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.

Relapse

I've not posted because I've not done anything. I've had a relapse of the bronchitis I had a couple of weeks ago. I've not had energy to do anything except draw quilting designs. I fall asleep when I sit down to check my email after work. The doctor prescribed a second round of antibiotics. I'm hoping it works. I am rather tired of being tired.

What's on my design wall

Well, this is on my design wall this week.

I took a class at Ginger's Quilt Shoppe on Saturday from Mary Ellen Sakai. It was supposed to be a string piecing class, but I asked her if I could improvise. She kindly accommodated me, and allowed me to play around with free piecing. This is the result of my playing around. I was thinking of expanding the burbs it a bit, adding borders and calling it a mini quilt.

I've finally gotten the borders on Bali Sea Star and Starstruck tops. I pieced a top for the Longarm University's Mystery Quilt, but I have to finish a few customer quilts before I can load the mystery quilt.

Quilt Entry

I entered a quilt into Quilting Bloggers' Nature's Best Quilt Contest. It's all Sue's fault. She started me on this. You should go check out her Leaves Around the Cabin. It is beautiful, and her photography is much better than mine too.

Not much chance of winning, but that's OK. I'm branching out. I've never been much for entering quilts. I display my quilts when the Valley of the Mist Quilters' has their outdoor quilt show.












I just don't enter much. My friends are encouraging me to enter a couple of quilts in the Valley Quilters show in February. I'll try to get at least one of the flimsies quilted up. (flimsy-an unquilted pieced top)







I'm thinking of this one. What do you think?

A future project

I think I've found a project for the little half-square triangle units I've been saving. This is a project in the October/November issue of Quilt magazine. It's called Sawtooth Log Cabin and was designed by Jodi Barrows. Mine will be a bit scrappier, because my little units do not all have a red half.

Because I love Bonnie Hunter's quilts, I have been cutting strips as I work on other projects. It is her scrap user's system. So, I have a bag of 2" strips ready to go. I just have to trim up all of those little HST units.

I don't usually buy Quilt magazine, but I'm glad I did this time. There are several pages of inspiration.

Little Buckaroo

Here is Bubba the Buckaroo. When we went to my daughter's house for the birthday lunch, Bubba headed to his rocking horse and struck this pose. The boy loves his horse!