Posts from — January 2007

Last night I finished the top from the Christmas mystery at A Pocket Full of Mysteries. I can’t wait to add the paisley fabric borders. I’m really pleased with the color combo Jessica and I picked out for this.

This is the border fabric. The borders are wide so I might play around with scalloping the edges… something I haven’t done before. This is the year to play & learn.

Woo… That’s an extreme closeup. LOL I need to work on my picture taking skills. What you can’t see in the photo of the top is the small pink flowers in the background fabric. The pink and the turquoise in the top and paisley fabric match better than the photos show also.

And finally, here is Mom’s wallhanging… the other project I’ve been working on. It’s hanging on the temporary design wall that I managed to get set up the other day with a piece of gray fleece.

I was auditioning the border fabric with and without the small yellow flange. I think I like it better with the flange.

Piecing: 10 days of 13

on this blog, at least. I saw this on Julie W.’s blog, but Debra has tagged us all.

THE ABC’S OF MY QUILTING STYLE

• A- Artist? Yes, I am and you are, too! One hundred years from now any quilts you or I have made will be hanging on someone’s wall or in a museum (if it’s well-preserved enough) as art. Therefore, you and I are artists–quilt artists. (I realize you were looking to read about my favorite quilt artists but I’m going to save that for another post.)
• B- Best Blogging Buddies? I don’t have one yet, but I do read a few quilty, homesteading, and spiritually uplifting blogs on occasion.
• C- Crazy or Sane Quilting? Hopefully somewhere in between; somewhere that will let me go either way when the mood hits.
• D- Dyeing or Stamping? Would like to try dyeing some day.
• E- Essential Item? A sewing machine in good working order.
• F- Favorite Fabrics? Definitely batiks. I could buy them just to buy them but I don’t because I’m committed to not acquiring a large stash… I *will* use what I buy and I *will* only buy what I’ll use!
• G- Great Quilt Design? Uses a range of tints, tones, and shades in each color (or hue, if you prefer) and a large variety of fabrics… if 5-6 is good; 50-60 is better! (I hope I used all those color terms correctly. I can never remember all that color theory stuff. LOL)
• H- Hand or Machine Quilt? Both. I love to hand quilt; but being practical, I saw the need for a machine quilting setup. I want to get more quilts done!
• I- Indispensable Notion? A sharp blade in my rotary cutter. Oh, and my rotary cutter must be able to cut both for left-handed as well as right-handed people without turning the blade because I switch hands rather than turn the fabric.
• J- Janome or Bernina? Bernina and Brother
• K- Kits or Original Designs? Original designs. I agree with Julie W., who said, “Picking fabrics is my favorite part of quilting!”
• L- Life in the Studio is? Better than chocolate.
• M- Most Projects Made in One Year? I haven’t really been quilting that long (since 2003) nor that consistently until last summer (July 2006) so the answer is five. (See “Completed Quilts 2006″ in sidebar)
• N- Number of Gadgets? Hmm, I dunno. Do I need to count? You can’t make me. LOL
• O- OH, I wish I hadn’t. . . . .? Joined three different email groups in 2006 that were all working on year-long quilting projects because I haven’t kept up with the pace.
• P- Pet Peeves about Quilting? I *do not* enjoy putting binding on a quilt in the summertime. It’s just too hot here in the desert to be sitting under a quilt even in the air conditioning.
• Q- Quilt Show? Would like to go to Houston or Road to CA some day. I will go to the local one put on by the quilt guild and one in Henderson, NV put on by the larger guild our local one belongs to.
• R- Reason to Rip Out? I like to be precise, but only rip out when the mood strikes. Life is too short and I want to get quilts done!
• S- Sewing or Knitting? I can knit, but quilting is my passion!
• T- Tag, you’re it! If you haven’t already done this one, consider yourself tagged.
• U- UFOs? I don’t like to think of them as UFOs… I have 20 WIPs (that’s all I’m admitting to) and 3 UFTs.
• V- Vexing Quilt Pattern? Would probably be something with a lot of curves that required more pinning than I like to do.
• W- Wishlist Item? Max Throat for my PC Quilter
• X- Xtra Fabric you will never use? Around twenty southwest-looking FQs and about 8 yards of other southwest fabric that I bought to make a quilt for my parents’ southwest decorated bedroom, who later decided to go with a northwoodsey, cabin-like decor in their new bedroom. [sigh] I don’t like southwest decor…
• Y- Your Biggest Goof? Marrying my ex-husband?? No, no, just kidding… He’s really an all right guy and I do have 4 charming and beautiful children as a result of my marriage. You meant quilting, right? I try to forget them so I can’t think of a *biggest* goof; however my *latest* goof was telling DD-R that I’d machine quilt her 110″ x 110″ quilt on my machine quilting frame (see post: The Quilt That Was A Bear)
• Z- Zip! (and voilá it’s done!) That would have to be my springtime garden because I don’t see how I’m going to get *it* done and quilt, too!

Don’t we all have at least one of those? It starts out fun or interesting or whatever and ends up being s-u-c-h -a- c-h-o-r-e that we’d like to hide it in the deepest, darkest closet we can find until 10 years after our death! LOL Okay, so this wasn’t that bad. Let’s just say it was a quilt with issues and I was trying to machine quilt it.

My youngest daughter, Rachelle, made it for her friend. It’s large–110″ x 110″. On my frame, which is set up at 10 feet, I only have 104″ of sewing space. It was really too big for me to machine quilt. But Rachelle couldn’t really afford to pay someone else to machine quilt it, and it *has* been sitting around as a finished top for a long, long time–over a year. Sooo, even though I shouldn’t have, I told Rachelle that I’d finagle the thing and get it machine quilted on my frame one way or another. Afterall, she is my dear daughter–a person whom I love…

Okay, so I find myself basting with water soluable thread, sewing 18 partial rows, reattaching the top, sewing the rest of the partial rows, turning the top, sewing 9 more partial rows, reattaching the top, sewing the last of the 9 rows. Ugh! It was a bear. I think it’s been on the frame for over two weeks… I can’t remember any more. It’s all a haze. LOL I don’t think I’d worked on it in almost a week and I only had the last half of the last nine partial rows left to do. Finally, yesterday I decided I was going to perservere until it was done. Done! I finished it up last night.

Today when Rachelle called from Oregon (she’s visiting friends) and she asked about the quilt, I could say it was done. She’s happy; I’m happy. And I am definitely ready to move on to the next project!

Piecing: 7 days of 8 (No pieceing was accomplished yesterday, but I’m okay with that.)

After fixing dinner, I got on the computer and fixed the mess I created yesterday. (I realize, of course, that today you *cannot* see the mess that it was. LOL) I still haven’t gotten all the links and my “~Some Day~ Quilts” page finished up, but I’ve made good progress on this blog today.

As promised I’ve got pictures of three of the blocks I’ve completed for Mom’s wallhanging.

Basically, that’s the first row of three. The border fabric is shown here. It’s the green leafy one. I’m thinking of putting a yellow flange on my Mom’s also. I’m off to do some piecing!

Piecing: 6 days of 6

I managed to make it to the grocery store to get the bulk of the shopping done for this week. I made a detour to the LQS while I was out. I bought this:

These are my fabrics for the small Broken Dishes Wallhanging I’m making to hang on the wall in the quilt studio. I also bought this:

I needed more of the border material (on the left) to make the second small wallhanging for resale that will match the one I’m making for my Mom. The other fabric is the backing for hers. (The picture is a little grainy.) I’ll just use muslin as the backing on the one for resale.