Happy Hump Day!

Late to the party! How unusual for me! LOL This post is picture heavy word lite :) I thought I was finished with SIS except for binding. . . put it on the wall and realized I had not quilted one of the squares. . .  DOH!  So enjoy the pictures and I am off the quilt the forgotten square (green one, second row. . . ) oh and rip some stitches.  I thought I wanted to do a design in the outside batik square - decided I hated it after doing three.  Why can't that decision be made after one??? I have one left to rip.  Anyway, I said word LITE, I'm going to stop writing and go finish that quilt! ;)

Love how the outside squares are 'puffy'

Quilting shows up well on the back.  Got pretty darn close to having the back and front exactly in the same place.... that my friends is called luck! :)

  

That square right there has the design that needs to be ripped.

Last one!

I am off to finish this baby! :) I already have the fabric for the next one pulled, starched and ready to cut. . . Will have more on that soon!

Linking up with Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River, Let's be Social over at Sew Fresh Quilts and WIP Wednesdays over at Freshly Pieced.  If you are here from there, welcome!  If you haven't been to their sites - check out all the inspiration!!

Until next time, keep on quilting!!

On The Back of SIS ;)

Happy Monday! Hope you all had a great weekend!  Mine was spent working on SIS.  The good news? It is in the process of being quilted!! WOOHOO! Let me tell you, putting that back together was a test of my math skills. . . a test I failed on an occasion or maybe two ;) Here is a picture of the back:

Looks easy enough ay? . . . :)

I wondered at times over the past several days if I should just go get enough wide backing for two quilts and make this a top and not a back! :) I think part of the reason I found putting this together such a challenge was that I had absolutely NO plan when I started piecing - just had the yardage hung on the wall with the blocks placed where they were intended to go.  I also wanted the blocks to line up perfectly with the blocks on the front. . . if you look close you can see the top underneath - I got pretty darn close :) In the second row (from the bottom, not sure why but I started from the bottom and worked my way up), I was very befuddled on what width to cut the tan strip. For the next row, I had to piece the white sashing for the tops of the outside blocks. . . I did the math 100 times. . . pulled out the calculator, measured, remeasured, measured again, walked away and thought about it and then went through the aforementioned process again. . . and STILL got it wrong! LOL And of course I did not cut it too long - I cut it too short!!! by a half inch!! Seriously?? Yup, seriously.  I wanted to cry, or start drinking! It was rather early in the morning so instead I cut a half inch strip and sewed that sucker onto the too short strip (I was working with barely enough fabric as it was I did not have wiggle room for mistakes like this!!) and kept on sewing!  Admittedly the rest of the process went pretty smoothly, it just seemed to be at a turtle's pace! FINALLY I had it finished yesterday afternoon and immediately spread it out for basting.  I decided to spray baste the entire quilt, this is a first for me.  I have spray basted portions of tops, spray basted when I did the QAYG quilt and spray based and used pins but had never done a quilt this size (72" x 85") with no pins.  It went so quick, I may just throw out all of my pins! I'm going to wait to pass final judgement until after it is quilted and I see the finished result.  I started quilting last night and so far, so good :) Here is a poorly lit picture of the quilt basted and my supervisor - he is making sure everything is just so :)

"What? No cussing? I thought this part of the process always required cussing!!"

I am now off to hopefully put a huge dent in the quilting of this baby today.  I am going to do some playing on EQ7 for my next quilt.  I think I have actually made a decision on what it is going to be! Stay tuned, there will definitely be more on this in the near future :)

Linking up with Anything Goes Mondays over at at Stitch by Stitch.  If you are here by way of there, WELCOME! And if you haven't been over, go check out what other peeps are working on and grab some inspiration :) 

 

 Until next time, keep on quilting!! :)

AQS Quilt Show and Other Stuff

I went to the AQS quilt show yesterday in Phoenix - HOLY WOW!! Talk about being overwhelmed with the awesomeness of very talented quilters!! I walked around with my mouth hanging open, not a very attractive look I am sure but I couldn't help it! ;) The most exciting thing that happened to me at the show? I walk around the corner and see this:

Ripple Effects II Made by Mariane at The Quilting Edge

O.M.G.!!!! OK, I admit it, I squeeeeled and I might have broken out into a slight run and I might have even put my hand over my mouth. . . . Seriously, this was more exciting than seeing . . . well, George Cloony, Brad Pitt and I don't know, think of all of the things that excite you the most all in one place!  I have been reading Mariann's blog since I started quilting (I admit, not that long ago) and she has been the source of much inspiration and information.  But this quilt, THIS quilt has been my absolute favorite of all of her creations and the source of inspiration for my 'circle quilt.'

