I'm still here

I have quit long arming until we are settled in our new place; probably 6 months. Maybe I'll get this blogging re-figured out. Meanwhile I was able to get a photo and reduce it so I can put it here.

This was a fun, easy quilt my friend Lisa made. I quilted our favorite paisley design on it. It was beautiful. Lisa's quilts are always beautiful and well made. A winning combination.

edit;
When I looked at this post the picture did not show up, however, when I clicked on it anyway I could see it...

A Quilt I have quilted...

This is just a test to see if my resizing worked...Although it is true I quilted this quilt;

All crosshatching. Those squares? They are not quite square. A friend's grandmother pieced...some of the navy blocks, Lisa decided to finish the quilt and added the lighter blue blocks then re-sewed many of the navy ones. It turned out fabulous.  Now I wonder what a green and white quilt done the same way would look, or how about 2 shades of pink?

Nativity? Nativity to be...

My sister decided to make 4 of her children Nativity scenes for Christmas this year. She has been working all year on this project. In May I helped her a bit (if you call ripping out what she had done and telling her to do it over help) and then in June she gave me the 4 grounds and  the 4 skies. I put them together and quilted them for her. Now she will paint figures onto pellon and velcro them to the backgrounds. I may or may not see the finished product for years. But here are the backgrounds:

Swirls for wind currents on the sky and map contour lines on the ground.

More swirls on the sky and McTavishing on the ground.

Giant stars on the sky and giant roses on the ground.

Les exuberant swirls on the sky and more contours on the ground...I think I added some grass and flowers too.

These were fun to do. I tried sewing the backgrounds together and quilting the tops with one mounting....ended up undoing the backgrounds and doing them separately. I can't remember exactly why but it was easier to do them apart.

Quilt Festival!

I went, I saw! I did not conquer. Last night it was open from 7-10 p.m. We started looking at the quilts as far from the vendors as we could get. The centerpiece of the show was this display of red and white Quilts for their 40 year ruby celebration. I have been attending for 35 years. The first time I had my second child strapped to my chest and it was at a church. Fabulous. I have missed ...about 5 over the years.

Here are some of the quilts I saw;

'

Butterflies in my Garden' by Doris Garfinkel of Indiana. All batiks, all logcabins.

A Baltimore Album Quilt with rows of very small yo-yo's holding each mini-quilt block to the others. Koyoko Hata of Japan made it to celebrate her 60th birthday.

This 'Red Sunflower' button quilt is here for my sister, it was made by Susan Bianchi of California.

 

.This 'Victorian Transformation' was made by Allison Aller of Washington. Love the multitude of butterflies on this.

Many miniature red and white quilts were displayed, all the work of 2 sisters Andrea Blackhurst and Ellen Carter. There were delightful, inspired by the red and white quilts displayed in New York City in 2011 the sisters got to work.

Tomorrow I get to go again! This time for 9 hours!

I hope pictures of quilts don't bore you...now I've got to get sewing!

double knit quilts

I'm pretty sure that we drove through a town called Cherokee?? did not think I would forget the name, and was sure I could look it up on a map....and there is a town Cherokee and it is near our route, but not exactly on the road I thought we were driving. So I 'm not sure where we saw this but there was a sign; 'QUILTS!' and we stopped. On the front porch of what looked like a one room store was a quilt, worn and weathered; it was a double knit top. The shop was closed but looking in the window I could see shelves full of finished quilts. Behind the building where we parked was a fence with a row of double knit, hand pieced quilt tops.

The Grandmother's Flower Garden was pieced with small hexagon's and the original color of the path was a very bright green, I could see the underside of the quilt in one spot.
WOW! It looked fabulous and was a great advertisement for the shop, I'd love to see what was inside but it is unlikely I'll ever see the shop open...It was between here and Lubbock so we do get to drive it 2 more times so I'll keep my eye's open for more polyester quilts.

