Baby will get here before the quilt is finished!

...but it will be close! I got the quilt for my niece's baby loaded on the machine Sunday afternoon and wound some colorful bobbins.I'm using a multicolored So Fine thread.

I only got one row quilted but hopefully I will be able to quilt a few rows tonight. 

 The panto is Mini Will O'...makes a nice circular pattern, which I thought would be fun with the jewel shaped patches.

 The binding is ready to attach...it is the same fabric that I am using on the back. My little nephew is due to be born today, so he will be here before his quilt is finished...but I should have it finished soon. Hopefully his grandma got his quilt bound so he has that to cuddle up in!

Later...The baby arrived safe and sound...8lb. 1 oz. They are naming him Owen....I can't wait to see him!

Baby quilt finish...

 Quilting the baby quilt went pretty quickly. I used the Drift panto and a bright variegated thread...it looks like fluffy leaves to me, so thought it went with the jungle animal theme.

The lighting coming in the windows was good on Sunday when I quilted this, so you can really see the quilting in the pictures.

You knew I was going to get those zigzags in the quilt somewhere, right?

I took some pictures outside last night, and the color looks more blue....it's crazy how different it looks in these pictures. but you can see the zigzags in the binding!

I am teaching one of the Sampler classes tonight, so it will be a busy day!

Baby (quilt) steps...getting closer to finished!

I spent some time last night sewing the borders on the baby quilt and prepping it for quilting. I think the teal border looks a bit darker here than it really is, but it definitely works with the green/teal polka dots for the border.

I pieced the backing fabric together, too...I love this playful plaid fabric and best of all it's on point so I don't have to worry about the stripes being straight! It's ready to go! I hope to get it loaded later and start the quilting.

Still thinking about the border....

 I decided  I needed a darker border between the quilt and the green/teal dotted fabric. There are too many places that the green border would touch other greens in the quilt and I was worried that it would blend too much.  I would've liked to  have the teal that is around the block in the top row, 2nd position...but it was a fat quarter, so knew I wouldn't be able to find it. That color is hard to find....or at least it was for me. I ended up with this solid teal, and I think it does a good job of separating the green dotted border from the other greens that touch the outside edge of the quilt top. What do you think?

I wanted to get the borders cut out last night, but after doing some cleaning and a huge pile of dishes (I was waiting for the dish fairy, but she never showed up), I just wasn't in the mood anymore. Another day....

A great visit and a whole lotta help!

 I had a great time in Earling yesterday visiting with cousins I haven't seen in awhile. I have many first cousins (about 67, I think) because my dad had 11 brothers and sisters. So growing up any family gathering was a huge event. Most of them lived within about 20 miles of us, so we saw them quite a bit. There were two families that lived very close and had kids that were the same ages as my family, so we were especially close. I heard that one of them was going to be back from her home in CO this week so dropped in on their family gathering yesterday for a bit. We had a great time catching up and I got to chat with most of her family. We spent so much time with them growing up since their ages and our coincided so well.  I also visited my parents for lunch and stayed for the afternoon.

I showed you the fabric I bought the other day but not the animal fabrics I had that I was trying to match to, so here they are all together. I also have a zebra print that I will probably throw in too, just to spice things up a bit.

When I'm sewing, Smokey likes to sit on the table by the machine. Sometimes I have to move her a bit so I don't sew her tail into the mix! But Conrad doesn't usually jump up there. I guess he thought he was missing out the other day when I was working on the Zigzag quilt....he got very comfortable. On the plus side, he kept Smokey's tail out of the way! Do your cats do this?

Sewing with friends on National Quilt Day

 I have to admit that after Monday night's class, I didn't get a lot accomplished during the evenings this week. I did do some sorting and putting away of leftover fabric from the past few projects I've made, but that's about it. I have been riding my exercise bike again too, have to get back in shape for the summer!

I'm excited that I am sewing with friends today! I have another great nephew on the way, so want to work on his baby quilt....he is due in May. I am going to use some of the animal themed bits and pieces left from another baby quilt...

 along with this adorable fabric that I fell in love with. I am planning on doing some free-pieced letters. The light blue will be the background.

