Very Little Done in the Quilt Studio

I guess I had allot more to write about last week because I actually got a bit of time in the quilt studio.

This is still on my large design wall.

I hope to get in today or tomorrow to at least get the rows attached that I have pinned up there.

I have made about 25 leader ender blocks from Bonnie's challenge this year.

I put these up on my small design wall to show Eli and Chelsi. I really like the way it looks.

I am sewing the leader enders in between the pinwhells for the Smith Mountain Morning quilt.

These are the half squares laid out in the different colors waiting to be put into a block.

I have two sets lined up at a time to keep the rhythm going as I try to get the pinwheels done. I want to get the star blocks together soon. I find that just a few minutes piecing every chance I get really does move things along.

Well, this is all for this week. Talk again next week.

Cutting Table Completed

I am so excited about my new cutting table. It is more than just a cutting table. It is somewhat portable because we put it on wheels. Two of the wheels lock so it can be very stable. It is at counter top height so I will no longer be stooping over for hours, which should really help on my poor back. It has numerous cubbies to hold various different things, like rulers, dies, groovy boards and rotary cutters.

This makes easy access to my dies for the GO.

These are the strip dies and they are very long.

These are my Groovy boards for my HQ and they are very long. So it is great to have these fit in the long slots.

This end has my rotary cutters and several of my rulers.
My husband is the best. He was very good to include all the features that were important to me.
I love my new cutting table!

Next to report is about my flower embroideries. I haven't said too much about these lately because I was very intimidated by Miss Chrysanthemum and making sure her hair looked like the pictures of a real chrysanthemum. I have finished her now and I am working on Miss Columbine. The leaves on Miss Columbine will need to be redone because the leaves that the artist put on her are completely wrong. I am going to have to pay closer attention to the leaves from now on.

Here is Miss Mum.

The next thing I wanted to mention is my veggie garden. Things are really growing well this year which is a vast improvement over last year.

I have already cut the broccoli twice and it looks like it is almost time to cut again. I have three of these plants.

If you look close you can see the little tomato. I have three tomato plants this year.

I have also picked a zucchini off this plant and it has another one peeking out there. Can you see it?

The last thing I wanted to talk about is Bonnie Hunter's block challenge this year. I have not participated the last couple of years that she has done this even though I was very tempted with Flora Bunda. But this year fit right in with what I have been doing in my quilt studio. I have been trying to use up/clean up some stuff that has been sitting around in my bins for years. I have a ton of half squares that have been collecting dust since I got my GO cutter a few years ago. I was just having fun trying out this new toy and made these. I also have 3 drawers full of 2 1/2 inch squares already cut and waiting for a project. This is the project. Yeah!

This could become more than a leader ender project for the year and become a finished top very quickly.

Well, this is all I have for this week. It is quite a bit, maybe I should consider writing on my blog more than once a week.

4th of July 2013

Time sure is flying by.....it is now July 5th. We had our Flag raising ceremony yesterday at 7:00a.m. as we have done for the last 11 years. When we bought our house it had a very large flag pole that the builders had put in and as part of the offer we wanted the flag pole to stay. We have enjoyed having this flag pole and we go through at least 2 flags a year. We have a history of military service with my husband and we have one son who is an Iraqi veteran. Freedom is not Free!

In the quilting area I have a few things to talk about. I have finished cutting the blue points for the Smith Mountain Morning quilt and my next step will be the half squares. I will be cutting them with my GO Cutter. My husband bought the GO for me a few years ago for Mother's Day. I love it but I have to admit that I have not used it as much as I should. I am planning on remembering I have it now that it is where I can see it in my new quilting studio.

I have the GO out and ready to go.

The cutting table is almost finished. My husband is working on the facings and then I will be able to move it into my quilt studio. We designed this table and it has three slots where the shelf goes all the way through which will hold my long GO strip cutters and possibly the Groovy boards for my HQ. I will also store all my rulers and rotary cutters in this. I am very excited about this getting done because then all cutting items will be in one place and I will be able to find things quickly. As it is now I have these items strung out in different places and I have to constantly remember where I have stored each item.

This is the trim we will be using. It is the same knotty alder we have been using throughout the basement.

I have also cleaned and oiled my Ginza treadle machine but for the life of me I cannot get the top thread to pick up the bobbin thread and so therefore it does not sew. I suspect the bobbin casing I have in there is not the correct one. It looks newer than it should. I have searched many times on the internet for the Ginza company with absolutely no results. It is like this company never was.

I have also had my husband put up my hanger on the wall for my old aprons and my wooden spool collection. I have the first school sewing project on the right, an apron, and the apron my grandmother made for me when I was a teenage.
My grandmother would save the wooden spools from the thread and string them on an old shoe string. When I helped my mother empty her storage unit that she had had for 20 years I found these in there. It immediately brought back memories of wearing these at grandma's house as a young child.

Well, I think I need to get busy here at home. Take care and I will talk next week.

What I am Working on Now

I have been very busy this week but not all I have been doing is quilting related. I have had 4 interviews this week and I am also working very hard in the yard to get it prepared for the 4th of July Flag Raising that we have every year. Everything we do in the yard from early spring is in preparation for this event.  After that we tend to let the yard go a bit. Hopefully that won't happen this year because I have been able to spend more time in the yard simply because I have not been working.

The three baby quilts are on their way to Primary Children's hospital. Melanie assured me that she would take them up for donation. I like this because these will be helping our local people here in Utah.

