Hand Quilting during Storm Sandy

 As Hurricane Sandy approaches my hand quilting projects are ready

Just incase power is lost!

In the process of making a Hawaiian Bread fruit design pillow for a future class

All my tools fit neatly into this little blue contact case!!!

The essentials:

Quilting hoop - love the lap hoop 

Clover Gold Eye Quilting Needles Between (No.12)

Needle threader and cutter combo tool

Thread Heaven

Thimble of choice

Thread on bobbins (beat lugging the big spools)

 a little rubber needle pull thingy!

Minin battery operated OttLite (with spare batteries!)

OH ... Glasses 2.75 magnification! for those over 50 eyes!!

That's is I'm ready for any power outage! 

I can hand quilt for days!!

New Project!

Dare I say it .... I'm starting a new project!

After spending the past 3 months working only on UFOs this is a  ...

breath of fresh creative air!

I have a love for the simplicity of Hawaiian Quilts.

Two (sometimes three) colors, the repetitive echo quilting

I just LOVE it!

It is a time consuming labor of love...

but all good things are worth it ...Yes?

the bread fruit motifs are cut out and the basting has begun!

bread fruit half way basted onto background

(Gotta love this blue and white!)

here we are all needle turn appliqued down

next will be more basting

and then the fun part...

hand quilting.

but that's for another post!

Done quilting Birdies Stitches ....

Finally finished machine quilting

my Birdie Stitches Quilt.

Now onto the next step...

Blocking!

I gave it a bath in cold water to get rid of

all of the quilt markings

and starting measuring and pinning

to square it up.

so here it is

pinned to my bedroom floor!

Yup - the bedroom floor!

It's the largest spot to block my quilts ~

Poor hubby has to watch where he walks

so he doesn't step on any pins!

It will stay there for a few days with the ceiling fan running,

and once dried it will be beautifully squared.

Just wondering how everyone else squares up their quilts?



An Evening with Kaffe ...

I've Loved Kaffe fabrics .... well forever!

When I started working part time at my favorite local quilt shop

the obsession  collection began!

It's not a huge collection ...

really trying to restrain myself!

Made up this quilt a few years ago to

feature the pink crackle pottery fabric

Just loved the stripes so it makes up the entire backing.

This quilt is so soft and cuddly everyone fights over

it on the chilly winter evenings in New England!

So this brings me to last night....

when myself and three of my Quilty Gal Pals

had the pleasure of attending a lecture / slide show

by Kaffe Fassett!

He was extremely Inspirational, Creative and Funny!

Telling stories about his beginnings in Carmel California,

attending Mass Art in Boston and onto England

where he lives and creates.

I'm not one for autobiographies, but I found him just so

interesting I had to pick up the last copy!

Don't you just love the Cover of his book!

I started flipping through it this morning and was so

drawn in I just couldn't put it down!

The housework can wait!!

Here he is signing my book!!

 Love the shirt - he designed the fabric and

notice the ribbon going down the front!

Will have to pick up some of that!

This is one of my UFO's

mixing my two favorites....

 Batiks and Kaffe fabrics! 

Can't wait to dive into his new fabric line....

will have to add it to my collection!

Block #9 of my Winter Taupe Quilt done

Another block completed!

Only 5 more to go!!

Still Quilting my Birdie Stitches

SO this is taking longer than I expected!

But I'm liking how it's coming out so far.

I'm using the Sharon Schamber's quilting halo and really liking

the control I have with moving the quilt around,

much better than the quilting gloves I was using!

Finally photos of my VERY productive summer!

Remember this pile of UFO'S?

I stacked them all into a bucket and put them by my

sewing machine with the vow to finish the UFO's before \starting anything new!

Well here they are now....

I FINISHED 10 ....

Yup ... TEN UFO's this summer!!

Here is a little show and tell 

Lobster on the Rocks Table Runner
with  Alfred my horseshoe crab from
Chatham Pottery

Baby Quilt for Maggie

The FRONT of Victoria's T-shirt Quilt

The BACK of Victoria's T-shirt Quilt



Fabric Box with slip pockets inside and zippered pockets outside



LIME
don't know why but I fell for the color Lime this year

Rodeo Donation Quilt for SCQG

Christmas Quilt

Silver City Quilt Guild Mystery Quilt

Navy and Lime

Mini Landscape
from a Jo Diggs workshop

So there you have it ... how I spent my summer!!

Still working on my Birdie Stitches Quilt

This is definitely a work in progress!

