New Project

I am still not sure about the fabric for our bed quilt so I started a new baby quilt today.  I submitted a block to Quiltmaker several months ago.  Yesterday, I received the email saying my block would be in Volume 14 which goes on sale November 16th.  When I submitted the block, I also submitted a quilt design made from the block.

 So, today I was motivated to start that quilt.  It will be a bright baby quilt. Actually it was intended to be for my new grandson, until I found the Forest Friends pattern. 

I submitted a 12" block as requested, but Quiltmaker also suggested designing a pattern than uses the block - maybe use the block in a little different way.  So I did that.  I enlarged the submittal block and put it as a big focal point in the center, 24" square.  Then I adapted the block a bit and made several to surround the big center. I added a border with a touch of the same block. It is a fun, fast, and easy quilt.

 If you like to chain piece, then you'll like this quilt.  It is very repetitive. And if you are chain piecing, you can make good use of this little tool. Its a stand up thread cutter.  I bought it from Amazon.  It does seem to speed up the process and if you've been following me a while, you know I like fast.

So that is my quilting tip of the day!  I 'd like to have this one done by next weekend. I think it is possible.

The Hardest Part - picking the quilting design

I do think this is the most difficult part of quilting, especially for one who doesn't feel confident on a long arm.  I should be, I've had mine for over 7 years.  I finished Dandelions and am ready to do the quilting.  This is what I'm thinking of doing.....

The flower shape reminds me of a dandelion. I couldn't figure out what to do in the cross blocks, so I think I'll try the elongated meandering pointing it towards the centers.  I don't want to cover it all in dense quilting, but I'm not sure how this will work, leaving some spaces open.  Once I get started it may change.  That happens sometimes.  Wish me luck!

Crochet!

I've learned to crochet!

For years I've wanted to learn to knit.  Our quilting class at church is in between projects and we decided to take a couple of weeks to learn to crochet.  It is a simple scarf pattern.  It isn't as hard as it looks.  I know I messed up a lot in the first couple of rows but I just kept going and now I think I've got the hang of it. Crochet is like a preliminary skill to knitting, right?

I know, I don't need another hobby.  I think this will be good just in case I want to do a project here and there, or to keep something going for car rides/airplanes/sitting in the living room with my hubby while he watches TV.

Quilting Update:  I haven't done much quilting lately.  Actually I am waiting on a response from Fons and Porter.  I submitted my Checkered Past quilt (no, you readers haven't seen the full thing), and they suggested a change.  They said to redesign it and submit again with fabric suggestions and they would send me the fabric to make it. I'm assuming IF they like the re-design, and IF they want it for a magazine. They are usually so prompt with emails. So, I'm a bit surprised I didn't get an acknowledgment that they received the new design, nor any correspondence, especially since they requested it for a review meeting that was occurring the last week in October. So.....here I wait.  Maybe I'll send another email later this week......

Baby Quilt

I quilted this one for a friend. This friend has been battling cancer for about 19 years. She is what you'd call a lifer. She is such an inspiration. She made this one for her future grandson. She made one in our quilting class at church a couple of years ago for her future granddaughter. As of now only one of her three children is married and no grand babies are on the way.

Now she has something special made for her first grandson and first granddaughter. They will have it whether she gets to meet them this side of heaven or not.

 

Merry Monday

Love my Monday's off work. Finished up the remembrance quilt yesterday. Take a peek....

Then I made a couple of blocks for our guild president's quilt.

Then today, I've done some house cleaning, got in a run.....

....and also have six loaves of honey wheat bread in the oven.....

I eat this every single morning for breakfast. Sometimes with honey and butter, sometimes with cinnamon, sometimes with jam. Yum. Thankful I have a convection oven so I can make a double batch at once. It is a mess but so worth it.

Quilting tools

Do you have some quilting tools you can't do without? I'm not much for gadgets. They have to really help me do something better or I won't use them. Some seem to slow me down. For example....

I know a lot of folks love using the binding clips. I bought these recently (are they not exactly like little girl hair barrettes?!). At first I thought they were great, but they really slowed me down. I don't pin my bindings but use my left thumb to turn it up as I stitch with my right hand. Nope. They are not for me. One thing I like to do for bindings is keep my little recycled zip bag full of everything I need -- needles, hand quilting thread, scissors, thimble, reading glasses. When I'm ready to bind, I just grab it and go.

