Crazy October and quilts.....

October could not have been busier.

 

Baby Jude was born to my youngest daughter.

 

 

My son was married two weeks later.

 

 

So, as you can imagine, between visits to the hospital, staying with my daughter for a week after the baby was born, dinners with out-of-town family/friends prior to and after the wedding, rehearsal dinner, the wedding and throw in a funeral for the bride's grandma who passed away two days before the wedding, I was behind on getting the wedding quilt done.

 

If you remember, my son and his fiancé had given me a picture of a quilt that they wanted me to replicate.

 

They chose these fabrics for their quilt (oranges and grays)

 

 

Prior to retreat in June, I cut up all of the 11+ yards into strips and while at retreat I stitched all the strips together.  

 

 

I made a grid to lay on top of the picture of the original quilt.

 

 

 

and then on a piece of paper, I worked out the sizes for each of the sections for the quilt plus I added one more row to make it a queen-sized quilt.

 

 

As I got a section done, I scratched it out.

 

Tonight I finished the top, but it is so big and the edges should probably be stay-stitched so that my seams don't open up, but for now, it is folded and hung on my sewing room door.

 

 

So, this picture just gives you a sneak peek. This is probably just about a quarter of the quilt.

 

Now I have to say, I have very little fabric left over. 

 

 

There's a few loose strips and I have 13 butt end strip sections that I "maybe" could get out 9" cuts that could be used for pillow case edges.  We will see though. 

 

I will have to do some measuring to make sure my quilt top is square and then I have to piece the backing fabric and once that is done, I am going to put it on the long arm and get this thing quilted.  I am debating whether to use a solid orange of a solid gray for the binding. I may ask the bride for her opinion on this and I am thinking of using an orange thread to quilt straight line stitching to give it an even more modern look. 

 

So stay tuned.  I am hoping life slows down a bit here but with the holidays coming, I may just have to wait until 2014 to come around. 

 



Busy, Productive Week.

I look back over the week and amaze myself on what I have accomplished.  I guess when there is a deadline (baby due), I really get motivated. 

 

I got both hounds tooth quilts quilted and bound.

 

I made my daughter roman shades for the baby's room.

 

She still is going to make yellow and white chevron valances to put over the shades; and here is a peek at the adorable tree behind the crib.

 

 

 

Then, last night I finished quilting the "life cycle" quilt and put the binding on it tonight.

 

 

 

(a little tongue in cheek humor)

I should mention, this quilt is a "version" of the Moda Bake Shop quilt.

 

I still have a few loose threads that need to be sewn in, but I can finally say that I am ready for this baby to be born and my getting my daughter's shades up today should put her mind at ease so that she can finally say the room is ready for the baby, too. 

 

ok...tap...tap....tap

 

 

 

 

 



Sneak peek.....

Just took #4 off the long arm and this one is another one for the new baby who should be here any day (or minute!). 

 

 

If life works out right, I hope to get the binding on this one tomorrow night.  That's all I hope for.  If I have to hand stitch it down while waiting in the hospital, that will be alright with me. 



Pays to be Square......

I told you on my last post that the second quilt I had done on my long arm gave me some trouble because it was more of a parallelogram rather than square.  Well, I used it for practice so that when I did this quilt for my daughter's soon to be born baby boy, it would turn out better. 

 

It was loaded a couple nights ago. 

 

 

....but I couldn't get to it until today.

 

It worked up so much easier being square.  LOL....I highly recommend it. :D

 

Again, I used the popcorn panto with So Fine thread in a medium gray.

 

 

I even had the time to put the binding on tonight.

 

 

So here is the finished quilt.

 

 

It feels so good when something works out well; and I am proud enough of this one to give it as a gift. 

 

Next....I am not sure if it will be the other baby quilt that I have for her or the Fancy That quilt that will be for me. We'll see which one wins out. 

 

Wonky = Not too bad

I need practice on the long arm and the best advice I have received is not to work on anything that I am emotional involved with.  Well, that is pretty hard because after making a quilt top, you are usually pretty emotionally attached to that quilt.

 

 

So, I took the baby blue hounds tooth which was for some reason pretty wonky.