Blogged about here.

I could have stood there staring at it forever! You peeps are lucky I made it home to write this post! LOL Do you know that I was so overwhelmed I did not buy ONE thing???  Now THAT my friends is me being completely STAR STRUCK! :) Had to share that, still a little overwhelmed by it all, never in a million years did I ever think I would see that quilt in person, oh and she won an award for piecing in the Modern Quilt Challenge.  CONGRATULATIONS Marianne :)

Enough gushing, oh, did I mention I might have shed a tear? LOL, really enough already!! On to what is happening with SIS . . . nothing.  I spent the day at the quilt show yesterday.  The day before I spent the day staring at the back of the quilt hanging on the design wall not sewn together. . . . trying to decide how the heck I am supposed to piece it. . . you see, the design my husband picked was likely the most difficult to piece - I of course did not realize this when I showed it as an option. . . or it wouldn't have been shown as an option!  I 'think' I have figured it out and will work on it today and over the weekend - basically, this is going to be a reversible quilt because the back is going to be just as pleasing as the front.  Why do I do this to myself??? Someday I might figure out the answer to this question . . . maybe LOL

Linking up with Amanda Jean over at Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it Up Friday. If you are here from there, welcome! Have a look around :) If not, head on over for a wealth of inspiration!!

Until next time, keep on quilting!

What to do, What to do. . .

I.don't.know.what.to.do.next. . . does that ever happen to you? OK, I have my Square in a Square quilt top done, working on the back - more on that nightmare later LOL - and I am contemplating my next quilt. . . and contemplating and contemplating and contemplating . . . Maybe I have over thunk this thing.  Maybe I have just not hit on the perfect inspiration. Maybe it will come to me in my sleep. Which, BTW, has been very warm and cozy since finishing the bargello - did I tell you I finished it? Oh yes I did! I am surprised you haven't seen it somewhere. . . I even posted it on the pink flying pig purple people eater blog!! ;) Sorry, I digress. My next quilt is going to be for a teenage nephew. I have been contemplating different styles for months.  Just when I think I have the perfect idea, see the perfect inspiration, find the perfect tutorial . . . I either nix it or find something I like better.  Is there such a thing as quilt making ADD?? I might have it.  Seriously!  If you have any suggestions for boy quilts, please share!! Add to my conundrum!! OK, enough of that.  I have a few more days to ponder while I finish the SIS quilt - don't you like that better than typing out all those words? I do!! haha

Speaking of SIS. . . Let's talk about my latest little adventure shall we? I finished the front.  Thought I would have the back done yesterday. . . Oh, here is a picture of the finished top just to remind you :)

You can go here to see all the particulars about fabric and such.  OK the back.  I have two different 2 yard pieces of fabric and these 10 extra blocks.  Because this quilt is for the hubbin's aunt and uncle, I have been giving him final pick on design.  SO, my thought was two rows of 5 blocks sashed with the white and then the two pieces of fabric cut to size one on top, one on the bottom. . . easy peasy done... when I laid it out, not so impressed but it's the back of the quilt right?? Now the way to go at that point would have been sew that sucker together and call it good. . . but you all know that is not what I did don't you? grin . . . I had the two rows of blocks all sewn together with the sashing. . . hmmm, maybe I'll wait till the hubbins gets home. . . NOOO! Don't do it!! LOL I did and here is the end result - I am now ripping those blocks apart.  One comment in the conversation about what to do that jumps right out was "You can't send out a 'lazy' quilt" . . . I didn't exactly say it was the lazy way - it was the easiest . . . OK, maybe it was the lazy, just get it done and move onto the next even though you have no idea what you are going to do for the next quilt way. . . Right. So on with the ripping stitches, cutting and piecing. Nothing extravagant, just the right way to finish this one off, not the galloping horse way ;)

In other news, I am organizing my stash. . . ummm, who knew one could amass so much in just a matter of a couple of months?? grin I bought 200 comic boards. . . I need to order more. . . Don't judge me!! LOL I'll be showing the end result off when it is finished.  That might take awhile.... Maybe in the process I'll hit on the right inspiration for my nephew's quilt!!!!

OK, thanks for hanging in through all my craziness! Linking up today with Lorna for Let's Bee Social 

 

 and Lee for   

If you are here from there, welcome! If you haven't been, go over, link up and check out what peeps are sharing today!

Until next time, keep on quilting!

Doing the Happy Dance!!