These were an investment ($$$). They are leader clips. Pinning a quilt onto a long arm machine takes about an hour. With these, you place the fabric over the hard plastic dowel that has been inserted into the leader fabric. Then snap on the top. The verdict is still out but I do know they are not good for a quilt that has no border, or a border you want to quilt to the edge. Ok for loading the backing but I probably won't use them on the top again. On this quilt I had a two inch border that I wanted to quilt to the edge. They took up about 3/4" of my two inch border.
This jewel, I love....It is a silicone lint roller. Got it at the quilt show in Chattanooga. It came with three sizes -pocket, regular, and this big boy. Great for picking up all the little threads that attach themselves to us quilters and our work space. The only draw back is after you rinse it in hot water to release the junk it picked up, then you have to dispose of the water, preferably not in the sink unless you also use a drain to catch the threads.

I went out on a limb and tried a McTavishing type filler on my shadow quilt. I think it is much easier than stippling and looks "fancier." It really wasn't hard. The key is using matching thread to the fabric. On the back (Orange) it looks quite messy but on the front, beautiful. I worked all day yesterday on this. The filler took 9 bobbins of thread and today my arms and shoulders are sore.

So, what are your favorite tools of the trade?

(by the way, I've updated my running under its tab, and added a new wonderful recipe under the recipe tab)

Learning machine quilting

I've been scouring over lots of machine quilting YouTube videos lately. I want to learn how to do better at custom quilting. I found a relatively easy technique for filling background called McTavishing. I am going to try it on the white background on the shadow quilt.

They recommend using a thread the same color as the background, at least on first attempts. So I'll be changing thread from a light gray to a white for the filler. This one will take some time to quilt, but I am ready to stretch my abilities so I am excited to get started on it. I found a star pattern and learned how to enlarge it using the iPad. Just take a pic of it, then go into a free application that enlarges it. The biggest enlargement made it perfect for a six inch square. I have a new straight edge tool for the straight line quilting. I am ready to go! Going to a quilt shop today to find the right backing so I can get started.

 

Friday night lights

There is not much else I'd rather do on a Friday night.....

Upstairs in my quilt room, window open, a little cool air flowing in, along with the sound of the local high school band playing at the ballgame a mile or so away.

Didn't even have to cook tonight. The hubby wanted to eat chili for a fundraiser.

He wanted us to make a selfie to send to baby girl....We send her videos and pictures pretty often.

I said there is not much else I'd rather do on a Friday night....I can think of one thing I'd rather be doing -- playing with my granddaughter.

 

Friday

This may not have been such a good idea......

I had eight miles I my training schedule for today and it was raining so I did it on the treadmill. My treadmill isn't working properly (they are sending a new computer board for it). It works but isn't registering the correct speed.......I watched Jenny Doan from Missouri Star Quilt Company the whole time.....many, many quilting tutorials......when I finished running, I went to their website and ordered a bunch of quilting supplies...... :)

Anyone made anything with their half hexie ruler?

 

Guild Day

The attendance at our monthly guild meeting was down today but I enjoyed the meeting immensely. We got to see about half of a video about threads from Superior thread company. I learned a lot. There was even some discussion about their needles that was very informative. After the meeting I went to the shop in Greenback, which is great. Good prices, not your everyday fabrics, and lots of inspiration. I knew I'd find what I was looking for.

Some nice solids with subtle texture. And although I am supposed to be working on a remembrance quilt...

I just had to make a few blocks in this design. I love making quilts from strips.

Did you ever have something turn out EXACTLY like you imagined?

So far the blocks are just that. Hopefully when the quilt is finished it too will be what I envisioned. I'm trying some new techniques in an effort to be more precise. I am using a little starch as I piece, I'm really trying hard to keep my stitch at a scant 1/4", and I'm squaring up very often. I also picked up some Superior Topstitch needles, that I heard about today.

Nothing like some new needles, fabric, and a plan to get you motivated!

 

Labor Day

The hubs got up early for a day of fishing. Me, spent the morning with my mom at the hospital. After I got her back home, my back was hurting. I must have had sympathy pains for her. She was at the emergency room due to acute back pain. I was determined to walk mine out. I needed to run three miles today but I had settled on walking due to my back. Walked the first mile but then was able to slowly run the last two. The activity seemed to help it.

The shirt cutting I did yesterday may have something to do with my back ache, so I decided not to do anymore sewing today. Just taking it easy on the swing, enjoying the holiday.

