finish

I sure have learned a lot in making this quilt....
One, that I love to applique and just use up my bits,
two, I learned to have slightly more patience with machine quilting...
Boy does it pay off!
and three, The more scrappy the quilt, the more I love it...

I am now starting to do some hand quilting over some of the larger shapes...
Yes, I bound it, and washed it, as I wanted to see just how much some
of the shapes would puff up...
probably the wrong way to do it, but, like I said,
there was a lot of learning going on with this quilt...
I quilted the dog out of it... and I wasn't sure how much more
quilting I would want on it...



I drew out my pattern and feathers in the corners, and really took my time, then I scalloped all around the design...
I love the texture it gave! (completely by luck...) and it made the design stand out so nice...
I used matching threads one everything except the red...
I used red on top and on the back. that would be my big mistake...
(You can really see the errors that way!)
But, Live and learn...
Next time I will use a blending thread on the back...
And thank you Susan for sending me that fabulous piece of green and gold fabric!
It looks so nice on the back of this quilt!


Between this and that Kitchen sink quilt, I can't say which I love more...
The size of this is 61" X 62"

OK, I hope to show you something else this week...
perhaps I'll quilt another of those tops laying around here...
(lord knows I have enough other projects I am working on)
I think I've posted enough about this quilt...
I'm rather pleased with it, can you tell? And anyway, I so often post the process
and never show the final product... so there you have it.
(well, it's nearly done, once I finish a bit of that hand quilting....)

************************************************

I'm racking my brain also for the next donation quilt project...

I've been asked to donate a quilt to a Fabulous local organization for their benefit in Sept.
Which is also stirring ideas in my head for something bigger of ways to help...
click click click, my wheels are spinning.
Perhaps this week I'll give you more info on that...
stay tuned!

HOORAY!

I don't know if you can see anything in this pic, but HORRAY!
I got the tile quilt, quilting done today!
61" X 62"
I can't wait to get the binding on this baby,and throw it in the wash!

I think it will puff up real nice!

But,
my back is killing me, I wonder why...

Wrap up...and a winner!

I finally got my last three ON POINT blocks cut... Sheesh! I've been procrastinating... well, maybe I still am, I need to sew them together today... so I can Applique them...
Got get to it!
Time to Finish!!!

Got The New Year quilt Quilted yesterday.... My machine was fighting em the whole way...
4 broken needles, 100 time shredding thread.... tried every needle I had.... cleaned the machine... it was just not working with me....
But, I persevered and got the binding on, for me to do this weekend...

Then I got back to my Tile quilt, quilting.... I had ordered thread, which finally came... Now the machine seams to be working ok... go figure.... I think It just really hates red thread....

SO here are a few peaks inside the Liberated Quiltmaking II book!
I was flipping through, and was Happy to see one of Tonya's Quilts in the there!
Her great Alphabet quilt! Way to go Tonya!! I Can't wait for your book to come out!

I like how there are many quilts done by other people in this book.
Great to see other people's interpretation of Gwen's work too...

But Ultimately, Gwen's Quilts just knock your socks off. Gotta love those colors!

SO I guess you'd like to know who will be checking their mailbox for this book right,
Without further ado...

#89
Char
from Cloth Stitched WINS!
Congrats Char!
( Need your email! only have your website!

I hope you enjoy the book, and make at least one WONKY quilt!

***

With color on my brain, I've been spotting fabulous things in the city the past week....

(above) "The WALL" by Frosty Meyers has been restored to it's bright fab finish
on Houston and Broadway in Soho...
Check out his webpage... fun site

I see this truck constantly in my hood, and finally had a chance to snap a pic...
Love that Graphic color!

I had to drive around the block to grab this photo... once I realized what it was...
This is a Richard Serra Sculpture being dismantled on a flat bed truck outside the The General Theological Seminary in Chelsea...
It was quite a site and I love the rusty color against the seminary

And as I sat at my desk, facing these buildings a FLASH went off in this building... I look up and at the about the 25th Floor this guy is standing looking south(and taking a photo), towards downtown Manhattan....

