President's Day Quilting Marathon

Monday was a day off for both the kids and me. I planned to quilt at dad's house and for once the weather didn't prevent us from going. It was cold, but the warmest day in over a week, so we went.  I finished the Jungle Friends baby quilt top on Friday night and quilted it up. It turned out beautiful! I think I'll add a dark gray binding. I used a off white King Tut and Bottomline. The backing is a cream color with gold giraffes. 

I started with this Sukura Stars runner. I finished it up on Sunday night and took out all of the papers while we watched the Daytona race. It's a gift for a very special friend. I hope to have it finished by her birthday. 

I quilted up this Tula Pink Rock Candy table topper. It's made of scraps and I don't know who will receive it, but I'm happy it's quilted. 

I plan to make a sewing thread organizer from ByAnnie and so I decided to quilt it, but I had left very little in the way of backing, so I had to only use 1/4" on each side to attach it to the leaders. It worked and now it's ready to be made into a bag. I have 5 bags cut out in this fabric, so I hope once I put the thread on, I can start making the bags. 

I wanted to quilt some quilts for Quilts for Kyds, so I picked up two. This Star Wars one got a gray/black King Tut thread on it. 

This dog quilt was quilted with a colorful verigated King Tut. 

The backing had silver Bottomline. 

Then I left the biggest ones for last. I quilted up my Hope quilt. I used aqua minkee on the back. It turned out really nice. I used an aqua King Tut on the front. 

I used the same aqua King Tut on the front of this Random Shuffle quilt. I used aqua sparkle minkee on the back of this one. 

I did loops on this one. 

I'm really pleased with all I got done. I would have finished another runner, but I forgot to pack the backing fabric. Six and one half hours later, I had 8 quilts quilted and I was done for. We were able to grab a quick supper and make it to Shooting Sports with 2 minutes to spare.  

Crazy Quilting Saturday

Saturday night we went to my dad's house to pick up firewood for our camping trip this weekend. I luckily got in an hour or so of quilting time. I was able to load two "quilts" at a time, use the same thread and get them done in a quick fashion.
I quilted a panel for hanging in Mikaela & Mathew's room. One says "Why God made Little Boys" the other why He made little girls.



Both were quilted with a cream King Tut & a cream Bottomline

At the same time I quilted this wall hanging for Mathew that is a growth chart. It's super cute and since I could use the same thread it went really fast.

I did a large stipple on both quilts.

The second time I loaded the frame, I put on my bargello placemats. I used a backing that had gold metallic to it. I used scraps of batting, so that is why they are on there funky.

A close up of the quilting.

At the same time I loaded my Amish Rubic Star. I quilted it with the same teal/purple/ lime green thread as the place-mats and got them all done in one fell swoop.

It was so nice to be able to get these quilted and be able to mark a few more projects off my quilting list. I now only have 1 quilt left on my "to be quilted" pile!

Quilty Sunday

This weekend was so nice, after a blizzard day last week and a snow day that was awful, it was nice to see sunshine and warmer temps. I was so excited to be able to get outside and enjoy the weather. It also meant Paul could finally work on the door for my dad's crawl space on his house. A trip to Dad and Ann's ranch means quilting for me!
First up on the agenda was Mikaela's Wanna Be a Cowgirl quilt. She helped me sew it this week and it went together so quickly on Friday night that I was ready to quilt it on Sunday. The front and back are a bit different, but they go together well. The back is minkee. It quilted up very nicely!

Here's the top after quilting. I used a warm and natural batting and pink/brown King Tut with a medium pink Bottomline. The quilt is 60.5"x 72.5". I stretched my limits with the minkee, so a bit of the seam is on the back.

Paul was still working, so I loaded my mom's Loralie quilt. This is the back. I used a dark red King Tut and red Bottomline. The sashing is all red hearts. I need to get my Loralie fabric stash out and figure out what will work for the binding.

This is the front. I loaded it sideways so it was a quick quilt for me to do. It's probably in the 60x70 range as well. I finished it up after lunch while Paul was taking a nap.

Since Paul was still sleeping, I loaded this Giant Starburst quilt top. It's made with Green Bay Packers colors and I'm not sure where it will go, but it will be done. It's backed with a scrap of minkee as well. I love to quilt with minkee as the backing.

Last night I trimmed up this one as well as the Pink one and started working on the binding. I'm so excited to have them done. I am down to only 2 BIG quilts left to quilt on the frame - Scrappy Swoon and Merry Go Round. It's time I got busy working on a few others.

I worked on my Scrappy Trip Around the World on Saturday night, but it was getting late, so only finished one. I have another ready to sew together. I also got partway finished with 3 Winding Ways blocks.


I felt so productive getting that many quilts quilted. I also got the Scrappy Swoon quilt loaded and it is ready to quilt when I get back out there. It's so nice spending time at my dad and his wife's house in the country. The kids get to play outside and spend time with grandpa and grandma, free of mom and dad, and I get to spend some time quilting. We had such an enjoyable time. After I finished quilting I helped them with their ipad and we did some stuff in the yard/garage. Such a fun day. The kids were exhausted and so were Mommy & Daddy.

