Down to the Last Details

I got this finished on Friday evening!  Three months of steady work and it is quilted, and the binding is on now.  I was so happy to finally be done, but I'm going to miss hanging out with this quilt in the evenings!

Actually I do have just a little more work to do on it.

I need to do a little tightening up of some loose stitching here and there.  It shouldn't take me too long to finish.  Can you see how the hexies pull away from each other just a bit? 

There were a couple of blocks that were very bad - I wonder if they were the first blocks she made?  In any case, we want the quilt to hold up to washing, so I'm going to make sure that these seams are secured. 

I did find out that the lady that made this top has had it done for at least 10 years.  At that point she realized that she was not going to be able to hand quilt it because of arthritis, so it's been waiting all this time to be finished.  It finally became an urgent matter when she was diagnosed with a brain tumor several months ago, and ended up in my hands for finishing.

While I do feel very fulfilled when finishing these projects for people, it makes me start thinking about some of my own projects.  This quilt is on my list to be finished - I've even basted it with some lovely wool batting for hand quilting, but it will never get finished if I don't get it started, and I'd love to have it done for fall.  Unfortunately I have one more quilt I've promised to finish first, but I plan to work as diligently on that one so I can get mine done, too! 

Do you have a special project that you need to get working on?  Make a plan today and get to work - you'll never get finished if you don't get started!

Football and Stitching

Yes, I did watch the Super Bowl today, and enjoyed some fine hand stitching time!

I am handquilting this love hand pieced Drunkard's Path quilt for a friend.  For now I am just stitching in the ditch around the white pieces.  When I am done with that I will likely quilt something in those areas, and just leave the blue.  We'll see.

She said that she knows the only way this quilt will be finished is if someone else does it!  I certainly know that feeling, and I may have her machine quilt some of my finished tops in exchange or they may meet the same fate.

I'm going to have to work on my quilting callous, though - my underneath fingers are a bit sore from such a long quilting session today!

I also worked on my embroidery for the cover of my quilter's planner - just a bit more to go and I'll be ready to sew that together, and I guess I'll have to look for the other pillowcase to work on.  I've been working on the stain on the first one and it's faded a bit, but still obvious.  I've had some great suggestions for getting that out, and I feel pretty confident that something will work.

I have lots of sewing to work on this week so I'm going to spend some time planning out my week and setting some goals.  My quilting projects are taking over, and I need to get them under control!

Hope your week is awesome - I know mine will be because I suspect the new Ambassador Box from Island Batik will be arriving, and I just can't wait to see what is in it, so exciting!

Linking up for Slow Sunday Stitching!

Sniffle, sniffle..

Uh-oh.  I think I may be getting a cold.  I've been sniffling and my throat is starting to get a bit sore.  I don't really want to be sick, so I hope I will wake up in the morning feeling fine!  But at least if I do have to be sick I got through last week first...not so much going on this week.

I did get all my red and gray units cut out for the mystery quilt today, and about half are sewn.  Tomorrow I am supposed to work on the curtain panels that I didn't get to work on last week.  More yardage is being sent to replace the flawed portion.  I am sure glad I did check the fabric before cutting!  I have the fabric cut, so plan on working on that tomorrow, sick or not.

Now it's time to go to bed and kick this sniffle - I hope!

Just for fun, here is a picture of the lap quilt I like to use this time of year.  I made this when I was a fairly beginner quilter.  A group of friends and I formed a small quilting group and took turns bringing a block to teach the others.  I made mine into a sampler.  It is hand quilted in a baptist fan pattern.  Such sweet memories of the fun I had getting together with these ladies and enjoying learning more quilting!  This was made in the early 90's - I didn't add a label at the time (bad form).  

New Hand Quilting Project

I had a nicely productive week - it feels good to have gotten so many things accomplished!  I hope I can keep it up for the next couple of weeks...it's usually pretty hard for me to stay on task for an extended period of time.  I started hand quilting the hexagon quilt I basted on Wednesday.  I definitely need to keep up work on this because it has a definite due date, so no slacking off!  I need to finish one flower every other day - a pretty do-able amount of stitching in an evening.

I finished up a few small projects that I've been shuffling around the sewing room for a while now.  Do you have those piles?  I didn't want to put them away in a drawer because I knew they would never get done, but wasn't really inspired to finish them up, so they would travel from the top of one surface to another.  Today they got finished!  Don't have any pictures to show you, so I'll have to remember to do that later.

Tomorrow I'm taking the day off to have some fun with the college girl - she has missed seeing her mom and dad, so we are going to go up and spend a day with her.  She'll be super busy once she starts cheer, so we need to take advantage and treat her to a nice day.  It should be fun!  Hope your weekend is fun as well, make sure to spend some time with people you love!

