Quilt Top Finished

I got this far today on the Baby Greens. 

I still need to finish quilting the bird quilt.  I am 3/4 finished and finally got the tension issues sorted out.  I think it was the bobbin.  It must have wound weird or something.  Why I didn't think of that sooner.  It would have saved me a lot of grief.

 Tomorrow I am going to a Cambodian Art Fair downtown.  I saw a write up in the paper a couple of weeks ago and reached out to them, thinking it might be something interesting to see.

Maybe to have.  We had a lot of original art and my neighbor had a lot of Asian and Chinese art in her house. 

McGee - Alive, but in hiding

The Cambodian Fair happens twice a month so if it is good we might make it something fun to do.

Downtown offers a lot of interesting things.  Like breakfast, those fabulous beignets........calories!

Yesterday Carrie and I went shopping for some clothes.  I have lost enough weight that most of my clothes no longer fit me.  Even the ones I bought after the flood seem  to hang on me now.  That is a good thing.  But I needed a few things that fit me better.  (so in compromise, today I ate a donut and a hamburger.)

I started another month of Performance Classes and these are Core Body work outs.  My shoulders and butt muscles are killing me from the Friday class!  But I can tell you that I was able to hold a plank position for one minute while using one hand to shake a rope back and forth 20 times!

Super Woman!

It wasn't pretty, form wise.  But that will get stronger as the month goes on.

Gotta start somewhere!

Long Arm Quilting

I am doing some long arm quilting just because Swooze is getting ready to take delivery of her new machine.  And I was talking with Paula yesterday about some of the quilting I did at QuiltCon in February.  I have been wanting to work on the concepts from the workshop with Krista Withers.

I love that girl  She is an amazing quilter, she quilted the quilt that won Best Machine Quilting at QuiltCon. 

So a few months ago I created a quilt with a lot of negative space to play within.  When I was at Paula's yesterday I took advantage of her huge table to draw out the quilting path.  I set it up, with my Red Snappers locked in place it took no time at all.

And yesterday I worked on the top part of the quilt. 

Easy Peasy!  Why was I concerned about ruining something?

Suzette, you and I need to talk once you get comfortable with your machine and want to do some fabulous quilting!

Baby Squares Quilted

I finished up the quilting on the baby squares.  this one does not have an intended that I know of.  But I am sure Carrie will call in  an absolute panic and want a quilt for a shower in two hours.  So it will be ready.  All it needs is a binding.

I bought a new Angela Walters book called Shape By Shape to use as a guide for doing some free motions quilting on some larger quilts and I thought I would try a lot of them out.  I did find some favorites though.  Like the squares that sort of resemble Greek Key pattern.  That one is easy to do and looks great either in a square or along a border.

I tried to do some square work and some curve work intermixed in the blocks.  Here is the entire back.  It is Ecology Cloth.  I like using Ecology cloth because you can get it on the internet at a really low price, you can get it in wider widths (not 108 however), it is a nice weight for the back and it washes beautifully. you can see your thread work on the back.

A big con is that you can see all your thread work on the back!  I can't remember if I have seen it in colors, I think I have.

Here are the individual areas and the quilting.

My favorite one, easy.  Just mark your areas so  they are somewhat even.  I put a book on it and eyeballed the distance.  These are about 7 tall x 5 inches wide.







 t
This one is also easy to do.  I probably would have looked better had I marked the distances, but heck, it is free motion.  Get over it!

Here I just did some smaller squares and kept crossing over the lines to make more squares.  I got myself into a corner once and it was easy to get out of.  That is not always true with some designs.





This was kind of a crescent moon shape that seesawed back and forth.  I don't think marking is necessary for this design.  It was easy to do if I paid attention.

Good old meandering!  What can I say.  I
was running out of things to do and I had already repeated several.  So I meandered  in the last block.


This one was interesting.  I make the center chain and then did the echo lines around it.  As you can see, I am not an expert at making circles nicely!

I did some individual work in the two center blocks.  Actually there was only one center block, but I did what I wanted for the center block in the NOT the center block.  So I adjusted.

You should too.







 This was pretty easy.  I guess I would like it better if the lines were more rounded in the centers.  I am talking about the points.  I wrote that in the book, "Make the points more rounded and you will like them better."