Note to all, even at the 25th floor,we can see you when you have no clothes on.... The sun was pouring in...clear as day...

(But Don't you love that RED!!!)

Happy Friday!

the RED post

As part of one of the quilting bees, we were to make a wonky star block, using whatever colors we wanted to.. I chose one of my favorite reds for the center block.. Once I sent it off, she sent a nice message saying, How did I know you'd use RED for the center? ;-) with a nice smile.

I chuckled, because I do get obsessed finding the RIGHT RED...

For instance, on this Tile quilt that I am trying to quilt... My big Red borders....
I micro stippled in the green blocks so far! It looks good!

Thanks a lot you for your words of encouragement!

It goes along way considering each of these blocks has taken me an hour a piece... I've taken a break, to work on some other RED projects and then I go back to it...

I began to realize that yes, Nearly every quilt I have made has some RED in it.. I buy yards and yards of red...When I have a red that I like, I buy enough to last me for along time... then I get bummed when I run out and I can't get that particular red anymore...

More Red...

More Red...

I think my red obsession comes from our Front door on the farm where I grew up...

BRIGHT International red...

Really, It's called International Harvester Red... It's the color our International tractors are painted... RED!
Jean Judd actually used the International harvester logo on a quilt! see here
scroll down for the quilt with the IH logo...
;-)

My coffee table is red....

And My girl looks good in red! Red is lucky!

So, yeah, I use a lot of red...
I just love it!
My banner is red, I have the simply RED quilts, The red cross quilt, The oopsie quilt, the Red zinger quilt, The Chinese New year quilt, etc etc, etc......

Do you have a color you find always creeps into your creative endeavors?

What Color floats your boat the most?

The Funny thing is, ORANGE is my favorite color...
These Paula Prass blocks are looking good!

ready, steady, sew....

Mountains of pins...
I tired to convince my pal, Shelly, yesterday that she needed to quilt this Tile Quilt for me...
She wasn't biting my hook.... She told me I could do it....

Drat.
So I pinned the daylights out of it... drew out my feathers and vines...
And gave it a whirl.
Surprising myself, parts I did OK on.... then I'd grrrrrrr! when my lines when crooked...
She informed me that is what seam rippers are for...
;-)

This sort of quilting is new to me... I don't
usually have much patience for quilting unless I do it by hand...
But there I run the risk of never finishing it....

I really like this quilt and wanted it to be done
VERY NICELY....

I think I called her 4 times for back up and peppered her with questions....
What color thread?
What stitch to fill,
Where do I start...
Can I do this? Can I do that?

She laughed.

Pheew.
OK, I can do this...

time for finishes

Pinned and ready to quilt... My tile quilt (old posts here) finally has it's red borders... (!!) (see old post) I'm very happy to be in the home stretch on this quilt... So i can start another.... ;-) I have gone through my scraps in preparing for one more... Bigger... Now I jsut need to figure out how I am going to quilt this...On my mini one for AAQI,(old posts) I randomly sewn in the brown background fabric, then went back in by hand and quilted the appliqued pieces... I like the texture it gave, so I may do the same on the larger quilt...

Today is the day to get these border son this Chinese new Year Quilt... And I hope to get this quilted this week also... Time is running out! B had some input to the borders, two sides left and I can put the backing on...

And the 8 SIS BOOM POW! Kids quilts(click here) have their backings and are shipped off to Linda to quilt... Yippee!! It's a grand Monday!

Happy Sewing!

Monsters

Here's the second little AAQI (click here)quilt finished... I called it "Memories",
as it includes so many things that make up a family and home...fragments here and there...