Productive Weekend of Quilting

This weekend was so productive it isn't even funny. Let me preface my quilting progress, with the fact that I had a marathon cleaning session at my home Sat. morning and afternoon, including completely pulling everything out, dusting, sweeping, vacuuming, organizing, and putting all the toys away. I didn't start quilting until after supper Sat. night.
Friday night while Paul was up watching some gold show I pulled together this baby quilt top. It's not great, but it's done and will make some baby happy. I also pulled backing and batting and it was ready to quilt.

Sat. night I started with this one and got it quilted. I used a pink/brown King tut.

I did loops for the quilting. My goal for the month was just to make the top, so having it finished is a big bonus!

Then I quilted this one with a meander. I was able to trim both quilts up and get the binding on the top of both of them Saturday night. Woohoo! I finished the binding at work today during breaks.

Sunday after I went to mass and took the kids to town for pictures, I came home and quilted this one. It's an older quilt top I had done as a sample.

Mikaela insisted on helping with the photography and playing on this one. She's claimed it as her favorite.

Then I really quickly quilted up this one with a really tight meander to see if I could do it. It turned out well. I loaded the wolf wall hanging and started quilting it. It's slow going because I am doing more of a thread painting on it and with all the layers its breaking thread a lot. I quit for the night, just before the power went out.

My favorite part of the weekend was realizing my cutting table is amazing! I was able to pull it up and put my big mat on to trim up these quilts. I usually use just the top, because it takes up so much room, but wow, I'm in love with the big surface, at the right height.


The kids had a great weekend. We went to Wal-mart and daddy let Mikaela ride on a couple rides.

She loved them! It's a special treat, so she was super excited. Plus she got funfetti cupcake mix, pure heaven in her eyes.

Mathew just hung out with his book. He's getting the top 4 teeth in, so just a bit crabby, compared to his normal happy self.

Mikaela was photo bombing my quilts while I was trying to take pictures.

Mathew just practiced his posing.

But then Mikaela decided to help him. He's so happy. He just turned 10 months last weekend.

What am I work on this Wednesday??

This has been a busy week in the sewing studio! I found my groove and spent quite a bit of time sewing and quilting this week. Saturday I loaded and quilted this Autumn Visitors UFO. It was an unloved UFO the Sarcastic Quilter sent me a couple years ago. I love the fabric, but wasn't sure who it would go to, so it sat untouched. However we are going to a wedding next month and I needed a gift. I'm not sure if this will go to them or not, but that's what I'm planning to use as the gift. I'm just not sure of their tastes, so I'm kind of on the fence. I trimmed it up on Monday night and put the binding on. Last night I stitched it down by machine. Just wasn't feeling like hand sewing it down, too many other handwork projects going on right now.

Saturday late night I loaded this Autumn Star quilt on the frame. I fully intended to quilt it, but the tension was off and I was really struggling, so I put it away and didn't touch it until Monday night when I got home from work. We had leftovers, so I had a chance to quilt it. I ended up adjusting my bobbin tension and then I was able to get it to an acceptable level. My top tension has been running between 1-2 for quite a while and you can only go so low, so I knew I needed to adjust the bobbin. Luckily the adjustments worked. I read online, but it didn't really help me to know which way to go. The backing on this one is pink batik. It's from the same piece I used to back mom's pink ribbon quilt back in 2009. So glad I was able to use up some of my stash.

Here's a close up of the quilting. I used a variegated King Tut and pink Bottomline.

Yesterday I got the email about getting our class samples in for photos next week and I realized I hadn't even made this sample. It's a new class I'm teaching in the next quarter. I just love these purple fabrics. I wish I could find something to make with the whole line. I worked on this for an hour last night and when I was doing more unpicking than necessary I quit. On something so simple I think the seams need to match better than I had them, so I am fixing a couple spots. This one is a bit of a challenge, but I think it will turn out cute in the end. It's made with 4 fat quarters. I just wish one of the many hexie rulers we have in the store would have worked to cut these out. I ended up using 2" hexie EPP's.

Yesterday I finished #18 Ahhhh, Aunt Mollie's Umbrella. My goal for August was to finish 3 Ahhhh's, which I was thinking was really unrealistic considering all the other handwork I have been doing on other projects, but this one went together so fast I started another one.


Today I finished up #12 O' Matt's Lantern. I realize I need some lighter fabrics in these, so I'm going to have to incorporate more next week when cut out a new bunch. I have 3 left to piece before I need to prep more. I started the 3rd one and with a wee bit of luck I should be able to finish it before the end of the month.


We are off for a camping adventure over the long weekend, so I'm planning to take a few EPP projects to work on. If I get the hexie table topper done and quilted I'll have some binding to finish as well. This has been such a productive month. I hope to get as much done in Sept. when I am off school for 3 weeks!