 

 

I don't know if you can tell in this photo, but rather than square it is more of a parallelogram.  I thought I did good by reversing my direction of sewing with each row, but for some reason (maybe all the bias edges) it just wouldn't square up.  I even soaked it in water in hopes of stretching it  and getting it back to square.  All that did was make it wrinkled and difficult to iron out (bias again).

 

So, today I put it on the long arm.

 

 

Just because I knew this was only going to be a practice piece, I still wanted to do the best that I could, so I tried squaring it up on the long arm.  I did the "popcorn" panto on it and all went pretty well.

 

 

 

It's quilted....maybe not perfectly, but it certainly was a good effort and I did manage to square it up more than it was and without any puckers, too.

 

Well, I couldn't stop there.......

 

 

I had to bind it, too, tonight.  Now it is done and a little bit more in the correct shape.  It still has a bit of a "twist" to it, but some baby is going still love it. 

 

Anyways, I have three more quilts that are lined up for the long arm.  The next one is on  Millie Faye right now.

 

 

This hounds tooth is much more square because when I put it together, I put it in blocks rather than rows.  That seemed to help when piecing the top. 

 

This one is for the new little grandson that will be born.....soon, very soon,......like maybe within a week or so. 

 

So, you know where I will be tomorrow morning. 

 



Fall is in the air.....

You don't have to feel it in the air, but you know when Fall is here because all the adorable Fall decorations are out in the stores, at the craft fairs and in everyone's yards.

 

I went to the Weekend in the Country Fair in Davisburg, MI at Springfield Oaks.  It is a vintage and craft fair and I found myself some adorable decorations.

 

I got the old rusty bed spring to hold my white gourd and the adorable steam punk doll from The Charmed Gourd. They have a blog by the same name AND an Etsy shop.    I think she is adorable. 

 

Later  I will show you the great pumpkin wall hanging I bought, but first I have to hang it. 

 

This week was busy getting quilts ready for the long arm.  There are four ready to go.  Tops, batting, backings and bindings are all set to go. 

 

 Two of these quilts are for my daughter for the new grandson we will be seeing sometime between now and hopefully by the 11th of October.  That's his due date anyways.  But as you all know, babies come when they are ready to come. 

 

I have two hounds tooth quilts to quilt, the Fancy That quilt (all seen on previous posts) and I just finished machine appliqueing down the words on the "Life Cycle" quilt.  I hope you don't find this one offensive as the original quilt on the Moda website was "Eat; Play; Sleep; Repeat"; but if you have ever been around a baby, you know my version is probably a little more true to life.

 

 

Oh well, it's my sense of humor and I think my daughter will appreciate it. 

 

So, hopefully tomorrow I will be getting started on quilting these on the long arm.

 

Then from here on out, the only other thing I will be working on is the wedding quilt for my son and soon to be daughter-in-law.  Nothing like waiting until the last minute.  That wedding is October 26.

 

I have to get busy.  Thanks for stopping by.

 

First quilt off the longarm.....

I have to say...this quilt has been off the rails for a little while and I felt so disappointed with it that I stuck it away. But...I have three quilts that need to go on there like NOW, so I got it back out to put the binding on and it didn't look as bad as I thought.

 

 

I used the "popcorn" panto on it.  Here is a close up.

 

 

I used a busy backing, not only because I liked the fabric, but I thought it would hide any problems that I may have created when quilting it.

 

 

I used white Omni thread on this but that was probably because I didn't have anything else here that would go.  If I had it to do over again, I might have used yellow or a light/med. gray. 

 

This quilt was a result of seeing someone's b/w/red scrappy quilt and I thought I would make it with my b/w stash. Well, that stash wasn't as big as I thought so I went to a shop that was closing and bought a bunch of black and white fabrics.  I CUT THEM ALL UP and sewed them into strips. ...(I don't recommend this).  I made a queen-sized b/w/red quilt; this b/w/yellow lap quilt and I have a bag full of b/w strips all sewn together  that will wait until I am no longer sick of black and white.  I plan on ....in the future...putting those strips together with turquoise or chartreuse.  We will see.

 

So...now on to the three quilts that need to go on the longarm pronto!!!