Quilting Update

Well maybe I should just call it blocking sewing up date because I only sewed blocks. I drew a block #6 in EQ6 for Caribbean Sea sewed it and I started a Feathered Star block for another block of the month I'm doing called Washington Medallion by Susan Garman. My Quilting Friends & I are doing this together. We all had lunch together in December. Next Saturday we will all meet up at the quilt show and stop by my house afterwards.

I think most everyone has block 6 done, but I'm the only one who has started the Feathered Star from the medallion quilt. I have been the tester and they was a real struggle to get that star laid out with all the pieces going in the right direction. But I have it now it is almost done. I just set them all a link to my webshots and one emailed me back there two of the feathers are going in the wrong direction. Arg!! Lucky I can fix that and only have to rip two seams.

I also finished all my Math for Quilter's reading from the on line class at Quilt University. Lots of reading I have done most of the assignments. The costing out a quilt table is worth the class alone.

I read on one of the quilting lists that I'm on, that the longer you are away from your quilting the more you like it. Well I hated my quilting on the Mystery Quilt. The other day it was draped across the sofa and I walked by a day or two after that and said to myself my those look like feathers. The light was hitting it just right and it looked good. The pciture I took doesn't show what I saw so I won't include it.

Sunday Quilting Upate a Little Late

OK so it is Monday again, where does that weekend go?? It just speeds by.
Last night as I started put the second borders on my one block wonder, you'll never guess what I found under my border fabric on the back of my sewing chair? Did you guess? Well it was a piece of the black binding I needed for the Mystery Quilt. I could have sworn I had a piece left and I was right. I didn't think to look under the other fabric. All the left over pieces of fabric for the Mystery Quilt were in their appropriate colored fabric bins. So when I didn't find the black with my other blacks I thought it must be all gone. OH Well it was just have to be as it is. ;-)
Border Audition.

I made some progress on the One Block Wonder but stopped when it came to the borders. I originally want to use the climbing rose section, but it was going to be too wide, so I cut the strip section, but it looks so washed out next to the center. So I previewed them both, and I will be sticking with my first choice. It will be a little larger than I originally wanted but it will be all good. The larger size might work better.
Well I'm off to the sewing room for an hour before bed.

Mystery Quilt is Completed!

Completions of this project desires it's own post! This was a mystery quilt, my first ever, and my first ever on line machine quilting class. I'm very glad it is done! I will do this again. Was I ready to quilt feathers not on your life. Was it hard you bet! Did I learn you bet. Right now I'm just glad it is over and I can do a quilt for a friend. I'm ready for some free motion meandering.

Before this class I would have liked to done some quilting with a little more precision than the free motion I had been doing. I really felt like I didn't have enough control to draw feathers in a set size. I couldn't get my machine back to the spine of my feather. I did improve but believe me there is a lot of room for improvement. That is OK. I still can draw good feathers on a white broad, they all look like fat thumbs. I can get one side really good but the one in the opposite direction is hard.

I'm grateful that you can not see the quilting real well. I'm happy with the look of the free motion around the stars. This quilt was a comedy of something. I wanted to finish this yesterday, I didn't make. I went to wind another bobbin and ran out of thread, Mad dash to the store to buy more. Last night when putting on the binding I ran out, small mistake in the directions. I was going to wait and made a mad dash to the quilt store after work this week but when I told my husband he said you must have something you can use in a room full of fabric. Well he was right and I found another black for the binding. Up close I can tell but you can otherwise. Thanks honey for saying the right thing.

While sewing on the binding I noticed a spot I didn't quilt in the little border, so what was the easiest way to fix that? Well a picture is worth a thousand words.
Don't laugh for the 3 inch square I had to do it worked.

So now it is done. I'll keep it for awhile. If it matches my daughter's red in her house she can have it. If not off to charity it goes.

Boy Have I Been Busy

Busy doing what I'm not sure. No I know. Besides sewing I prepared a talk for church over the last two weeks and gave it on Sunday. It went very well and my husband did a great job also, even if I didn't leave him enough time. I was tired after church and after dinner I just sat and watched a movie, PS I Love You and I cried through most of it. So I didn't do my usual Sunday Night update. I was too drained.

