Opportunity Quilt

This is the opportunity quilt that I was working on a week or so ago. It is for the American Legion Riders. A wife of one of the members pieced it. She is a longarm quilter herself, but she only quilts using pantographs, or all over designs. She didn't want this one done with an all over design, so it came to me.

Pre-quilting it measured 91"x104". I didn't measure it post-quilting, but I suspect it now measures about 89"x102". It took me awhile to quilt it. There were some killer seams that kept breaking the needles on the longarm. l went through five needles on this one! I finally learned the trick for my machine to get through those seams. I have to quilt up to the seam, and then use the single stitch button to go though the bulky seam slowly, one stitch at a time.

Inspiration

I delivered Karen's Aunt Millie's Garden quilt at the LQS today. I arrived quite early so that I would have lots of time to check out the new arrivals. I found this beautiful fabric. I even got the first cut off the bolt! Now, as beautiful as it is I bought it because I see all kinds of ideas for quilting designs.

Then when I was checking out greeting cards at Target I found this great card. Again, I see all kinds of inspiration for quilting designs.

As soon as I can fit an afternoon of personal work in, I plan on loading up some muslin to see what I can stitch. I'm very excited to see what I can come up with.

Late Season

We had a late season snow last night. It was so quiet when I woke up this morning that I suspected there might be snow. Sure enough! There it was.

It must have been pretty windy up here on the ridge. The snow was plastered to the windward side of the house.

We have had such a mild winter everything was blooming. A friend mentioned yesterday that her apricot tree was loaded with blossoms. I hope she still gets some apricots. Maybe she is at a low enough elevation that she didn't get snow.

Getting into the Swing of Things

I always find it difficult to get back into the swing of things after my trips to California. It was especially hard this time for several reasons. I came home recovering from the flu. It was a longer trip, meaning more time away from my home routines. I also had to deal with the feelings of sadness at leaving my kids and grandchildren. That really slowed me down.

However, I am getting back to work at the longarm. This is Karen's quilt. The pattern is Aunt Millie's Garden by Piece O' Cake.

 I had started working on it before I left for California. I just finished it a couple of days ago. The poor thing had to sit with it's beauty covered with a plain sheet waiting until I recuperated enough to resume working.

The quilt is now finished. I'm back into the swing of things. I'm now working on an opportunity quilt for one of the local charitable groups. Pictures to follow.

For All Moms

For all moms, not just moms of teenagers.