QUILTING AND MORE QUILTING

Monday morning I decided to baste my king size quilt (as yet unnamed) on the floor of the dining room. First I washed the floor and then taped about 2/3 of the backing down.  I couldn't quite spread it out all the way.  I used some knee pads that DH had in the garage or my knees would have been toast.  Spreading the batting and the top was no problem.  Then I started pinning.  I was getting hot and tired - it was not a pretty site.  I pinned so good that I used up all my pins and went throughout the house looking for more.  At that point, I decided to do straight stitching on the black squares so I could then take out some pins to use on the remaining 1/3 of the quilt.  So I did that and then it went back on the floor to finish pinning.  

The reason I basted it on the floor instead of on my tables is that I wanted to get the backing stretched out better than would be possible on the tables, which wouldn't have been as big as the floor.  The last time I basted a queen size quilt on the table, I spray basted it and I had some problems getting the top placed properly.  Actually, I think I like the pinning method best.  I'll use the spray basting method on smaller quilts that are easier to handle.

Using the dual feed foot to do straight stitching on the black.

Quilt is spread out on my sewing table & ironing board.

Feathers in part of the border.

FMQ on a block.

I have to give Joanne from Thread Head all the credit for the QAL (quilt-a-long) for this quilt.  I am also borrowing her borders that she used to enlarge her quilt to king size.  Also, I am using her idea for the  quilting in the triangle section of the border.  Thanks to her, I am a lot more comfortable quilting feathers. I can't claim to be very original at all.  The quilting motif for the pieced blocks is the same one I used on my last quilt.  It is easy to do and fit the size of the blocks - that's why I'm using it.  I'm afraid that once I get to this stage, I just want to get it finished!!

One night I woke up about 1:00 AM and started thinking about what I could name the quilt and I thought up what was a pretty good name.   The problem is, I can't remember what it was!  Thanks for the suggestions that came in.  I'll have to think about it some more.

This is the new sign that was just put up at the pond that I walk around in the mornings.  The sun was just barely coming up when I took the picture and it was behind the plaque - that's why the lighting isn't very good.

I better get back to quilting.

TOP FINISHED!!!

This morning I finished putting the borders on my king size quilt!  Yea!!!  I hope to get it basted this week and begin the quilting.  It is 110" square, so it will take a while to quilt.  This will be the test to see if I can quilt something this large on my sewing machine.  

Please give me any ideas for a name for this quilt.   I would appreciate it!

Last night we heard a noise sometime between 8 and 9 PM.  I looked around the hall, but didn't see anything.  This morning, DH said that our window had been broken and it looks like a gun shot.  See it in the picture below.  The bullet didn't go through both panes of glass, just the screen and the outside pane.  We called the police and they came out and looked at it, but there's nothing that can be done other than to watch out for other similar cases.  What is wrong with people today?

It is the window in our guest bedroom (actually, it's more like a sewing fabric and UFO overflow room) and you can see the alley below the window.

Kind of a good and bad post, but we will look on the bright side.  Hope your Sunday is good and you can get some sewing accomplished!

JUNE FMQ CHALLENGE

The June FMQ challenge tutorial is from Cindy Needham.   Her tutorial was extremely helpful and I do want to thank her for participating.  First, I want to thank her for  handout on beginning and ending quilting lines.  When I read her method, I was so relieved because I had just spent a lot of time burying my threads in a quilt and I did not like that method at all.  I also liked what she had to say about imperfection!  She said, "My quilts are full of beautiful texture and movement and they are imperfect...and I love them."  And her advice on quilting circles really works.  Go to SewCalGal, click on the June FMQ challenge on the right side, and you can read Cindy's tutorial for all the details. 

My submission below was really fun to do.  I used some of her ideas and actually came up with an idea or two of my own!  I hope to be able to incorporate these ideas in some of my quilts.

I finished this twin size quilt and while it's not my favorite, I do like it a lot and am glad I got it finished.  It was started at least 4 (maybe more) years ago when I took a class at the local quilt shop, which has sadly gone out of business.

Some of the gals from my quilt guild are now knitting baby hats for the Children's Hospital and I have started as well.  We get together on Saturday mornings at a coffee shop to knit and talk.  I hope to go for a little while tomorrow as it is fun and the raspberry mocha coffee is yummy!  The baby hats can easily be knitted while riding in the car or truck too.

CURRENT PROJECTS AND OLD LINENS

Last week was very busy for us.  We went to the Apple store 3 times to get our desktop upgraded and it's still not totally done.  I don't know why.  We may have to go back again.  With all our driving around and sitting and waiting I worked on knitting baby caps and cross stitching a new project.  (forgot to take pictures of those things).

Now, I am quilting this little quilt  - Prairie Huswyfe - that I won from a blog.

My couch project now is sewing the binding onto the back of this quilt.

Saturday was a good day!  I needed some fabric for the binding of the above quilt and I got an email from Golden D'Or, a fabric outlet in Dallas.  Since we were at the Apple store anyway, I told DH that I wanted to swing by the fabric outlet to see if I could get some blue and brown fabric - I'm low on both.  I had received a 30% off coupon (which I thought was just for one regular priced item, but it turned out it was on my total purchase of regular priced items)!!  Unfortunately, they don't have many reproduction fabrics and that is what I was looking for, but I did find these that I liked, so I bought 3 yards of each.  The "regular" price was $4.50 to $4.99 per yard, so I got all 9 yards at less than $4 per yard!!!  I will definitely be going back there more often!

