Wednesday, April 29, 2015

On a roll this week.

Within less than a week, I have completed three quilts.  The first one was the retirement quilt that you can see here

Two days ago I put the binding on the Snowflakes from Heaven quilt.


This was a guild challenge using this particular pinwheel block.  I got it quilted on the long arm and bound it on Monday night. 



It's on the done list.

Then Tuesday night I bound the saw tooth quilt. 


Quilted this one with a swirly blade and a double  row of stitching in each of the piano keys 


Here's a peek at the backing. 


I did have trouble with this one where it came to the tension on the stitching, but I do like the design that I chose to use on this quilt.  So I learned that King Tut thread is a very temperamental thread to work with, but I am still happy with my quilting.

So....that is three quilts on the "done list" in one week.....less than one week.   That list is getting shorter and shorter all the time.  If I can get this many done in a week, I should be ahead of the game.  Of course,.....I am always starting something new.

Two steps forward, and one back. 

Oh well.  

On to the next one.

Sunday, April 26, 2015

Ready for Retirement.....

That title has a double meaning because I sure feel ready for retirement.....just not yet, but the Habitat quilt that I was making for my boss for his retirement party this coming week is done.....with time to spare...yeah!


100 percent done with binding and label.


You can see the corner label in the upper right (DH was holding the quilt upside down).


This is a close up of the quilting, binding and backing.  

Here's a couple more close ups of the quilting while on the long arm.  I used a panto called Bauhaus.  



Sure feels good to be done early on this one AND to just have another one done so that I can move onto something else.  

Sure hope he likes it.  

Before I end this post, I would like to share MY Habitat that I made several years ago. 



Actually the colors are much dustier, but the top is done in a sueded cotton and the back was the batik.  I quilted it in a straight stitch (rented time on a long arm at the time) in a teal colored thread.  This is one of my favorite contemporary quilts.

Happy quilting everyone!

Monday, April 20, 2015

Another one bites the dust......


This is Habitat and it has a deadline.  It has to be 100% done by the end of this month. 

I picked a simple panto.....one that was gifted to me by Nancy.  It's called Bauhaus.  

I figured this would work out great for the contemporary look that I was going for.  

Here are a couple close ups of the quilting.  



I chose a backing that match 90 percent of the fabrics on top. 

 

I used a gray So Fine thread on this one and it blended really well I think.  

Now to get busy on the binding and the label. 

Thanks for stopping by!




Sunday, April 19, 2015

Good, bad and ugly.

or the pros and cons?

Should I rip out or not?


I took this one off the longarm Sunday afternoon, but not without some stressing over thread of all things.  

I wanted to do the navy sawtooth in navy and the cream in a light gold thread, but the navy that I had was a King Tut thread and I hadn't used that yet.  From what I hear that can be a bear of a thread to get the tension right.  What I heard was true.  If I had to order thread, it would take a minimum of a week to get here so I thought I would give it a try since I needed to get another quilt on the longarm that had a deadline.  

Before doing anything though, I had to draw up the quilt pattern that I wanted to put on the block.  In my mind's eye, I was seeing straight lines and I had it suggested to me to do this particular design with curves and I was having a hard time getting it to wrap around my brain.  So I drew it up on my erasable board and put it in front of me while I was quilting.  


This helped a lot. 

So...on to my tension. I think I had it "pretty good" so I did my piano keys first...top and bottom and then did the navy sawtooth.  I was using the navy King Tut on top and the gold So Fine in the bobbin.   For some reason, halfway through quilting these areas, I decided I needed to tweak my bobbin tension. Don't ask me why! I continued to quilt and the top looked fine, but lo and behold, when I saw my back, I had an occasional navy loop.  Darn!

I took the quilt off the frame and turned it to do the other two sides of piano keys.  


This picture shows the backing after the navy sections were done.  

Then I did all the cream areas with the golden So Fine thread.  I had no problem with this thread at all.  


I really like how this is quilted.  It kind of gives it movement.  

So, I struggled and fretted with thread, went through the whole quilt with one color and then re-wound the quilt to do the other color thread (this alone could cause puckers in the back if not careful), took the quilt OFF the frame and turned it to do the other two sides of the piano keys (another potential for problems).  All this to show that I went to a lot of trouble and to have little navy loops on the back makes me crazy.  

Do I hold off on trimming and binding so that I can do some ripping and re-quilting?

or do I use this as a very big learning experience and leave it at that.  The top looks good and maybe washing it will make some of those little mistakes disappear in all that lovely "crinkling" that cotton quilts tend to do.  

It's mine.  It's not like it is a customers. 

We will see.   

Saturday, April 18, 2015

Jelly Roll Race Day!!!

Sharon hosted a "jelly roll race" today at the farm.  There were five of us, but I just went for the fellowship and to sew on my own projects while the rest of them did their jelly rolls.  I did mine a couple weeks prior to Sharon suggesting this and I felt that I didn't "need" another quilt, so I worked on a UFO. 

This is Claudette's (the winner).


I just love her red/white/blue quilt.  She is thinking of adding some borders to make it a little bigger.  

Second place was Sue. She had these beautiful brights. 


Third place was our host, Sharon. 


Love the silhouette!

Then there was Nancy's.   This was a Bunny Hill jelly roll. 


Sharon had music going that made you feel like you wanted to "race", there were prizes for different steps in the race, good food and good conversation.  

You can see my completed one here. 

They all had about an hour head start on me.  I was late because of some family issue this morning, but in comparison, I felt like I got "nothing done".  


I got two and a half done from scratch and the other two were in halves and I sewed them together.  These will go to my Hearts and Hands quilt.  No wonder it is taking me so long to get this one done.  
All-in-all, it was a fun day at Sharon's.  They got quilt tops and I at least got to sew a little on a UFO.  All is good in the world.  





Michigan quilters, take note

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