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Tuesday, December 29, 2009

It's Snowing!

Well the weathermen said it was only going to rain. But here we are with a surprize snowstorm. We've gottin 4-5 inches so far and it's still snowing!! The worst part being our daughter was stuck in her car for 3 hours on the freeway running out of gas and cell phone juice. She finally made it off the freeway and was close to a friend of mines house where she will spend the night. She is simply exhausted having just had major surgery a month ago. I am so thankful she's not having to spend the night in a motel. The freeway is still jamed and there is no way for her to get on this side of town. It's 10pm now, she left her job a 2:30 and didn't reach my friends house until 6:30. Hopefully we will see rain tomorrow, then she can get home.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Catching Up

Sew much to do, Sew little time, Sew much is happening, I think I'll find a warm quilt... turn out the lights and just sleep through the holidays. But then again I don't think that's a good idea...I'd miss all the excitement and fun.
My Long Forgotten Poncho
A few years ago or more I knitted a poncho but never got around to sewing the sides together. Guess what my dear sweet daughter did? She finished my poncho for me. Here's a picture and it's so warm. Thank you Sharla. She's such a good knitter and fast too. Just like fabric, yarn has gotten so expensive, but the good stuff is well worth the investment. At least that's what I keep telling myself as I continue to add to my fabric stash.
Right now I'm working on my Girl Gang BOM quilt in which ALL fabric used must come from my stash. This is just one of my many resolutions on my list of New Years Resolutions under the category of Be Thrifty in 2010. Here's a picture of the first two completed blocks. Well almost finished I'm missing The Moon...I can't find the right Blue fabric in my Stash at the moment. I'm sure before this project is finished I'll find just the right Blue Moon Fabric somewhere!
I recently finished 2 Fleece Throws. I quilted them using my Long Arm. They were super fast and easy. Will post a picture along with my new Portable Closet I just got for Xmas. I've wanted a covered heavy duty portable closet to store my quilts in. My daughter found this one at the Container Store. She also brought me their catalog...not sure that was a good idea...but I'm resisting... as Cutting down on Impulse Spending is on my list of New Years Resolution also. I intend to wait at least a week before buying anything new I see. Wish Me Luck. Thanks for stopping by.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Time Flies By

I want to wish all of my followers a very merry Happy Holiday season. I was finally able to do a little shopping this weekend. It was so nice to see the beautiful decorations and I even enjoyed the music.
Our daughter had major surgery the day before Thanksgiving and thankfully she continues to recover unbelievably well. My job is still causing much stress, oh yes I still have my position until after the New Year. My boss was in such a hurry to make a change and now he can't find anyone to fill the spot. But guess what? I don't need the stress or the job so now he's in a pickle.
I bought myself a new Laptop while I was out shopping. A few days earlier a Wacom Tablet arrived in the mail for me. Hopefully tomorrow I can load it. I signed up for an online class at MSResourses called Quilt Whispers by Carla Barrett. She uses a tablet to explore different quilting options for her quilt tops before Long Arming them. Can't wait to try it out. Although I didn't get to participate in the class due to all the termoil happening I still learned lots just reading the class material. I'm going to sign up to take the class again just for the feedback.
I haven't had much time to make quilts or LA any either, but I did manage to sew binding on a few flannel ones. I'll post a picture soon.
Hoping to be back on track in a few weeks. Thanks for stopping by.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving


A Wee bit early but we had our Turkey today, So Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.
I finished the Thimbleberries Quilt and it's on my daughters bed. She claimed it as soon as I had it on the rack. Glad she did cuz I didn't know what I was going to do with it.
I'm quilting a much smaller lap size quilt now 60x72. The pattern is one of my favorites called "Through the Seasons" by Mountain Peek Creations. I've made many flannel quilts using this pattern. Because the center is a single large fabric rectangle the piecing goes very quickly. Quilting it is always fun cuz there's so many options. This time I'm going to be using my Circle Lord. I will crosshatch the outside borders using the CL 48" crosshatch boards. The solid red inside border I'm doing freehand ribbon candy. The next piano key like inner border I will SID between each key.
And on the next stripped border I will do a rippled line with a few leaves, maybe. In the large center area I will do a panto pattern or maybe freehand swirls, who knows at this point.
I wanted to get this quilt on the frame so whenever I had a few spare minutes I could quilt on it. So much is happening at work, no nothing in stone yet, but I won't have the same job in a few weeks..that much I know. I'm so glad the pressure is off. I guess I should be worried, but for some reason I'm not. If I don't get my hours I'll just have to join the unemployment line. And I made a long list of overdue chores here at home that need done. So I have plenty to do and will stay very busy.
Thanks for stopping by.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