These are so satisfying to make...
Please note that they collect these all year long...
so if you can't help make one now, please put it on your "List of things to do"


Giant free pieced Monster aka: Kitchen sink quilt (click here).... I put 4 hours into it today...
As I was attaching one last piece, I put it together, stitched it, then thought,
Oh! that was wrong... and I ripped it out.. only to realize, it was right in the first place....
That's when you know you've hit your limit for the day on one project....

that piece on my lap
fits into the Giant Free Pieced Monster below....

Thankfully some of the bits left on the wall are sewn together already... but many joining and filler pieces are yet to be figured as I sew along trying to make it all fit together...
Some of you may recognize some left over blocks from the 9 patch gather quilt
(remember that quilt, click here), way back when...
Lots of memories here for sure!


Since I am taking a break on that quilt, I am about to start sewing together the SIS BOOM POW! blocks for the latest donation quilt.
We've decided to make them into
8 baby/kids blankets,
and I hope to get two tops sewn together today... I really want to get them pieced this week...
It's just sashing 6 blocks each... I think they will go quickly.

You can pop over to the blog for these to see all the blocks, and other postings. Click here.
or at the logo at the top right...Lollipop flowers image...

I had two old quilt tops here that I cut backs for today also. I'm happy to have them on there way to be quilted soon. they are great funky tops...

And this block was done for the One Block over Quilt bee(click here)... I'm still trying to decide what block I want for this bee.... I have March, so I better get crackin' figuring it out.
I actually followed a pattern for this! Aren't you proud of me! ;-)

Happy Sewing!

random...

I'm hand sewing like crazy. I have most of my other stuff I brought out done, now I am just trying to finish my last three blocks for my tile quilt.

I'm also playing with my camera... If I can't sew, then I have to go to my other interests...
I looked back through my photos, and don't think I posted this quilt up close... It was a vintage seersucker top I had that I sent off to be quilted in fans... I just love it. I call it the snowball in a snowstorm quilt....It's so pretty. I think I got it on ebay for $20

We made Santa sleighs today. Always fun!

Bought some flowers to enjoy....

The clouds were lovely tonight.... thick and painterly...

I took these two Christmas eve...through the cab window...

It's been a lazy day.... sigh.
just love it.

STUFF

My blocks for the Bee Balm quilting bee are coming in, and so I am trying to square them out keeping them the wonky flare to them as possible. I can't wait to have this quilt done... it's been so much fun!
I sent a variety of strips of fabric and the beginning square, and asked that they use all the fabrics... So that is where the little one s came into play.
I 'll use them in the borders to go around all the big ones.... I even asked for all the little bits of unused bits as I hope to put ever last bit on the fabrics into the quilt...

Look at some of the tiny pieces I got back!
wish me luck!

Amy asked about the Tile quilt (click for more images) blocks and how I did it.
I keep a bag of tiny scraps, that are just to small or wonky to cut into squares, and I really just picked stuff out of my scraps and tiled them, or laid them out around the block,

fused them with a tiny piece of fusible web just to hold them in place,

and needle turned appliqued the pieces down. They go very quick.

I also peel the fusible web off before I finish sewing them down because I want them to be a little puffy when I am done...
You can pack them in as tight as you want as the pieces get much smaller as you sew them down.

I could have put more in the blocks I did but I was also focusing on the back ground fabrics to come through... So I left them a bit sparse....

Let me know if you start a project like this, I would like to make another after I finish this one!
Maybe will do another quilt along.. what do you think?

Great way to hit the scrap bin...

I quilted and bound this quilt yesterday.

Half way through sewing the binding it got it's first use...
I pulled it up and went to sleep for a hour and half...

It works well! ;-)

Of course B is back in school today,
And I AM DOWN FOR THE COUNT....
figures right? Mommy syndrome....

Kids get sick, mom's get sicker... ;-)

Santa, if you need a new Rudolph this year,
My nose could guide your sleigh!

Or, I could do one of those cold medicine commercials where
the nose runs away from the scratchy tissue....

sigh.


HAPPY SEWING!

V