Batting!

This arrived at the front door yesterday. No, it wasn't an accident. I ordered it. Got a really good deal too.

Now where do you store 40 yards of Warm&White?

I also had my very first meet-up with a fellow blogger yesterday morning. I met this lovely lady for coffee. She's a resident of our beautiful part of the world now. Welcome Chara!

Winging it

Well, kind of. I'm a quilt pattern kind of girl although I yearn to be a quilt designer. This project is inspired by a pattern, but I'm not using it. It's not a very far stretch but it's a start.

I think my biggest fear is "wasting fabric" by cutting it up and then ending up with something I hate.
I like what I'm doing here, so it's all good so far.

I can't put it in the title

Actually, I can't put it in the post either. So, let's just say my logical thinking is not at its best today and I'm a little frustrated with myself.

I decided to take a break from quilting and make something small for a change. This tutorial was in my bookmarks. The tutorial is great. I'm the idiot.

Here's my wallet. Cute, you say?

Pity, all the "real cute" is on the back because I didn't have the brains foresight to think about the way I pieced the strips.

I highly recommend the tutorial though. It was very clear and easy to follow and I really like the wallet.

I may try to figure out a way to add a coin pocket.

Jo outdid herself sewing through a multitude of fabric layers without batting an eyelid.

No tutorial

There's no tutorial here. I took the old cover off, traced the pattern onto the new fabric, adding a little bit for the hem, hemmed it all around, threaded elastic through, and put it on the ironing board. Oh, and I did add a little bit of batting underneath because I could feel the metal of the ironing board through the flimsy foam it came with.
Around here you can't take photos without an audience.

Field trip!

This, in my opinion, is what a quilt store should be. Strip mall fabric is fine, but this works wonders for your soul.

The rooster meets you at the gate.

The fabric selection is astounding.


And you leave there ready to make whatever strikes your fancy. These happen to be for the Dear Jane quilt but I was very, very tempted to grab everything I could lay my hands on.


Absolute fabric addict heaven!
(Yes, I did post the same thing on two blogs.)

Ditto

Not much more to say...

More great puckering...


and a label

I'm off to go find fabric for my Baby Jane quilt today.
225 blocks = 225 different fabrics. It could take a while.

Quilt-a-long I

Yay! I finished a quilt!

After I finished the binding, it had to go in the wash for "puckering". I love that puckered look and it softens up the quilt to make it more snuggly. This was a tense moment since I don't pre-wash fabrics and colors sometimes run. Fingers crossed...

Relief!

This was 100% a stash quilt, so by binding time I had pretty much run out of fabric. Then smarty pants decided to piece the little binding pieces on the diagonal because that would look really, really cool. 270" of binding strips very quickly turned into 200". Be warned! More fabric scrounging ensued, this time pieced straight. Finally - 260" of completed binding.

I'm very, very happy with how this turned out, considering the mish-mash of fabrics that went into it.


Why, I even put a label on it. My very first quilt label. Ever.

Top o' the morning to you!

Jo's first project was to quilt these pillow covers. I made the little applique blocks a while ago but didn't have a clue what to do with them, until Jo inspired me.
All three are in my Etsy shop right now if you need a splash of color.

On Saturday, National Quilting Day (even though I had no clue), Amanda and I had our own little quiltathon. I quilted both quilt-a-long tops, but haven't gotten to the bindings yet. I'll hopefully have photos to share tomorrow.

There she is....

...Miss America!

Jo has arrived and has already earned her keep by quilting 3 pillow cover tops.
She is amazing! I don't know how I lasted this long with Bernie. No offense to her. She was born before machine quilting was even a twinkle in anyone's eye, and really did well considering that fact.
All I can say about Jo is, "WOW!".
While I had the tripod up in the workroom I thought I'd take a couple of photos.
I have received questions about how I manage to be such a quick responder to comments and emails. Well...

...my sewing machine and my computer are practically attached at the hip.
A parting shot - my so-called inspiration board. There's clearly not much inspiration going on around here at the moment.

Have great weekend everyone! (I'll be quilting)

Ready and Waiting

My dearest Jo (yes, she has a name already) is "OUT FOR DELIVERY". Look how well-traveled she is!

The UPS guy normally comes between 11am and 2pm.
I seem to remember a song about "standing on the corner, watching all the cars go by" or something to that effect...

Virtual Quilting Bee - March

March is Kathy's month in the Virtual Quilting Bee. She sent each of us 2 fabrics. Everyone got the blue dot and one other fabric. Mine was the blue one at the top of the pile with the little people on it.

Kathy wants log cabin-ish blocks inspired by the Gee's Bend Quilts and/or Nancy Crow's quilts.

This block took on a life of it's own. It was great fun because I started off with one idea and ended up with some thing completely different. I love the block but I'm not one hundred percent sure it jives with Kathy's vision so I may make another more traditional one.

But, as I said, I do love how this one turned out.

Happy Monday!!!

Warning: This may long and winded.

As you may know if you read this little blog regularly, I pretty much spent every spare minute last week quilting the Stash Dash Quilt. About 1200 minutes, actually.

My Bernina is about 15 years old and every minute of this, I really worried about her ability to do this much sewing in such a short period of time. I love my Bernie, and do NOT want her to give up the ghost. She makes wonderful buttonholes, and sews a beautiful blanket stitch. And a replacement will cost thousands. I need a strong sewing machine that'll be able to free motion quilt for long periods of time without getting stressed out. This way I can save Bernie for the "special" things and not overexert her in her old age.

I remembered Amanda raving about her machine and contacted her for some details. I researched online and did some pricing. I then put my argument to the dear hubby and guess what - he agrees! So today, I'll be ordering this baby.

I have been banned from quilting on Bernie, so I'll be making tiny things this week...

As you can see, I did finish Stash Dash. It's dark and raining outside. These photos are as good as it's going to get today, I'm afraid.

Yes, I did do the free motion stitching in black! It was six of the one and half a dozen of the other. Black would show on white and white would show on black. Since the backing is black, I went with that. Don't look too closely.

I'm in love

Why did I only discover this fabric now? When it's totally impossible to get hold of? I would have bought a yard in every pattern and every colorway if I could. Well, maybe not quite...

It's called Full Moon Forest and was designed by Tula Pink for Moda.
At first glance it just looks like cute fabric in nice colors but when you look closer there are...
salmon...

bunnies...

squirrels...

raindrops, trees, and much, much more!

It's a miracle!

Sections free-motion quilted: 3
Needles broken: 0

(Knock on wood)

Quilting, quilting...

That's what I'm doing.
Nothing else.

Egg fun

I was going to show you a whole bunch of lovely photos of my Easter tree, but the reviews aren't in yet. This one looks pretty good, I think.

I've been busy

I didn't mean to take such a long break between postings. Setting up the Dear Baby Jane group took a little more effort than expected. It's all done now and I'm back.

I have been working on something.

Yes, you're right. It's another quilt-a-long quilt top. "Why?", you ask.
It goes like this. I thought that 12 blocks wouldn't make a big enough quilt, so I decided to make "echo" blocks with fabric that matched the fabrics in the original blocks and add them in, which would make a nice sized quilt. When I laid it all out, however, it looked absolutely horrible. Hence, another quilt. And I really love this one.

2008 is going to be the year of home improvements. When I first set foot in this house five years ago, I hated this fireplace with its almost non-existing mantle. Here's the before:

The boys got a great start this weekend.
Stay tuned for the after.