Customer quilting today......

Ok, I had to drag myself down to the basement to work on the long arm.  I may regret it since it was so nice out today and it's not supposed to be nice out tomorrow, but I got one of my customer quilts on and off the long arm so that is a good thing.

This is a jelly roll quilt.  Sorry, I don't know the name of the jelly roll, but it is really pretty with it's soft yellows and light browns.  

I wanted to use a new-to-me panto called Gatsby.  

I really like how it looked on the quilt.  

It has everything....straight lines (which I made sure went in the opposite direction of the jelly roll strips) and it had curves (concave and convex).  For as open as this panto appears, it gave great coverage; and I am really pleased with how it turned out.  

I used a dark taupe thread (So Fine) since the top was light and the backing was very dark.  Overall, I think it blended in quite well. 

My customer always has such great backings for her quilts, too.  Pieced strings in the center and lovely dots on the outside.  

Well, I hope Nancy loves her quilt.  

Now on to the next customer quilt, but maybe a Hearts and Hand block tonight before I start that one.  heehee.....we will see.  

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.  

In overdrive......

Could I just work on one thing and get it done?  No!

 

Went over my UFO list and there were so many things that seemed so do-able because they were almost done, that I thought I would work on 4 or 5 things at once.  Of course when you do that....nothing gets done quickly. 

 

I have been working on so much, I don't even know if it is worth trying to post pictures of all the progress here in one post. 

My 9-patches.....

 

This was going to be a quick and easy project, but I ran into a snag. 

 

Sewn together.

 

 

Pinned...

 

 

quilted.....

 

then washed and sewn into next Christmas's stocking

 

 

Lining is made and all I needed to do was to crochet a cuff, but darn, I have ripped that cuff out numerous times.  Don't know if it is the pattern or if it is me.  So, it got set aside for another day.

 

One of the other projects was my jelly roll quilt. 

 

 

Actually, this was made with a "twice the charm" and I had to cut each fabric in half so that I could do the jelly roll race.  This has been in my stash for eons.

 

Purchased some fabrics at a 60% off holiday fabrics sale  and put these borders on the quilt.

 

 

As of last night, this one got quilted with a sand colored minky and now it is ready for its binding (which is made).

 

 

I'll save the three other quilts that are going on the long arm very soon for another post.  I spent time getting the scrappy pieced backings made and just need to get the batts cut to size. 

 

But since I chucked the crochet project for a little while, I needed something to do with my hands in the evening in front of the TV. 

 

Now...I hesitate to even bring this up for fear that I will stick it away again for years since I made the rows several years ago. 

 

I felt the need to say that I "hand pieced" a quilt.  What do I choose? ...a charm, thimble quilt.

Don't ask me where I got the idea that a charm quilt had to be 2000 pieces, but here is my progress.

 

 

These are 1" thimbles and I have had the rows sewn for a very long time.  I put it away when I felt that I couldn't meet up my seams perfectly  when it came to putting the rows together.  Well, if I am going to get this done, I have to set aside perfection. 

 

I am telling myself if I can do two rows a night, I could have this top done in less than a month. 

 

Ok....that's it for this post.  I have three more quilts that will be going on the long arm very soon and will share those with you as they come off the machine. 

 

Wish me luck on those thimbles.  After getting back to it, now I want to see it finished. 

 

Yup....definitely in overdrive.