I did some sewing last week not my usual wild flurry of activity. I made six Square in a Square blocks. After seeing the demo the weekend before I just had to try it. I'm using some my stash. I think I'm just going to make a sampler of these blocks. I also sewed one more strip of wedges for my One Block Wonder but didn't add it to the other part.

I did some more quilting on my Mystery Quilt and marked the last row of blocks, so I'm ready to start making more feathers. They are improving but they still have a long way to go. See the bottom borders are starting to show.
Friday Night I started a new class from QuiltUniversity.Com, called Math for Quilters. I have already learned a few good pointers and I'm sure I will learn more. It has a good review of fractions, decimals, ration & proportion.

I went out to lunch with my friend Christina and started celebrating my Birthday which is on the 12th. Christina and I had a great visit, we went to Olive Garden, soup, bread sticks and salad, very good company & food.
Last night I took my two great nieces out for dinner, Amy & Heather. We have been going out to eat for our birthdays for about 7 years now. Amy's is in January, Heather's is the 5th of Feb & mine is the 12th. We had a grand time and they both talked about the previous times we went out to eat. I enjoy these two girls. I use to teach them how to quilt and they told me last night they both still have their quilts. I was so bummed when I got home I realized I forgot to get a picture of us all together. And I carried my camera around with me all day to do that. You can see pictures of this adorable girls on my webshots link on the right, look for sewing with Amy & Heather. Also my Thanksgiving slideshow has recent pictures of them.
I'm also reading These Is My Words by Nancy Turner, it is about an AZ women pioneer. Very interesting and the trials she had are hard. Talk about hard work every day, Indians and all kinds of stuff. I am enjoying the story.

Sunday Quilting Upate, Part 2

After I was in bed last night I realized I had forgotten to report on my other quilting actives of the week. I did spend some time quilting on my Mystery Quilt that I started over New Years. Big mistake to not work on it for so long. I'm not sure what has gotten into my machine, but she would suddenly feel like she was running away from me. I still can't make great feathers, actually I think my feathers are ugly and I'm very glad they don't show any more than they do. It is a learning experience, so why do I expect a great looking results. I have also learned some more about my machine and working with it, so that is a good thing. I finished the bottom half of the top row of blocks and more of each side border. Of course since I had not watched my video since the New Years I did some of my side feathers in the wrong direction, but that's OK at least mine will be original.
I took a break from the Mystery quilt because I wanted to focus on the One Block Wonder. I'm teaching it as a class in Feb and I wanted to have it fresh in my mind. Plus the three parts are going to be curtains for my new bedroom window and french doors, so I want to get them done.
Saturday morning and part of the afternoon I went to the Phoenix Quilt, Sew & Craft Festival with one of my friends. We walked for hours and saw every quilting related booth. I quilted on every mid arm quilting set up there was. I hope to upgrade some day from my short arm. I even attended on lecture by Jody Barrows of Square in a Square. It sure is an interesting technique and she does amazing things with her ruler technique. She is also writing novels about her family history with quilt to go with the stories. The quilts are based on what her grandmothers & great grandmothers did make. She uses fictional people to tell the family stories. It was very interesting. I like to learn and see new things and the keeping of family histories is a great thing. I had purchased the ruler a couple of years ago but ran into issue so never really used it a lot. So I had her show me how to do it again and one of these days I might give it a try.
Well now it is time to get ready to go work.

New Year's Day Mystery Quilt 2009

Happy New Year to Every One.
I hope everyone has had a good start to the New Year. I wish you a year full of good health, safety and good stuff to come your way! And if it isn't all good stuff, the guts to deal with what ever life throws at you. Because you know sometimes life comes at you fast.
I have been working on the Mystery Quilt I signed up for at The Long Arm University
http://www.longarmuniversity.com/
I start it after work on Wednesday. Took a break to go to a little party. I sewed some more before going to bed.
I making progress and I have learned a lot. I'm so glad my quilting doesn't show very well, because I would have to rip it out. I can tell this is going to take some more practice. I'm still a beginner when it comes to frame quilting.
Here are the pictures of my progress so far.