WIP

I can't believe I haven't posted in three weeks!  After spending the  Fourth of July being miserably sick, it seems like I have spent the next couple of weeks working my tail off getting a couple of custom orders completed and not having time for anything else!  I am so excited to have all my big projects done and to be able to work on some projects that I want to work on!  The cat quilt below is a top my sister made for me, and it is my July UFO project.  It is basted and ready to quilt, so I hope to get that finished up this week - this is going to be a lap quilt to take in the car with me on trips.  I just love the cat print and how it is put together - Sis, you did a nice job on this one!

This quilt is a shop sample in my CityScapes pattern.  I wasn't too sure if I really liked the blocks, but once I got the sashing and cornerstones on, I loved it!  This one is up for quilting after the cat quilt, I think I'm going to try doing an overlapping design with boxes.  Should be interesting....

And here is my June UFO Challenge.  Another Asian panel quilt.  This one had plain cornerstones, so was simpler to quilt.  I remembered to add the sleeve before I sewed the binding, so all I had to do was hand-stitch one side of it (wish I would remember all the time, really makes it easier).

Here is the finished quilt!  Came out very pretty and now is available for sale in my Etsy Shop.

Do you do hand quilting?  I still do some, and I have been pushing to get a quilt done that I've been working on for way too long, now.  (Let's just say that menopause is not helpful....between hot flashes and bi-focals, I have had an interesting time adjusting!)  I really do love stitching by hand, it is very calming.  And the results are so beautiful!

I like hand quilting with regular quilting thread.  I really love working with contrasting thread, but not on this quilt, it needs to be more traditional.  I've done some Big Stitch quilting with Perle Cotton, but I thought it was difficult to pull the thread through.  The look was pretty neat, though, and it was really quick to do.  Overall, I'd have to say I prefer the traditional method.  When this one is done I have a green and white Grandmother's Flower Garden to do.  Then I think I'll do one of my own!

No matter whether you quilt by machine or hand, enjoy what you do!  Check out the Quiltsy Team Blog here for more WIP posts, and see what other quilters think about hand stitching.

Hand Quilting

Just a quick post today, I have Quilt Guild tonight so need to get ready for that!


Today's stitching project was my Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt. This is a long overdue project, but I'm making good progress on it now! I watched Jane Eyre while stitching this afternoon and had a lovely time watching a "chick flick". Don't think this was one that my hubby would want to watch, so it was a good choice for my solo viewing! Wonder how many more movies this quilt will go through? Quite a few, I think! I really love the relaxing feeling I get from sitting and doing handwork. I really need to be better about doing it regularly.

(Tried to use my phone to blog this, but no luck. Any helpful hints on mobile blogging?)

A Beautiful Day

After all my ramblings yesterday about lovely late summer days, we had one of the best ones ever today. A wonderful warm, windless day and a beautiful clear crisp night. One of those days that you just want to go on endlessly. So nice!

Tonight was my first guild meeting as DPP (Distinguished Past President) and it was fabulous! Not only did I arrive at the meeting without a ton of baggage, but I also snuck out early so I could relax at home with my family. I am glad I did my service to the guild, but I am so excited to be able to enjoy meetings again without any stress!

One of the highlights of my meeting was being presented with my special presidents quilt. Well, at least I got to see it, it's not quite finished, but that's quite all right, it's too hot for a quilt right now anyway. It's a pretty scrappy star quilt and has signatures in the border. I will be excited to have it finished and to be able to enjoy it as a lap quilt this winter. Isn't it funny that as a quilter we can make any quilt we want, but it's really special to get one that we don't have to make ourselves?

I did some hand quilting this afternoon on my little scrappy star miniature quilt. I've entered it in the quilt show in 2 weeks, so I need to get it finished! I got three of the 12 stars quilted, so I am off to a good start. I also have a queen size quilt to machine quilt, so I hope to get that basted this weekend. I'm glad I was sensible and didn't commit to finishing 12 quilts for the show this year. Anyway, I enjoyed the hand quilting - I forget how pleasant and almost meditative hand quilting is. Once I get myself settled I find it to be quite relaxing - I really need to continue with hand projects because they are so enjoyable, and it's good to keep up my skills.

Tomorrow is more work at the Quilt Shop, registering the girl for school, and possibly a foot-ball game. And hopefully another lovely September day!

Bon Soir!

It's a good idea to...

Check your e-mail before you go to bed! I almost didn't, but now am really glad I did because otherwise, I might have missed my day in the spotlight at HandmadeFuzion! So, I ended up staying awake until after midnight because then I just had to add a few more listings that I have been meaning to get done, and double check my listings for typos (which I probably missed anyway because it was after midnight!)

I have to say nice things about Handmade Fuzion because even though I haven't had any sales there yet, I think it is an awesome site to buy and sell handmade. It is juried, so you know that the product you get will indeed by handmade by the artist - which is the point of buying handmade, right? The administrators of the site are awesome, prompt replies to questions, and they added a special subcategory in the quilt section just for me! Isn't that great? I was very happy! I am excited to be included on the website, and hope for great things for it - it's very exciting to get in on the ground floor of a new venture and I can't wait to see how it goes.