I am totally doing the happy dance this morning!! The Scrappy Bargello is FINISHED!!! WOOHOO! 

If you are so inclined, you can read my trials and tribulations with this quilt here, here, here, (you are kidding me right?) here, here, (seriously??) here, here, (how much can there be to say about one quilt??) here, and FINALLY here.  Wowsers! At one point in this process I put in a post that I was obsessed with this quilt - there's your proof!! LOL I have to admit, there were times that I really questioned whether those two panels I started with would ever become a quilt.... BUT IT DID! and here it is!! :)

It is kinda cloudy out this morning but I was too excited to wait to take the pictures.... :)

This quilt it sooo big it is hard to get a good picture of it!

Trying different angles LOL

^                       Yup, that's dirt. . . it is in the wash now :)

Quilting shows up much better on the back.

Just to recap, this started from Bonnie Hunter's free pattern for a scrappy bargello.  If you take a look at the quilts she shows, you will no doubt notice that mine is very different. . . . and that, my friends, is why there are so many here's up there :) I LOVE how this quilt turned out and cannot wait to sleep under it tonight!!

I spent a couple of hours hiding threads last night and this morning. . . OK, in Amanda Jean's (Crazy Mom Quilts) tutorial she suggests hiding threads as you go. . . I'm thinking this would not have been a bad idea but I was on a mission and I just wanted to get the monstrosity quilted!

Here's the down and dirty recap:

Material used was scraps from all of the batik quilts I have completed.  I did not cut into any new material for the bargello part.  I did have to order the outer border material and the backing material.

The quilting is spiral quilting inside the inside border (see Crazy Mom Quilts tutorial mentioned above) and straight lines radiating out from the inside border and spirals on the border.  I did all of the quilting (except the border) with my walking foot and I had the stitch length set at 4.5.  LOVE the bigger stitch look on quilting.

I used Superior King Tut Lapis Lazuli for the quilting.

The backing is Charcoal Quilter's Suede by P&B Textiles.  FYI, if you are looking for a nice looking, heavy weight backing - this is it! I was very impressed with this fabric.  

The finished size is 104" x 106".  The intent was for it to be about a foot bigger in both directions.... Had I done the friendship braid border and inner border in the pattern I could have easily accomplished this but I had had ENOUGH of this project and just wanted to be done! 

After all of my trials and tribulations I have to say that I might just do this quilt again - on a smaller scale!! And I might just play with different sized panels to make different patterns. . . . hmmmm, where's that scrap bin??? No seriously, I am totally kidding! For this week anyway ;)

Oh, and for those of you who have been hanging around and following my (mis)adventures, you 'might' have noticed a change in the looks of the blog.  I tried to change the font to bold in the date tab and the entire blog went black!! I clicked on view blog and seriously everything was black! SO, since I could not find the background template I had used originally, I had to pick a new one.  I'm not so happy with it but it's readable and it seems to be growing on me. . . What do you think? 

I'll be linking this post to every linky party on the planet LOL Your blog is about flying pigs and purple people eaters? Wanna see my quilt? ;) But really, linking today to Anything goes Mondays being hosted by SergerPepper.  Go check out what other peeps are working on! 

Also linking up to Linky Tuesday with Connie over at Freemotion by the River.  Head on over and see what people are working on!

And Needle and Thread Thursday with Kelly over at My Quilt Infatuation.


OK, I'm off to work on the Square in a Square quilt back.  Will have more on that tomorrow :) . . . later in the day lol

Until then, Keep on Quilting!

How is this Possible??

It's Friday again. . . and the last day of January! How did this happen? This month has flown by!  Did you have a productive month? I had one finish.

I guess that is better than none! I also finished a flimsy,

and have the scrappy bargello 3/4 of the way quilted.

I really thought I would have the scrappy bargello done by now, I guess sometimes life just gets in the way!  Doncha just hate it when that happens?? :)

I am also sharing with you today a quilt I finished for one of my favorite nephews (I said one boys not THE favorite!).  He drives a big rig in MN and I thought he could use a quilt for his truck to keep him snug and warm :) This is the first quilt that I did not use any pattern, I just winged it :) I used a Boundary Waters by Moda layer cake (flannel), yardage from the Boundary Waters line for the borders, binding and back bought at Missouri Star Quilt Co and I used wool batting.  Here it is:

Here is a picture of the entire quilt taken with my phone.

