Done!

I finished the New Year's Day Mystery Quilt. It's just the right size to be a table topper.

The only problem is we don't have a dining table. My longarm is where normal people have a dining table. It is my dream to someday be able to have a dining room table like normal people. Do you think I might be able to be normal?

This quilt was difficult in some ways. I kept wanting to make the quilting more intense, more ... well more. I forced myself to back off, and follow Cindy's plan. It was a good exercise.

I hope that Cindy continues offering the NYD Mysteries. I really enjoy starting the year this way.

What's on my design wall?

I am getting ready for Longarm University's New Year's Day Mystery Quilt. I got my top pieced yesterday. Cindy is calling this the Not Quite Traditional Mystery Quilt. To play on the theme I went with reproduction fabrics in cheddar, indigo and shirting prints.

I still have to prepare the backing. I think I'm going to splurge and buy wide muslin. I really don't like piecing backing.

There's still time for you other machine quilters to sign up. The class is quite reasonably priced and the quilt is easy to piece. Come on, join us. It's a great way to spend New Year's Day. Much better than sitting in front of the TV watching football bowl games. Plus you get to have a quilt when you're done!

This was last year's New Year's Day mystery quilt.







This was this summer's mystery.

Remember to visit Judy's blog to be inspired by what others have on their walls.

On the family front, I wanted to post this picture of the grandsons in my rocking chair.

This was my chair when I was a little girl. I remember driving with my parents to pick it up from the furniture store. I liked the chair a lot when I was little. My father had to recover it a couple of times for my two younger brothers to use it. I don't even remember the original fabric.

My husband had it reupholstered for me. It was looking a little worse for wear. We all liked it a lot when we were little.





The boys like it a lot too. It doesn't seem to hold the same appeal for the girls.

We celebrated DS birthday today. Twinkle Toes wanted to make sure that Daddy got all his candles blown out so that he would get his birthday wish.

I want him to get his birthday wish too, but someone had to take pictures. I let Twinkle Toes do the helping.

Done, Well Almost

I finished the quilting on the mystery quilt. I just have to finish the binding. I am so incredibly happy with the way that it turned out. I also love that it was made completely from my stash. I didn't buy anything for it, a very unusual event for me.




















Like Alycia, I also love to look at the back of the quilt.


Tomorrow I will be on to other quilts, but I'll enjoy this one lots this evening while I sew down the binding.

Tomorrow, I'll also be going to my grandson's first birthday party. Cute kid pictures coming soon.

Quilting Makes the Quilt

The title of this post is borrowed from the book of the same name. This is one of the nine patch blocks from the Longarm U. mystery quilt. Kind of boring. Especially since this is a 12" block.









This is the nine patch block after quilting.
Once again, I didn't follow Cindy's directions. I changed the quilting in the white blocks. Cindy designed it with ribbons, but I don't quilt ribbons very well. I changed it to a variation of line dancing that I saw in Bread and Butter Quilting.

I am so happy with the way that this is turning out.

My husband is ready for me to have the feather quilting done. I practice drawing on the daily newspaper. I look for the pages of public announcements. There are the fewest pictures on those pages. I figure since we already pay for the paper it's free practice paper.

Nothing on the design wall

I'm finally starting to feel better. I still crave naps in the afternoon, but I can at least manage without them. I haven't done any sewing for a couple of weeks. Maybe this week I'll get some done.


On Saturday, I delivered this cute quilt to my friend Pauline. The colors are more intense in person. It was a round robin quilt that she did. It was a lot of fun to work on.












I started the quilting on my Longarm University quilt. The mystery day has long since passed, but I haven't been able to work on a quilt of my own. I'm sneaking this one in between customer quilts.
I'm tickled pink with how it's turning out. I look at it and think, "Gee whiz, I did that!"

I'm not exactly following Cindy's directions. She designed it with Amish feathers, but I'm filling the border with feathers.


















There is one down side. Without the lighting it looks like this. I'm thinking that maybe when it is washed the quilting will show more. I know in the white areas the quilting will show. Of course, if I followed Cindy's instructions I would be using a contrasting thread, and it would show up better.

I'm so bad at following directions.

What's on my design wall

I finished making all of the components for the Starstruck top. I still have to sew the rows together though, and I'm not sure what borders I want on it.
I pinned these fabrics up on the design wall to give me a chance to think about it. I usually have a hard time deciding about borders. These will have to sit with me for a day or two before I decide.

If you want to see other design walls, visit Judy Laquidara's blog.









I finished quilting this today. It was the New Year's Eve Mystery Quilt designed by Ann M. Smith. She presented the clues on the Pickle Road Studio Yahoo Group. I admit that I didn't get it done on New Year's Eve. I wanted to, but I was also working on the piecing for Longarm University's New Year's Day mystery quilt. The two mysteries were quite different. With Ann's the mystery was how the quilt would look when it was done. She posted cutting and pre-sewing clues before the big day. (She just had a summer mystery also)

With Longarm U's the mystery was how would it be quilted. Cindy Roth, of Longarm U., designed a simply pieced top that would highlight quilting. The piecing was done on New Year's Eve, and on New Year's Day she posted videos of the quilting lessons. A couple of weeks later I received a DVD of all the lessons. It was a great bargain.










By-the-way, if you like the idea of machine quilting lessons, she has another mystery scheduled for August 29. The one on the 29th focuses on feathers.

Now, cute kids and puppy pictures. Twinkle Toes and her brother came over to meet our new puppy. Ginger was thrilled to have new playmates, and chew toys.