Woot!

I found this cute owl fabric at Hawthorne Threads.

It looked like great fabric for making a pillow for my daughter who loves owls.  While my machine was being serviced, I cut out the fabric, batting, and a backing to make a quilted fabric for the pillow.

As soon as my machine returned, I did some channel quilting.

I made an envelope style opening on the back of the 18 inch pillow cover I constructed.

Voila!  A cute pillow!  So cute I made one for myself too!    :o)

What to do while your machine is being serviced...

Did you ever take your machine in for its yearly check-up only to discover that one of the service technicians has recently quit and the wait time for the machine is 3 1/2 weeks?  WHAT?!?  I had pushed the machine to its limit, and the service light was on.  I had to leave her.  I was out of town one of the weeks.  For the rest of the wait, I did the only thing left I could think of to get my quilt fix.  I went shopping...

That did the trick!  :o)

Another curtain...

Remember this?

This is a curtain I made for our guest bathroom.  It was a stretch for me because almost every other curtain in my house is a very conservative white.  I ended up liking this bathroom curtain so much that I used this

and this

to make this for a small secondary foyer window.

Now I am thinking about making something fun for my laundry room window.  Positively DARING for me!

:o)

A UFO is finally done!

Remember this quilt?

I finally finished the binding and just put the quilt on the bed.  It is just as I envisioned it which is rare for me.

I added shams to complete the look.

It feels so good to have this one finished!

:o)

Walla Walla and a Finish!

I am in Walla Walla (love that name!), Washington today and plan to have lunch with a quilter who lives here!  How fun!  In the meantime, I wanted to share with you another finish.  My younger daughter's best buddy from high school just had a baby girl.  I sent this quilt for the baby:

 Here is the back:

 A close up before washing:

 And the after washing, soft and crinkly shot:

I really enjoyed making this quilt, mostly from stash and scraps.

:o)

Starting something new...

I have started making a baby quilt for a new baby girl who belongs to a good friend of my younger daughter.  I have known the mom for about 15 years and she is a sweetheart.  Dad's pretty cool, too!

 The quilt will be almost completely made from stash which is a bonus to me. Here are some of the fabrics I will use:

And here are a couple of test blocks:

The pattern was inspired by a quilt I saw on Maureen Cracknell's blog.

:o)

The Birthday Quilt

Miraculously, I did get my mother-in-law's 90th birthday quilt finished.  Sadly, I didn't get to go to the celebration on the Ohio River riverboat, as I was in the hospital.  Here are some photos of the finished quilt.  My hubby said she really like the quilt.  I hope she is using it.

:o)

A Sweet Baby Quilt

I met my deadline for getting this baby quilt done!  I never got to show you how it turned out.  So here are lots of pictures!  First, my attempt to have a clever display:

The front:

And the back:

 And soft and crinkly after a trip through the washer and dryer!

:o)

A little snafu...

About a month ago, I had a milestone birthday.  We'll just say Medicare is my new health insurance plan.  (How did that happen?)  And one month ago today I put my new insurance to the test as my appendix ruptured.  Happy Birthday to me!  I had emergency surgery in the wee hours of the night and am very lucky to be alive.  I am on the mend but it is taking much longer than I expected.

This week I finally got back my need to sew.  I decided to start with something simple...a small bathroom curtain.  I am very conservative when it comes to home decorating.  Most all of my windows have white curtains of some sort.  Here is the before picture in the bathroom.

 
Here is the painting (by my daughter when she was in college) that was my color inspiration.

And here is the fabric I used...a Sarah Feilke print and Liberty print.

And here is the final result...in daylight:

...and at night:

My whole family will be visiting next week.  It will be fun to see if I get any reactions to my daring decorating move!

:o)

Test block...

There's been a big gap in my blogging and blog reading again.  I am still dating applications and checks with March instead of May.  Where does the time go?!?!  My blue and cream quilt is finally cut out.

I made a test block before I cut all the fabric this time.  I've made enough mistakes with past quilts to know I need to include that step before cutting all the fabric. Time to stop livin' on the edge...

:o|

Quilt clamps...

What kind of quilt clamps or clips do you use, if any?  I have tried several methods of holding a quilt in a roll while pushing it through the throat opening when you are machine quilting.  I started many years ago with this:

This kind always got caught on the table edge, or something else, and either distorted the quilt stitch or the clamp just fell off and went clanging along the floor leaving the quilt roll to expand.

An improvement was a similar kind of clamp except it is round instead of oval.  While it was a better tool, it too often caught on the machine cabinet or the table I was using to 'catch' the quilt as I pushed it through the machine making my stitching uneven.

Next came this little plastic gadget.  I found some of these at a vendor's booth at a quilt show.  I have never seen these since and lost track of who I bought them from.  They were great...until they broke.  They are a bit too rigid.  I only have one left.  Anyone else ever see these?

Last year I found these to try...the metal oval bicycle type clamps with a rubberized coating.  The coating makes a big difference as far as snagging on table edges and staying attached to the quilt roll.  But it wasn't a 'love' notion.

And finally I just found these at a local quilt shop.  I LOVE these.  They don't want to snag on edges and once you put them on the quilt roll, they stay put.

They come in two sizes which is nice for both baby quilts and the larger lap and bed quilts.

:o)

Disclaimer:  As you know if you read my blog, I am not involved in the 'business' side of quilting.  I purchased all of these clips in various places over several years and was in no way compensated for my opinion.

A birthday present...

My mother-in-law will be 90 in June.  There are plans for a big celebration on a riverboat on the Ohio River that docks in Louisville.  I am planning on making her a lap size quilt using these fabrics.  Blue is her favorite color...not one I often use.  I am looking forward to playing with these fabrics.

:o)

A little fabric love...

I picked these fabrics up recently on a quick trip to Seattle.  I love these colors and designs.

The orange flower print fabric reminds me of fabric I might have used to make an A-line dress for myself in the late 60's or early 70's.  Except these prints were usually found on cotton/poly blend dress weight fabric.  I only remember calicoes and country type fabrics being used for the quilts I saw then.  We've come a long way since then to our current quilt fabric choices, haven't we?!?

:o)