Those white flecks on the quilt are SNOW! :)

I picked this line of fabric because my nephew is an avid hunter, fisher and all around outdoorsy kind of guy :)

This quilt was his birthday gift - not only did I remember, he even got it early! LOL

The blocks were made by stacking three different prints together, slicing off a triangle on both sides, mixing up the fabric so I had three different blocks from the stack and sewing them together.  The intent was to have wonky diamonds in the middle of the wonky X's.  Do you know that some of those seams on the diamonds actually lined up!! What's up with that?? Typically I have to work at having seams match up, I didn't want them to and they did!! This happened just enough that I thought it kind of looked like I was having issues with sewing the quilt together LOL.  What would I do different? I would make a paper template for slicing those corners off or measure the sides of the triangles to make sure they were all the same . . . lesson learned :) Honestly, probably nobody but me noticed this but I do have to say it did bother me some.

My Janome seemed to be having tension issues when I started quilting.  I was doing straight line quilting so was using my walking foot but could not get rid of the eyelashes on the back.  What's a girl to do?? I thought the thickness was too much for the Janome so decided I'm going to use my industrial sewing machine!  Poor baby has been sitting there unused for months (well unused for sewing but it makes a pretty good place to stack fabric and batting LOL)! Jealous I am sure of the workout the Janome had been getting ;) The Artisan did a WONDERFUL job! It is a walking foot industrial so I can't free motion with it but I can do straight line quilting with it! Honestly, looking back on it I don't think the tension issues had a thing to do with the Janome, I think it had to do with the thread I was using. . . but I found out I can do straight line quilting on my industrial (and give the poor girl some love) and it looks AWESOME :)

I hope you all have a productive quilty weekend and for those of you in the deep freeze, stay warm! I won't even tell you what the temperature has been here in AZ. . . . I don't like to rub it in ;) 

Linking up with Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday, and 

and Lily's Quilts for

Until next time, keep on quilting!

And Sew It Goes...

Today I am going to give you an update on the scrappy bargello adventure.  After much consideration, I decided I was going to do a spiral in the middle of the bargello and then after the blue border, I will do straight line stitching radiating outwards.  This top has issues, that inner blue border has a couple of pleats due to the stretching of the inside portion. . . yikes.  No matter what I tried, there was no fixing this so I am now going to revert to my word of the year ITLLDO.... this is not going to make the quilt function any worse for its intended purpose - warmth :)

Here is a picture without the borders to let those of you new to my blog what this top looks like:

The pleats in the blue border are on the left side.  You can't see them, but trust me, there are there!

I decided the spiral quilting for the middle portion was doable on this top after reading a tutorial on spiral quilting done by Crazy Mom Quilts.  I liked the thought of doing the very center of the spiral with the FMQ foot and then switching to the walking foot.  A couple of things I have learned the hard way.... :

1.  The direction in which you do your spiral makes a difference!!! I went the wrong way - what does this do?  It means the bulk of the quilt is ALWAYS in the throat of the machine!! UGH!  I am dealing with it but I am getting a workout!

2. I did not take my Queen Supreme Slider off when switching to the walking foot. . . Oh that was a big mistake!! I now have several rips in the slider where I sewed through it :( I think I can remedy this with duct tape but that is a problem for another day!

3. Doing spiral quilting with a walking foot is much different when dealing with a large king size quilt than when quilting a smaller quilt! Part of this may be due to the fact that I am now fighting the bulk of the quilt in the throat of the machine - I guess I will find out if this is the case the next time I do this :) Oh yes, I will do this again - I love the look and I think I have made this way harder for myself than it needs to be . . . I am famous for this haha

4. The more often I stop and reposition the quilt the better.  For smoother starts, making sure that the needle is lined up to go the precise direction it should by checking out the stitching line behind the needle is very helpful.

Here are some pictures I took this morning of this monstrosity being birthed in my machine, at least that is what it feels like haha

It feels like this quilt is swallowing me up as I try to keep rotating it :)

In this picture you can see that I am getting very close to the edge of the blue border... YAY :)

The other thing I did when I sandwiched this quilt was that I spray based the back to the batting.  When I sandwiched all three layers together, I pinned the middle out to the blue border and then used spray basting for the outer portions.  So far this is working well . . . I am holding my breath that all will go well throughout the rest of the quilting of this quilt.... keep your fingers crossed!!

OK, I gotta get back to this - hoping to have most of the quilting on this done today. . . unrealistic? Probably, I am famous for unrealistic expectations of what I can get accomplished in a day :)

Linking up with Lorna for Let's Bee Social and Lee for WIP Wednesday.  Check them out if you haven't and if you are here from there, welcome!

      

 

Until next time, keep on quilting!!