Momentary Set Back

I'm having a bit of trouble. Between Blogger not letting me upload pictures, and my needle bar not holding any of my needles, I'm a little behind with everything.

Please be patient. We will be up and running, (and hopefully fully functional!) soon. I'm driving up to my Gammill dealer today to pick up a new needle bar. I spoke with the tech yesterday and he said it should fix all of my problems. Here's to hoping it does!!

As far as Blogger is concerned....I really hope they'll fix whatever problem it is they are having with their photo uploader. It's really causing some issues, and not just with me! But, I will keep trying to update as often as I can.

Please keep checking back for more updates. And, if you're in the mood to make a cute quilt or maybe even finish some projects, or just have a good time with a bunch of people who love classical books (and their movies!) check out these great links:

Jelly Roll Sampler Quilt

Bronte-Along - Thanks to Melissa at Yummy Goods and Beth Dunn at An Accomplished Young Lady have put together a fabulous effort. We're reading, watching, and crafting along together while enjoying Jane Eyre. Personally, the 2006 BBC/Masterpiece Theater version of the movie is the best. I'm reading the book, bought the movie (and watch it multiple times a week!) and hope to be able to craft something really great soon! Join us in all the fun!

OPAM 2010 - it's currently closed to official participation, but you are more than welcome to still craft along with us at home! It's a great excuse and motivation to actually finish those unfinished projects that are cluttering up your sewing/craft rooms!

NQT NYD MQ 2010

What in the world does NQT NYD MQ 2010 mean? Well, it means "Not Quite Traditional" New Year's Day Mystery Quilt 2010. It's a class I took from Longarm University. It was all online. It was really a lot of fun. Here is my finished product:
We did not quite traditional cross hatching and Baptist fans. It was fun.

There was a ton of quilting involved!

Surprisingly, I got it quilted and bound in just 2 days! I guess I was feeling motivated. :D

Below is the back. I based the fabrics I chose off of fabrics I had in my stash. I really wanted to use the lime green/turquoise (backing fabric) and the lime green (binding fabric) from my stash. Unfortunately, I didn't really have enough of anything that matched, so I had to buy the rest of the fabrics used in the top. It wasn't that much, though, so I'm happy :) Funny story, the fabric for the back is actually fabric from a Halloween line that I bought on clearance at Gracie Lou's. It doesn't look like Halloween fabric to me, though, which is a good thing.

Cindy, our instructor, recommended we use contrasting thread. I thought when I ordered my thread that it would be enough of a contrast. Turns out it blended in really well. Now that it's all quilted, I'm glad that the thread isn't too contrasting, because the texture from the quilting is so nice. I used Kate Green on the turquoise bits for the Baptist Fans, Ferrari for the lime green background quilting, and Gerbera Daisy in the hot pink fabrics. They are all by So Fine! threads.

LOVE

I rang in the new year by making this fabulous quilt! I used the Turning Twenty pattern by Tricia Cribbs and used Love by Amy Butler. I just love Love! It's so beautiful! I picked 6 of my favorite fabrics for the blocks and another fabric for the border.

Isn't it so beautiful?! I just love it!!

Here is the finished set: backing (blue), the quilt top, and the binding.

I'm going to quilt it tomorrow/today and hopefully have it bound by the end of the weekend. :) I bought Star Trek on blu-ray the other day, so I'll have 2 hours of fabulous movie to keep me from getting bored of binding! :)

Jonas' Baby Quilt

I am a great-aunt again! I now have 4 great nephews and 1 great niece. Baby Jonas was born on the 30th of December. His grandma made this quilt for him.

I quilted loops, swirls, waves, etc in all of the strips. In one of the middle strips I quilted his name, surrounded by stars and loops.

I used eggshell colored thread.

Marshy's Christmas

Last year I bought yards and yards and yards of Disney's Cars fabric. I had all these great ideas of making curtains and matching sheets and a really cute quilt all for Marshy's room for his birthday....last year. It so didn't get done! I made the quilt, but it sat around waiting to be quilted. It finally got done (photo further down).
I made a flat sheet out of my leftover Cars Lightning McQueen fabric. It isn't as big as I thought I was making it, but it looks cute on Marshy's bed, and he likes it which is all that matters.

