Summer Vacation and Quilting

I've taken some time away from my blog to enjoy the summer (and quilt)!

This summer we spent 2 weeks in Chatham - very relaxing. 

I love the beach ... I love walking the beach, watching the waves and collecting shells.

Stephen and I saw the whales and seals off shore - no sharks.

This is a photo of three seals swimming next to each other off of

Light House Beach in Chatham.

All though my son Matt, caught a 12 inch baby sand shark while fishing off the beach!

Yes - we had been swimming there earlier!

And I thought it was a crab that was nibbling at my toe!

Victoria and I had a wonderful day on Nantucket

With vacation over the rest of the summer has been spent getting quilts

ready for the Sliver City Quilt Guild show in September.

I'm working on a hand quilted Hawaiian quilt my "Blue Hawaiian"

I'm down to the very edge and almost done - then it will be time to block and bind!

This has been a two year project and I've loved every minute of it!

I love the ease of applique and hand quilting - no machines ... just me and the fabric!

OH ... and cheater glasses and a good light!

Then machine quilting my "Fiesta" quilt which is made up of mostly all
New York Beauty blocks - which I of course had to machine quilt myself!

Unfortunately my Bernina's BSR (Bernina Stitch Regulator) and I are not getting along!

After many attempts and many skipped stitched I took it off my machine and

threw it across the sewing room - well in my mind I did!

Anyway it's off and I'm trying to get into a quilting groove....
I think my stitches are coming out OK.

Here is one of the blocks .... What do you think?

This block is my favorite it looks like little Christmas trees!!

Only a few more blocks to go!!!

But I have time ... 3 weeks!

No problem ... I just wont sleep!

Oh I just realized this is my 50th blog post!

Whoo-Hoo!!

Hope you all have enjoyed them.

Happy Quilting!



Lowell Quilt Festival Entry

I was very excited to have one of my quilts accepted into the Lowell Images Quilt Show!

The show runs August 11-13, 2011. You can check out the details here.

Moda Flowers and Geese



She's a soft pink pallet of Moda flowers, with a splash of blue, green and yellow -

the pattern came from a McCall's Quilting magazine.

Just loved the pin tuck flying geese fabric and the

flower shaped button embellishments at the tip of each goose!

I had an "interesting" time doing the mitered corners

so they flowed together and kept the little green line

in the inside of the boarder print nice and straight !

I think all in all she came out just fine.

I hope everyone enjoys her soft sweetness!

If you do happen to go to the Lowell Quilt festival -
please stop by my guild's raffle table!
The Silver City Quilt Guild put together the most beautiful Crazy Quilt -
with TONS of embellishments!
The blocks were created and embellished by guild members
and then set on point with maroon velvet.
It is absolutely stunning!
The picture just does not capture it's true beauty!
Yes we are selling tickets!!!

 

Try out Longarm Quilting

I am now officially on vacation from my full time job - Yippee! I started my vacation with something for myself ... a class on longarm quilting! I always like to try new things and pick up new skills - and although I have done my own quilting on my Bernina - I have never used a long arm. They seem so intimidating!!

My class was at  Mad About Quilts and found it to be ... FABULOUS!

Mary Ann and Dora are excellent teachers - very patient, soft spoken and knowledgable.  For a very reasonable fee they provide a 45" x 45" sample to work on (2 pieces or muslin and batting), 3 zippers to attach to their machine, 4 white bobbins (which they will switch out for other colors if you need them too) and 2 needles! Everything to get you started on your own longarm adventure!

First they showed me how to pin the zippers onto the backing and then the top ... thank goodness the zippers have directions printed right on the zipper tape!! Then it was time to load the sample onto the machine. Yikes - not sure if I could do that again ... but they assured me that when I come back to work on my own project they are right there every step on the way - just in case I forget what to do!! That little piece of information set my mind at ease .... now it was time to have fun!!

I started out with free motion quilting ... first I had a mind blank .. . "Oh No what do I quilt??" SO I just started with meandering, loops and leaves .... I think the meandering is the easiest and I like my leaves!

Here you can see the zipper pinned onto the sample.

I did find the machine has a horizontal and vertical pull and you really need

to get used to the flow of the machine....

some of my rounded edges got a little squared look to them ...

I need practice, practice, practice.

The water look was fairly easy, you just have to keep track of where

your going to make sure you fill everything in ...

and then I went back to my comfort zone of meandering loops!

My attempt at flowers and flowers with flames ....

again not being used to the machine my edges squared up a bit....

OK I've decided to stick with the meandering loops and an occasional leaf and flower!

The it was onto trying the other side of the machine ... pantographs.

One would think that tracing the little red dot over the lines

would be a piece of cake .... you would be so wrong!!!

It was tougher than I thought it would be - definitely something that I would need to practice.

By practicing you train your muscle on the design.

Dora and Mary Ann gave me two great tips...

1) get a white board from the local office supply store and practice drawing different

designs over and over and over ... this will train your muscles and...

2) with out actually stitching on your fabric just trace the red dot over the pantograph lines

a few times - this will also train your muscles ...

I need that Muscle Memory ... I need lots of practice.

Mary Ann was so nice - so told me I did such a good job my first time out -  she's so sweet!

But somehow I think my flowers look more like those small dinosaurs

with the pointy spikes that run down their backs!!!

So that was my adventure into longarm quilting!

I highly recommend you try it and I HIGHLY recommend Mad About Quilts.

