Urban Chained went from a flimsy to quilted this weekend.

I have the binding made but in my haste to get this quilted I forgot to make a label and attach to the back before I quilted it...so I have to get a label ready and sew it along the edge with the binding.  (that way I only have 3 sides to hand stitch to the back).

I did make a cute pillow cover and quilted it real fast yesterday but alas no picture.

Tonight is my guild meeting.  Our speaker is Amanda Jean from crazymomquilts.  

How fun is that!! 

OK a busy day today so I better get dressed and get it started!

   

Tisket Tasket is done.

well, the top is done!



block-a-days

Ok these are 7/30-8/4!  I need one more 12" block in the Morris fabric line and I'll have 20 blocks.  I'm thinking a 4 x 5 setting with some kind of scrappy border, probably a sashing around them in a solid or 'reads solid' to calm the blocks down.  Crappola photographer at work again but when I look at these on my wall I just about drool.  That lonely bright's 9" block, hmmm..not so much. 

I've been busy quilting away on Libby's tres large quilt and if I get my butt from in front of this computer I think I can have it done today.  I'm going to accompany her to a quilt shop tomorrow (I am a good friend, so of course I agreed to go and keep her from buying fabric; she wants to check out sewing machines).

I'm wondering if I should purchase a taser....buwahaha. 

(that's really not funny, so sorry!)

so why am I still snickering...

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and a photo of my new bed quilt

I've always wanted this quilt for my bed but with the light background and Annie sometimes losing her mind and jumping up on the bed with dirty doggie paws, I was hesitant. But she hasn't been jumping up too much, I'm afraid she's starting to have some aches and pains. She doesn't even try to get up on the bed on weekends now when Paul is still in bed (that used to be the norm). Dang, I hate it when you notice them slowing down. 

So I thought.

  It's a quilt, it's made to be used not rolled up to keep it from creasing and brought out to air and re-roll.  

 I still have the 1st quilt I made ALL HAND PIECED & HAND-QUILTED and made with 'non-quilt shop fabric' (gasp) and it's well-worn but still works.  But I retired it from bed service after 10+ years.

(well, crap, I can't find a picture of that quilt, I'm going to have to go find it....)

So, if this one gets dirty, I will wash it and if it starts to wear out in some years I will retire it. But until then I'm going to look at it and smile thinking of all those fabrics that I bought in 3 coordinating fat quarters at a time (because that was all I could afford) and being so excited that I could hand piece a mariner's compass block- way back when I was a new quilter and I had been told Mariners compass blocks were for 'very experienced' quilters!--working on it while the kids played; keeping a little baggie of the pieces sitting around or in my purse. (I think we had doctor appts. on a weekly basis back then, or so it seemed.)  And I'm going to run my fingers over my 1st attempt at "mcwerleying" and smile at how far I've come as a quilter.

 And if the kids don't inherit this one....oh well. 

I think they'll be ok.

Design Wall Monday (week 29)

On my wall now are my Tisket Tasket Blocks.  They need so be blanket-stitched and then I have to hand embroider them.  I thought if I put them on the wall it would give me the incentive I need to get going on them.  I'm thinking if I do 2 every week. (I'll probably do more), but if not that's ok.  I have been meaning to set up my newer Pfaff 4.0 and do my regular sewing on it and set up my older Pfaff 2046 for the blanket stitch.  I hate to say it but even though the 4.0 is a fancy slick machine. I'm much more comfortable on the 2046.  The 4.0 doesn't have a presser foot lever-it's automatic and I can't blanket stitch as well on it because of it (I think, anyway).   So both machines are set up and I'm getting used to the 4.0 again. 

I have been keeping up on my block-a-days, but no pictures.  I've been having computer issues which I think (crossing fingers, legs and eyes) are fixed thanks to the Geek Squad at Best Buy! whew!

And in my previous posts I showed my Cone Flower Tall & Skinny wall quilt. A few wanted to know where the pattern is from.  It's a Pat Sloan design from her book  Vintage Blooms.  Mine looks a little different because I saw a picture of it in a magazine article and just made it by looking at the picture.

Block A Days

Yep, I'm getting back in the sewing groove.  These are the 24th-27th.  I need to count the 10" blocks using the Astor Manor fabrics I should be close now to having enough for a top. 

I don't know if I've ever shown this quilt before. I made it from leftover batiks a few years ago.  I hang it in the summer.

Design Wall Monday (Week 23)

Another Monday already!! 

Here is my wall.  I have the leader/ender 9-patch & Snowballs back up. I think a 9 x 12 block setting will give me a good single bed size quilt, with a border or without....we'll see.  So I will need to make 38 more blocks.  I just love the scrappiness of it. 

