Long time no post!

Sooo busy..... here are a few quilty and not so quilty things I've been up to since my last post.


Made a quilt for Willow.


Really love how the quilting came out on this one!







Bubble bath on vacation. Nice!



Family reunion. Three of 4 sisters.

Had my fortune told in New Orleans! How goofy is this guy? Like my hat? Searched high and low for a hat to fit my big fat head. This one was 'perfect'!

Did some sewing with the girls.

Summer chalk art.


Got a booth at the antique mall! Check out The Flying Phoenix. www.theflyingphoenixartisans.com


Went to the lake.



Got a swingset! Lovely Assistant is breaking it in.


Customer quilt.

More later!

A finish!

This is a BIG quilt! I think it turned out nice. Here it is on my bed. Can you tell underneath it is all the stuff that lives on my bed?


When there isn't a ton of stuff underneath it, that inner border lays along the edge of the mattress and the applique falls over the edge.


A close up of the applique and quilting.




The 'label', which is actually on the front in the corner.




The artist's signature :)!!!

And now for my mistakes.


In order to quilt the applique the way I wanted to I had to turn the quilt on the frame. My machine only has 10 " of throat space. Apparently, I need more practice turning quilts. I ended up with some puckers on the back. Here's one that I stitched down. Can you find it? It runs horizontal in the middle of this pic.


Here's a small one I left alone.


Here's another large one. This one runs up and down and I stitched it down also.


Another small one that I left alone.

Other than these puckers, I think this quilt turned out really nice. I have decided I need a new quilting machine. 10" of quilting space is just not enough. Also, I need a better track, a lighter machine and maybe a stitch regulator. I think if I had a more cooperative machine I could have done a much better job with this quilt.



And here is my lovely assistant entertaining the parakeet. Notice the backwards clothes. It's a fashion statement.

Quilt progress and some pics.

Here's what I've got so far:




All the blocks, all the applique pieces, large border pieces, bias for vine and fabric for small borders and binding. Since I took this picture I actually have all the blocks put together into rows and about half the rows stitched together, just haven't taken a pic of that yet. When I get the rows all done I'll take a pic.

Someone asked if I made my own pattern - nope! This is from my favorite book Quick and Easy Scrap Quilts - I think. I've actually lost my copy and had to borrow one from my friend to do this! I still can't find my copy. Can't imagine where it is! Anyway, the pattern in the book was for a wall hanging size quilt. I'm making this quilt for someone else and they wanted a king size quilt. The pattern called for 3 inch 9 patch blocks. A king size quilt of 3 inch 9 patch blocks seemed like a mountain of work, so I re-drafted them into 6 inch blocks - a much more doable size and more like what I prefer to work with. I realized I probably needed to redraft the border as well because I was afraid the bigger blocks would overwhelm the border design if I didn't, so I made it twice as big as well. I think it will work out nicely. My plan is for the blocks lay on top of the bed and the border to fall down the sides. We'll see how well I planned when I get the blocks all pieced! When I laid it out on the bed it was looking pretty good....

Here are some pics of the people at my house.


My daughter. Just decided to take a picture of herself with my camera. Just because.


My lovely assistant helping daddy take a nap.


Lovely assistant entertaining the parakeet.

Happy Halloween, all!

Baby quilt progress

Baby quilt is coming along!

The top before border.

Here is the border, ready to sew on.

A closeup of the border. It may not be laying there in the right direction.....

Here are the leftovers. These are blocks that I discarded (just couldn't get the points right...), leftover triangles from stitching and trimming, and leftover squares from overcutting. I think I may make a whole nother quilt!



And one of my lovely assistant. Note the peanut butter (she calls it mmmmmbutter) on the cheek. You should see her leg.....

Topsy turvy baby doll

Here is my lovely assistant showing off the baby doll I just finished for her. This was a panel that I've had forever. So long I can't even remember where it came from! Cut it out months ago, finally got around to stitching it together yesterday, finished today.


This is the sleepy side.