They offer a great beginner class and reasonable rental time on one of there machines,

and they are right there to help you every step of the way!

I've put a button on the side of this blog to direct you to their site.

Give them a try - give longarm quilting a try - I think you'll like it!

I already have two tops ready to take back and quilt ...

and I'm sure for my first few I'll stick you what's comfortable ...

meandering loops and leaves!!

Girl friends Block

I can now post about another project I've been working on! It was a secret and had to be kept under wraps until it was given to my Quilty Gal Pal Joan! One of my Monday night quilting Gal Pals came up with the idea to make this way to cute Girl Friends Block for one of our Monday night quilters who just needed to know how much we are supporting her!

The block consists of a little girl holding half a heart in each hand and when you sew the blocks together the hearts come together ... very cute. Check out the pattern here. It works up quick especially with Steam-A-Seam2! I'm usually a needle turn applique kind of girl but boy this Steam-A-Seam2 and machine blanket stitch works up pretty quick!!



Here is the original pattern showing the two styles of blocks



 I of course had to make mine with lots of bling (Joan knows I'm an embellishing Queen!)



She actually looks more like me than Joan ...
at least she'll know which block is mine!!

  

Just a little hair embellishing and of course a big Quilty Smile!





Let's not forget dangle earrings!




 the Cape Cod bracelet !



and toe nail polish!!

Needless to say I think she liked everyones blocks -

she turned red and was speechless for a few minutes and then hugs for everyone!

Knitting Needle carrier project for Mom

I can now safely post the project I've been working on - a gift for my mom. Mom has always knitted for as long as I can remember and she always had the same (ugly orange) knitting needle holder! Sorry Mom - orange velour just isn't my favorite!! So while she was away visiting my sister I broke into my stash and pulled out these .....

 Nice Blue-Greens with a splash of purple!

Then with pencil to paper I designed how I wanted the bag to function

and came up with measurements.

Let the sewing begin!

I had to make a few things twice -

what I thought would work in reality didn't so back and forth

I went to the cutting table and sewing machine and after a while I got this ....

The out side with a zipper all around....

and the inside!

One side will hold her short and long straight needles

and the other side I put a zippered pocket for her circular needles.

The zipper gave me a bit of trouble, but in the end

it went in and hopefully she'll be able to manage opening

and closing without too much trouble.

Not sure I'll ever make another one!

Maybe a roll up one without the zipper!!

Hope she likes it!!

Switch to knitting ...for just a moment

SO my knitting adventure continues!

However since my last knitting post - I have ripped everything out and started over!!

This time I'm paying attention.

I started with 40 stitches and now I actually still have my 40 original stitches!!

My last attempt was foiled when I some how added

an extra 9 stitches some where along the line!!

SO now I'm going along at a good clip...

I even added another skein!! I of course had to read up on how to do it! 

I'm still not sure I did it correctly -

I'll have to have my mom check it! She's helping me with this adventure!!

See it's almost a scarf!!!!

I just love these colors - reminds me of the ocean!

Experimental Iris

I've been working on several projects lately.

This one ... "Experimental Iris" as I call it - is one that I started last year

at an applique class that I took from Maria Lage (she is a fabulous appliquer!)

I had the applique Iris all done but wanted to experiment with a few different surface embellishments.

First I marked my lines and added the Sashiko stitching

then I wanted to make it "pop" so I tried my hand a micro stitching....

well this is MY version of micro stitching!

Oh I tried my quilt halo - it's weighed and you use it in place of quilting gloves.

It took me a while to get use to it - but after I got the rhythm I liked it!

The Quilt Halo is a Sharon Shamber product

Here is the micro stitching - I took it over to the edge as well.

then I wanted to do something with the moon,

I tried several different ideas ... more sashiko,

hand stitching, machine stitching....

sashiko with gold thread....

and I finally decided on a simple beading design.

next I'm going to go in and bead the flower....

but that for another post!

MQX - East

WOW ... That's it ... Just WOW!

This show exhibits some of the finest quilter's I've ever seen.

I found myself with camera in hand snapping photo's

not of whole quilts - but sections of quilts ... or rather sections of quilting on the quilts!

Did I have a favorite ... Yes! .... all of them!!!

Janet Stone' "Red Letter Daze"  Won Best of Show - it was outstanding.

The wall hanging quilt was made of smaller quilts that were incorporated

into the larger and then quilted and embellished.

I think I stood in front of that quilt for 20 minutes just examining

every little quilt ... and the quilting .... she did it one a Janome 6600!

That's it ... I'm trading in my machine!!!



this was just one of the small quilts that made up the larger whole quilt!

OK - look at all of these ribbons!!!

"Whitetail Morning" was created by Dustin J. Farrell

1st Place Art/Pictorial

Viewers Choice

Best Use of Thread

Best Machine Quilting - Sit Down



This deer looks so real!



Here are a few more photo's that I snap during the day ...

this was just so sweet!

so this quilt is purple and all the color you see is .... threadwork!!!

I absolutely LOVED this quilt!

When I first looked at this quilt I wasn't too taken with it ...
but then I stepped in for a closer look ...

Just look at this sun!! Wow!

 I was lucky enough to have my "Batik Stars in the Garden" accepted into the show!

That was such a huge accomplishment for me.

I have to give my Quilty Gal Pal Diana Annis all the credit

for her incredible quilting she did on my applique baby!

Thank You Diana!