Pages

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.