Art Quilt

It seams like I have been quilting this quilt forever. I am now half way done with it. I like the look of the straight lines close together. The lines are 1/4" apart. This is Ellen's quilt and she does a beautiful job at dying all her fabric and putting the colors together. The circles are all pieced.

This weeks projects are to finish this quilt and write the instructions for step 2 of the mystery. Several people have asked what my color choices were for the mystery. I am using my scrap box of reproduction prints and shirting fat quarters that I had in my stash.

Baby Quilt Progress

Here is where I used my purchases. I haven't appliqued the circles yet. Do you think I need more or less circles? This is a commissioned quilt that is modeled after a Pottery Barn quilt. If your wondering, that is my Orange Crush (mystery quilt from Quiltville.com) hanging behind it. It is there as a gentle reminder to me to get going on it.

Who would have thought...

I would have never thought to turn the quilt 90 degrees. Today I learned that a King size bed is wider than it is long. I am still feeling the amazement of this. I have decided to put another border on this quilt to make it go to the bottom of my pillowtop mattress. The plan (not that this quilt has ever had a good plan) is to repeat the white/color/white border and then add some more 4 patches. I only need 6 more inches on each side to reach the bottom of the mattress. I don't want the white on the edge because it will show the dirt in no time flat. I'm sorry the sun was shining in the window and I didn't get a great picture.

Borders are finally On!!

This quilt has been about 8 years in the making. The borders have a story all of their own. I like the way it turned out, but I wish I would have made the center a bit larger. It fits a queen bed (which I don't have). My DH thinks I should add one more border. I personally think it has enough borders. I didn't ruin my reputation of being the border queen on this quilt. I put it back away at this stage to decide if I want another border. What do you think?

Flu has left the building!

I wasn't sure if I was going to make it thru. It took over a week before all of us caught the virus and recovered. The weather has been extremely snowy and cold here.


Here is a picture of my first finish of the year. These were the remnants of a large quilt a made a few years ago. I sewed the bining on completely by machine and I am pleased with how it looks. I haven't tried this in several years and I can tell I have really improved. I think the key was to pin the binding all the way around the edge before I started.

I also managed to get the binding sewn on the front of a Christmas quilt that used up some of my "uglies". These fabrics had been hanging around for way too long. I love how the red binding brings it all together. Hopefully I can get the handstitching done before Christmas. I won't move it to finished until the binding is stitched down. I will post a better picture when it is completed. I love how the sun shining thru the window shows off the quilting (even with the shadows).

During the sickness, I did manage to quilt one customer quilt. It is a cute panel quilt, and I am pleased with how it came to life with the quilting. Oh yes, and behind the customer quilt is the infamous bow tie quilt. It is on my list of quilts to finish this year as well. Perhaps someone will chime in with a great quilting plan for me. I have the FINAL border on the design wall so I can stitch the squares together.

Finishing the Year

This year certainly ended with excitement. The virus on the computer certainly consumed me and added to the Christmas chaos. I think the computer sucked out all my creative energy, because I haven't done any sewing during my vacation.

All in all I must have been very good this year because I received some really nice gifts for Christmas. I think everyone in my family was pleased with the gift selections. When we were doing our returns on Monday, we came across a whole rack of Wii Fit games. It was a late Christmas gift, but my family is very excited to have it. I don't think my body will ever be the same after hula-hooping. It was good for a laugh if nothing else. Sorry no video footage was produced!!!!

When I look back on my goal for 2008 (a year of finishing or getting projects closer to completion), I think I did well. I still have well over 30 UFO's which is alarming! I am going to continue to work on my "loose threads" in 2009. I would like to finish 10 projects this year. This will be a big task for me, but I do have several baby quilts started. This leads me to my next dilemma......

It is killing me not to work on Bonnie's NYE mystery (www.quiltville.com). I have been doing scrap patterns now for several years. I don't know if I can go back to a planned color scheme. As I sip my coffee, I am anxious to get to my studio and start cutting for the mystery. I am still strong (at the moment), and I am sticking with my plan to finish more projects than I start. I may have to weaken when I see step 2.

My second goal for 2009 is to reduce my stash. My plan is to eliminate fabrics that I no long like by either cutting them up or donating them. I got an early start with this yesterday when I put about 20 pounds of fabric in a box to donate to a senior center. My sewing studio is currently a disaster! Even my children asked, "Mom what happened in here". I think I should be banned from fat quarter sales this year. Notice I put the word "should" in that sentenance. I don't think I have that much will power!

I hope everyone has a safe and happy NYE.

Love the Creativity and cause of this project.

While reading some blogs this morning, I came across this link (http://www.quiltersofsc.org/artfullbras/artfullbras.htm) for an exhibit "supporting" breast and ovarian cancer. The creativity is amazing. Don't forget to read the names as they add to the art.

I did manage to finish 2 more bags and get the ornaments on the tree. I am taking the minimalist approach to decorating this year. After fighting with the lights last year, I bought the LED lights this year. I hope they last a long time as I never want to take all the miniature ornaments off again.


I already added my goal of 10 quilts for 2009 to the top of my blog. Hopefully this will help diminish the unfinished list.

A Cute little Finish

I may be done with the first step of recovery from my fear of things not flat. I made this cute little bag from a tutorial at http://ayumills.blogspot.com/. Perhaps it was her great illustrations, but I did actually start and finish it in one day (which is a record for me). It is going to be a gift for Sydney's secret pal. I cut the squares at 2 1/2", so mine is a little bigger than the one in the tutorial. I think it would be really cute with other sizes of handles also. I used fleece for the interfacing.

Energized

I am feeling a little energized today since I got some quilt time. It was a long week, but I made it to the finish line (Friday).

I finished teaching the last segment of the table runner series for quilt group (ISE). I am pleased with how the color selection turned out. In January we will be talking about embellishments.