I'm Still At It

No I haven't forgotten about my Blog. Life just has a way of getting in the way. I thought I'd better at least pop in. I don't have time to post pictures today, just wanted you to know I'm down near the bottom of the huge quilt that has been on my rack for since mid October. I've only been able to work on it here and there, and at times several days go by without a stitch being added.
As I said in an earlier post I'm basically doing this huge quilt so I'm buried in stitches instead of stress. Has it worked? Well sort of, when I'm not too exhausted to stitch... I've had to make a hard career decision that I hadn't planned on making. Not sure what's going to happen with this yet. Although I feel much better now, just making the decision. Who knows my hobby might have to turn into my job.
I'm going to the monthly Girl Gang meeting in a few days, it'll be lots of fun. Myree came over and helped me pick out fabric from my stash for the first block. I'm so glad for her help, I've never done applique and feel so out of my element. I've always admired and loved this type of quilt, never thought I'd ever actually make one.
Thanks for stopping in. More to say and pictures soon.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Making Progress



I made some progress yesterday on my monster Thimbleberries quilt. When I turn my machine on again (not sure I'm up to it today) I'll be starting on the 5th top border. Yesterday I finished quilting the 3rd and 4th inside top border. On the 3rd border I quilted
freehand Ribbon Candy. I don't mark my ribbon candy because the marks always mess me up, thus mine aren't perfect, but perfectly acceptable for me. The next (4th)border down on the quilt in my opinion is rather odd. Between the Cornerstone blocks are 6 square blocks, each block has 3 triangles all going in different directions.
For the life of me I can't figure out what to do except to SID, maybe later these blocks will talk to me. The only triangle going in the same direction is the red one. On each end of this row of odd blocks is a plain block, I quilted the motif in this block by using the Aztec Template on my Circle Lord tool. You can't really see the design in the photo well, mostly because I'm using the color Mother Goose to quilt the entire quilt. It's going to be hard enough to remember what I did at the top of the quilt when I get to the bottom even with my road map. I didn't want the added stress of having to remember to change thread colors along the way. Anyway the entire purpose of finishing this quilt is to relieve some excess stress that life has thrown my way. When I'm quilting at my Gammill Machine I only think about where the next stitch goes. Don't think about work and all the needleing comments my boss makes. Tomorrow I probably won't get any stitching done because after work I'm going to the first meeting of the Girl Gang BOM. Should be a hoot.
Thank you for stopping by.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Thimbleberries Progress



I've been quilting on this quilt for 2 days now. Thought I'd show you what I've done so far. Can't really say I've gotten very far...this sucker is huge. But I've finished the first top border. Yesterday I finished the top 2nd border and a bit down each side of the quilt. Doing what I could on each side between the rollers.

I'm custom quilting this using my Circle Lord tools wherever possible. Boy that Circle Lord makes you look like a pro if you're careful. The motif in the brown block is done with the Ginko template. This is just one of many that can be done with that template alone.
In the second pix you can see a bit of the top border, In the area with berries and leaves I'm crosshatching and I'm quilting Piano Keys in the area with Lilies. This same border is on all 4 sides of the quilt. Again I'm using my CL as a guide. The green and white checkerboard is only a part of the 2nd border along with the brown block shown above. I'm using a 2-1/2"
circle disk to do the CC.
Thanks for stopping in...Gotta Go Quilt Now.