Most all, you just have to relax, loosen your death grip  on your machine and drink a glass of wine.  Then just dive in!

Quilting on a Baby Quilt

I am finally getting to work on a baby quilt that has been on my frame forever.  It is the one on which Carrie  wanted to do some practice long arm work.  I need to get it off the frame and put a few more things on and get some other quilts done.

She had wanted to do something different in each square, so I got my new book from and chose some designs.  At first i was apprehensive because they all looked rather complicated, but once I got working I loosened up and had fun.

I love the blue  with the Greek squares!  this would be a great all over pattern.  It can be in different sizes or staggered or both!

I only had time to do two squares because the vet called.  DiNozzo got his teeth cleaned today and I needed to pick the poor guy up.  He was still a bit out of it when I got there, and he fell asleep with his head on the front seat.  I felt sorry for him, but he got a clean bill of good dental health!

So here is what I have done so far.  Not sure you can see stitching on the lighter car fabric it is a combination of two wavy lines on the top and bottom with crescent scribbles connecting the two. 

When I get it off the frame the back will show up much better since it is an ecru with a darker thread. 

Lets see how many i can come up with and get this quilt off the frame!

Is it Friday Already?

Frank is working at home today, well, so far he has not done any work.  I have not either.

Carrie wants to have two baby quilts made from some fabric she bought a while back.  I think I will cut something our and start working.  It will be a low volume, and I have so wanted to do a low volume quilt for a long time now.

At least I will get something done today.

Hey, I am hungry for lunch already...........is it lunch already....yet......???

Oh, speaking of baby quilts, here is the Wee Scottish Lad and his quilt.  Superbaby he is!  LOL



The basset who won the class at Westminster looks lik DiNozzo!

If you want to see the basset ring at Westminster, check out the video at: http://www.westminsterkennelclub.org/videos/#/Breed%20Judging/2013/Hound/vid:2624789

First Project on the New Quantum

I used one of the frozen oatmeal "pucks" for breakfast to see how it worked.  It worked pretty well!






McGee created art:


I wanted to sew something on the new machine to get a feel for how it handled.  It will come on the retreat in a few weeks and really need to be familiar with it before I get out in the middle of nowhere and have problems.

In my mother's stuff we moved into my foyer, there is a simple quilt she never finished.  She collected fabric and quilt magazines but never made a quilt.  Not because she couldn't, she was an expert seamstress, sewing since she was a little girl on garment construction for my grandmother's customers.  Everything we wore growing up was made by her, everything.  Me being a tomboy and my brother being a boy didn't stop her.  She sewed my brothers pants and my father's shirts and suits.  All my bedspreads and curtains, which I got to change every 4 years.

She was pretty obsessive and we had this schedule:

Year 1 - Her room
Year 2 - Living room/Dining room/Kitchen
Year 3 - My room
Year 4 - Kenny's room

So every fourth year I got to change my stuff.

She sewed a lot!  Even making our underwear and slips, my wedding gown and my bridesmaid's gown.  Frank got to rent a tux, lucky guy.

Chloe models her good side

So when she got old, she wanted to quilt.  And she would come here to Baton Rouge and I would cut and line stuff up, and she would run the seam through the sewing machine.  That way we put together a couple of quilts.  She found this material with safari animals and wanted to make it for her husband's great granddaughter's baby.  (I won't go into it, but his family was mostly unmarried with multiple last names.)  The quilt never got finished.  So I finished sewing around about 5 of the pictures.  It is a printed piece, nothing is actually pieced, and the back is this wild green.  See Chloe modeling?

So I found it and decided that since it was the very last thing my mother worked on, that when Carrie has a baby, I will give it to her.  Carrie is not as sentimental as I am, but it will make me happy.

So Why Do YOu Quilt?

I know you all have a reason that you do what you do.  Yes, I know you do!  I want you to tell me your story.

This is a big reason why I quilt.  Look at that face and tell me she doesn't love her quilt!

A year and a half ago I made a quilt for Frank's co-worker buddy's baby.  I had heard Frank say that they were having a baby, but it is not really a thing that guys talk about.  So I thought it was interesting that Frank did talk about it.

I figured that it must have been important.  And it was.  This cutie pie loves my quilt.  Now I guess I have two best fans.  This chick and my nephew.

