Quilting for a friend

I've been busy! . . . . just not all quilt related.  Over the past few weeks I've had fun with family and friends coming to visit.  They just all happened to come one right after the other.  I always enjoy the time they're here because they're great guests.  We have meals together then they go off and enjoy their day while I do what I want at home.

I begged a friend to let me quilt a quilt for her.  She usually sends her quilts out, but when I saw this top I asked if she'd trust me with it.  It just begged for custom quilting and feathers!  It was good practice for me to quilt for someone else.  I had to work on it to get it done!  I'm always amazed at the concept that things get done when you actually work on them.  The hardest part is getting started.

Fun with feathers.

Back of quilt was a wide batik.  The bottom is the
outside border.  Piano key design in the middle border.

The back could almost be a whole cloth.

I did the fill lines free-motion.  No marking.

 I'm also working on my guild challenge.  The binding is almost complete, just need a label.  Labels are easy now that my 10-needle embroidery machine is always up.  I usually just select a thread color already loaded then let it stitch out.  Expensive toy, but I'm having fun with it.

I'm finding mindless audio books keep me in the studio.  Sometimes I have to back it up, but I can work and "read" at the same time.

Thanks for checking in.

Victoria Findlay Wolfe - Empty Spools Seminar

I'm not sure where I've been but I notice I haven't posted for over a month.  Hmmmm.....

I just returned from a 5-day workshop with Victoria Findlay Wolfe at Empty Spools Seminar.  Victoria is an amazing teacher with wonderful and exciting ideas.  The workshop concentrated on Double Wedding Ring, but she inspires you to look beyond the basics.  She would get ideas while talking to us and then show us how to incorporate them into our "blocks".  If you get a chance to take a workshop or even attend a lecture with Victoria, don't miss it!

This is my first quilt made during the workshop.  I had to work
to keep it from being symmetrical!!

Victoria making comments/suggestions on my second quilt. Notice:  It's
too big to fit on the design wall AND the pieces kept falling off.

When I got home I could put up the entire quilt so I could see what I really had.
I can now see places to make changes based on suggestions the final day.

I have to put these quilts on hold for a while.  I have some deadline quilts I need to get finished.


Thanks for checking in.

Friendship Quilt

A Soroptimist friend is starting chemo so I made a quilt for her to use during treatments.  Since her favorite color is red it was easy for me to select scrap reds from my stash.  The back is pink flannel.

The pattern is Double Disappearing Nine Patch.  After the second cut
I chose to leave the pieces unsewn and then randomly put them together.
Thanks to Sara and Anna for that suggestion.   56.5 x 56.5 inches

I did minimal quilting just to hold everything together.  Soroptimist friends
will tie the quilt symbolizing prayers and positive thoughts.

I have other quilts to get on my blog, but I need to find photos.  I'll be back.....

Thanks for checking in.

Allietare!! Bonnie Hunter Mystery REVEAL

I had a friend visiting this weekend and we quilted in the New Year.  She got a lot of machine quilting done and I worked on Bonnie Hunter's Mystery - Allietare.  The pieced top is together.  I just need to add borders.  Yea!  I added additional blocks to make my quilt square so it would fit on my queen bed.  (36 gold and 25 red.)

Look at all the others!
http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2016/01/mystery-monday-link-up-reveal.html

It doesn't need much of a border to fit the bed.

It's funny, but when the quilt was on the wall (and even in this photo)

the stars stand out.  But when it's on the bed and I'm looking at it, the

red blocks stand out more.  Interesting!

I used Christmas colors so I could use the quilt on my bed next

holiday season.  I added a few definite Christms fabrics.

I used green instead of gray.  Otherwise my colors match those 

suggested by Bonnie.

Thanks for checking in.
Happy 2016.

Allietare!! Bonnie Hunter Mystery 2015 CLUE 5

This morning Bonnie released clue 5 in our mystery.  All we had to do this week was combine pieces completed in previous weeks.  Although we had to make over 100 total, it went very fast.  And yes!  I'm managed to keep up this year.

You can follow the progress of others at this link:
Monday link-up:  http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2015/12/mystery-monday-link-up-part-5.html

(Not sure what's happening here.  When I test the link it doesn't seem to work.  It's been OK in the past??)

These are the blocks for this week.  I used green in place of Bonnie's gray.

The other color are basically the same as hers.

For the first time in the three years I've done the mystery, I put the pieces

on the design wall.  I just wanted to see how my fabrics were working together.

This is only my third Bonnie Hunter mystery and I'm thinking I like using

scrap fabrics rather than a controlled palette.

Thanks for checking in.

Last minute sewing: gifts

A few days ago the daily blog for The Quilt Show had a link to a tutorial for fabric sachets.

http://crafts.tutsplus.com/tutorials/make-gorgeous-lavendar-and-rose-sachets-for-mothers-day--craft-8265

I decided to make a few because they looked so cute.  I ordered the filling from Amazon but it won't arrive until tomorrow.  Following a suggestion of the author I went ahead and made the coverings.  Now they're ready to fill when UPS makes the delivery!

Of course, I didn't read the directions carefully.  Instead of 5 fabrics cut into 12 total strips, I put together 12 fabrics using 1 strip from each.  They were already cut when I caught my mistake, so, "Oh Well".  After making a few following directions, I went off on my own and just started putting strips together.  Then I started using all my scraps and, following crazy quilt techniques, just kept sewing fabric pieces together.  From my twelve 1.5 inch strips I ended up with 15 sachet covers!  At the end I was really desperate, sewing in tiny pieces, because I decided if I had 15 I could give one to every female present Christmas Eve.  Now I  hope I have enough filling for all 15.  I have no idea of the volume from one pound of lavender and rose.

All ready to fill and stitch closed.
Notice there are only 14.  After this photo I realized I needed one more.

This is all that is left of twelve 1/2 inch strips!

This is the last one.  Look at all the tiny pieces. 4.5 x 5 inches.

Thanks for checking in.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Ornaments

Each year I make Christmas ornaments for my family.  It started over 30 years ago when my siblings started having the next generation.  Now there's another generation in progress.  The difficult part is selecting the design.  This year I wanted to do machine embroidery to use the 10-needle machine I just purchased.  I'm thrilled that I had them all done Saturday afternoon.  This may be a record year in terms of the earliest completion date.

Little Snowmen all ready to be wrapped.

Each child's name is on the back along with the year.
One year I couldn't figure out how to get names on
the ornaments.  The children told me that was
important to them.  

Thanks for checking in.