Border Upgrade

This is a picture of the original border for the Road to California top. I wasn't happy with the border. The density of the quilting wasn't the same in the border as in the interior of the quilt. With encouragement from Carla Barrett, I put the quilt back on the frame.

The colors are quite different due to the difference in lighting. The top is daylight. The bottom is artificial light.












This is the border after re-quilting it. Not a huge difference, but enough that I'm happier with it.

At any rate it is out of my hands now. My husband delivered it for me today while I was at work.

I will be anxious until the show in January. I'm nervous about how my work will compare with others. Anyone out there working a quilt for this exhibit too?

Too Cute!

I delivered this quilt to Anelise today. Isn't it cute? I just meandered around the applique. I don't know what the name of the pattern is, but it is just adorable.

Charming Girls Finish!

I did it! I finished within the deadline. Hooray for me! Baby Angelina will get her quilt on time. Thanks to the push from Charming Girls Club.

What do you think of the hearts in the corners of the border?
I had lots of fun doodling them before I started quilting them. There is so much backtracking on the spine that they stand out pretty well.















I still have the alphabet baby quilt to finish. I don't think I'll be able to get it done by Saturday, but you never know.

What's on my design wall?

I've not done much sewing lately. Which is why I haven't participated in Design Wall Mondays. School starting has put a damper on my personal work. Most of my machine time has been at the longarm, quilting for customers, but I have been plugging away at units for Starstruck.

My friend requested a quilt in neutrals with red accents. I'm not sure if she was thinking about neutrals getting as dark as the deep coffee browns, but I think it's turning out nicely.

I haven't made as much progress on Pick and Choose. I'm working on the four patch units that go in the corners.



I did finally get my table runner top assembled. Not quilted, but assembled. I didn't make my goal for the Charming Girls July contest though.

Do you think I put in enough flying geese units? Since I'm demonstrating how to make the geese units for the October quilt show, I wanted lots of the units in this project. Now, I'll start collecting pictures of blocks that use the units to have as part of a display.

Off to school for me.

And So it Begins

This is how my classroom looked last Thursday when I opened the door.







After much sweat, effort, and Tylenol, this is how my classroom looks. Students return tomorrow, and I pretty much feel ready.

I never would have gotten this far without the help of my hubby. He helped me with moving all the big heavy stuff. I just didn't have the ummph to move the big roll around cupboards.






In quilting things, I've been cutting fabric for a Starstruck quilt and fabric for a Pick and Choose quilt. Starstruck is from Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville site.

Pick and Choose is from the June issue of American Patchwork and Quilting.

I've sewn the dark strips to the light strips for Starstruck, and I've sewn some of the darks to lights for Pick and Choose. Unfortunately, neither is far enough along to say that they qualify for Design Wall Monday. Hopefully by next week.


Also, I did get my Arkansas Crossroads top quilted. There are times I need this journal/blog to remind myself that I do get things done.




Well, off I go to finish the quilt on the frame.

Returns

I promised more pictures of Penny's New York Beauty. True confessions? I don't really know the pattern's name. It reminds me of the paper pieced patterns by Judy Niemeyer. I forgot to ask Penny what the name of the pattern was. She did some beautiful piecing. The top was wonderful to quilt.



















I also have some pictures of the most recent top I did for Quilts of Valor. I am horribly late in returning it to the local group. I wish I could quilt full time and do more tops for them.






I have one more quilt to deliver this afternoon, but I have not taken any pictures of it. It is a cute baseball themed quilt with fleece backing. It should be a warm and cuddly quilt.

Long Beach Quilt Festival

I have spent the last four days at the Long Beach International Quilt Festival. I met and talked to so many wonderful people. There are so many people blogging out there! I exchanged blog addresses with many people. I'll share them later.

I posted about the class I took with Roberta Horton, but I also took a Triangular String Quilts class from her sister Mary Mashuta. I had my first experience with a Sampler Class.
Two hours to hear 14 teachers teach a mini-class. It would have been quite exciting if I hadn't been so exhausted. I sat down to listen to one of the teachers and started to fall asleep. It was not a comment on the teacher's subject matter or teaching style. It was a comment on the effects of a 4:30 A.M. wake up call from my alarm clock. I had to get up very early to make it to the show in time for my shifts.



The rest of the time I was working at the show. I was a quilt guardian (I'm sorry this is a no photography area), I sold programs (Programs are $1.00. No, I'm sorry I can't give you one to replace the one you lost) and I helped take down the exhibits.


















I did make a few purchases. Not too many though. On Saturday I bought something to keep my hands busy while I waited for the Saturday Sampler to begin.
I stopped by the Cotton and Chocolate booth. A very nice lady was demonstrating making these hexagons. They sold them in a cute project bag, which I didn't buy. I bought the papers, thread and a charm pack. The very nice lady, whose name I forgot, cut the charm pack into fourths for me. As you can see I've made a few. What am I going to do with them, you ask? Who knows? But, it kept my fingers busy. They're fun and quick to make. I'm sure a quilt's worth will not be quick though.

New York Beauty

I've been working on this New York Beauty quilt today. I'm almost done. I just have to finish the star bursts. It's so much fun to work on. More pictures later.

My Weekend

Can I just say I love the maps feature on my iPhone. I can use it to find new quilt shops. Yesterday, hubby and I were driving to Escondido for Spicy's dance recital, and we were going to arrive very early. What could we do to pass the time? I used the map's search feature to find quilt shops in the area, of course! Unfortunately, there was only time to visit one of the shops.



