Gettin' things done

I used to have a stack of quilt tops needing quilting. Then my mom gave me my inheritance early in the form of a Gammill long-arm computer-guided quilting machine. Now my stack of tops needing quilting is steadily going down and my stack of quilts that need to be bound is going up. Today I finished 2 quilts that I've had for some time. One is a gift for someone else and one is a gift someone made me. Both just needed quilting and binding. Hopefully I can continue the trend and get both my stacks way down. I love gettin' things done.

My Bluebonnet Tabletopper

My favorite online quilting group celebrated its 6th anniversary / birthday and our leader, Carol Doak, designed a new block to celebrate the occasion. I didn't like the suggested colors and decided to use some bluebonnet fabric I bought last September in my quilt across Texas shop hop. I liked the block so well I decided to use it to make a table topper. It looked great. Then I specially picked a quilting design and it fit perfectly. Then I bound it in dark blue and the final product is my favorite table topper to date.

Finally, a quilt for LJ

Not sure what took me so long, but I recently realized my newest grandson is 3 months old and I hadn't yet made him a quilt. Yesterday I had a day off and decided to rectify that. I used a panel instead of piecing blocks. Added some borders and quilted and bound it. It looks awesome and took less than a day. Sometimes it takes me months to piece a quilt. I don't think I'll revert to panels entirely, but it sure is nice to be able to put a quilt together start to finish in one day. It's got a great little prayer around it, but I won't put what is says here so it's a surprise for my daughter. Hoping to get it in the mail today. Life is good!

Pillow Case Heaven

When I went on the Quilt Across Texas shop hop last September, I picked up some pillow case kits in a few of the different shops I visited. I had never done any "real sewing" only piecing blocks and sewing blocks together. Totally different skill set. When I went on the Quilting Cruise this past March, I decided to take a couple of the pillow kits with me. The first day, before we had any classes, we had time to sew and I worked on the pillowcases. Having never made one before it was more complicated than I imagined, but once I got the hang of it, all went well. I made three Super Hero pillow cases for my grandsons and a friend's son. They looked awesome and I was hooked.

I told my daughter about them and how much fun they were to make and told her I was making one for her and her husband. She asked if I could make some for a group she meets with monthly, all ladies, so I said sure. I went through my stash and dug out a bunch of flower prints and coordinating fabric and was hoping to get them done before I went to visit her in April. That didn't work so I brought them with me when I went to visit her, but didn't have any time for sewing, so I brought them back home and this weekend I finally got started making them.

On the cruise I used the French Seam to enclose the seams so that you wouldn't get any frayed edges but that really wastes a lot of fabric and takes a bit longer than necessary. A friend recommended I used a serger so Saturday I went and bought one. Of course that took about 5 hours off my sewing time, but I'm so glad I did. Today I was able to sew 9 pillow cases and with the three I made yesterday my daughter has two for her, two for her hubby and another 8 for her group. They look awesome. I'm not sure you can tell by the picture but that is three rows of four pillowcases each.

I made two for myself and one for my hubby and it's so fun to pull back the bedspread and see these cute happy pillowcases waiting for me each night. I'm thinking of doing some holiday ones as well. Some folks won't think they're worth the money, since fabric is not cheap, but quilts are never worth the money they cost or the time they take. Quilters (at least those like me) don't sew for money, they sew for fun and for the joy of playing with colors and fabrics.

I had a very sewful and fun weekend. Life is good!

Lorax Quilt

Can't believe I haven't posted anything since December. In January I got a Statler Stitcher long arm machine and my mom came to visit and I have been pretty busy. I have done some things but nothing special until now. I bought some Dr. Seuss Lorax fabric online and planned on using one of the panels to make myself a quilt to hang in my cubicle. Did that. Loved it. Decided I needed a few of them. Made 3 more. Decided it would be best to put them all together in a quilt. Done with that now. But ... I have to find a quilting pattern. Looking for Truffula Trees or Thneeds. If you've never read the book, I highly recommend it. Dr. Seuss was an environmentalist before green was fashionable. He also understood consumerism before that even became a word. The man was a genius and now they've made his book -- The Lorax -- into a movie. It opens March 3. My goal was to finish the quilt before then. Not sure I'm going to make it, but I'll give it my best shot.

Christmas Table Toppers

I met a long arm quilter on line who agreed to let me come to her studio and get an introduction to long arm quilting. We would be quilting a quilt that I've had laying around for a while AND she wasn't charging me. I wanted to make her a thank you table topper but didn't know what style she liked, so I made three and let her pick. Then she quilted it. I added the binding and I gave it to her as a thank you. She picked the first one. At some point I'll have to quilt the other two -- probably before next Christmas.

I had an awesome weekend learning about the Gammill long arm and Statler Stitcher. Tons of fun! And then I met 6 other Statler owners for lunch on Sunday. They were very welcoming and I'm so glad I was able to meet others who know what they're doing with the long arm. I'll be picking their brains for the next year or so. Life is good!

Mystery Solved

In September my favorite Yahoo Group started a mystery quilt. It was designed by Carol Doak. At first she just told us what kind of fabric to buy and how much -- medium warms, medium cools, darks, lights, etc. Then she told us how to cut them. Then on September 28 she posted the first clue and first foundation for the paper pieced quilt. After 6 clues she posted the mystery. The finished quilt was 36" square without any borders.

Someone on the group suggested making four of these and sewing them together for a bedsize quilt. I needed a new quilt in my spare room, so I decided to go for it. You can see the pics of my fabric and different clues as well as the finished bedsize quilt.

It's hard to believe the pic above was made using the simple blocks and fabrics in the pics below.

All I have to do now is add the borders and the top pillow cover and my bedsize quilt is ready to be quilted by my friend with the longarm. I posted a pic of the four mysteries sewn together. It came out better than I imagined. Carol is an amazing designer.

I'm going to make two of the center stars and put a "circle border" around them using the purple fabric (that didn't get used much) for the top where the pillows would be underneath and then I'm going to add a thin purple border all the way around before the border fabric (21" drop). The hard part is over. Hallelujah!!! Life is good!