QUILTING MY DJ QUILT

After taking a break, I'm back to quilting Dear Jane.  I have been agonizing over how to quilt some of the 5" blocks in the middle section.  I quilted a bunch of random blocks that I could make a decision on.  When I took it out this time, I decided to work on the border.  I saw someone's quilt that was quilted with feathers and decided to do that.  First, I had to mark the scallops and I found a bowl just the right size.

If you look closely at the bottom, you can see the printing which says, "Blue Bell Creamery, Handmade in Texas."  It's a perfect ice cream bowl!

 
So I marked the scallops with a pencil and then I indicated the half-way point at the bottom of the triangles with a dot.

First, I quilted the pieced triangles and I could go from one to the next without stopping and starting, which was great.

The solid fabric triangles are done the same way, but I quilted some short feathers in the scallops and I could also do these triangles without starting and stopping!

Here's what the back looks like.  I am quilting without marking the quilt except for the dot as shown.  The feathers are free hand and you can tell it isn't a professional job since they are irregular and squiggly.  

The bottom of the thread cone looks about right for marking the little extra corner scallop!  And, BTW, I'm using Superior Threads So Fine! #403 for the top and Essential Pro Natural from Connecting Threads for the bobbin.  The colors are pretty close, but I was afraid I wouldn't have enough of the Superior Threads cone to do both top and bottom with it.

So, now, I'm trying to come up with a name for the quilt.  Or should I just call it Dear Jane?

IT'S BASTED AND BEING QUILTED

I basted my Dear Jane quilt on a table with clamps......

using up all my pins that I even had to finish basting with thread.....

Now I'm quilting on my Janome sewing machine.....

Working on it slowly, not wanting to "kill" myself.    And needing to think about how to quilt the blocks.

Didn't get too far with the quilting as DH had out-patient surgery and we were at the hospital all day on Tuesday, plus I'm taking care of him - although I don't really have to do much for him.

THE JOYS OF QUILTING and A GIVE AWAY!

I have been busy quilting DH's Vintage Tin quilt.  On most of the embroidered panels I am quilting cross hatching.  I mark the quit with my Clover hera marker.  While I don't like marking quilts, it has to be done sometimes.  Especially on straight lines.  The hera marker puts a dent in the fabric without putting a colored mark on it.  You can see the dent in the picture below.

This shows more of the cross hatch quilting already done on the second embroidered panel.  Now, I'm working on the outer border of flying geese.

At one point where I had to stop for either putting in a new bobbin or some other reason, I couldn't find one of my quilting gloves.  I was quilting along and noticed that the quilt seemed thicker in one spot and thought I better see what was going on.  My glove got quilted onto the back of the quilt!  That is one of the "joys" of quilting.

Now for important things!  I'm having a GIVE-AWAY to celebrate my 700th post!!!  I started blogging in 2008 and have had a lot of fun with it.  I've learned so much from other bloggers, gotten encouragement, ideas and fun!  Seeing what other quilters are doing is amazing.  So, I want to have the give-away to express my appreciation to my readers.  I remember the first comment I got and also how excited when I received a comment from outside our country!  Quilters are the best!

The prize that someone will win is a 24" square of labels and 2 yards of fabric from my Etsy shop.  You can go to my Etsy shop by clicking on it in my sidebar and see the fabrics that I have for sale there in the "fabrics" section.  I don't have a huge selection, but maybe there is something that you can use.  

I will have the giveaway open for 5 days and will select the winner on Feb. 7, 2017 at 7:00 PM Pacific time.  A second winner will get a panel of the labels.  Just leave a comment on this post and tell me approximately how long you have been blogging and just one thing you have enjoyed the most from other bloggers.

EXPLORING AND SEWING

We went into Salem the other day and walked across the Willamette River on this walking bridge, which used to be a train bridge.

Abby and DS looking out at the river.

Looking north at the Willamette River

The doll quilt is finished now.  Below is a picture of Abby quilting it on my Janome 6600 sewing machine.  I decided it would be easier and best for her to use this machine instead of the Featherweight because this one has a stitch speed regulator that I could set so no matter how hard she pressed down on the foot pedal, it would only go to the speed I set it for.  She stitched across each diagonal row to form an X on each block.

