Ode To Spring!

Yes I know it is now officially Fall but I have decided to name my quilt "Ode To Spring". This is the one I was working on a couple of weeks ago and it is now done. This quilt is really all about the quilting. The top, which is fairly small just 31x31 was a class sample I made for a class I taught about 9 years ago. It is a paper pieced pineapple block in a 12" size. I played with Electric Quilt and came up with the arrangement of colors so decided to piece the top with the fun arrangement. Well the top has just been languishing in my UFO pile until I recently decided it was small and might be something fast and fun to finish on my longarm. I tried some new things with this top. I used metallic thread on the longarm for the first time. It will defiantly not be the last time I use it either. I also tried a feather border technique I have admired on other quilts. I marked the spine of the feathers and did the rest freehand. The stencil in the middle was something that Sherry Rodgers Hammerstein on the APQS forum showed us a couple of years ago. I ordered one and it has been sitting unused since. Well there it is and I will defiantly use it again. Basically this was just for fun.

The only disappointment was that I entered it in our guild show at the State Fair. The awards are viewers choice. I was told by the people that went to the show that the lighting, well there was no lighting. I was also given an apology when the quilts were returned at the meeting on Monday for my quilt being hung with an incorrect category. Well it was really about the quilting and I guess if nobody could see the quilting and it being hung with the wrong group it did not win anything. I guess I will always wonder if it might have won something had it gotten better lighting and been hung with the rest of the category.

Strings In The Cabin Swap

I am doing a lock swap on about.com.quilting called String In The Cabin. The inspiration quilt for the swap is king sized and I do not think my quilt will be that big. Here are the blocks that I have made for the swap. I figure if I can add one more row of string blocks inside the log cabin blocks my quilt will make a great lap or wall quilt. Now that these babies are done they are heading off to Lou's and I will get back blocks the other swappers made. Note to self "Another UFO created!" I am actually going to try to get these sewn together and quilted very soon after getting my squishie of new blocks in the mail................at least that is the plan.

We Will Never Forget!

It was a different world on the morning of September 11, 2001. I woke up like any other day and took my kids to the school bus where I was informed by my neighbour that one of the twin towers in New York City had been bombed. I rushed home and turned on the TV and my mom (who was visiting) and I sat there and watched our world change. We saw the second plane crash into the second tower. We watched as the smoke billowed out of the two buildings. We watched as the towers crashed to the ground. We watched as the Pentagon in Washington D.C. was hit. We listened as we heard the news of a fourth plane crash and speculated that it was another plane destined for a target and much to our dismay we were later informed we were right. Later that day after the nightmare on TV had played out I went outside and saw a sky with no contrails from all the planes overhead. There was total silence in the sky above. Later the military helicopters came by breaking the silence.

Today it has been seven years and I am still saddened by the events that forever changed our world. Do not forget and let us all stand proud Americans, strong, brave and together as one, united!

A Good Day Quilting

It is really nice to be quilting something of mine for a change. The only person I have to please is me! Today I tried out the metallic thread I got at the Longbeach Quiltfestival at the Superior Threads booth. The thread is specifically made for longarm machines so can take the high speed and the long thread path. I used Bottom Line in the bobbin and it worked just great. I decided to make freeform feathers that were not all alike on the top. These come from a center circle. I really like the look of the shiney thread with the feathers. I premarked the design for the center of the circle. After I took these photos I continued to work and have about half of the background around the feathers filled with pebbles in purple Bottom Line thread. The pebbles really mash down the quilt so the feathers really pop. So far I am pretty pleased with how this is coming out, not to mention I am having a good time working on it. I hope to work a bit more tonight and maybe even finish the pebbles.

Time To Quilt One For Me!

I really truly love being a longarm quilter for hire. It is just great fun to quilt all kinds of things that I would never piece myself. I also get to try tons of new things and get tons of practice, practice, practice. There is a downside to being a professional longarm quilter and that is that I hardly ever get to quilt my own stuff. Mostly because I set my own hours and as long as I have customer quilts I try to get them done and back to their owners. Well I have decided that since I just finished another customer custom quilt it is time to do one of mine.

