Madilyn Rose, your quilt is done!

My biggest free motion quilted project to date. It's not perfect, but I'm pleased with it. I'll have to give Jess a call and see if she'd like to come by the office with the baby otherwise I guess I'll have to mail it to her. I have no idea where she lives.



I guess I'll wash it before I gift it. I keep hearing talk of "that crinkly just-out-of-the-dryer goodness" so I think I'd like to be the one to wash it first, rather than the recipient. Wouldn't it be terrible to give someone a gift and then have it shrink all weird!

The Original Rachel

My silly little girl read the comment from my blog friend Rachel Griffith and said ... "You can't adopt her! You already have a Rachel!"



So, Mrs. Rachel Griffith, if you read this, please know that the offer to adopt still stands, but you'll have to be known as Rachel II !!!



p.s. Oh, yeah, and the original Rachel says there ain't no one any bigger a Twilight fan than she is. She's read the books so many times the pages are ready to fall out.

Weekend project: Disappearing 9 square table runner (Thanks, p.s. i quilt Rachel!)

I've seen the "disappearing 9 square" in numerous projects as I browsed various blogs and flickr pics and knew I wanted to try one sometime. Then darling Rachel Griffith (can I adopt you ?!!) posted a tutorial on her blog and ta-da ... here you go!



Now that I have a machine that will free motion quilt, I anticipate finishing up projects faster (okay, who am I kidding? Finishing up projects PERIOD ... got some UFO's around that may actually get some attention now!)



Okay ... how's this for a "DUH!!" moment ... as I'm sewing the 9 square blocks together and then slicing them up to rearrange the pieces and re-stitch them, I'm saying to myself, gee, you can't even tell it started as a simple 9 square ... oh, duh... DISAPPEARING 9 square!!! (Here's your sign!)



I like the idea of using a bit of color on the back so I decided to give it a try. That, and the fact that the piece of re-cycled sheet I was using was a tad short. I also got Jess's baby quilt all quilted and the binding stitched on. As soon as I get it hand stitched, I'll post it as well. Happy Sunday!



Oh, by the way ... the fabric is a charm pack from Moda "Sweet" by Urban Chiks. I love it. I have another charm pack, maybe I'll just make another one!

Pink Ribbons - Breast Cancer Awareness Socks

Pink Ribbons - Breast Cancer Awareness Socks
Originally uploaded by mason204

Aren't these amazing? Maybe "someday" I'll learn to knit. It's a lot more portable than quilting. I think I have too many thumbs though!

I'm in love!

Free motion quilting is awesome! I love it! I still haven't moved past the loopy stage but next project I'm going to try to stipple. Had a couple of thread issues and went to bed last night a bit after midnight because my thread kept breaking and I was too frustrated and tired to deal with it but got up this morning and finished the quilting part of Jess's baby quilt. Now I just need to bind and label it.



Pink, if I had to choose just one, is probably my all time favorite color, so I really enjoyed working on this one. I hope Jess and Madilyn like it!

DQS6 swap quilt finished

Binding hand stitched ... check!
Label made and attached ... check!
Doll Quilt Swap 6 quilt done ... check!!!

color!

color!
Originally uploaded by upstatelisa

One of the swap partners on DQS6 just posted this beautiful grouping. How inspiring! I need to find a tutorial for making this. I think it's awesome!

Almost done!

So here is Jess's baby quilt top all done. I need to pick up some fabric for the backing and binding. I'm thinking pink polka dots. Then I need to decide how to quilt it. I believe I'll stick with straight line quilting ... I'm still not confident enough to take on stippling something this big.
This is a little wall hanging I had pieced before Christmas. I thought it would be a good practice project for my free motion quilting. It's a bit tricky catching onto the constant motion and the high speed on the stitching versus the slower speed that you are moving the fabric. Think "patting your head and rubbing your tummy at the same time!
Here's my Doll Quilt Swap 6 with the borders added and all machine quilted. I just need to label and bind it and it's finished. My partner is a newbie to quilting so maybe she won't be too hard on me. OR, I could keep this one for myself and make her a new one. I do still have a whole month before it needs to be to her. Hmmmm ???!!!

New WIP ... another baby quilt

One of our hygienist's just had her first baby ... Madilyn Rose. Jess brought her by the office one day this week for us to admire her gorgeous two week old baby sweetness and now that my new machine has arrived, I think I can tackle this project over the weekend. This is starting with a part of a fabric panel from Moda called Sleepytime and it's absolutely adorable. Pinks and blues, yellows and greens, cute, cute, cute prints. Since I don't need the pinks right now for Benjamin, I picked those out of the charm pack and started from there. Not going to do anything fancy. When the fabric's this cute, you don't want to cut it up too much! Finished project will be posted when, ... well, when it's finished! Now, back to work! (Or play, I should say ... "work" is what happens Monday morning through Friday afternoon.)

A new toy

Every mother knows that you can love all of your children differently. Not different in terms of "how much", but just different. So having said that, my middle son has elevated himself in terms of acute awareness as he saw my frustration in trying to get my ancient sewing machine to behave itself on many occasions (the fact that it's just outside his bedroom door might have something to do with that) and he bought me a new sewing machine. Now I'll be able to try my hand at free motion quilting ... something my old machine couldn't handle because the feed dogs didn't lower. So it should be a marathon sewing weekend. Which works for me!!! (My husband would say as long as I'm sewing, I'm not out buying fabric. Soon he'll catch on to the fact that even though there is a very limited selection of places to buy fabric that are close enough that I would be willing to drive there **yet another story** there are online fabric stores too many to count! And I am very comfortable with THAT kind of travel!) Hope everyone else has an awesome weekend too!