The back of the finished quilt.  She picked some fabric with pictures of deer and bears on it, because she has been delighted to see lots of deer around our neighborhood.

The top of the doll quilt!

I folded the back over the front and ironed it down so all she had to do was stitch around it on the sewing machine.  I decided that would be easier for her first quilt.  ALL DONE!

BUSY WORK ON PROJECTS

I started quilting on this scrappy quilt and have about half of it quilted.  Then I stopped because there was a section that didn't turn out very well and I needed to take the stitching out, as well as turn my attention to some Christmas/birthday projects.

I made 4 of these outfits for 18" dolls.  One will be for my GD Abby for her birthday and the other 3 sets she can use a birthday gifts for friends.  I'm leaning towards giving her the one with the plaid blouse.  I really like that plaid fabric (which I got at a garage sale).

Here it is close up.

I like this polka dot blouse too.

I also made Abby a small pillow (travel size).  The cover comes off for washing.  I plan to make a couple for my 2 young GSs also.  In "boy" fabrics of course.

In the mean time, I have been working on my Dear Jane blocks and will post them soon.  In this post, I said I might try to finish Row F and that's what I'm working on!  I think I'll make it!

SOME QUILTING DONE AND SOME NOT

I basted 2 donation quilts and finished quilting one.  This one is a large baby size quilt and I tried a different quilting design that I saw somewhere.  It still needs binding.  It began as a "leader/ender" project and it's mostly reds, blues and stars for the alternating blocks.

bottom view

top view

 Then I started on the next donation quilt, which is somewhat larger - almost twin size.  I have been having problems with the quilting.  Maybe you can see what the sewing machine is doing.  It only does this when I'm FMQing.  Then I have to stop, rethread the machine, take out the bad stitches and start again.  It also makes rats nests randomly on the bottom side.  Not fun.

I may have blogged about this before.  I have a Janome 6600 which sews great all of the time except when I free motion quilt.  Another blogger also has this problem with her Janome.  Does anyone else have this happen?  I have taken it to be serviced a couple times on this, but it didn't get fixed.  I will probably try again soon.

thread makes a triangle tent

2 rats nests in swirl

The quilting is put aside for now.  In the mean time, I am working on some table runners for my GDs wedding reception coming up in August!  Oh my!  Can she be old enough to get married already?  

TABLE RUNNER AND TOPPER

One day while looking in my closet, I noticed this zig zag table runner that I had pieced, so I decided to get it quilted.  I had bought a large stack of charm squares when we were in New Hampshire for our anniversary in 2012.

I'm going to put this up for sale in my Easy shop.

In the mean time, I had an idea for another table runner.  I like to keep one on my coffee table and I like to have several to change out for the seasons.  I'm not sure if I'm going to put these three blocks together like this or not, but I like the colors and fabrics.

We have a round table that has two leaves.  In Texas, we had a larger dining area, so we always kept one leaf in it, but now in a smaller house, we are keeping it round.  So, I decided to make a table topper that will be more suitable for a round table.  I had this pattern by Atkinson Designs that I had bought a few years ago and decided to make the medium sized one which measures  30" x 35".

I wanted to use reproduction fabrics - of course!  It took me a while to figure out how I wanted to quilt it, but I'm happy with the plan.  You can see the quilting better from the back of it - especially for the dark border triangles.

You can see the dark border triangles a little in this picture.

I'm getting in the swing of things again and it feels good!  This week just flew by for me.  I can't believe it's Saturday already.  Have a good week-end!

KEEPING ON SEWING

I'm keeping on sewing in the camper.  Actually, while living in a camper, you don't have a lot of cleaning to do, no yard work, etc.  so there is more time to sew!  I have made a few little quilts that I plan to use on the back of our dining room chairs (6 of them).  I made this top using the left-over black fabric from my basket quilt and various shirtings.  I used only 2 squares from each shirting and a different one for the inner border.  I really love the black and wanted to use it in something else.  The squares finish at 1".

Here's another one that I showed you before and now it is quilted, but not bound.

I quilted a one sided feather in the border.  I love the hooked feathers and used them for this.  I used a dark grey thread that I am using for my basket quilt.