Thimbleberries UFO


I've been buried in fabric while sitting at my machine for 2 weeks. I only had 1 UFO quilt and could no longer stand to see it sit in my sewing room any longer. So a couple weeks ago I decided I'd get it out and finish it. It is the 2007 Thimbleberries House and Garden quilt, 96"x 118". To my surprise I was only 2 big blocks short. Great I thought...wipt right through getting those done. But then I started the borders, good grief!!!! There are 5 of those suckers and they are PIECED borders mind you. Piecing and sewing these borders on has taken me a week...I've been buried in fabric trying to get this one UFO finished. Well it's finally finished now, pieced that is. Now to get this monster quilted. It so big I don't have a wall big enough to take a pix of the entire quilt. I wasn't at first even sure it'd fit on my rack, I have a gammill premier. Ghee how I love this machine.
Anyway on Sunday Oct. 18th I pinned her on. All went well and I really don't feel crowded a bit. I've drawn my road map of the quilting I plan to do on it. I need this map or I'll forget what I quilted on a top border or block when I need to repeat the design again on the lower part of the quilt. Sorry, I don't float my quilts, so I can't roll back and forth to see what I've done.
So for the next month or two this quilt will be the focus of my blog, I think. I'll post pictures of my progress. I'm also going to be starting a "Girl Gang Quilt. At least I'm going to the first meeting...I've never appliqued so we will see what happens...but rest assured I'll burn it before it ever becomes a UFO.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Sunny Day Today




I've been sew busy making and quilting quilts lately.
I wanted to show you Bea's quilt I just finished.
She was very happy. It is 64X76 I think.
Got to hand it to Bea, she always finds interesting
patterns to make. And if the pattern isn't much, she'll find just the right bright, bold or monster type fabric that's sure to bring it to life and then some. Her quilts are always interesting and FUN.
I'm almost finished quilting one of the Folk Art Flannel quilts I showed you earlier. I'm using my CL to do the borders and a panto in the center. Should be ready to post this weekend.
Thanks for stopping by.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

NW Quilt Expo


I went to the Quilters Expo Show on Thursday with my friend Myree. We both did our part to stimulated the economy. Lots of Eye Candy (great quilts) I took lots of close up photo's of the quilting done on the quilts. I can't even imagine it yet, but someday I hope to be able to quilt like the Pro's. To help me out I bought Megan Bests book "Spiral Twists" and her Mini SID ruler. She even autographed it for me. Quilter's Rule also had a booth and of course after seeing a demo of the Nautilus Tools, I decided these tools were just the rulers I needed to enable me to someday be able to LA quilt like the Pro's. I realize I will really need to PPP. But a few more nice rulers and tools hanging on the wall next to my LA will also give me just the right amount of support I'll need on my journey. I also added to my collection of Pam CLarks Books and Stencils, I really like her books and use them alot.
Beings I don't quilt for customers now, I have to make my own quilts. So I'm Always on the hunt for good patterns that have a fair amount of open space for custom type quilting. I found a pattern at the Pine Needle with Flying Geese called "Points North". I'll use my new Pam Clark book "Triangle Tango" when I quilt it. That book is filled with Flying Geese Ideas, Thanks Pam.
I'm also a sucker for quilt kits, I just don't have time to shop/hunt for fabric. I found 4 kits to buy and I already have idea's on how I'm going to quilt all of them when I finish piecing them. Actually I saw so many quilting ideas at the show I can't wait to finish piecing and I've already begun. Underneath all the stuff I bought in the pix above is a simple flannel quilt I'm working on. I bought the kit from the Stitching Post at the show. Hopefully my new Circle Lord Thingy will come this week, plan to try it out on this quilt. I love my Circle Lord.
I bought a Kit and 3 patterns from "A Quilter's Dream" they were up from CA. I really liked their stuff and will watch their website from now on. I bought a kit called "Folkalburst" from Thumbuddy Special. The fabric used is the Show's Theme Fabric by Thimbleberries. Glad I spotted this cuz I like the fabric and the pattern. Plus she had the same pattern made with a Batik also, it was to die for. I also bought an autograghed copy of the New Thimbleberries Book" Basic Beauties". Plan to make a few quilts from this book as the patterns have plenty of open space for quilting.
Now for my big discovery of the show, Books and Patterns by Laurie Shifrin. Although they are Batik, I see lots of potential using cotton instead of Batik. I enjoy looking at batik but I'm not a fan yet. Batik always seem cold to me, and I hate to be cold. Anyway Laurie was doing demo's in the Common Thread booth, she was so warm and cheerful how could one not be drawn to her stuff. She even autographed the 3 Books I got. Yep, I'll be a fan of hers from here on out. I even bought 5 of her patterns, one being a Log Cabin Star type pattern, I just love making and quilting Log Cabin quilts.
The last book I bought was "Star Savvy Laps From Fats" by Ellen Replogle. I really like this series of Books and have made many of the quilts from prior books, I see this book is no exception. I hope I live and I'm able till I'm 100, it's the only way I'll even be able to finish the projects I saw or bought just at this one show.
Thanks for stopping by.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Love This Flannel