I was lucky enough to find Quilter's Paradise was only about two miles away from where the recital was going to be. It is a lovely shop. Friendly staff, and a great selection of fabrics. I was not good. I bought more fabric. No, I don't really have a plan for them. They're just helping my stash grow. I know I should go on a stash diet, but it's so hard when the fabrics are so beautiful.













We did make it to the recital in plenty of time to see Spicy and her friends dance. These two were so cute. They kept looking at each other throughout the dance. It caused them to be a little out of sync with the other girls, but it was sooo cute.















I was very impressed with the talent of all the young dancers at the recital. There are some very talented young ladies, and one young man, dancing at Studio 31.

After the show Spicy was very upset because she had left her arm ruffles someplace and couldn't find them. Her first case of runny mascara. It had been a long day and it was more than a girl could handle.

















I delivered this dragon quilt to its owner today. It is such a cute quilt. It was also lots of fun to quilt. This customer usually just hands me a quilt and says, "Do what ever you want." I just ask if she wants an overall design or custom work.












Here are a couple of pictures of one of the dragons. I'm not sure how well it will show up, but the picture on the left is before quilting and the one on the right is after quilting.














Here is a slightly more detailed shot of one of the dragons.



Enough fun on the computer, back to sewing down the binding on a quilt.

Before and After

This is the Little Dresses quilt before quilting.












This is the quilt after quilting.

The dresses are a little on the poofy side, but I couldn't decide what to put inside the dresses.






Last night Spicy spent the night, my son and his family joined us for dinner. Little Man was in a good mood. His hair is getting so curly. Twinkle Toes and Spicy enjoyed the mandarin oranges.























This morning Spicy and I have been sewing letters. She was adamant that she could sew. I was skeptical, but she did a very good job controlling the speed of the machine. I helped a little bit with guiding the fabric, but most of it she did. Not bad for a four year old. She has her grandma impressed, but she is just the best four year old.

Twinkle Toes is the best three year old. Bubba is the best one and a half year old, and Little Man is the best ten month old. Isn't it wonderful when they can all be the best!

What's on my design wall

Well, not much new is on my wall this week. I've got the blocks for the table runner put together, but I'm stuck about what's next. I know I want sashing between the blocks, but I'm not sure about the outside edges. I have about a bazillion little half-square triangles left from different projects. I think that they overwhelm the flying geese blocks though.

I've pretty much talked myself into buying Quilt Pro rather than EQ6. Quilt Pro will run on my MacBook without any additional software, a big plus.








When my friendship group was over on Saturday, I remembered these blocks. I like piecing the string blocks. It's almost mindless piecing, and they always look good. I do have a few batik strings to use up.




Now no, "My stash of strings is bigger than your stash of strings" stuff. This is not a competition.







The other thing I want to try with the strings are some free pieced letters. Lazy Gal Tonya has the greatest quilts done with these. Something to put on my wish list.

Good Day

My friendship group came over today. We had a wonderful time, as always. We put the quilt that we made on the frame, and they watched while I started the quilting.





I've put the blocks together for the flying geese table runner. I'm now scratching my head and wondering what to do next? How do pattern designers do it? I feel like I'm putting together a puzzle without knowing what the picture is supposed to be.

That leads me to thinking about purchasing EQ6. I could play with designs and colors without ever having to make blocks or move things around on my design wall. But, to what end? I don't know that I have aspirations to ever make patterns or teach classes of my original designs. I wonder if it's worth the investment to make quilts just for me.
If you use EQ6 would you leave me a comment as to how much you use it and like it? Thanks





I have gotten the blocks made and put together for the Bali Sea Star quilt. I made it smaller than the directions in the book. The book has a pretty piano key border. I'm not going to be doing that I don't really have the time for a pieced border. Shhh. . . I'm making lap quilts for my spinning friends.

Quilt Run

A friend and I went to a few shops in the Southern California Quilters' Run. We visited 4 shops. Three were new to me. Isn't it fun visiting new shops? It's a lot like a party. They had yummy snacks at each of the shops.

My spending was pretty well controlled. I only bought a few pieces of fabric. Really, I was good.









The party favors were patterns and beads.

Now that I think of it, only two shops, Timeless Quilts and The Quilt Cupboard, were new to me. I've been to Bear's in Garden Grove for longarm guild meetings, and Flying Geese isn't truly a new shop for me. When we lived in Tustin I used to shop at Flying Geese when they were located in Irvine.

I want to get to Ginger's Quilt Shoppe and Fabric Patch on Sunday. Not to buy fabric. No really, I have to turn in my passport after all, and get two more block patterns. Really, no more fabric.

Little Pillow and a quilt

This is a pillow that I made for DGD1. I made the maverick stars on Quiltville. It's a little lumpy. I didn't use a pillow form. I just stuffed it with fiberfill. I think it would have been much better had I taken the time to buy a pillow form.





This quilt is in the final stretch for being finished. All it needs is the binding stitched down. I started this when Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville was having Super Bowl Twist weekend. The quilt is her Strip Twist pattern. I've had the top done for awhile. It just needed quilting. Do any of you other longarmers ever feel guilty for squeezing in your own quilts between customer quilts? I sure do, but I did it anyway. I justify it by telling myself that I'm using my quilts to practice.





I did practice with this one. The quilting doesn't really show up on the front, perfect for practicing. A busy back would have been even better, but the plain back helps me better evaluate my quilting. Feathered wreaths are not easy for me. I'm never quite satisfied with the way that the feathers look. I did some non-traditional feathers so that my wonky feathers would, hopefully, just blend right in. From a distance it doesn't look half bad.