Jo's show and tell challenge

This is a Bonnie Hunter pattern from her latest book. The pattern is Narragansett
Blues. I just reduced the size of the blocks for a baby quilt. I have it quilted and hope to add the binding this morning. I have a quilt on the machine now for my friend Donna Nix. I hope she likes the pattern I am quilting on it. I hope to finish it this morning or tomorrow after work. I have several more Bonnie Hunter pattern tops ready to quilt, hopefully will get to them soon.

Happy quilting,

Teresa

Long weekend

I took a couple of days vacation plus off days gave me a long weekend. Thursday morning I helped Johnny with a few things that needed two people and then that afternoon I pieced backs and bindings for three more quilts. Friday morning I loaded this quilt on the machine. It is 67 x 86 but I was able to get it done by 3pm.

Then I loaded this one but had a little trouble with tension and then the needle got jammed so after I got all that straightened out I decided I was just too tired and that was the reason I was having so much trouble.

Saturday I went to my stitch group and worked on binding of other previously quilted tops. I got the blue and orange baby quilt finished and another loaded on the machine. Too bad break is over and I have to go back to work.

Last Minute Finish

This little baby quilt was just on the design wall last week when I got a last minute invitation to a baby shower. I had another baby quilt already quilted but I had put blue stripe binding on it and the shower was for a little girl. 

So Saturday after work I loaded this one on the machine and quickly got it done and then bound in pink. 

I even remembered to put a label on it Sunday morning. Two things I discover at the shower first it is planned to be an outside gathering in 99 degree weather and second the new mother doesn't care for pink. Oh well, she really did like the quilt and I don't think she even noticed all the pink. Plus by the time she opened all the gifts it was evident others had not gotten the no pink memo, and she was agreeing she really didn't mind the pink. 



Have to work today and have early hours Tuesday and Wednesday then off the rest of the week, so I hope to get a good bit of quilting done this week, hope you do too. 


Teresa

Better Use of My Time

I only work at Hobby Lobby about 35 hours a week and lately not even that much, but I still have trouble making better use of my time off. Part of the problem is that we work 10 hours on Monday handling freight all day and that just about does me in for a couple of days. Yesterday though I got off at 2 pm and when I got home Johnny says go change your clothes and then pick out which quilts you want hung. He had gotten the second coat of paint on the boards that morning and he wanted to see if the clothes pins were going to hold. The ones I finally found were pretty flimsy.  I choose bright and cheery quilts. 

Johnny says he is officially through with the building, but he is not. However the rest can wait for cooler weather. 

After this was done I cleaned and oiled the machine and loaded this baby quilt on the machine. I again had a little trouble with the tension, but I finally got it going and I quilted on it until I got the call for supper. We had left overs from the 4th so Johnny took care of heating them up while I played out here. 

After supper we always sit on the front porch with Lucy and watch the traffic for a while. Last night I carried the Kids quilt that was the first one I quilted, and worked on the binding for a little while then I came in and finished this second baby quilt. These were squares cut from the one that is on the machine now, I just added a few more fabrics for a little more variety. 


All in all I think I made better use of my time yesterday. Hope this morning will be productive as well. Maybe can either get first quilt finished or back and binding made for second quilt. Either has to be done before I go to work this afternoon. 


Happy quilting ! 

Teresa 

Design Wall Monday

Most of the weekend I spent quilting this patriotic quilt. It took longer than it should because the thread kept breaking. I was using a variegated thread from King Tut . I had to step back from it for a while Saturday but finally finished it Sunday afternoon. 

I had the binding ready to go on, so I squared up the quilt and sewed on the binding before I quit for the day. 

I free motioned quilted it with loops and stars.

In between the frustration of thread breaking I pieced some on this baby quilt. I had fabric left over from another baby quilt already cut in 2 1/2 inch strips so I just cut them into squares and added a few more fabrics and I have about got this one done and not a moment to soon, just got an invitation to a baby shower this morning. 

Got to work a long shift today, but I hope the rest of you have a great day. 

Teresa 



 

They are talking to me.

This is a tub of finished tops. They range in size from table runners to king size quilts. They were buried in the back of the closet on the bottom. It was storming here this morning so I didn't want to go out to the quilt studio ( doesn't that sound better than quilt shack?) and start a new quilt. The problem with getting to this tub of tops was a pile of mess in the floor of the closet that had to be cleared away first. It took me most of the morning to get that cleared out and put away in order to get to that stack of tubs at the back, but I finally got it done and things do look better. Of course in doing so I found a lot of things that I had forgotten about meaning even more things to finish now that I have a way to quilt them. 

These are just a few of the tops from the tub. Thank goodness I put the fabric that I planed for the binding with the top, but only one or two have the backing fabric with it. I had forgotten about some of these items, a lot were samples from when I taught the monthly Thimbleberries class at Quilters Refuge. The thirties top in the second picture is a pattern that every time I see it I think "I want to do that pattern" and I already have but had just forgotten. 



Looking through the pile of quilts they are beginning to talk to me, telling me how to quilt them or saying I need something special here. I look forward to this new part of my quilting journey. 




Hope everyone has a great 4th of July weekend.

A New Journey

The quilt building is complete and the machine moved in and set up. This is the first quilt I quilted. I will have pictures of the machine posted later. But this morning I am thinking about the changes having the longarm will make for me. First of all I will be a quilter not just a piecer (is that really a word, but I think you know what I mean). It means I look at my stash a lot differently. I have a good many large yardage pieces but do they go with the tops that I have already pieced? Got to get serious about matching stuff up and only buy what I need to finish these projects.

I had said earlier in the year that I was going to make the bindings at the time I finished the top and I have done a pretty good job of doing that, but all those older tops still need binding as well as backing.

It has taken over a month to get the building finished and in that time I have done very little sewing but somehow my sewing room seems to have gotten in an even bigger mess. So as much as I would just like to live in the quilt building for a while that is just not possible. I can't even get to the tub of quilt tops that are finished because it is in the back of the closet and too much has gotten piled on top of it. 

I think I am going to love this transition to quilter, I just have to add in a healthy dose of  patience.

On a more creative note, I used a variegated lime green thread to quilt this one and love how it turned out. I guess green can be a neutral.