Her mom says she carries it everywhere with her. I was so afraid that mom would put it up and save it for her.  But she gave it to the kid to drag around the house, through Walmart and into the parking lot!  And I love it.

The first quilt I made for my nephew was a quillow.  A quilt that turns into a pillow!  Boy, did he love that.  He carried it everywhere and showed everyone he saw how he could turn his quilt into a pillow.  It went to more Show and Tells than Carter has pills!

I guess I will have to make the little girlie one eventually and see how far she takes it.  Right now I am going to work on a quilt for her from her outgrown baby clothes.  Mom and I talked over some ideas and we know just where we are heading.

I may even make it a quilllow!  Who knows.

glen

Two Days of Fun With Friends

Charlene came in yesterday and we played with fabric for a while at the house. Then off to a River City Guild Meeting and dinner with some quilty friends at La Madelaine's.

Then this morning I cheered her on to the finish of the Halloween Duffle Bag.

Check out the inside of the bag!  Those eyes just stare right though you!  LOL.






Then Frank took us and Carrie to lunch for some fabulous Shrimp PoBoys.

I did actually get some work done.  The Elephants of Sri Lanka is now completed to the top stage.  I will quilt it on my regular sewing machine, it has a 9 inch throat so I can get a lot of quilt under there.  I want to do a close echo quilt style around each Ellie individually.  And some Morrocan Tiles in the between spaces.  I am expecting it to be in that quilting stage for a while.  Sorry it wouldn't shift for me.  DiNozzo must have been too heavy for it.  (Oh, my.  I just noticed what he is doing!)




I also finished.........let's hear a CHEER for .........  Amber's Quilt!

My camera died before I could get a picture of Amber's BQ Quilt so that will have to wait for tomorrow.

 But I do have a nice picture of the completed baby quilt.  Not my best and greatest quilt, but cute for some baby who loves duckies!  It will go in the stack to be quilted.....at some point this year!

Now I am off to have a birthday party for Ann........

Catching up

I have been catching up with the blocks that need to be tested for the Vol 4 of 100 Blocks for Quiltmaker Magazine. I can't show those to you yet, but one is so adorable it will make you want a whole quilt out if it. 

I also have mailed off all my Virtual Bee Blocks for the 2 bees I participate in over at 15 Minutes Play. 

And I finished the baby quilt for Frank's counterpart last night.

Since the diagnosis with Dutch, I have not had much energy to do anything but just look at my dog.  Wasn't he the cutest puppy?  He loved being on his back.  When he was about a year old, there was a big joke going around at the dog shows when someone noticed he had those zebra stripes on his private parts.  He thought they were admiring his studly attributes.  So that is when he began showing off.

Sometimes it just takes a lot of effort to do what I need to get done in a day.  But now that the quilt show is no longer my responsibility, I will have more time to get involved with the other groups.  I do the Mystery Quilt at River City each month and will bring the Christmas Bag Project to either River City or Remember Me.  

glen

Baby quilt - is it a boy or girl?

One of Frank's team guys' wife just had a baby.  Now I have known about this baby for, well, at least 6 months.  But do you think I have been pro-active and made a quilt? 

NOOOOOOO!

Frank tells me Friday they were inducing labor.  Oh, good, I said, I have the dinosaur quilt already done.  It just needs binding.  I will send that to the little boy. 

Why did I suppose it would be a boy just because I had a definitely boy quilt?  Because I have not made a girl quilt, nor did I even ASK what the baby would be.  Duh!

So Frank says to me, hey, do you have girly dinos?  No, I don't

So this is what I did today.  The pattern came from the Quiltmaker magazine March/April 2010 issue.  It was very quick and easy, I did all the cutting and pulling of fabrics today even.  I had the 2 1/2 inch squares in my Bonnie Hunter box and the 2 1/2 strips in my Bonnie Hunter box as well.  Several years ago I decided to cut up my scraps into squares and had a bunch of 5 inch squares that were cut down to 4 1/2 inch squares because, try as I might, I could not find the 4 1/2 inch square bag.

The white is a sheet that was in my stash from somewhere.  Maybe from Goodwill or the Purple Cow.  In a package so it was clean for the baby.

Tomorrow I will quilt it.  For some reason I made 9 of the 9 patches so one will go on the back in some conflagration.  I am going to piece the back with scraps of brights.

glen