 I saw a YouTube video from Missouri Star Quilt Co. for a self-bound receiving blanket. It looks so fun and easy, I have to try it. I am going to make mine slightly larger than they do on the video. I have no idea who this will be for, but who could resist those cute little angels? Someone will have a girl, eventually!

 I probably won't get to this, but threw it in anyway. These are the leftover strips from the Tumbling Blocks quilt. I plan to sew them together in stripsets.  I have been doing that with leftover strips lately, instead of throwing them in the stringpiecing bin. Two reasons....it is full (surprise, surprise) and I thought it would be fun to just sew strips together and think of something to do with them later. There are lots of these, so I could probably make a baby quilt out of them.

Only one bag, just flipped it over. Do you save the bags that sheets come in? They make great quilting project bags. You can see what's inside.

What are you doing for National Quilt Day?

Peas in a Pod

I finished the little quilt top today. I ended up using yellow for a border to break things up. The yellow looks brighter here than in person. I get frustrated when the colors don't look true. I know it is probably the lighting, which I really know nothing about. . I took this at night so maybe I will try again tomorrow.

I put a patchwork block in each corner. I think I have enough strips left for binding, plus some 2" and smaller strips that will go in the "strings" box.

Turn them this way and that way...

Today I had a Cottage Workshop class so that ladies who had participated in the Cottage Swap could  come and start working on putting them together. I had come up with some simple trees, so made patterns for them and shared those today too. Most of them worked on the paperpieced tree since they aren't as comfortable with paperpiecing.

Tonight I have been working on the 30's print baby quilt.  I turned some of the blocks around to make a more interesting arrangement. I was tempted to go find some more fabrics to spice this quilt up, as it seems like they are kind of blendy, but I resisted. The whole purpose was to USE UP, not ADD TO!

I sewed a bunch of the leftover strips together. I think I will make a piano key border with them. I need something to separate the quilt body from the border. I think yellow might be nice, since there is a lot of yellow in the other prints. Or maybe lavendar, as there is only one lavendar in the quilt. Or green, I really like green.

Binding Day

 

 Bindings aren't really my favorite part of quilting, so I tend to put off attaching them. I do realize that the quilt isn't really finished until it is bound, but many times I have other projects to work on for class (yep, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!) so it is easy to set them aside. Yesterday I got busy and started sewing bindings on. You might remember these baby quilts, I quilted them awhile back. 

  

I got the bindings sewn on yesterday. 

 

 

After I finished them, I put the binding on the Lone Star Quilt.I am going to teach that class again in April, so will be hanging it at the store soon. I already posted a pic of the tablerunner I finished yesterday. If you're keeping track, that's 4 bindings....finished! I sewed both sides on by machine, or I wouldn't have been finished so quickly. Sometimes I sew bindings on the traditional way, hand stitching the back down. It just depends on their usage and my time frame.

I am teaching the Potato Chip Quilt class today, 2 sessions...should be a fun time. Maybe I will have some pix to show off after class

Another one quilted....

Here is the 2nd baby quilt. I am making these for my sister and her husband to give his great nieces as gifts. I worked on them during the first blizzard 3 weeks ago, and quilted it yesterday. I used one of my new pantos, which is sort of wavy and fun.

I quilted with multicolored thread. Not sure if you can see that.

 

My assistant likes to help with pictures.  She kept fussing around me yesterday when I was quilting. She never does that so I was worried she was sick or something.  Turned out she just wanted to be brushed. She seemed to think I had nothing better to do!

A view of our snowy world.It really doesn't look that bad. I will have to go out back and take pix of the patio chairs, they are buried! I was supposed to go to Earling today for my mom's coffee, and then stay over for a sewing day with her and my sisters and sis in law. The coffee was cancelled, but I might still go up tomorrow to sew, if the highways are passable.

The Day After.....are we still snowed in?

Looks like it blew around some more in the night, but it has stopped snowing at least!

I spent Christmas finishing the quilting on this quilt. Just needs binding now. I have another baby quilt to quilt, I pinned it on yesterday, hopefully will get to it today.

This is the same floral pattern I used on my daughter's quilt. I really like the way it flows from row to row, so it doesn't look so much like rows of stitching.

Here is the back, hopefully this baby likes bright colors!