I was talking to my husband last week and he expressed that he thought I was using up all my fabric and then I wouldn't have anything to make quilst when we retired. I assured him I had plenty of fabric especially because I am a scrap quilter. But it made me start to think and I realized that my dream was to one day make a quilt out of batik fabrics. I have put off buying because the batik fabrics are so expensive. I order from Connecting Threads online all the time but mostly I get clearance priced fabric by colors that I need and just look at the batik and wish. Well, I took the leap and purchased 3 samplers from them along with 3 yards of black fabric to get over $50 for the free shipping. I love buying fabric this way because I don't have to drive all over the place and take all that time and waste gas to get some fabric.

These are 10" squares. I was very conservative in the size I bought but generous in the number of pieces. I will be very frugal but will totally enjoy these beautiful fabrics.

I have also made progress on the Smith Mountain Morning quilt. I have been cutting and cutting browns and blues for the star block. I have finally finished cutting the brown points.

These are one side of the points.

And these are the other side of the points.

I have cut way more than I need for the points but these are also used in one of the borders.

I have also cut all the small half squares for the center pin wheels for the star block. They finish at 1 1/2 inch.

This is a picture of the quilt from the book.

I have now laid out the blues and have started cutting them for the star block.

I have gathered all my blues and brown fabrics for this quilt but I have not even started on the second block for the quilt. I will keep plodding along with this cutting until I have everything cut out and then will start to sew the blocks together.

Well, I hope you have a great weekend. This is all for now. See you next week.

Charity Baby Quilts

Another busy week has come and gone. I have been able to have grand kids over again this week and we have managed to keep pretty busy. They like to help me with my chores and then we play.

This week my main focus has been getting the charity baby quilts finished. I have made three but I have enough fleece for 6-7 more. I guess we will have to work on these in our next quilt retreat. I made these with just the backing and no batting. I really like the weight of them and they are quite large so they should be used right up to toddler age.

The first two quilts have a teal for the cornerstone square so I used the teal with the bears for the backing.

I decided I wanted to use the green teddy bear for the backing on this one so I used green for the sashing.

On all the quilts I went with totally scrappy binding and I am pleased with the results.
I used the Pajama Quilters method for the quilting. It was good practice for me on these small quilts.

I have also started another quilt for myself. It is the Smith Mountain Morning from Bonnie Hunter's book "Scraps & Shirttails II".I have started the cutting for totally scrappy just like she did with browns and blues. I have loved this quilt since I first saw it in the book. I have noticed that she teaches this quilt in many workshops. It is beautiful! I will be taking this quilt with me in October to a conference that my husband has in Reno, NV. The last time we went to this conference I put together my tree quilt from Bonnie while he was busy with the conference.  I will show pictures later on the progress of this quilt.

Until next week, Happy quilting to everyone!

Moving Along

Hi Everyone, I have been moving along this week. Many things have been done and I am feeling pretty good about the week. No interviews this week.
First off, I have finally finished painting in the old sewing room. It only took me 2 months to do this job but I am happy to say it is done.

Notice the two little snoopers. They are curious about what is going on in this room.

Nice clean fresh closet.

Desk with lamp waiting for some girls to do homework or something else.

I have also had my hubby hang some pictures in my new quilting room. Yeah!

This was gome (trash) from Japan. I have always loved this needlepoint scene and now it has a permanent home in the quilting room.

The top is a clock I made from a quilting magazine several years ago. I think it was Quiltmaker magazine.

The bottom was a gift from my sister.

This is an embroidery of a saying, " I didn't say ti would be easy. I only said it would be worth it." I made this several years ago also.

This is the second patch quilt that I have now completed. It was free motion swirls.

I am happier with the quilting on this one. The next should be even better.

I have the tumbler quilt top on my design wall right now.

I am trying to make some progress with this next.

This is the plaid/stripe quilt blocks that I have together now. I need to get it quilted but I have not decided weather I am going to add some borders yet.

It should make a good lap sized quilt as it stands right now.

This is one of three baby quilt tops I have completed. This green fleece will be the backing for this one and the other two have a turquoise camouflage fleece.. I need to get these loaded so I can get busy quilting. They are going to be 45" X 45".

Well, see you next week.

Trying New Things

Another busy week has pretty much gone. I was kid sitting Emma, Logan and Adela Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week. I think they had a good time and I was still able to keep up with the house stuff.
I didn't get as much painting done as I would have liked but I do have the closet doors all painted and I only have one more wall to do floor boards.  The window sill and the entrance door still needs to be done. It doesn't seem like I am progressing in there but I am.

I have been trying new things in quilting. I follow Jo's Country Junction and she has been quilting with the Pajama Quilter. I looked at the website for Pajama Quilter but could not find much there. I was able to finally find a book with a DVD and ordered it. I hope to get it soon. The Pajama Quilter is free motion quilting on a grand scale, meaning she covers the quilt with an all over design in free motion. I watched a small video she has on YOUTube and kinda got the idea. I went ahead and tried it out on this charity quilt. I am not too happy with the results but it will do for a charity quilt.

This close up shows the quilting a little better but don't look real close because it is very wonky!

I have started and almost finished the second patch charity quilt and it is a little better.

This one I have done with swirls and I like it a little better. I was a little better with the spacing from the quilting line before so therefore not quite as wonky. Still need to watch that DVD when it gets here and then my third patch charity quilt should look a bit better.

I have also finished with all the orphan 9-patches. I have over 140 9-patches. I have set up 3 baby quilts so far and will be quilting them with a fleece backing and no batting. I purchased the fleece from a neighbor who moved to Alaska a couple of weeks ago. The price was very good and these will make great baby quilts for charity also. These are pinned in sets of 10 each.

Well, I need to get busy and get out in the yard for work that needs to be done there. 

See you next week.