The batik blocks to the right are 9" blocks the 1st 2 are block-a-days. I'm making the next bunch of 12" blocks from batiks with a black background and 9" blocks from brights...but I got confused and made these 2 from batiks~ The 3 on the far right row are the first 3 blocks for this year's Shop Hop Progressive quilt. I'm using the same batik color-way so the 2 block-a-days will hopefully fit in! I think I like to make things difficult for myself sometimes. 

The shop hop starts this Wednesday through Saturday; 12 shops. Libby and I are going,this is our 5th year, I think.

 I believe this year we finally have the perfect itinerary; efficient while avoiding the city of Pittsburgh during rush hour; which has been our nemesis in the past! Last year was the first year using a GPS--didn't get lost once. Of course, our getting lost, confused and turned around in the good ole days of MapQuest made for some hilarious moments.

Several times we'd be amazed at MapQuest's accuracy and singing its praises only to be cursing it's existence later as we drove on and on looking for "Lovey Lane"...which we never did find.

A few times I thought we were going to end up in Ohio. And actually another year we did. We were on the PA turnpike and were suppose to get off the last exit BEFORE the Ohio line and we were gabbing (I know it's hard to believe!) and missed it. The nice toll booth man let us u-turn at the toll plaza and head on back into Pennsylvania.

******

These are June and Augusts'  Monthly minis; they were on the wall earlier for this photo.

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This weekend was a local guild's show. (Blog-less, Libby and I entered quilts. Here are her three entries.  It was Libby's first show, she received 2 ribbons. She was very excited!

 

My Mariner's Compass quilt was voted "Viewer's Choice". I was excited too!

 

The show is held in a little church and it was impossible to get a straight on shot as the rows were so close together.  It was a fun afternoon of looking at quilts, talking about quilts...you know-all that good stuff!

For more quilting 'good stuff'. Visit Judy's.

Design Wall Monday (Week 22)

This is the first quilt from my Block-a-Days-cool beans. 

I have the 2nd & 3rd borders cut.  When I first started to play with these blocks I was ho-hum about them, but they're growing on me. Check out other walls here.

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And barely got the current bl-a-days done by Sat. evening. I'm up to June 14th! I've started 2 new colorways: Batiks with black background for the next bunch of 12" blocks and 

the one 9" block on the far left is in 'bright' colors.  I have a good bit of those fabrics and there are 20 more 9" blocks in the calendar (yea, I flipped through and tallied them!)

The 2 at the top are 10" blocks that I'm using Astor Manor and coordinating fabrics.

The block on the far right is a 12" in CW fabric. I need one more and I'll have the 32 needed for my quilt layout...woo-woo!

Sea Stars 74 x 90

The binding and label were finished last night.

The hanging sleeve finished this morning.

The pictures are still warm in the camera!

Drop off for the quilt show is next Tuesday...no sweat!

  I did an all-over "Swirly Echo" from 

The Pajama Quilter Reloaded workbook.  I used KingTut #907 in the top and a med. blue vareigated Aurafil in the bobbin. I forgot to take a picture of the backing, it's just a medium blue paisley I already had.

Jelly Roll Block #5 and ETC...

I made it yesterday.  I also sewed together 20 hexi's for the OBW.

2 more piles of 20 and I'll be ready for the fun part of arranging them!  Last night I bought OBW Encore.  I do want to try and put a few cubes in this quilt.  

Last week after I posted about my swirly feathers on Libby's quilt I got some very nice compliments, and I thank you all kindly.   Mary emailed me that the quilting looked like something her sister did but she quilted it way smaller as a background fill.  I had a Pat Sloan Tall and Skinny wall quilt called Daisy Baskets.  The pattern was in Amer. Patchwork & quilting June 2005 issue.  I quilted it with 1" wide sort of echo's using my dsm, which was all I had at the time and never liked the quilting, but loved the wall hanging and it was finished. So on Friday I unsewed it and re-did it. Quilting this design teeny takes A LONG time, sheesh! but I really like it now.  Here are a few pictures while I was working on it:

And here is a picture I literally just took (because I forgot to take an "after" shot when I finished it).

LUV it!!

Design Wall Monday (week 17)

Empty again!  I had the crumb blocks on the wall almost all week and did make a few more but took it down to put up this one:

This is the Many Thanks top (59 x 59) with its borders.  It is going to be loaded today and quilted this week.

I had no plans to work on this I want it done by November for Thanksgiving. (I had the blocks all put together. It just needed the borders.) But that's how I get off track...

I was putting something away in the closet and spied it hanging there.  I pieced the scrappy inner border Friday night.

Pineapples

Yesterday I finished the binding on the pineapples wall quilt.  The entire time I was making it, and even after I bought the pattern kit I wondered why I did. Batiks don't go in my decorating sceme, even tho' I love them. Which is why I couldn't resist the kit in the first place!