I finally selected sashing and boarder designs

 Love this book - so inspirational

Used Golden threads to draw my boarder print

 then used the light box to draw the design onto the quilt

 No worries I remembered to use the

Fine Point Mark-B-Gone by Dritz.

For the sashing I selected a rope pattern

and started quilting away...

here is the back ...

But as I'm quilting away I realize somethings wrong...

It's just not coming together very well

Hmmm...

OH MY...

I selected the WRONG batting (wool)!

What was I thinking ...

it was just too puffy and shifting everywhere

So ... I Frog-Stitched it ALL out!!

Yup I had to take it all apart and start over!

The one good thing ....

I decided I didn't like the rope design in the sashing

so it changed to a sashiko flower design!

Now I'm ready to start re-quilting !!

Winter Taupe Block #8 completed

Today was a beautiful day at the Canal,

the sun was out, the boats were going back and forth,

I worked on block #8,

the only thing missing were the fish!

My poor hubby - no fish for him today!

Yippee ... finished block #8

(bad picture ~ sorry)

I know I said I wouldn't start anything new until

 all of the UFO's in my bucket were finished.....

Well since block #8 was done and we were

still fishing (not me just hubby!)

I had to do something!!

Technically this is a UFO since I traced out the

sampler pattern onto the fabric over a year ago!

Once done it will be a small table runner.

 Love Sashiko.

I find the stitching very relaxing...

now if only the wind would cooperate!

The last days of Summer....

Two days ago was my official last day of summer :(

Yesterday I was back at the school opening up the nurse's office

getting ready for the new school year.

So how did I spend that last day you ask???

Well QUILTING of course!

Yup I had another UFO back on the longarm at MAQ

I did my basic meander stitch in the center of the quilt.

I had previously marked the inner boarder with a

Fons and Ported White Mechanic pencil

My new favorite tool!

It marks great on dark fabrics and it stays on while you quilt!

I used a blue water soluble pen to mark the outer boarder1

I'm finding my last few quilts I used the longarm machine

for the center and then mark and quilt the boarders

on my Bernina 440 QE! Crazy - I know!

Now that I'm back to work I'm going to miss my weekly visits

quilting on the longarm!!

UFO update...

SO I've been working this summer to quilt through my UFO pile,

and I finally have a few photo's to share!

The first project that needed finishing was my daughter's T-shirt quilt...

well I can FINALLY say it's DONE!

I finished the last stitches of binding while on vacation!

Here is the front

(drapped over the king size bed of the house we rented in Chatham!)

and the back 

It came out a bit HUGE!!!

Needless to say she was thrilled

and cried when she read the book label! 

Her comment through the teary eyes....

"Boy Mum you put alot of thought into this"!!

PRICELESS!!

The second project was a bib with iron on vinyl

this was made special for my nephews baby girl...

she'll make her arrival in November,

but he and his wife were visiting us at the Cape and I wanted done

for the baby gift box I was putting together.

The next item to come of the UFO list

was my Lobster Table runner.

Here it is on the dining room table with my

ceramic Horseshoe Crab ... Alfred!

He came from Chatham Pottery. 

I stipple stitched around the bigger lobsters so they would puff

out a bit. I like how it looks like they are climbing out of the rocks! 

A Pink and Green baby quilt was next and will be shipped off to Virginia

for a special gift for Baby Maggie! 

I made it using the Yellow Brick Road pattern from Atkins Designs

and I think it will make a great play mat!

In May I attended a Jo Diggs workshop and out first task

was to make a mini Landscape.

All hand appliqued and quilted.

It makes a great Mug Rug!

That's FIVE projects done!

I have another four more that are almost done!!

Back to quilty work I go!!

A Day in the Sewing Room

Today I spent the day quilting!

I had finished marking the boarders of my Lime Quilt,

using a stencil and my new favorite blue marking pen.

The stencil didn't fit the way I wanted so with the addition of

a fancy motif that I drew onto Golden Threads it was ready to quilt.

 

I'm loving my Bernina BSR today!

It was finally working properly - not skipping stitches.

I guess it helps to have the machine cleaned and updated every once in a while!

So off I went ... quilting away!

Does it get any better than this!

Quilting away while watching the "Quilt Show"

and sipping diet ginger ale!

My own litle oasis!

I guess that's why my daughter bought me this little sign... "Paradise"

she said it reminded her of me playing in my sewing room!

and my beach wagon car!!

I love my car!

I've had her for 8 years now and she always puts a smile on my face!

And I have no trouble finding her in the parking lot!!!

Tonight I bind my Lime quilt,

and take her off my UFO list!