We drove the same route up to Lubbock but I didn't see the shop, then we drove on freeways home since we were coming from Pampa.

miniatures

Last month was our guild quilt show and one of the fund raisers is a silent auction with small quilts donated by the members. This year I took a friend to the quilt show with me and she bid on 2 of the small quilts. She won so I got to pick them up for her and had them in my custody for about 5 days. :)

She was so pleased to get these to give to her granddaughters to play with. The above rail fence was made with civil war reproduction fabrics by Becky Stephensen.

This one was made by Jana Albritton and is a delightful quilt made with 1930's reproduction fabrics.The Hugs and Kisses pattern I have on my bucket list....maybe I could get more patterns sewn if I made them this size. I'm pretty sure my friend will be back next year to get quilts for her other 2 granddaughters; they are just babies this year so they won't be playing with dolls for awhile.

Finally, a picture!

I finally got a picture of the whole quilt;

 And a detail shot;

Do you realize that getting a picture of this quilt probably took an hour? And it's still not a great picture. Next step? I don't know, this took me about 2 months to finish.  Which seems like a lot when the top was almost done when I started.
Summertime and vacation time means it's time to decide on some knitting since quilting in the car doesn't work for me. I think I'm ready to tackle knitting a baby blanket and I'm teaching some women at church how to knit a hat so we can donate some to a men's shelter this fall. I bought some bulky yarn and started a sample. The class is in July so I should be able to do a couple before then.
Meanwhile I have a quilt in the frame; the front;

 the back;

 This is a funky pink log cabin that is my sister's second quilt. She chose this fun panto for me to quilt. I'll take a picture before I return it to her. Then here are 2 baby blankets I quilted for a friend;

The same panto done in 2 different sizes. I thought the smaller one was cuter but we found that the bigger one made for a softer feel and we really liked that. Each of blankets have flannel on one side and a polka dot on the other.

quilt show

I kind of left you dangling...just wondering how my quilt did in the show. Right? Well my 2 quilts did not get ribbons (I didn't expect them to) but one of the quilts I quilted for a customer did!

You can see the whole quilt here.

It was a lovely show. It 's lovely to recognize names as I look at the quilts. Here is one of my favorites;

 The black and bright 9-patch was an exchange that Marsha Fuller did.

This was made by Cynthia Williford. The colors are great and I've done a Chinese lantern log cabin...not easy. Cynthia also made the best of show, which can be seen here, on her web site. I loved that the winner did not follow a pattern and did her own thing to a Baltimore album quilt.
Local quilt shows are the best.

Finished...well almost

This is me procrastinating. I need to get up and clean a couple spots off my quilt. Really I need to do it now, since it has to be dry and clean by 7:30 tomorrow morning.
But I put it off. What if the spots don't come off? What if the red bleeds? How to lay it out with out it getting any dirtier? Keep the dog off it?

Yesterday I got to go to Galveston. A quick run since I HAVE A PUPPY! But some award needed to be picked up at the Scout shop.
Fun Find # 1 

The building was built in 1963 and I bet this sofa

was put in the ladies room and left there then. I asked the receptionist how long it had been there, she has only been there 6 years. Was it old when the building was built? or was it brand new in '63?

Fun find # 2.
The old custom's house often has a quilt exhibit so I stopped there and yes, saw some quilts. So here are some pictures of the quilts I saw there.
Stars;

 close-up;

More stars;

 close-up;

There were a few more...all old but no details of the quilts. I enjoyed my 10 minutes there and then headed home...on my way out of Galveston I passed an old cemetery...I've seen it many times but this time I stopped so I could show you this;

Fun find #3

 Isn't that wonderful?

Irish chain

It will get finished, it will get finished, it will get finished....

I have the top and bottom border done! Now to take it out and turn it, figure out the corners and decide if I'm going to do diagonal lines 'behind' the feather. What do you think?