As I've said before, I love making Flannel Quilts.
I fell in love with this Folkart Flannel
By Maywood Studio's, so I bought
the entire bolt this time.
So far I've made 2 quilts with it.
On one I used Pink accent
and on the other I used Red Accent.
I have a couple other patterns in mind, but will wait until after the NWQE this weekend before I cut into any more of this fabric. I might
find another pattern there. I'm also
waiting until after the
NWQE before quilting them.
Hope to see Long Arm Quilting ideas at the show.
I heard they've added more space for both Hanging show Quilts and Vendors this year. Last year was a great show can't wait to go now. This is the biggest show in our area and Every year it gets better N better. I spend one whole day just looking at quilts and the other day I spend lots of money.
Thanks for stopping by.

Farm Fresh Produce


I went out to the farm and didn't forget the camera.
The Plum tree is loaded and just starting to ripen up enough to pick.
Next is kwii. They won't be ready until late Oct. This is the first crop to ripen in 3 years. The winter's here have been so bad they lost the crop. The kwii is about the size of your thumb, I perfer these over the usual store ones. Now if they just ripen up before Winter sets in.
The next pix appears to be Apples, but actually is Asian Pears. Again there Tree's are loaded, and almost ready to pick. They also have
Peach and Pear trees but they've been
harvested already.
Lots of Purple and Green grapes on the Arbor too.
We picked 2 buckets of Blueberries. This picking was nice because we left the net covers off the bushes as we finished picking. Now the rest can go to the Birds.
My car was full of Produce, Sharla will take some to school for the other teachers and I'll give some to Friends and neighbors.

Moms Pets



I thought I'd post Moms Pets. Here's Peachee. Yep she's treated just like one of the kids if not better. She's always bathed and groomed. Spoiled rotten she usually has pancakes and fresh layed eggs for breakfast, and people food for dinner too. During the day she loves peas,plums and tomatoes or anything else she finds out
in the garden.
These are 3 of the 4 hens. They each lay an egg a day. One of the hens lays her eggs standing up, so her egg is usually cracked. This cracked eggs is what Peachee gets for breakfast.
Thanks for stopping by.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Comments

For some reason visitors are unable to leave comments and I'm at a loss why or what I need to change. After a stressful day at slaveway I need a few sweet comments.
UPDATE, I figured it out...All sweet comments are now excepted.
Thanks for stopping by.

I have a new flannel quilt to show you that's made with Maywood Flannel. Will post soon. Stay tuned. OK, just a peek.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Finished My Irish Chain Quilt

It took a week, but now I'm done quilting and binding my Irish Chain. This is a quilt that almost wasn't. I really didn'tthe color tone combinations. I almost gave it to the goodwill...then decided it's so b like ig it'd make a great practice quilt.
Now that it's done...I hate to admit... but I like it. I've never freehand quilted leaves before. Don't know why I hadn't done them...but I found they to are quite simple compared to feathers. Frankly I don't think you can ruin a leaf...just look on the ground, "are all the leaves perfect?"No. Some are windblown and tattered, some have been walked on. Some have even been rained or peed on. Others just lay in a pile of mush cuz they've been driven over and squished. Now if my leaves were to appear squished I'd surely pick them out. But I rarely pick out my mistakes...all my quilts are for practice so I strive for perfection, but do not sweat imperfections. Thanks for stopping in.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Freehand Leaf Block


This is what I'm doing in the big open blocks on the quilt I just posted. By time I'm done my freehand leaves should be looking much better, I hope. If not, oh well it's just a quilt. A practice quilt at that. All my quilts are practice quilts until I give them away, then they're gifts made with love.
Thanks for checking in.

Where Have I Been?



Stressed out at work...enough said. Now for the fun stuff I've been up to. I'm working on this 86"x102" Green Colorwash Chain quilt.

