have blocks to do for months 10 & 11, then the mini filler blocks and top assembly for month 12. I haven’t decided if I’m going to custom quilt it, or do a pretty edge to edge on it. I’m kind of leaning to doing an all over edge to edge. We shall see when I get there, I guess!
I’m curious to see how noticeable the eclipse will be here tomorrow. We are not in the path of totality, and that suits me just fine. Sounds like it’s going to be crazy in those areas with so many flocking in to see it. I find them (eclipses and gigantic crowds) kind of unnerving for some reason, so I’m just fine staying where I am, and going about business as usual.
I did get some exciting news from an area quilt show this weekend, but I’ll share that in an upcoming post! If you’ve made it this far and are still with me, thank you for stopping by!
Ramblings From Randi, The Wild Rose Quilter 