I also made a pillowcase. I have some of the tan fabric leftover, and am considering making curtains out of them....maybe. We'll see what happens! haha

This is the quilt I made. It turned out so cute....and HUGE! I didn't realize how big it was when I made it. Tonight, putting it on Marshy's bed was an adventure. Let's just say that a twin size quilt looks really big on a converted crib/daybed! haha :)

I also made a bedskirt. It looks so cute on his bed with all the pieces together! And he loves it, and that is all I really care about. :)

Marshy's Cars Quilt

I FINALLY finished quilting Marshy's Cars quilt! It's only taken me about a two and a half years to get around to putting his quilt on. Marshy is my 3 year old and he LOVES Cars.

I stitched in the ditch around the tires.

I stitched around the major features of Lightning McQueen and Mater.

In the border I quilted flames.

The following photos are from the back side of the quilt. I used a solid black (from Walmart....this was made before I knew about the difference between good fabric and Walmart fabric. Trust me, there is a BIG difference in quality.)

above: the McQueen and Cars logo details.

below: Mater's details.

The flames from the border.

I used black colored thread for the whole quilt.

Taking a Short Break

I am taking a short break from hectic quilting to work on something for myself.

If any of you read my personal blog, you know that I am the plaintiff in a small claims case. You also know that I bought these beauties:




I don't have anything to wear with them. I was so disappointed when I got them because they are beautiful, but I had nothing that matched. So, I went up to Gracie Lou's and bought this lovely Art Gallery Fabric, which can be purchased here, at Gracie Lou's online store.

I am going to be making this skirt (the one on the model) out the Art Gallery fabric.

Court is on the 25th. I am hoping to have the project done by then. Don't you think I'll look great with the cute skirt and the heels? Today I cut out all the fabric and interfacing pieces for the project. I'd start sewing, but my good sewing machine is at work. I'd rather not use the Janome for a project like this. I think I'll stick with my Singer HD-110. :)

New Design!

Okay, so this isn't the best picture, but I was so excited that I actually finished this (mostly) that I wanted to share!

About a week or so ago I had this fabulous idea (or at least I think it's fabulous!) to make wallhangings for each month of the year. I drew out all my designs and picked the colors I wanted to use. I was so excited! February's wallhanging ended up being one of the easiest, so I decided to do it first. I picked my fabrics out of my stash and got to work.

I know I've said in the past that it's been hard for me to sew at home because I don't have a table, but I have finally figured something out. YAY! I put my sewing machine on my piano bench and sit in a low folding chair and sew that way in my kitchen, leaving my table open for cutting and such.

I ended up cutting my fabric out wrong, oops, so this is a little squattier than I had wanted it to be originally. It technically should have another 2-2 1/2 inches at the top, but oh well! Also, along the bottom is going to be a 6 inch strip with "FEBRUARY" appliqued onto it. Still working out the font and lettering size for that, so that is why this isn't totally finished yet.

However, I am so excited that it turned out close to how I wanted! I can't wait to finish some of the other months now!! :) I will definitely post more pictures when I get them done.

Colton's Angels donation quilt

As some of you may know, I belong to a local charitable group of women called Colton's Angels. We get together monthly and work on humanitarian projects, among other things. Well, one of the local church groups decided to make some donation quilts for us to give to the hospital (among some other things we already had put together). This is one of them. My mother-in-law started to quilt this one on her domestic machine and decided it wasn't worth the hassel, so she had me finish it.

She had quilted around each block in the ditch, and started to quilt along the small squares in the center. I continued with that and finished it up for her.

Happy Graduation Alex!

At the family-owned floral shop I work out of we have what we call "afternoon girls". I used to be one, in fact, before I started quilting full time. Now niece Keisha and nephew Jase, and his friend Alex, work there. We used to call Alex the afternoon girl when he first started. He is a really good friend of the family, and actually practically is family! Anyway, all 3 of our afternoon workers are graduating from high school this week. CRAZY!

Angel, my SIL and Jase's mom, decided to make Alex a quilt. She used the same fabrics and the same pattern that she used to make the t-shirt quilts for her kids earlier this year.

I used black thread and quilted flames across the quilt. The back, as you can see in the picture above, is black minkee with red minkee pieces down each side.

Congratulations on your graduation, Alex!