Here's the awake side. Had a hard time finishing her because every time I got her out to work on her Lovely Assistant would insist on holding her! It was a real battle, but we both won. This baby has a quilt, but I haven't finished that yet. It's summer. It's hot. I'll have it done before she gets cold.

Went sale-ing today!

Found some really fun things this weekend!



A sewing iron. Says so on the box! Works great, nice and light, and has a lovely purple cord. $3. How cool is that?



An unfinished applique quilt complete with pieces to finish it (and matching thread!) and the instructions.


Think all the pieces are really there? Who knows? I figure it will be fun to substitute if they aren't. I was wanting some handwork and here it is! This should keep me busy for a llloooonnngggg time!! $12 for that. Just couldn't resist!

There's a sale clost to my house that's open tomorrow, so I'm going over there before they close to see what's left that is cheap. There were some fun old sheets that would make pretty quilt backs and two Necchi Supernova sewing machines. I have one already, but wouldn't mind having another for the right price. If they are still there tomorrow they just might be the right price!



And my neighbor was throwing this out!!! Eeeeek! It has so many fun fabrics in it!!! She said it had gotten wet and she was afraid it was moldy. I don't think it is, but if it is I think I might take it apart and use the unmoldy pieces. It's just tied, so should be easy to deconstruct. That's just the last resort! I'm planning on it being just fine and using it as is! It's so cute!!


My lovely assistant had a birthday. She's two! Time flies....

Just a little update

Just a quick update.


This is a polyester quilt my grandmother made. It's only a top and it's coming apart all over the place. I think what I'd like to do with this is back it with some flannel and put it on the quilting machine and quilt it. I think that would stabilize it. It really doesn't need to have all the seams repaired, necessarily. They're not gonna ravel!

Here's my lovely assistant being really helpful again. She loves to lay down with a blanket and pillow. Can't nap without them! Even a hardwood floor is a good napping place as long as you have a blanket and pillow. Doesn't have to be a special blanket or pillow, whatever is handiest will do.

Happy 4th!

Customer Quilt!!!

First things first - a customer quilt! They wanted something simple and cheap. I can handle that!

It was such a pretty quilt! I didn't have time to take really good pics, these are just a few so that I can have a record.

Here is my lovely assistant lounging around.


And here she is taking a nap. How tired do you have to be to fall asleep like this? I work her so hard.....

And here is a guy that lives at our house. This is all dressed up for 8th grade bridging.

No quilting, but....

Here's a pic of my oldest doing color guard duty for CAP.



Note the military face. Something else I noted - he looks a lot like my lovely assistant in this photo. I've never really thought they looked alike, but she can make this face really well, too. Interesting!


And these little lovelies are tie-dyed eggs. Literally dyed with ties! Via Martha Stewart, you take men's silk ties, cut them apart so that you just have the silk, wrap it tightly around the egg, wrap tightly again with some other fabric, cover with water and about a quarter cup vinegar, boil for 20 min and voila! How cool is that??? No dye mess. Way cool results. See how clearly the print from the tie came out in some places? It was way too much fun. We blew these eggs out before we dyed them. I won't do that again next year. Gave me a headache. At least now I can say I've done it. This is definately how we'll dye eggs from now on.

And of course, a lovely assistant shot. Here she is disguised as an eggplant, sharing a sucker with her baby.

Managed to get a quilt loaded into the frame over the last few days and started quilting it this evening. Had to stop cuz I couldn't see what I was doing. Getting dark outside and lighting in my living room is just plain bad. Gonna have to do some looking around for inexpensive and easy lighting options for my frame. I just don't have enough daylight hours to work with.

Also got the binding stitched onto the back of the fan quilt, now need to stitch the front down. That's on my list of things to get around to this week. Must also clean up my sewing dungeon. Rain comes in the spring and if it comes hard and fast my room leaks! Must get everything up and out of harms way before a big storm hits. Not to mention, the basement is our tornado shelter. It would be really sad if we all died in the tornado because we couldn't get into the basement because all my fun stuff is everywhere!