Here is the progress on the latest remembrance quilt....Seven blocks down, 23 more to go.

My DIL sent me this great picture of my son in his new kilt.

I actually won a contest last year from Gordon Nicholson kiltmakers, and he got the free kilt. He picked the University of Edinburgh tartan, and he will wear it to his graduation once he completes the work for his PhD. I think he looks very handsome, and..oh so Scottish!

 

Inspired

Sometimes all it takes to inspire some creativity is to be alone and think. I've been wanting to make a new quilt pattern and have had my eye on some of the beautiful shadow quilts I've seen on Pinterest. I wanted to make my pattern a little different so it would truly be my own. My inspiration came yesterday while doing this......

I haven't been on the paddle board much this summer and decided yesterday to go out. Nothing like a little vitamin D, enjoying God's creation, and some solitude to renew your mind.

So....when I came home I worked on the design.....

It isn't final, but I have a good idea of where I want to go with it.

I have a theory......those of you who blog, would you consider yourselves introverts? My guess is a majority of casual bloggers are introverts. Why? Because we like our alone time, we don't always do well in conversation, and are much more comfortable writing out our thoughts....so, are you? (More of my thinking as I was on the lake yesterday...lol) Have a great day, ya'll!

 

Got it....

I've decided on the design for my next Remembrance quilt. Simple, but I think it will work. I'll have to replace one of the Center blocks with the big Harley block. I think the smaller patches will fit in a few of the middle squares.

Cut the shirts into 2 1/2" strips, plus a couple of 4 1/2" squares for the centers. 12" finished blocks. ~60"x72". Now I am more motivated. Let's get 'er done.

 

Sneak peek

I finished my bright scrap quilt. I've named it Hashtag Graphics. I won't show it all just in case......some of the magazines are kind of picky about that. I've sent pictures off to McCalls. They have been so very nice and I want to give them first chance at publishing it. If they don't want to, I'll be sending pictures off to a few more. One at a time, with a 30-90 day response time, is a very slow process. It will be worth the wait though if I get a taker.

I'm really, really happy about how this one turned out. Pattern number three in my repertoire.

After church and lunch I got in my Monday three miler. Run and done. I love having Monday's off. I've got errands to do in Knoxville tomorrow, so now I won't have to find time to run.

My kids sent me this today. I had to laugh. They are still in Paris and have attended a few churches trying to find a good English speaking one. It seems not many have nurseries (Or crèche as they call it in Scotland) and Emma is pretty wild. This is how they distracted her today.

 

 

The bigger version

Got an email from the magazine today. I sent them the pictures of the bigger version of my Edinburgh Square quilt design, and they want to use it rather than the small version. Yay! I'd rather it be published than the smaller one. I think it was a fluke. They said they had two baby quilts for that issue and wanted just one, and after seeing the pictures of the larger version wanted to swap and use it instead.

So, I quickly made a nice label commemorating it's namesake and have it all ready to mail.

I finished my other design today. Now, to decide how to quilt it. Going to have to get some backing first. No more scraps left. Hope I can find something bright to go with it.

Can't wait to get it quilted. It really turned out cute.

 

More Edinburgh Square

I named this quilt for the city where my son and his family are living in Scotland. Edinburgh is a stately, old city on the shoreline of Leith, near the North Sea. I picked colors to remind me of the sea, and the pattern reminds me of the many historic castles in the area.

I finished the binding today on the big one, then continued working on my other design.

 

 

 

Edinburgh Square Quilt

I got this massive quilt back from the long armer today. It was just too big for me to quilt. More pictures are forthcoming......

In other news....I started my training today for a November half marathon.

 

 

July Adventure Trip

For our monthly adventure for July, we made a trip to Burnsville, NC. It was a beautiful drive. The front that came through at home came through here too....low humidity, clear skies, just beautiful. We are staying at the Buck House Inn B&B, a beautiful historic home a few miles from Burnsville.

A little relaxing in the yard. I did five miles this morning so I am tired! The fisherman did his thing last night and didn't get home until about 3 am. He is now napping in the comfy bed.

Does that not look so inviting? We decided to come here to see a play. Our choir director's son is working this summer at the Burnsville Playhouse and has a leading role in a play there.

In other news, my little quilt got rejected from Fons and Porter, but I sent pictures to another quilt magazine. Maybe they will like it :) but if not, that is ok. I like it.