I've been at it every chance I get. It seems to have miles and miles of CC's, thought I'd get those out of the way then go back and do the borders with Vines N Leaves. I wasn't sure at first what I was going to put in the focus showcase blocks.I knew I'd have to draw my own design because the blocks are 20" sq. and I knew I didn't want feathers. Then it hit me as I was looking at a clotheshanger of all things...I could do 4 branches/vines that connect in the center, the outer part of the branch would be shaped like the hook of a clothes hanger. Now that I have this all figured out I'm on a roll. Stay Tuned for the finished result. Plus I'm going to the Fall quilt market this weekend hope to find/buy lots of goodies.
Tomorrow I'm going out to Moms...does she ever have tomatoes...why she planted 30 plus bushes for just her and dad I don't know but I think she obsessed with tomatoes. If I'm lucky the Plums will be ready to pick and the pears are still coming on so I should be able to get more of those also. If I remember and it's not raining I'll get pictures of the chickens and Pechee. Thanks for stopping by,
Terry

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Fleece Feather Quilt



I haven't had much free time to quilt lately. Between work and Dr. Appointments for both myself and DH I've been very busy. Plus I'm trying to keep up with the Feather Bootcamp Class I'm taking at MQS. Here's the fleece Quilt I stitched out for the class. I've never LA'd on fleece before and I like it. No piecing and no batting just load 2 pieces of Fleece and away you go. I might even do a panto on fleece later. Will have to wait for a sale on fleece although this finished quilt is cheap compared to what a regular quilt would cost to make.
I've also put together a couple of fall wall panels that I've had for a few years. It's too windy to take a picture and I haven't quilted them yet. Probably won't either this year the way it's going. I'll just add them to my closet of quilts that need quilting. In couple of weeks there's a show coming and I hope to find the perfect quilt to make for my brother. They just bought a mini farm. Moving from Florida to NC. I can understand moving out of Florida but the farm part, sounds like too much work at my age. I'm heading to the beach.
Thanks for stopping by.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Bento Box N Circle Lord Stuff

I haven't had lots of free time to quilt lately but I did managed to finish this one. It's a Bento Box Pattern.
I quilted it using a giant template from Circle Lord called Zig Zag and Waves. I didn't stitch out every line of the template, I skipped every other Wave Row. For an E2E pattern I like the appearance overall and the texture of the quilting, now that it's finished. My daughter suggested to make another quilt but use Red, Black and White. Maybe someday.

On my rack now I'm killing two birds with one stone so to speak. I have loaded one of the sample quilts I made quite awhile ago from a pattern called Treasure Boxes. I actually taught this pattern to a class of beginner quilters. That was loads of fun and I wish I had time to teach. I found I actually liked teaching. Anyway I'm using this quilt for an online class and I'm also trying out the New Crosshatch giant template and Stylus Popper Upper from Circle Lord. It's the first on-line Long Arm Quilting Class I've taken. I'm taking it at MQSolutions. The class is called Feather Boot Camp by Suzanne Earley who by the way authored Meandering Magic. We are into week two and I'm learning lots about the structure of feathers. I'm learning how to draw better looking feathers. Although my feathers looked ok before, there was lots of room for improvement. Hopefully I'll be able to fix and quilt beautiful feathers someday soon. So far I haven't quilted any feathers yet, I'll do that tonight. But I did get to try out my new CL Crosshatch template and popper thingy. The stylus popper thingy allows you to stitch/quilt from the front of the machine. It seems to work really well and seems much faster. I think I'm going to like my new toy.
Thanks for stopping by today.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

I Love UPS the Mailman


It's been so hot lately but it's finally cooled off. Now maybe I can get back to Quilting instead of sitting by the fan. Both the UPS and Mailman brought me presents yesterday.

UPS brought me Giant Boards and the Stylist Lifter for my Circle Lord. I got both Crosshatch sets because I couldn't make up my mind so I got both.

The Mailman brought me 1 new Books and 4 new Patterns. These came from www.cozyquilt.com I haven't used their patterns before but they appear to fit my new criteria for buying. I'm only buying patterns/books or quilt kits now where the patterns are suitable for custom type quilting.
The other Book I picked up at Fabric Depot it's called Quilter's Peace by Gathering Friends. It has several patterns that beg for custom quilting...that is is if I ever find the time to make them.
Thanks for stopping by.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Too Hot To Quilt

Thanks for stopping in today. It's been so hot this week,
I sure hope you can feel the cool breeze of my fan.
I finish quilting this small quilt in the wee hours of morning. Now I can just sit in front of the fan all day while I sew the binding on.

