One finished, one ready to quilt

These are two more quilts for a family soon to arrive in Canada. The log cabin was sewn by a lovely friend who offered to help with this task. We pooled our stash to find the best colors and she did a superior joy of sewing the top. I quilted it on my longarm. It is for a young woman.

The second one is the top. I'd hoped to have it on the longarm today, but I'm tired and will maybe get it finished next week. I'd made the center blocks then realized I'd forgotten to enlarge the pattern (DUH) so had to get creative with borders. The side blocks were the result of sewing the triangles cut off to make the Snail's Trail blocks so they were used up, then the other leftovers were used to make a top and bottom. This one is a small queen-size and the colors are pretty but when I take pictures on my downstairs design wall, the colors are seldom correct. This one is aqua and a golden yellow, not too bright and certainly not as whitish as it looks on my screen.

The log cabin browns are not bad, but the lighter colors are too light. Sigh.

I have two more twin size quilts to make for this family, am delivering our granddaughter's quilt next weekend, and more ideas floating around in my head...

These are delightful to make in some ways, but the bigger quilts are becoming difficult to manipulate. I keep telling my hubby that I need a houseboy, but he doesn't pay much attention. We did have a neat together project today. Our closet has a hinged hassock that we sit on to put on our socks, etc. and it is covered in a leather-look vinyl. The lid started to crack and peel and we looked for a new unit to replace it. Today we decided to recover the lid, so out came the heavy-duty staple gun, pliers, etc. and I found a piece of upholster fabric. We took the old cover off and fiddled with the corners of the new fabric until they folded fairly decently over the corners of the lid. So about an hour -- a new (looking) lid. The rest of this box-like thing still looks good. Our arms are sore but we high-fived anyway!

Off and On the Longarm...

The baby quilt is finished. A lousy picture, but I'm getting lazy in my old age. It's a panel, added a border, and practiced nine different fillers in the background. Backing is soft flannelette.


The one below is a scrappy quilt made from the leftover pieces for a larger scrappy. It is about 36 x 60 and perfect for practicing. I've never tried feathers before. I'm a coward. However, decided to attack and do some large, free-motion feathers around the outside. There are five blocks in a row and I'm doing them in simple lines. 

The feathers are large, uneven, sloppy in places, but they say practice, practice, practice. You can glimpse the last done and believe me, these look better that the first done. I can do leaves with my eyes shut but they are more forgiving!

The bigger quilt with all blocks like these and black sashing, has two rows sewn together. I'm still not sure how to quilt it, but do realize these blocks must be stabilized with ditch quilting if they are going to stay square!

NOTE: The Nativity Pattern shown in the upper right corner of this page is available in hard copy from my Etsy page for a limited time. After they are sold, the digital version will still be available. Click on the picture of this popular quilt to see more and to order it.

Quilting is finished

Finally, thirty-plus hours of quilting is finished. My house is not big enough to get a full-view photo, so here are bits and pieces. As easily seen, it needs to be squared up and trimmed, and the binding put on. Also, it is still wrinkled from being wrapped around the back roller for so long. However, I feel 10lbs lighter!

Also, I'm putting all my quilts (that I have photos for) in the Gallery, link on the right, EXCEPT those that are for sale. This will take a few weeks. It's interesting to see the progression.

Quilting - the end is in sight!

I've been working on this king-size so long that I cannot say whether I like it or not. However, as the end is in sight, it is turning out better than I expected. Here is the large leaf on the left side. It was NOT flat and yet the quilting made it lay down and be flat. Truly, quilting makes the quilt.

I've done more than half the sand. It has the watery edge, then some grasses, then in the foreground some shells. For some reason, this part needed more quilting to get it to lay flat, but it is behaving nicely. 

I'm no expert and this one proved it, but it is nearly finished. The foliage at the bottom remains, and it will be fun. Then the binding, all 400 inches (about) of it.

Cobblestone Lane ready for binding

Finally this one is quilted and ready for the binding. I've cut the strips and just need to join them and get with it. 

Here's what it looks like thrown on the bed in our guest room.  It took 16.5 hours to quilt it (I was practicing with rulers - LOL) and at $30 an hour, that is a mere $495. Add 12 blocks, piecing, and fabric, and this one is expensive ! I've not decided what to do with it yet. 

But it was kind of fun... I used Glide to quilt it, and learned a great deal about making the long arm work with several different types of rulers.

Nativity 2, nearly finished!

This quilt is now sandwiched and quilted. The binding is ready to sew on, and I will likely do it front to back by machine and hand stitching on the back. It is a nice way to relax. The hanging sleeve is also ready to put on, again by hand and maybe during a hockey game on television.

At this angle, there is distortion... Mary's hand looks huge and Joseph's face looks too small. Not so! 

These pieces are fused, but needed to be stitched. I was dreading it and didn't want to stuff it into my DM so loaded it on the longarm. I bought a few shades of Invisafil and am pleased with the results. It is like sewing with hair, and required 0 tension on the top. I also put it in the bobbin. I used a size 12 needle, against the strong warning of my Avante dealer who thought such a small needle would break. I had no problems with it, even through backing, batting, and a top with fused layers. That size still left 'holes' but not nearly as obvious as the size 14 needles.

My stitching isn't perfect, yet at a short distance, it is invisible. Had I spent more money, I might have been able to match the colors better, but it is really hard to tell which color works best on each fabric. Pale blue disappeared on blue, but black also disappeared on dark green. As the "Dear Jane" quilters say, finished is better than perfect.

I will be offering the pattern for this as soon as I get it written. I've come up with a way to do it with transparencies, so am now looking for a bargain in the ones used on copy machines.

Finished - just about

The "Boys will be Boys" quilt has a label so it officially finished and soon on its way to a dear friend who has three of them, and one daughter. 

The "Modern Towers" quilt has a few threads to hide, and the label to sew in place. I suppose it needs a sleeve, but I'm not sure. My daughter has been curling up on the sofa with it, so it is 'used' already!

Here are the labels... I changed the name on the boys quilt, just because!

I printed these on my ink jet using June Taylor Colorfast Fabric for Ink Jets. It is a bit still, but the package must get used up. This stuff is too expensive, so when I run out of the packages I bought, I'll go back to making my own with Bubble Set and white to-dye fabric with freezer paper ironed to it.

HQ Avante -- it works

Finally got this new quilt machine set up. It took my hubby and I three days of being able to work on it only during our spare time. However, I know now why the dealer wanted mega-bucks to come and do it for me. 

BUT it is up, level, solid as can be, and I just had to try it... with something quick and easy. I dug into my piles of this and that and found a panel, loaded it using leader grips, and put the only panto I had that would be suitable (I have no kid-pantos) and did it, in a couple of hours or less. I think I am in love. Anyone looking for a longarm needs to check out this machine. 

Sorry, the photo isn't the best -- it is hanging crooked and I'm always in a hurry. BUT in only needs a label and a binding to be finished. This is the quickest wall hanging ever. Now... onward to bigger and better things!