SWEET GRANDDAUGHTER AND A DONATION QUILT FINISHED

My DIL sent a couple pictures of Abigail that I couldn't resist showing you all.  

What a beautiful day at the beach!  And it's within a 10 minute drive for them.

I finished this donation quilt and took it to my guild meeting last night to be delivered to Children's Hospital.

By the time I finished it, the backing fabric had kind of grown on me.  I still have about 2 yards of it left.

I have been working on putting the blocks together for a king size quilt and the top is almost done!  I just have to sew a few more rows together and then do the border and I will be ready to sandwich it and quilt  it on my new sewing machine.  I hope it will fit.  If it doesn't, I will call my friend to see if I can quilt the middle part on her HQ machine and then I will finish it at home.

We had more rain on Sunday and I think we're supposed to get more during this week.  It's good to have a rainy spring again.

APRIL FMQ CHALLENGE

I am so happy!  The technique for transferring a quilting pattern to the quilt block worked for me.  I have a quilt that I made with these blocks and I finally got it put together.  I received the quilting pattern from the quilt shop where I took the class, and was wondering how I was going to be able to transfer it to the quilt.  Thanks for the tutorial, Don!  It worked like a charm and I now feel much better about doing the quilting.  

It's kind of hard to see the pattern on this block, so I took a picture of the back.

The pattern is quite easy because you don't have to backtrack at all and can quilt the complete block without stopping - that is if you don't make any mistakes.

Another big bonus for me, was that with my new Janome 6600 sewing machine, I was able to use two different colors of thread, light on the bottom and brown on the top.  I wanted to test this out because the fabric that I have for the backing of the quilt is light and most of the quilt top is dark.  With my old machine, I was never able to get the tension good enough to do it without it showing through.  Yea!!!

BOOK REVIEW AND DONATION QUILT

The second book in "The Daughters of Caleb Bender" series by Dale Cramer.

I received this book from Bethany House Publishers in exchange for writing a review and posting it on my blog.  I had read the first book in the series, so I was very happy to be able to review the second book.  The intriguing thing about this series is that it is inspired by actual events!  In fact, it was part of the author's family that went to Mexico to live due to persecution of the Amish in the United States during the 1920s.

I couldn't put this book down!  The story is compelling when the Bender family experiences disease, bandit attacks and death.  The fifth daughter, Miriam, wonders if she will be able to find an Amish husband in Mexico, but then several other families join them.  Will she fall in love with the son of one of those families?  I don't want to give the story away, but I do recommend it to you.

I just finished quilting a donation quilt on my new sewing machine!  It was great!

This is the backing.  Kind of wild!  I purchased this fabric at a garage sale in Illinois last summer for $1.00 - and that's for 5 yards!  The seller said it was from Africa and I was kind of afraid it would bleed a lot, but it didn't, so that is good.

I hope someone at the children's hospital likes it.

TOP ALMOST FINISHED!

This quilt top is finally coming together and I love it!  Just one more border to do.  It has flowers and leaves on it, so it will take a little while to do the machine applique.  If I work hard I might be able to get it together this week.  I decided I'm going to make the border out of a variety of yellow fabrics.

Pattern is Everyday Best by Becky Goldsmith

I've got several quilts that need to be layered and I'm thinking about at least getting one donation quilt layered so I can quilt it on my new sewing machine.  I can't wait to quilt a bigger quilt on it!

JANUARY FMQ CHALLENGE

SewCalGal is hosting a free motion quilting challenge that lasts all year.  Each month a quilting expert gives their advice and demonstrates how they quilt. January's expert is Frances Moore and below is my practice piece for the month.  We were out of town during the month of January, so I didn't have a chance to get this done then.

Thanks to SewCalGal for hosting this challenge!

MARCH FMQ CHALLENGE AND A SURPRISE!

SewCalGal is hosting a free motion quilting challenge that lasts all year.  Each month a quilting expert gives their advice and demonstrates how they quilt.  March's expert is Ann Fahl and below is my practice piece for the month.  By the end of the year, I'm hoping my FMQ has improved a lot.

Yesterday I was able to do my FMQ practice pieces on my new Janome 6600 sewing machine!!!

Wednesday DH and I went to the sewing machine shop to pick up my sewing machine.  While waiting for the repairman, we looked at some sewing machines and DH told me that he wanted to get me a new one for our 50th anniversary (in August)!

