Snow!

This was the view from our backyard this morning. I love the snow!

Now my dear Motorcycle Dude tolerates it, but he grew up in Nebraska. He grew up with snow.

I, on the other hand, grew up in sunny Southern California. For me, snow is a special occasion. As in, making snowmen, having snowball fights, enjoying mugs of hot tea by the fire.

For him, snow is work. As in shoveling sidewalks and driveways, cold feet and colder hands.



I acknowledge that snow brings some issues with it, but I still love the snow.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Quilting Interupted

I started quilting my top from my class with Bonnie Hunter.  I like the way it's looking, but the progress is slow.  I estimate it will take me at least a week to finish the quilting.

Then I looked at my quilt work log on Machine Quilting Business Manager. Six quilts are due by March 18th. Six! And, only one of the six is an edge-to-edge design. All the rest are various levels of custom quilting. I sought advise from my Motorcycle Dude.  He advised that I not over-extend myself by continuing with my quilt.

So, my quilt is off and the first of the customer quilts is loaded on.

I'm still hoping that I can get my quilt back on and finish it in time to enter into MQS. I should also say that Twinkle Toes (on the left) has named my quilt "Twinkle Stars."









Since my business is named Grammy's Quilting it seemed fitting to have the grands name my quilts.
Works for me. I really struggle to come up with names.


That job has fallen to the girls, so far. The boys are still a little young for the job, but their turn will come.

Baptist Fan

There are certain quilts that call out for very traditional quilting. This charity quilt was one of those.

I've been wanting to try Baptist Fan quilting with circle templates. I've seen the Baptist Fan done using the design boards. You know those boards that have groves that a stylus follows.
I don't care for the way that the fans looks with the boards. The circles don't match up. See where the arc meets the previous arc?

Well, Off the Edge Quilting Supplies has great directions and a video!  I also happen to have their circle templates. 

So, away I went, and this is the result.

I only used four circles. I could have used six, you need to use an even number of templates to make the design continuous. I love the way it turned out!

Hoochy Mama!

Thumb Butte Quilters' Guild had Mary Lou Weidman speak at the meeting yesterday.

This is a small portion of one of her story quilts. Her story quilts were loaded with delightful details. You don't quickly walk away from her quilts. They invite you to enjoy them for a long time.

She has a book out to help quilters think of ideas for their own story quilts.




After the meeting I went to her Hoochy Mama! class. Today was Flower Power. This is a picture of the class's flower garden. Mary Lou was a delightful teacher.

Both classes were great, low stress classes! There was no need to worry about perfect points or matching seams. Sally's and Judith's blue birds were fabulous! I wish I'd gotten pictures of their blue birds and cone flower blocks.

Ready for Quilting

I got the final border on my Bonnie Hunter class quilt. I think it turned out remarkably like the EQ7 version.


The main difference is that the colors are a little brighter in the real quilt.


It will be a couple of weeks before I can get it on to the longarm. This is my tentative quilting plan for the body of the quilt. I still don't know what I want to do for the borders. I keep hoping my creative muse will show up.

I am hoping that when my muse shows up, she will help me come up with a name for the quilt. Quilt shows always want names for the quilts. Purple Stars is not a very creative name, and that's about all I've come up with. I reached out to my granddaughter, Twinkle Toes, to ask for her help. Spicy helped me name Mashed Potatoes, so it's Twinkle Toes turn.

Design Wall Monday

I was lucky to take a class from Bonnie Hunter at Road to California. I set my alarm for midnight the day that registration opened, so that I could make sure to get a spot in one of her classes. Other people in the class did the same thing, but they registered for two or three of her classes. I wanted to, but I didn't want to be greedy.

The class was her Jared Takes a Wife pattern. The block's traditional name is Blackford's Beauty. I've gotten the main body of the quilt and the first three plain borders on. Unfortunately, in our new smaller house I don't have a way to take a good picture of my progress.

I used neutral sashing, because I wanted the green chain to be more pronounced. I like quilts with stars and chains

 This is what I'm hoping it will look like when it's finished. I have the pieced border blocks stitched, but not sewn together. That is my job for the next day or so. 

 

I'm going to try some fancy quilting. If it turns out nice, I'm going to enter it into the Machine Quilter's Showcase.

Kristi's Quilt

I recently worked on a feathered start quilt. As a piecer I am intimidated by feathered star quilts. I think that they're gorgeous, but they intimidate me. All those little triangles! All those tips that could get caught up in a seam. But, Kristi's was so much fun to work on!

Since I said that I wanted to share the process of quilting, let me show you where the corner feathers started.

This is a picture from a Dover Publications book on wrought iron designs. I played with the placement of the curls until I settled on the spine design I used on Kristi's quilt. We wanted her piecing to be the star of the show, so the threads all match her fabrics.  The quilting designs are more visible from the back of the quilt.

The only part that had me really stumped for a design was the star itself. I put the feathers in, but I'm still on the lookout for other ideas. In case I ever get up the nerve to try one for myself.

I'm Baaack

Hi. I got fed up with the problems with the Mobile Me account for the blog. After many hours with different tech support people, I'm done. So I'm back to Blogger. The website is still functional, except for the blog. There is a link on the blog page that should link to Blogger. Tomorrow I will post some pictures of what I've been up to lately. Thanks to those of you that have emailed me with updates on your ability, or inability to post comments on the old site.