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.

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.

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.

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.

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.