My current project is a sample for the shop (we are getting ready for Quilt Run 101 which means lots of new samples and things to catch the eye of all those quilters!). Here are a couple of very bad pictures. Which you will see a lot of in the near future because the rain is back on the Oregon Coast. That high pressure system that was giving us glorious weather has moved on, but we need the rain, so no complaining!

The fabric in this quilt is Natural Garden by Holly Taylor, and for some reason it has not sparked a lot of interest, yet. We are hoping a sample will show everyone how lovely this line is and will help sell the remaining jelly rolls we have. I love the rich reds in this, and added a similar red as a narrow inner border, then the brown with green birds as the outer border. I got it basted yesterday, and halfway quilted! I am quilting it with a soft green on the top and off-white on the back. I'm simply doing a large meander to get it done quick, most of the samples do quite well with a simple desing, but for my own quilts I like to go a little crazy and quilt them more.

This picture also shows how messy my sewing room is at this moment. Yes, I did start cleaning then I started sewing and accumulating new projects. Time to start spending more time in the sewing room actually sewing, instead of time in the sewing room on the internet! I also need to finish a lot of half done projects, and get rid of a lot of extraneous stuff. I think you will be seeing some e-bay auctions coming up for some books and magazines, and who knows what I will do with all the extra fabric! Yes, I have my work cut out for me, but when I put my mind to it, I can really accomplish a lot in a short time. Time to put my mind (and body!) to it!

County Fair Results!

I got my quilts back from the fair yesterday and am very pleased at my results! I got 5 blue ribbons and 3 red ribbons. I won a special reward for the miniature category which was very nice - a $25.00 certificate from Threads That Bind. So maybe I won't end up owing my whole paycheck for a change!

I didn't get to see the exhibit, so I'm not sure how much competition there actually was, I am in the professional division, but I look at it as less competition (of a higher level!) We all know each other, so it's fun - especially trying your hand at something you know someone else is fabulous at!

I love that there are so many categories to enter in, there are 6 different categories for miniature quilts alone, so I may have to make a few extra for next year. These are the three larger quilts I entered the yellow one is Party Mints, it was entered as a lap quilt. The blue one is Baby Blues, it is a baby quilt, and the fall one is Grandmother's Flower Baskets and it is a sample for a pattern I am working on.

Then I entered an assorment of smaller items. The Eiffel Tower Journal Cover got a red ribbon, and my quilted postcard got a red ribbon. The rest were all blue, including my two miniatures! The yellow and blue miniature I finished the morning that the fair items were picked up. The scalloped binding was a last minute decision and not as well done as I would like it to have been, but it still qualified for the blue ribbon so I am happy.

It was a pattern from a Miniature Quilts magazine, but I made it in different colors. I love the blue and yellow combination, so bright and cheery. I ran out of fabric for the border, but had one in my stash that I loved, but didn't want to use. So I ended up running to the fabric store to look for more, and found the same thing, plus the cheery fabric I used for the back. I am going to make myself a quilters wallet out of the border fabric that I have left now!

Saving the best for last, the happiest thing I got from the fair is a commission to quilt one of the loveliest vintage grandmothers flower garden quits I have ever seen! It is a fabulous quilt and I know that not everyone is as thrilled as I am about getting to handquilt something like this, but it is such a wonderful quilt!

Yes, that is a quarter in the center of the flower! Each of the flower petals has a design from the fabric centered on it, and the green path around the flowers makes the whole quilt beautifully straight, not slightly skewed like most of these are. I think there is a special name for this variation, if you know what it's called let me know. It is in pristine shape, not a spot on it. I am so honored to be able to put my stitches in this quilt, I cannot even tell you! What a joy this will be!

Coos County Fair 2006

Last week was fair week. I entered 5 quilts, and a pirate costume I made for my daughter last year. I got two blue ribbons, and two red ribbons on my quilts, and a red ribbon for the costume. I won the special award for miniatures with my paper pieced lighthouse quilt- "A Light in the Storm" It is made from a commercial pattern, which was very nice - all of the paper piecing patterns were included, and there were a lot of them! I need to figure out how many pieces in this quilt because there are so many. I had a lot of fun making it, and decided to hand quilt it because according to the rules at last year's quilt show it was too large to be a miniature (or so I thought). According to the applications for this years show it just makes it as a miniature - yeah!! Anyway, the machine quilted category for wall-hangings is huge, but there were only a few hand quilted ones last year, so I thought by hand quilting it I would stand a better chance of winning a ribbon on it. Oh well! It won at the fair, so I hope it does well at the show in Sept. The one thing about the show is that the ribbons are awarded by public voting, so it's not always the best technical work that wins, but the most eye catching. I try to enter something in the miniatures every year - it's a small but competitive category! Plus, I just like to make them, so it gives me a good excuse to come up with yet another small quilt.