Another Panel

I was so intrigued by the results of Thomas the Train panel that I just HAD to try another one.

On Sunday I got another panel and flannel backing, so I will be ready for the weekend to get that one quilted also.

This one is a soft yellow, blue and brown panel of baby jungle animals, a baby lion and tiger and elephant, and it's perfect for a shower gift where the gender of the child is unknown. I love it! This will be one of my portfolio pieces, so I can show off a simple, large meandering pattern. This time, I will use Warm and Natural cotton batting, so I can also show the texture and density.

Darn, I should have gotten 2 of them, and done one in polyester so I can show off the difference. Hope there's another sale soon!

Pass the Bag - Star blocks

My sub group did a Pass The Bag project last year, and I was too busy to participate.  Every month I felt left out because I really liked what I saw developing.

This year, we decided on a star block.  It only requires 2 contrasting fat quarters to get 2 large and 2 small blocks.  The pattern was drawn onto freezer paper, then ironed onto the top piece of fabric, then cut apart...no seam allowances.

I decided that I was definitely going to participate this year.  I chose batiks for my own project, and put a note in the bag asking that I get the left over fabric from the fat quarters.  I always want a larger quilt, so not only will the leftovers help with increasing the size, they will provide a place of rest for the eye and/or a really great border.

It's only the first round so far, so yesterday I worked on the next blocks, blue and gold.  I am also making more batik blocks for my own project so that I will get the larger quilt I want.

Here are the finished small blocks:

And here are the larger blocks, ready to sew:

We are not supposed to trim the blocks, so that the recipient can decide how to place them and what size to trim them down to.

I think it's going to be great fun to see what everyone comes up with.  Now, how am I going to quilt this....??

New Quilter's perspective

I've been asked to write an article for our local guild's newsletter about my perspective as a new long arm quilter.  What an honor!  And, what pressure!

What is the voice?  What about grammar?  Will it be interesting to anyone?  I haven't written a "paper" for quite awhile, will it be any good??

Guess it's sorta like quilting...you just gotta go for it. ;-)

Thomas the Train

I finally finished one of the baby quilts I had signed up to quilt for the Boise Basin Quilters baby quilt project.  I am really pleased with how it turned out, especially since this is the first time I've done meandering on my longarm. 

 

 

 

The quilt measures 34 x 43 and I used a size 16 needle with a variegated red, blue, green and yellow cotton thread.

 

 

 

 

 

Polyester batting makes it nice and puffy.

 

 

 

 

 

Flannel Thomas the Train backing.

Ricky Tims on CBS Sunday Morning

I first saw this on The Quilt Show's website.  It is a great insight into why quilting is not gender specific....and is so addictive!

 

Watch CBS Videos Online

Great weekend!

I got so much done! First of all, I am almost finished with getting my tax information ready to give to the accountant (I know, I should have all the way finished that, but the QOV quilt was calling!)

I had a friend over and we had planned to go to one of the area yarn shops, as I haven't completely converted her to quilting yet. We didn't even leave the house after lunch! We ended up petting Rosie and Gizmo, who were quite excited about getting a visitor, petting fabric, loading a baby quilt for the guild charity, as she wanted to see how my toy worked, and generally having a grand time. We even joined her and her companion for dinner and a movie, which we never do! We saw Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino; it was quite good, very thought provoking and intense.

Since I only need to add borders to the Turning Twenty quilt that I started in Montana, yesterday I started a Quilt's of Valor quilt.

It's been on my mind to do this for awhile, and I had started collecting some fabrics that I thought would be suitable.

I met an Army chaplain on the plane to Hawaii last year, and he told me that making them longer and heavier is a good idea for any of the ones going to the war zone itself, as it's so darn cold there in the winter. There's also a need to have some "generic" quilts, where they're not all red, white and blue. I have a bunch of 5" plaid squares that I got at last year's guild Yard Sale and I started putting them together with the dark blues I had been collecting, and added some lighter blues in and I suddenly was putting together a scrappy nine patch. I got 7 blocks done, and the makings of quite a few more started, in about 3 hours!

I started to run out of the plaids, so instead of making it 4 across, I rearranged to 3 across. At 42" it seems small to me still, and not yet at the minimum requirement of 50", but getting a quilt to be larger has never been a problem for me! Except for trying to make it more generic, I'm thinking of adding a narrow maroon border around all of it, and then adding a scrappy dark blue border to that. I've already got the maroon flannel that will go on the back; I love flannel backed quilts.

Back Home!

Aren't airplanes amazing?  Besides all of the engineering and technology, I mean.  You can be in one place in the morning, and then far away 4 or 6 hours later, going about daily tasks as if you hadn't missed a beat.  Well, that's what it seems like, anyway.

Sort of a weird feeling, having been away for 2 1/2 weeks, and then resume my life as if I hadn't been gone at all.  Gizmo really missed me, I could tell that when he went from picking a fight with Rosie for no reason, completely out of the blue (she wasn't even near him) to melting into a puddle in my lap when I brushed him later.

I started working on my pass-the-bag star blocks for my quilt sub-group on Monday night.  I chose batiks for my colors, I think it will look really awesome when I'm finished.  The pattern is sort of a stack n whack star pattern.  Cut 2 stars at the same time from the freezer paper template, then mix the colors so that the star comes forward and sits on a different background.  Two blocks at once, really easy.  I'll post some pictures soon

The seam allowance is NOT built into the template, so the blocks come out wonky, but that will also be part of the fun.  I still have the smaller ones to make and I'll be ready to pass the bag to the next person.

Of course, I am making more than the required 2 fat quarters, because I will want a larger quilt, but that's nothing new.  I've already got some material ready and I think I'll just make 4 each time I make them throughout the year, and that way I'll have double the blocks at the end of the year to work with.

Still have to finish the binding on my wall hangings, then get the Turning Twenty Again blocks squared up and onto the design wall.  I'm hoping to finish that by the end of the weekend, but we'll see how that goes.

For now, it's back to work, as usual.