I'm quilting free motion hooked feathers for the basket quilt border without marking any lines.  First I go up on the right side, then sew a line back down to the bottom and then do the feathers going up on the left side.  I'm doing each side like that and I'm on the second side now.  I'm too lazy I guess to mark anything and since the scallops make it easy to make the feather spine curve, it works for me.

The dark grey thread doesn't really show up very well

Quilting from the back

I like to throw in a curly que feather every once in a while, or a fern looking one.  Sorry the pictures are kind of dark - It was early when I took them.

Soon I will be deciding on the name for my basket quilt.  I have received several good suggestions, so I'll pick one of them and let you know when I do.

Happy sewing this week!

MAKING PROGRESS

I'm almost finished with the quilting on my basket quilt.  I need to think up a name for the quilt - any suggestions?

I did echo quilting in the medallion, quilted around each basket and did stippling in between the baskets and in the space that the handles surround.  I haven't decided yet how I will quilt the border, but I decided to do the binding next and I need to make it first.  It has to be bias binding because the edge will be scalloped.

Some close-up pictures….

Barb, at Fun with Barb, asked if anyone wanted to join in on a 9-patch swap and she had lots of response.  So, I am making 100 9-patches, 2 for everyone in the reproduction swap (which is closed, BTW).  I have over half of them made so far - they go pretty fast, especially with the new method.

She had a tutorial here on a new way to make 9-patches and I'm using that method to make them.  I really like it!  You can check it out and try it for yourself.

Have a great week and thanks for visiting!

STILL SEWING AND QUILTING IN CAMPER

I'm still here living in our 5th wheel at my DS's house and we are progressing in the buying of the house.  Last week was the inspection and it passed that with flying colors!  This week an appraisal will be ordered and we go in to sign more papers with the mortgage company.  We are getting writers' cramp from signing so many papers!  But, we're getting excited and definitely looking forward to moving into a house and getting out of the camper!

In the mean time, I am keeping busy in-between the house business sewing and quilting (plus cooking).  I made another little quilt top and I'm almost finished quilting my basket quilt inner section around all the little baskets.  Also, I prepped a couple more Dear Jane blocks, but haven't had time to work on them any more.  I'm hoping to get the quilt finished before we move in so I can hang it up in our new living room!  I discovered during the inspection that there is plenty of wall space to hang quilts in the living room and bedrooms!!!

This is the 4-patch doll quilt that I made.  For some reason, I couldn't get the computer to straighten it, so it looks crooked.

We aren't enjoying the hot weather that we're having here in Oregon, but are thankful that we have air conditioning in our 5th wheel.  We're also happy that the house we're buying has A/C - a lot of the houses we looked at didn't have it.

We were expecting DS/DIL to return from Europe tomorrow, but found out they will arrive today instead!  Yea!!

I hope you are enjoying warmer weather, but hopefully not too hot!

QUILTING AND BINDING FINISHED ON GRADUATION QUILT

It feels so good when a quilt is all finished.  And after the 25th anniversary quilt, with "custom" quilting, it felt so good to do an "overall" quilting job.  

I again used Angela Walters "Free Motion Quilting" book for inspiration.  In fact I used the same quilting design as I did on the Virginia Bound quilt (in header).  Except, this time, I think I finally got the hang of the hook in the "Swirled Hook" design.  Some of these same shirts were used in Virginia Bound and they aren't used up yet!

They aren't perfect, but maybe you can see a few of the hooks in the close-up pictures.

This is Bonnie Hunter's "Star Gazing" pattern and again, even though there is a lot of piecing to do, it seems to go pretty fast when you follow each section in the pattern as she describes it and get the chain piecing going.

I didn't have one piece of fabric that I could use for the whole back, so I pieced it (just like Bonnie does)!  I had some of the musical fabric left from the front - mostly used in the red and light colored triangles.

The whole back.

I also had some "historic" fabric pieces and some blue that went with it all and pieced it together the best that I could.  I think you can see the quilting better in this section below.

I still need to make a label and plan to do that this next week.  Woo Hoo!  Now I can get on to some fun UFOs, hopefully!

We found out that our DGS will be going to college in Minnesota, so I think this will help keep him warm for the cold winters they have there.

Oh, BTW, I didn't start anything new in April.