Merry's Cat Quilt

Last night after I quilted the Baby Sign Language quilt, I had the cat's quilt out and the leftover batting was the perfect size. I had the backing and just chose a verigated pink/purple/blue/green/yellow King Tut and pink Bottomline to go with it.  I quilted a very large meander all over it. It's probably the biggest one I've done, but it doesn't need to be super close, it's for the cat!

My stitches are becoming more and more consistant with every quilt I do. I'm pleased with how this turned out.

I even had enough time to put the binding on. I cut it at 2.25" and sewed it to the front, turned it to the back and sewed it down by stitch in the ditch. All the fabric is leftover or sale fabrics I picked up, except the cat print, which I specifically picked up for her. It's all LQS fabric, so it's a nice quilt. I just hope Merry likes it and will sleep on it, since she hates fleece blankets, but seems to love my quilts. I love a cat with good taste!

This was my 90th quilt on my frame! Oh how I've learned so much since that first quilt. I'm still learning, but I can see vast improvement over the previous ones I've done. My MIL was so excited about Merry's quilt she took it to work to show her co-workers today. I'm just glad to have another UFO completed!

Pink 9 Patch/ Snowball Baby Quilt

The Pink 9 Patch/ Snowball quilt top is now a top! Last night I finished up the 9 patches and put it together. I got it loaded on the frame and it's ready to quilt tonight. I'm thinking I'll do a loopy heart pattern in the quilting. I'm loving how it's making a circle of pink around each of the snowballs. This is a very scrappy quilt and made entirely from my stash. I'm hoping to get the quilting and binding done tonight, so I have some handwork to take with me tomorrow.

Happy Blogoversary to Me! & Blizzard Day #5

Happy Blogoversary to me! I started this blog in April of 2005 when I was teaching in the middle of nowhere. I had gone to the state English teachers conference and blogging was a new and upcoming thing at that time. I blogged through the end of the year and I had several of my favorite students who also blogged. They all quit when they went to college as far as I know. I moved over to the quilt blogging site, but moved back here when that site was going downhill. I can't believe how much I enjoy blogging and the great friends I have made. In just 2.5 weeks I'll be meeting my closest blogging friends for the first time. I'm so excited!
Today I was scheduled to work at the shop. The first Sat. of the month is Strip Club and a very busy day. I was also going to do the presentation with M... So we were doing an M & M theme. This morning we got another blizzard, the 5th day I haven't worked in two weeks! So it was postponed until next weekend.
I had gotten up at 6:30AM to finish the quilting on the quilt I was working on. I really wanted to show it at strip club, so I finished it, took it off the frame, and promptly found 2 rows where the quilting tension was bad. So I took them out, put it back on the frame and re-quilted. I cut out the binding tonight, but am too tired to put it on, so I think I'll work on that tomorrow. So I relaxed, watched movies, and enjoyed the day.
Paul went out and plowed for a good 2.5 hours tonight and got it so he can get out in the morning to go plow snow.

Mom’s Star Quilt

Tonight I loaded mom’s star quilt on the frame and practiced my thread choices a bit. When I had the tension adjusted to my liking, I started quilting away. I knew I had a hitch in my track’s get along, but wasn’t sure how to fix it. Tonight I was able to adjust it and it worked a lot better. It’s not perfect, but it’s way better than before. I used a variegated red/orange/maroon/yellow Rainbows thread on top and an amber gold/orange Bottomline in the bobbin. It’s the first time I have ever had to take out the stitching because the bobbin tension came loose and didn’t have to take out the thread because there was no top tension.  Yeah! This is the first quilt I have really felt comfortable with the tension issues on.  Here’s the finished quilt. It was a kit we had at the store as our co-worker Lu made her sample out of it for the class. I helped Lu pick out the colors for hers and I just love it.

This is a close up of the quilting. I did a meander all over it.

This is a very close up picture of the quilting and I can tell my stitch length is getting closer and more consistent. The variegated worked really well with all the colors in this quilt. I wanted to quilt it with lime green, but it would have really stood out.

One Down, Two to Go!

All I can say is I have an awesome dealer! I took my machine in on Monday and he looked at it, replaced the fuse and serviced it and I was able to pick it up on Tues. I was so excited that after mom and I ran errands I came home and finished quilting this wall hanging. It's the one I was working on when the machine quit. It's a VERY old UFO. I think I made it two or three years ago or so. I worked at Mt. Rushmore four summers while I was in college and then for two summers while I was teaching school. We always got a special staff t-shirt as well as half off in the gift shop where I worked, so I had a lot of t-shirts. I combined them all into a wall hanging. I had the top all ready and the back ready, but hadn't quilted it. I found it when I went to look for another UFO, so I pulled it out to practice my stars and loops on the frame. It's all quilted now and I just need to find something for binding.


Below is a picture of the top. I had a lot with just the little front patch and some that were wider fronts, so I combined them. I'm definately not a quilt designer! I only had a couple yards of this material, so I made the quilt a large wall hanging size instead of a full size quilt.


I'm pleased with how it turned out and with a little help with the stars I am now making them look like stars. I'm very pleased!
Last night I loaded the friendship quilt I'm working on. I thought I had it all right and then pulled out the directions and it's not right and now I think I have my frame set up wrong, so after this one is done I'm going to have to fix it. So far it's working though and I got two passes done before I called it a night. I'm so happy to have my machine back!