The pattern is called Crazy Eights, you use 8 fat-quarters.
To quilt the body I used the Giant CL Template called Water. I use this template quite a bit to meander with.
The Borders were added as an after thought, just so I could try out doing Deb Levy's Circle Borders using the CL.
Deb has free and paid videos on the MQS forum.
To view this videos you must be a member but it's
well worth the small yearly fee.

By the way I usually don't make such ....quilts but I'm determined to start using up my stash of fabric and batting pieces. These ugly quilts make great PPP quilts for the Long Arm and to PPP using all the tools I've invested in.
Thank you for taking a peak today, come back soon.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

CL Template Holder


Good afternoon, I'm glad you stopping by.

I'd planned to go and pick berries at my folks today but I was called in to work instead. So now I have a bit of time on my hands and thought I'd blog etc for awhile. I tried posting a picture on the APQS forum of the Lid Holder I use to store my CL templates but had trouble with the Pix, I don't feel up to retrying it right now it's just too hot outside and inside to deal with the stress if it doesn't work again. I'm just not good at resizing pictures, I always end up with a cropped picture part, instead of the whole picture. Anyway here's a picture.
Stop in Again anytime.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

2 New Quilt Tops



Hello, Thank You for stopping in today.

I promised I'd post these Tops. The first quilt is called
Bento Box Updated. I made it using the Kit I bought last weekend at the Sandy Quilt Show. Makes a nice size lap quilt
60"x75". I won't be able to quilt it until I find the backing fabric. Part of the Quilt is batik fabric so that's what I'll shop for. I'll quilt it on my Long Arm either freehand or using my Circle Lord tool. Either way I plan to do a E2E swirl Pattern.

The 2nd quilt top is called Crazy Eights.
It's made using just 8 fat quarters.

I wanted it just a bit larger than 36" square so I used 9 fat quarters. my quilt is 46"x54" with borders. The original pattern doesn't have borders and originally mine didn't either. But then I watch a primier video by Deb Levy offered at the MQS forum. Can't say enough about how much I enjoy and learn by watching these videos at MQS. So I added the narrow border just to try out Debs Circle Border Design. The best part is that the design is done using a Circle Lord Tool. I love my Circle Lord. And I learned a new way to use it by watching the video.
Thanks for coming by, stop in again soon.

My Present Arrived


Hello everyone, Thank You for visiting today.

Yesterday I received a present to myself from Full Line Stencils. Talk about fast service.. I'd just ordered these a few days ago. I've never used this line of stencils before but always wanted to try them out. I've heard really good things about them. I Can't wait to try them. I'll let you know later what I think, I'm about ready to load a new quilt. I'll show you my next PPP quilt top in my next post. Plus I'll show you the Quilt Top I just finished piecing.
Have a great day and please stop in again.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Retirement Quilt


Now don't get too excited, unfortunately it not my retirement, at least not yet. I made this quilt for Mary who was my back up at work. We'd been a team for a several good years. She's been gone for a few weeks now and I miss her already. Good people are hard to come by and so far the fill- ins have just been that... fill ins. Enough about real work. My blog is meant for the good times.
Back to the quilt. It's an all flannel quilt, the fabric is a rose pattern by Maywood. Mary's lucky to get this one, as this is my favorite all time fabric pattern to date. I machine quilted it on my long arm using a Circle Lord giant pattern board. It's a nice sized lap that hopefully will keep her toasty this winter. Anyways have a happy retirement Mary. Hope you have a bit of time to sew. Best Wishes.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Quilt Show N Berries

I went to the Quilt Show in Sandy Oregon. Although it was a very nice show I noticed a difference this year. There didn't seem to be as many quilts displayed as in the past. I also noticed more of the quilts were quilted E2E vs. Custom. Again, there's nothing wrong with E2E as a lot of E2E is really beautiful and exactly what the quilt calls out for. I'm just more interested in custom work, I'm always on the look out for something new or different that I haven't done before. Needless to say I didn't take pictures, but I did spend a little money!! I just can't resist buying quilt kits especially if I love the fabric, the pattern has great LA Quilting potential and/or the price is right. So my purchase of the day was the kit pictured. I'd never done a Bento Box quilt before and I've wanted to. This is the new Updated version. The show sample was quite nice plus the kit met all my buying requirements.
After the show I went to my parents farm. I picked 2 containers of marionberries. Oh they are so
big n sweet! Then on my way home I dropped one container off at my friend Myree's.
Would have been a perfect day, except in the back of my mind I knew I had to go to work today.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Life Got In The Way