Cousin's School Project

I have a little cousin who is in 9th grade....I guess that doesn't really make her little, does it? Anyway, I still think of her as little. Does anyone else do that? I have another cousin who I still remember as a cute little girl but is apparently old enough to graduate from high school. What the? Where did the time go?! How old am I anyways?!

Well, back to my cousin in 9th grade.... She had a school project to make a quilt and complete it by the end of the school year, June 4th or so. Her mom emailed me and asked me if I could squeeze them in. Fortunately I have not had a long wait, so I was able to get it done for them.

My cousin, 9th grader's sister who is my age, came down with the quilt to visit. It was so much fun to see her! She was shocked to see how fast the process goes once the quilting starts, and was very surprised when I told her I'd have it done in a few hours.

Isn't it such a fun and bright quilt? It was so cute! The back was the bright blue, so I used a blue thread.


She already had polyester batting, so I quilted a looser loop with flowers across the entire quilt. It turned out really great, and from what I hear via email, my little cousin loved it. Now she just needs to bind it and she'll have her school project done!

I think it is so cool that kids can quilt in Jr High and High School now. I'm sure that they might have done something like that at my high school, but the home ec classes weren't really recommended by many people, sadly. (I did take Foods, which was awful, and Interior Design, which was okay, and I agree with what the people said: home ec suffered greatly at my school.)

T-shirts full of memories

On March 12, 2008, my sister-in-law, Angel, lost her youngest son Colton (15 at the time, 1 month shy of his 16th birthday) to complications from pneumonia and ARDS. A few weeks ago she had gone through some of his clothes and picked out a stack of t-shirts she wanted to make quilts out of for herself, and her other 3 children. She asked me to apply the fusible interfacing and cut out the t-shirts for her. She had also pieced blocks from this great guitar fabric she bought at Gracie Lou's. She wanted to have the quilts for her kids done by the 1-year anniversary, but was afraid she wouldn't make the deadline. A group of family and close friends banded together and had a sewing night to help her out.



Jenny and Angel deciding which fabrics to border the blocks with.

Carrie and Vicki (my mother-in-law) sewing the blocks and borders.


Lola chatting with the rest of us after using the iron.

Vicki making borders and blocks.

Carrie ironing.

Jase's Quilt:

The initial layout of Jase's quilt. Each quilt had 5 pieced blocks and 4 t-shirt blocks. They hurried and finished this quilt top first so that I could get it loaded onto the machine. Unfortunately, by the time it was done it was 10:30 PM, my little boy was tired and ready for bed, and my DH had just come to pick me up! I found out later that the rest of the gals stayed until around 11:30, but got the rest of the tops and backs pieced.

The finished quilt: (sans binding)

Several summers ago Colton was bit by a black bear while working at a scout camp. The center of this block was made from the shirt he wore from that camp. Above it I quilted "Bear Bait" in the bear paw print, in red thread.

This picture came in a little fuzzy, but it says "Jerry Finn", which is a nickname for Jase.

Underneath the Flogging Molly graphic I quilted "Honkey the Hooligan", which was one of Colton's nicknames.

And under the Playdead Movement graphic I quilted "Dirty Harold", which was how Colton signed all of his text messages.

The back of Jase's quilt is this really great red minkee.

Lynsey's Quilt

This quilt was for Lynsey, Angel's oldest.

Her nickname for Colton was Dody, quilted here in a tan colored thread so it would show up on the black fabric.

Dirty Harold

Honkey the Hooligan.

The back for her quilt was this beautiful black minkee with the paisley pattern in it.

Zack's Quilt

Honkey the Hooligan.

Dirty Harold, again quilted in tan.

Bear Bait, also quilted in tan.

The back of his quilt was this black minkee with the diamond design in it.

I finished quilting all three quilts on March 11th, and was surprised at how difficult it was for me. Angel, Lola, and Gayle bound the quilts. Between all of us helping, Angel was able to get all three quilts done for her kids in time.

Thursday was a rough day, and needless to say I didn't get much done. That night, those of us who were available, went to dinner at Los 4 Amigos, a local Mexican restaurant, in memory of Colton. We are having a bonfire at the lake on Saturday for the whole family.

We love you Colton, and miss you very much! I think Lola's post says it all. The song she posted is so beautiful, and if you get the chance, go to rhapsody.com and listen to it there (you can find it on the Weeds Season 1 Soundtrack).