I had seen a tutorial online for this cute pincushion, so made it yesterday too. The idea is to have a mini pincushion to use when doing hand projects, and you stick it into your spool of thread...isn't it the cutest thing? She used a golf tee, but I didn't have one, so used a pencil instead. I just made sure it fit in the hole in the spool first before I glued it in.

If you want to find other cute pincusions to make, go here. 

I got a couple new pantos for Christmas, so I might try one on the other baby quilt later. 

Little update

It is the end of the quarter here for us, so staff development today and a day off tomorrow. Woohoo!!! Actually I have staff dev. this morning and then back to school to work. Believe me, I can use it...there is plenty to do there! Not sure what I will do tomorrow, though I am going to Earling later in the day. I am teaching the Circle and Spin Quilt class there Saturday, so am going up Friday night to get things ready. My sister is hosting the class in her home, so I want to help her with last minute stuff. Should be fun... my mom and sister are taking the class, as well as a few others. We like to get together and sew when I go up to visit, but this is the first time I have taught a class to others there.

My nephew and his family are coming for a long weekend visit, so I finally put the binding on that baby quilt I made for their new baby so I can give it to them this weekend. My sister-in-law is having a dinner Saturday night so we can see them. I have their first born's quilt too, I made it awhile back but was going to send with this one. He is 1 1/2 yr. so I am a little late, but now I am all caught up! His is a road panel that I quilted to fleece. It is drying now, so will take a pic later.

Off to work!

At least I have pictures today...

Hope this doesn't look too topsy turvy! I started quilting one of my quilts yesterday. I am trying out a panto I haven't used before which is called Mini Chaos. It sort of jags up and down into the next row, which I like. I am anxious to get it finished so I can see the whole thing. Here is a peek at the back and you can see the panto too.
I am hoping it interacts well with the circles.

Now if you think I was standing on my head to take this one, you would be close. I was trying to get a pic of the pantograph, quilt and machine. Several people have asked me recently about pantos, so this shows it pretty well. This panto has 2 patterns on it, so if I want to make the flowery circley one, I just flip it around. I used it on a baby quilt awhile back.

My machine is an older APQS, called an EZQ. It's not the biggest or the best, but I got it at an estate sale, so the price was right! No front handles or controls, no stitch regulator... so it took me awhile to get the hang of it, but we have a good rhythm going now. Most days anyway!

Judi of Judi's Crazy World does some wonderful work dyeing fabrics. She has been snowdyeing again, so pop over and see what she can do. She is also having a giveaway to celebrate 300 posts!

Elaine is having a Quilter's Stimulus Giveaway, so run on over and check that out too.

I worked on the new blocks Monday and got most of them finished. Off to quilt!

Rain rain rain

The cats are hiding in the basement as it is thundering and lightning and pouring down rain. This is the craziest summer ever, so much rain. Not that I am complaining, because what usually happens is that it all of a sudden it stops and then no rain the rest of the summer.

I have been working on a new quilt to use for teaching Beginning Quilting in the fall. I have used the same pattern ( a version of a nine-patch) for the past 6 years, so thought it was time for a change. Wanda suggested I use the Double 4 -patch, so I am taking her advice. It is easy and offers chances to match up, but not so tricky that it will cause them to give up! Plus it makes a couple of interesting patterns. I have the blocks made, now to sew them together. When I teach this class, they make if from start to finish, so learn to layer, tie and bind also. So I don't want the quilt to be too big or we would never get it finished.

I got the binding put together for the baby quilt, now to get it on!

Don't forget to stop over at Sewmeows for her great birthday giveaway. She is adding a new item every day. So far there have been a lot of kitties.

Baby quilt quilted...now for the binding

I got the baby quilt quilted yesterday, so now need to piece the binding and put it on. I think I will go scrappy and use the colors surrounding the quilt blocks. I need to make a label too, but want to wait til the baby is born. They know it is a girl, but I want to wait for a name. This panto went pretty quickly and is nice for a baby, I think. I haven't done this one before.
I had to take my car in this morning as the check engine light came on last week. It is running fine, so I hope it isn't anything big. I am going on a family camping trip next weekend, so want to make sure nothing's wrong.

I am not sure what I am working on today...I have a quilt of my mom's I am going to quilt next so I might get that on there. I just don't know.

Don't forget to stop by Sewmeows for her great giveaway. She is adding something new everyday...Kitty Buttons were added today!