* edit; 5/19/14 It's home from the show and I may be crazy but I'm thinking of taking the binding off (it took a week to do, but it ripples a bit) attach the quilt to a long scrap and add some quilting to the feather...outline it or crosshatching? Then block it, then add a lengthwise cut binding, or is it add the binding then block it? Won't be done today though, I have 4 quilts inline to get done first now.

Green and Brown Pinwheel

I interrupt the regularly scheduled update on the Irish chain to bring you a customer quilt;

It was a delight to take the Irish chain out and put this in. This is quilted with a new panto; baby feet and hands by Karen Farnsworth at Wildflower Quilting.

Love it!

Here's the back, aren't the trees nice? They form flowers but are still, 'manly'.

Little progress

What did you expect? A finished quilt? With my husband out of town last week I expected great things, but shop hop was last week and I visited 11 quilt shops over 3 days and came home not willing to do much. Here is the progress I've made I finished the borders and got it in the quilt frame!

I even started quilting one of the borders; then I went shopping for a ruler, a specific shape ruler for a long arm. I found a few the wrong shape and realized that I would be spending at least $30. for the ruler and I found a shape I could adapt for the robotics for only $5. So that's what I did. I changed a diamond shape to a squarish shape, then quilted 2 of them before I could sleep last night.

The plan is to put free hand feathers around this...but I'll get all the shapes quilted first. It is only 1 P.M. and I haven't managed to do any yet.
Because we adopted a dog on Saturday. He is a sweetheart but I've had to go get a baby gate to keep him away from the quilt. It is HARD to get a picture of a puppy, they are in motion all the time. I had to have Andrew hold him.

An almost 4 month old English Springer Spaniel. It's like having a toddler, we are getting the house baby-proofed very quickly. But he still finds things, just took a pencil away from him, he found a bolt to chew and a scrap of wood and a small warranty booklet that had gotten under something. Our housekeeping has to improve. He left Dad's pile of papers alone for 2 days, today he attacked it, so it got picked up. Maybe the 'boys' will be more responsible about picking up their stuff. :)

Irish Chain Borders

First thing, Lakeview Quilt Guild was last Monday and it was the last day to sign up a quilt to be in the Guild quilt show that is in May. I measured the only quilt I made last year and paid my $5 to enter it. Then I sat down. The guild has a slide show of important information of interest to the guild members to look at while we gather. There on the screen was the show deadline and this phrase, 'Your quilt does not have to be finished until May 15th as long as you sign up TODAY you have 2 months to finish it.' I went back and paid my $5 for an unfinished quilt. My Red Irish Chain now has a deadline and it will get finished. I love a deadline.

Last year while I was preparing to move I made myself some quilt kits. The idea was that I wouldn't have much access to fabric and would like to finish some quilts. So I purchased fabric for kit #5; an Irish chain. Since I take years to finish a quilt I've blogged about this quilt several times. Here, here, and here .
When I pulled the quilt out and refreshed my memory of it. My kit consisted of fabric for border #3, #4, and #5 and the backing and binding. (The borders #1 and #2 just continue the Irish chain pattern, so they really don't show.)

Right away I knew that the first fabric wasn't going to work, but the #5 for sure would. So went to 2 quilt shops to get 1 yard of muslin. Washed, pressed and cut, and sewn. Then to the pieced squares; I decided to use all red squares, not the white with red lines on it. So I cut another 100 squares and stitched and stitched until I had 340? squares sewn and attached, then laid it on the kit border fabric;

Do you see the problem I see? No contrast. That strip was a lot of work. I want to see it. So I went back to the store....and am planning this now;

Now how wide should I make it?
Working a little backwards I decided to start with the backing which I still LOVED and make the back. I wanted to make sure I didn't make the quilt 1" bigger than what I had for the back. The back is made and the seams pressed. Most people would measure and compare the numbers, I will lay them both on my bed and look at it to make sure the size is right.
I'm putting this in Judy's design wall links.