This sewing machine quilts like a dream and it has a larger space, so it will be easier to quilt large quilts.  Yea!!!  It sews a lot faster than my old machine and has other features that make it easier to quilt.  I can't wait to do more quilting on it.  I better hurry up and get some tops sandwiched!  I'll see you later!

A FEW SIDE PROJECTS

I like to have a few different projects going for different situations.  After making a Christmas stocking for Eli, I decided I really enjoy cross-stitching and wanted another one to work on.  I will pick this up while watching TV and sitting on the couch.

When I went to the quilting retreat a few weeks ago we each brought a brown bag gift for the gift exchange.  This is what I received!  The Fons & Porter quilters pencil is great and I didn't have one.  It will really come in handy.

I am hand quilting this little doll quilt for Abigail.  I don't have any deadline, so it isn't on the top of my priority list. Whenever I feel like it, I will do a little stitching on it.  I just decided what to do for the border (that was being put off) and used my new pencil to mark the heart design along one side.  

I made DS/DIL's large quilt with these same fabrics (Abigail's parents).

I love the backing on this little quilt.

I made this table runner out of panels that I got at a garage sale.  Each square looks like a seed package that costs ten cents.  I wasn't sure how I would quilt it and decided to hand quilt using perle cotton thread and larger stitches.  I like the way it turned out.

We received some badly needed rain, so our grass should start doing better.  I also planted a few flowers in the front - after I dug out all the weeds (not my favorite chore).

Have a great week!

DALLAS QUILT SHOW

Friday, DH & I went to the Dallas Quilt Show and saw lots of gorgeous quilts!  I took pictures of some of them and picked out several to post.  I tried to put the maker's names for all of them, but was unable to get close enough to see them all.  And I was unable to get a picture of the Best of Show quilt - too many people standing too close to it - but Theri got a really good picture and put it on her blog here.

Laura Kay Houser, McKinney, TX

Eun Yeon Yoo, Flower Mound, TX - all the dresses had smocking on them.

Jean Middlesworth, Shawnee, OK

Jean Middlesworth, Shawnee, OK

Kathy Carson, Dallas, TX  -  I love 9-patches!

Rhonda Hughes Montee, Cedar Hill, TX (she is a member of my guild and also owner of the Corner Square Quilt Shop in Cedar Hill, TX)

DH took this picture and I'm glad he did!

Klonda Holt, Lee's Summit, MO

I love this one, but couldn't get close enough to the label to get the maker's name.

Arlene Simpson, Denton, TX

Had to put in a Texas quilt!

I ran into "Love" from "I Just Love Quilts" several times and she posted some different pictures.  I got to meet some of her quilting friends.

Saturday when I was going to practice some free motion quilting, my sewing machine started acting up.  I took off the cover over the top section where the light is and pieces of black "something or other" dropped out.  Yesterday I took it to the sewing machine doctor.  Hope it gets fixed soon!

Thanks for visiting and hope you have a great quilty week!

More Retreat Projects

I worked on the alternate setting blocks for my civil war quilt.  Below is going to be the center of the civil war quilt.  Here is the link to the blog post that shows the layout I will be using.  It is the third one down.

These are some more of the setting blocks.  I haven't put any more up on my design wall - it's not big enough.

I also spent some time working on 23 log cabin blocks.  Add that to the 93 that I already have.  I didn't get all the logs sewn on because I ran out of time.

In order to keep the "logs" organized, I marked a piece of paper with the various measurements needed and placed the little stack of "logs" on the paper.

Then when I was finished, I rolled whatever was left in the paper so I could keep everything together.  That seemed to work for me.

Have a great day!

RETREAT!!

Last week I found out there was an opening at my guild retreat and I decided to go at the last minute.  I picked up another member of our guild and we arrived in time for lunch on Friday.  I had been at the  retreat center before, but it had been a few years.  It is an ideal place.  There are about 10 bedrooms with 4 beds in each room and I think there are about 6 bathrooms.  

This is the bedroom I stayed in.

A quilt on every bed!

Quilts hanging on the walls in the hallway that leads to the work room.

This is one of the quilts I worked on - Everyday Best by Becky Goldsmith
It was published in a 2006 issue of Quilting and originally published in Quilts with a Spin 2005.

Work room.  Plenty of design walls and plug outlets.

Even a store with lots of fabric!

Below are some of the quilts that other people were working on.  Lots of paper piecing was going on!

Lots of gorgeous quilts being made.

Lots of Stack n Whack quilts too!

I had a great time and made some headway on a few projects which I hope will be finished soon.  Two days away was good and it was good to get home too.

Have a great week everyone!