Sweet 16

How's this for breaking all the rules? Birthday cake ... complete with lighted candles ... for breakfast!!!

I knew Rachel planned to spend the next 3 nights with her BFF as Lindsey's parents are chaperoning the senior class trip for her sister, so they asked if Rachel could stay with Lindsey so neither she or the dog had to be alone. So I decided if we were going to have birthday cake, it had to be this morning.

So this is the sight that my baby daughter woke up to today as she stumbled into the kitchen. She said "mom, what are you doing?!!" Then I stepped aside and she saw the lighted cake and the look on her face was priceless!

I don't understand how she can be 16 ... I just had her, like, yesterday!

Doll quilt swap WIP Peek #2

Okay, so I had a burst of energy at like 10:00 last night and decided to go ahead and fuse the flower parts I had traced out onto some fabric (was it a burst of energy or just the fact that the iron was hot because I'd just finished Dianah's block ?!?) Anyway, here it is. I think I'm going to blanket stitch around each piece in thread to match the fabric. And I think I'm going to add a border the whole way around ... just haven't decided if I want it to be white or a color. This is mostly how I roll, especially on small projects, it's never fully thought out in my mind; or if it is, it is certainly "subject to change" !! Man, how'd it get to be Monday so fast?

bee inspired/dianah's block (#2)

Okay, while I'll admit this isn't a project I'd have chosen for myself, if it's what floats the boat of my fellow virtual quilting bee partner, I was more than happy to make it. And the more I look at it, it kind of grows on me. Dianah's theme is vacation houses and she wanted them all to be alike with the exception of the fabrics which had to be batiks or hand dyed fabrics. The blue sky fabric ties them all together. Check us out at our flickr site to see we're up to!

Grammie shopping!

My baby is going to be sixteen on Thursday! How is this possible ?!? So we had a great girl's day out (okay ... half a day, because she didn't get out of bed until 1 in the afternoon.) We did a late lunch, bought her some new clothes and shoes, did hair and nails, went to the bookstore where she found these "AMAZING" sweet-tart candies with the Twilight characters on the box, and Twilight appropriate sayings on the candies (No, she says she will NEVER open the box and will KILL anyone who would even consider eating them!) and while we were at the bookstore, I saw these adorable baby einstein things on the sale table. So in anticipation of grandchild #1 arriving in June, I made my first grammie purchase. I still don't know who I want to be ... Grandma Weible was their grandmother, and even though she isn't with us any longer, it doesn't seem right to use her name ... my co-worker is "granny" (No way!), so I'm playing around with how "grammie" sounds. After all, I am ONLY 52 !! So, it's been a great weekend. I got a package in the mail yesterday with fabrics for my second bee inspired block. So NOT what I'd choose, but hey, that's what this is all about. So I'll get that sewn up today and back in the mail to the gal in California that had this round. And of course, laundry beckons. Darn that laundry, it's always calling my name!

Rachel's bonus block

I had enough fabric to make Rachel a second block but I didn't want to post it until she received her package, since it was a surprise. I sent her the two blocks, a Starbucks chocolate bar tied up in a St. Patrick's Day ribbon, a "Kiss Me, I'm Irish" pin, a pretty memo pad, and a little tutorial on paper piecing, because she's one talented quilter and I know once she tries it, she'll like it! So here's her bonus block!

Doll quilt swap WIP

So I'm thinking this swap thing is a lot of fun. I read blogs of gals who are involved in so many at once, I don't know how they keep them straight. My virtual quilting bee will last a year, but this little doll quilt swap is a one time thing, until I sign up for another, and I have almost two months to complete my project in. I think this is what I'm going with. I want to do some embellishing with applique, probably flowers and leaves, vines, something like that. Oh, American Idol is coming on ... gotta go!

First block finished for bee inspired

Rachel Griffith,
your block is done!
I stayed up late last night
to finish it. Once I got going,
I didn't want to stop!

I'm pleased with it,
I hope you like it.
My husband critiqued it very closely,
noticed that the fabric didn't quite
reach the 12 1/2 inch mark in a couple
of places, and I explained to him that those
places would be in the seam allowance
and thus not of consequence.
(Okay, I would have preferred it to be perfect,
but I'm not going to beat myself up!)

Bee Inspired ... WIP

So tonight after work I decided to tackle the first of the bee inspired virtual quilting bee blocks (whew, say that fast three times!). I can't show you the actual block just yet because I don't know if the recipient wants to see it in advance of receiving it in the mail, or if she wants to be surprised. If it's the latter, I'll need to wait until she gives me the green light to unveil it. I had fun making it and I hope she likes it.

Passionate for Purple

My co-worker and friend Wendy is having a birthday Sunday and I wanted to make her something. She loves purple. I didn't have time to do a quilt ... even a lap sized one ... at this time, so I decided to make her a tote bag, since she liked my pink one so much. It's past my bedtime but it's done and I can give it to her at work tomorrow. Yeah for me!!!

This is gorgeous!

006
Originally uploaded by QuiltsETC

I found this little beauty on flickr while marking some favorites for my swap partner to peruse. Isn't it beautiful?