Yep, life has gotten in the way of being able to do any Long Arm quilting lately. Although, I was able to make another set of pillowcases since my last post. Plus I happily used up some of my stash doing so. The Fabric has cats plastered all over it. No wonder it was in my stash, I don't know why I bought 2 yards at the time except, it is cute fabric. I'm not really a cat person but my DH is. Maybe I'd planned to use it in a quilt for him? If that was the case now he can sleep on it instead of under it!
I won't be doing any quilting today as I'm going to a Quilt Show out in Sandy Oregon put on by the Sandy Historical Society. I'm rarely able to go to shows or events due to a rotten work schedule. But I do try and make this one and the one in August down at the beach in Newport Oregon. Both are worth the trips.
In some ways I'm glad I didn't get to quilt this week because I found Carla Barrett's Blog. On her blog she has some very nice practice motifs with diagrams for us beginner Long Arm quilters. Lucky me I happen to have a practice quilt on my rack now that is only 1/2 finished. So I'm thrilled I'm going to be able to try them out right away. So hop over to Carla's blog if you haven't been there yet. Thank You Carla for helping us newbee's out.
Have a great day everyone.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Still PPP

I'm still PPP on my Turning Twenty, Again quilt, that's pinned to my rack. I can see, I do need lots more PPP's on my feathers, pebbles and everything else. Although part of the reason it looks bad is my thread doesn't match. I did this on purpose hoping to master tension along the way beings I'd plan to use all kinds of thread. My Ima really loves Yenmet Matallic thread, I'll try superior later. I bought some Sulky at Market I want to try also. I plan to try all my odd (ones I haven't used before) threads at some point on this quilt. I'm going to use Sew Fine in the bobbin with all the threads, this way I have a base in which to gauge the tension settings to.
The picture with Crosshatching is my first ever attempt at hatching. I used my new crosshatch ruler set-up by Westalee Designs that I ordered form Quilters Rule. I like the ruler.
I found a U-tube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLnrC9yo8tY about how to make a sausage Pillowcase, the one with the enclosed french seams.I already had the kit but no instructions. It was very Quick N Easy. I think I'll be making more.
Now I'll spend the rest of the day PPP my feathers and a new fill I found called 3's N' E's. I'd seen this fill before but always thought it was a computerized fill. Sew happy to find I just might be able to do it, cuz for now I don't have a computer. Have a Great Day!!

Thursday, July 9, 2009

The Cat lost her Hammock



Whenever I had a quilt pinned to my rack, I would usually find that the cat had used the quilt for a hammock. To solve this problem I bought Artist Canvas boards that were the width of the rails. For my Gammill Premier I bought 24x36" boards. Now when I'm finished quilting for the day I lay the Canvas boards
on the rails over the quilt.
Poor kitty no longer has a hammock to sleep in.
Thought I'd share this with other cat owners who's
kitties love sleeping in a hammock also.

Next Up


I've decided that I need to practice doing Feathers and background fills. I also want to use some metallic thread here and there. Wish me Luck, I've used "Yenmet" and "Superior" Metallic thread on my Long Arm with sucess, but at the time I only quilted a small area. I belong to the MQR forum and Adam showed a sampler quilt using the Turning 20, Again pattern. At the time I thought it ended up longing great and later I'd do the same. So now that I was looking for something to do... low and behold in my closet of quilt tops I found this "Turning 20, again" quilt. Having so many different size areas, it should make a good sampler, although I'm not sure it will end up being a quilt to show off. I really don't care for the fabric plus I'm using muslin for a backer. I'm using muslin so I can easily see and adjust my tension for the different thread combo's I plan to use. I'm not afraid to dink with the top or bobbin tension although I 'm still learning the in's and out's of the Long Arm tension beast. Well if I want to make progress today I'd better sign off for now.