I just read Lori's blog and she asked if any of us collected vintage linens and do we display them.  So I took a few pictures.

Doily on my Grandma's old book stand.

Tea towel (bought at garage sale) hanging over old rocker (also bought at garage sale).

Little tablecloth that my Mom embroidered topped with old buttons in a dish and some of my doll dishes.

Little bag that I found at a garage sale with my MIL's initials on it - H on one side and J on the other side.

I am always drawn to old linens at garage sales and thrift shops.  I want to make something out of some of them, but haven't figured out what yet.  I display some of them as you can see.  I especially look for anything with tatting on it.  Last weekend I got a hankie with exquisite tatting on it for $1.00!!  I have quite a collection of hankies now, some with crocheted edgings and some with tatting.  Any ideas?

Have a great week!

THANKFUL FOR THE MEN IN MY LIFE

Happy Fathers' Day to all the Dads out there!  I am so thankful for the men in my life.  

My Dad:  Sverre Jarl Andersen (my grandparents were from Norway and Sverre is a popular name there) was a wonderful Father and we were very blessed that he lived to 89 years.

My DH, who has always supported me in whatever I did - and now is my daily companion in life.  He puts up with all the sewing, knitting and embroidery that I do, drives our camper thousands of miles and is a wonderful Father to our sons and Grandfather to our five grandchildren.  Plus he makes the bed every day, does the laundry and is a general fix-it man.

DS#1 is a pilot for FedEx in Oregon and the father of Angela (below) and Jakob.

DS#2 lives in Florida and is the father of Abigail (he just graduated from nurses training).

DS#3, lives in Arkansas, is a pilot in the Air Force and the father of Jonah and Eli.

I'm so proud of the wonderful Fathers that my 3 sons have become!  Have a great Fathers' Day!  

KALEIDOSCOPE FINISHED!!

I finished quilting and binding Kaleidoscope over the weekend!  Yea!!!  The pattern is by Becky Goldsmith and was originally named "Everyday Best."

I quilt on my Janome 6600 sewing machine using the free motion quilting (FMQ) method.   I have learned just about everything I know about FMQ from other bloggers and from participating in some FMQ challenges like the one going on all year with Sew Cal Gal.  I am so thankful for all their help.  

All the fabric used was from my stash.  I used lots of scraps - but seem to still have tons of them!

I'm glad it's finished!  The paper pieced circles were just about all pieced in our camper while on trips.  I put the corners on the circles at my retreat in March.  I'm not sure when I started it - probably the summer of 2010 during our first camping trip.  Yes, it feels good to finish a large project!  Now I can move on to another one.

TWO FINISHES THIS WEEK

I decided to get two small projects finished.  The first one is the Liberty Cross Stitch that I just finished.  I wanted to finish it up so it wouldn't be languishing in the closet for a couple years.  I sewed borders on it and then sandwiched it like a quilt, did some stitching and bound it so I can hang it on the wall.  I know the orange "Union" border is civil war fabric, and the cross stitch says 1776, but I liked how it looked.  Hee Hee!  It was a perfect match!

The second project is a pillow that I put together.  The stitchery was something that I got from Australia - Lynne Anderson is the designer - and I traded some fabric for it, I think.  It's been a while.  I stitched it about 2-3 years ago and it has been in the closet ever since.  I found some fabric and rick rack in my stash and it didn't take too long.  Both were finished in a day.  Woo Hoo!!

I have also been doing a lot of quilting and finished quilting my Kaleidoscope quilt - just have the binding to sew on, so I think I'll get it finished this weekend.  Wow!  I'm getting close to moving on to another project!  I want to get my king size QAL quilt finished - I just need to finish the borders and then I can sandwich it and start on that quilting.

I also have some secret projects that I need to work on this summer.

Have a great weekend!  I'm off to a coffee shop to knit baby caps!

SUPER HERO BIRTHDAY PARTY A SUCCESS!

Jonah's 4th birthday party was lots of fun!  The kids each got a superhero cape and mask.

Jonah is ready for the party to start

Blowing out his candle

My DIL put a lot into the party planning and decorations.  She hunted down a refrigerator box and they fixed it up like a phone booth for Superman to change into his costume.  Of course, these little kids had no clue about that, but they had fun playing in it anyway.  

Eli in phone booth

Superman shooting a nerf gun at the villain

They put up a screen magnet door to try to keep flies out of the house.  The screen door was a big hit!
Here's Eli playing with it.

We got some good cuddling in over the weekend and were sad to leave.  It's hard being a grandparent who doesn't live near their grandkids.  Jonah cried when we left.  Boo Hoo!

THIS WEEK'S QUILTING REPORT

This will be a very quick post at the last minute before we leave for the weekend.

I finished this cross stitched project.

I decided to start quilting this UFO and got all the blocks quilted.  Please excuse the picture as it was done without proper lighting.

Maybe this one is better.  I don't know if you can see the quilting or not.

I ran into a snag on my Kaleidoscope quilt and decided to "unquilt" part of the inner border.  I finished the rest of the border the way I wanted to do it with leaves and just have to take care of the corrected part.  Then I will try to figure out what to quilt in the outer border.

Have a nice weekend!