I have resurrected this beauty from the UFO pile. There really was not much left to do to get it ready for the machine. I only had to miter the black part of the final border, which took way less time than it did thinking about it. With that done I cleaned the top of lint and threads and go it ready for the machine. I have decided to really experiment and have fun with this so the firs thing I have done out of the box is to load it with Hobbs 80/20 on the bottom next to the backing and then added a layer of a high loft poly trimmed off of another project. I simply cut the long strip of poly into two pieces and connected them by making a wavy line to nest them and then loosely basting with huge stitches. Well the top is loaded and ready for quilting. I have some ideas of what I am going to do but until I actually begin I am not sure exactly what will happen as I go. Basically I love to just begin and then allow the quilting to flow from there. I do know that I will not be following the piecing pattern too much for the quilting and I do see feathers. Stay tuned for what happens next!

More Information on Crochet Fabric

Carla sent me the info for a direct link to her tutorial on the crochet bags in case you are interested: http://featheredfibers.wordpress.com/2008/08/07/fabric-crochet-purse-tutorial/

Treasure From Trash

I hear over and over how quilters (and I guess other crafters as well) go thru their stash and purge stuff they do not like. To me this is a waste. When you consider the cost of the fabric (as my stash is made of fabric) and the replacement cost it is like tossing money out the window. Well call me frugal. I figure any fabric can be used if you just figure out the best way to showcase it. In this case the fabrics made to crochet my bag are showcased because they have different colors. These fabrics were from a box that I was gifted by another quilter that was doing the above mentioned purging. They are really old, dated, not to mention not good quality (you can hold some of them up and see right thru them, likely if you spit at them the spit would go right thru!), and above all they are pretty darned ugly. So being the frugal person I am I cut them into long strips across the width of the fabric 5/8" wide. Then I did a freeform bag...................by this I mean that I made up the pattern as I went along so there is no pattern for this beauty. I think with the next bag I will write down my series of steps, the number of stitches and such so that I will have a clear pattern. This bag was really just a trial. The bottom line was that it was fun to make, looks pretty darned good considering what the fabrics it was made from look like and it is is functional.

I really want to credit Carla with the inspiration to make this bag. Hers are made from handyed fabrics and are truely a work of art where mine is just a way to use up stuff and get it out of my stash. You can visit Carla's blog here: http://featheredfibers.wordpress.com/

I just signed up for Carla's contest. Mabye I will be lucky and win one of her amazing scarfs. You can go see them and sign up by clicking on the link below:

http://featheredfibers.wordpress.com/

My Lastest Custom Quilting

When I was asked to quilt this one I felt very honored. The blocks on this sampler were each made by different members of my guild for our president for 2007. I just fell in love with this top along the way, well the day I took it to my studio! Here are some of the blocks.

What to do with those Crown Royal Bags.

So here is what you can do with a collection of Crown Royal bags. No this is not for me but rather was custom made for someone. It was a pretty daunting project and finally once I got going it was not so bad. One thing I really like is that the bags have a variation in color even though they are all new. All in all I really had fun making this.

Another Row

This is my latest round in the Row Robin I am participating in. The way these row robins work is that in our group (we have seven people) each person makes a row of a specified length. Our group decided on a 48 inch width for each row. Then we pass the row to the next person and they add a new row. Then to the third person who adds a row and so forth. The rows then go back to the first person who arranges them in whatever order they like and finishes up their quilt. These are Ellen's rows. She is defiantly an overachiever. The three top feathered stars are her inspiration row.The next row was done by Hilda and added a wonderful compliment to Ellen's stars. Then the bottom row is the one I made. I love these stars and love to use them in lots of different quilts. Well I hope that Ellen likes them when this comes back home to her. Now I have to figure out what I am going to do for Pat's Row Robin which is already here waiting for my row.

The Sampler

When my friend Ellen asked me to do this quilt I was really excited. To see a large picture simply click your mouse on the photo and you will get a larger view. Samplers are pretty fun to do as each block is different, which means that each block can be quilted differently. I really had fun with this one. This is also the first time that I tried to do echo quilting around applique and I just loved the way those applique blocks came out. The sashing was all done with feathers and the help of one of my wavey rulers to do the spines. Then the final border was a place to play with my new grid boards from Quilt EZ.