I hung it up in a little corner by the deck door and just loved it.
 And then I did a double take.

The willow tree figurine on the table is holding a pineapple! 

My stenciled border at the top of the wall are pineapples too! 

It's a good thing my subconscious decorator was on the ball. 

. 

Block-a-Days and other stuff

So I finished my block-a-days for this week.

 

While I had the block-a-days out I played with them a little bit.  Here is a picture of them all stacked up from largest to smallest. The stack is about 4 inches high!

These are all the 16" blocks.  The red/green and white one will soon be a pillow for the porch.  If you look closer you can see it's not Christmas fabrics but watermelon and ants!

I got the final border on the blue OBW and made the binding. The outside border I cut 10.5" and used the original fabric. I'm real happy with it.  It measures 74 x 90.  I have about a 3" strip of fabric left!

*****

And on Monday my mom brought over the Anniverary quilt I made for them for their 50th wedding anniverary.  I want to quilt around their wedding picture, it's too puffy.  When I quilted it, I was renting the HQ and I was a pretty new long armer and I was afraid to ruin it.  I just did the minimal to keep it together and was never happy with their picture in the center. 

I've been working on the Mariner Compass...adding more quilting to the center and liking it. yea!

I also pieced the Jelly roll block.

And here is my 6th block for Shannon's BOM. 

I really like it.  I laid out all the blocks and my blank center piece (no I haven't started the applique for the center yet).

Block-a-Days, OBWonder update and a Mini quilt show!

Blocks from 3/22-28th.  They are on the floor because

I'm still playing with the OBW's. I have 2 sets left to sew together.  I keep moving them around.  The holes will get filled when I make some more.

I bought fabric for a 2nd one it's "zebra-y".  I'm not going to cut it out until I have all of these sewn together--pacing myself!

I had a few of my quilts out yesterday showing them to company and after they left I took some pictures. This is my Harmonic Convergence quilt-quilted.  

This was a mystery quilt from LQS from a few years (4-5) back.

This was also a mystery quilt from the same LQS, I think it's even older than the one above.

This quilt is called "Scrapalicious".  I'm going to be donating it for a raffle at our church in the next month or so (whenever they're ready for it!).  I made this all from the stash.  It measures 82 x 90.

This one was in Amer. Patchwork & Quilting some years back.  If you can look at it closer, you'll see that each block has a "partner block" made from the same fabrics just in a different orientation.  It was a fun quilt to put together.

A little self "horn-tooting" (blush)...

I entered my Spring Journey Sampler quilt in a local guild show.  I was surprised and thrilled to receive a 3rd place ribbon! 

I had 2 reasons to enter this quilt:  first I was so  happy to finish it and so pleased with my feathers on it that I wanted it 'seen'!  And 2ndly, I wanted the critique of a non-partial judge.  

There were 18 quilts in the same catagory as mine.  And the other quilts were bee-u-tee-ful, so I felt very good about getting a ribbon at all.

And although it clashes with my livingroom (ugh). I have it hanging for Easter anyway-  I do want to look at it for a bit longer before it gets put away and last but not least-- I must get some use out of the dang hanging sleeve I had to sew on to it for the show!

A Winter Quilt Show

 I got some "new" quilts out to rotate them. 
I'm taking pictures to get everything digital.  So here is my latest batch. 

A  Little Quilts quilt, hand blanket stitched and quilted, made 1/1998.

This is my String Stars. It's a Fons and Porter pattern. I made this in 1996. The fabrics are really starting to fade. 

My Amish Bars quilt, it's 32" x 32".  I made it in 2000. I hand quilted it. I always wanted to make a traditional amish Diamond in a Square bed size quilt.  This is as close as I got.  (so far, I'm not dead yet! -it could still happen.)

I call this one Space Mountains. It is 51 x 51 inches.   I did an invisible machine applique method for this quilt. I made it in 2005. The pattern was in an Amer. Patchwork & Quilting magazine in '04, I believe. This is one of the first quilts I machine quilted on my domestic sewing machine.  I just SID around the shapes and a large stipple in the outer border.  

This is another one of those mystery squares quilts.  I blogged about them before. You cut 120 2.5" squares mix them up in a bag and as you pull them out you have to lay them out.  So hard for me to do. This was made  in May 2004. It's 20.5 x 23 inches. It's hand quilted.

 

This is just a little stitchery I made a few years ago. I added a border and framed it last year.

This is a reversible table runner.  

 

I made this checkerboard table topper in 1998.  The book was called Fun, Fast and Fabulous quilts.  I've never been happy with the background fabric, too dark.  I hand quilted this one too.

This is a table runner made using "Circular Patchwork" templates. It's an amazing technique, no batting inside, it's a finish as you go type thing.  I made this in 2006.