UFO

Last Thursday I quilted this using the longarm at the shop.  This quilt top languished in my closet for toooo long, since 2004... I think.  Originally, I had planned to hand quilt it with Baptist Fans after I'm done hand quilting another project.  But that project got put away and has been languishing for me to come back to it too. So when I discovered that there's a Baptist Fan pattern on the machine in the shop, it's time to get this puppy out of the closet and get it on the finish list.

 

 

 

I did a lot of online swaps back then with different Yahoo Groups.  These blocks came from Nickel Quilts Group.  We decided to swap the blocks using Civil War Reproduction fabrics.  The pattern is Paducah 9-Patch and can be found in the first Nickel Quilts book.
 

 

Can you see the Baptist Fans quilting?

I love it!



Paducah 9- Patch Whole Quilt

 

Up next, binding.

Let's hope that it won't take me another few more years to really put it on the finish list.

 

Happy Quilting,

Rhonda



Quilted!

 Worked on this for the last 2-1/2 days.

Total of 20+ hours of quilting.

Minus 4 to 5 hours of FROG stitching.

Started work on the quilt top back in October 2012.

Finished top in early December.

It sat on the longarm before Christmas waiting for quilting.

Didn't have the courage to until last Sunday.

 

 

 

 

So happy that it's finally quilted!

 

Happy Sewing,

Rhonda

 



A Finish

Yeah!! My first finish for Peg's Challenge and another baby quilt for Project Linus. All I had left to do was to sew the binding down yesterday which took about 15 minutes because I machine-stitched it. I usually like to do it by machine on donation and utilitarian quilts.

I used a fabric with butterflies on it for the backing and quilted loopy butterflies in the center in yellow thread. It was scarry at first to use a color thread on white background, but I like how it looks and was able to see where I was quilting.

I love the look of feathers in quilts so for the border, I quilted "whimsical feathers". The inspirations came from here; she has free patterns and her quiltings are amazing.

Now, don't look too close to my feathers; it is something not to be look at too closely except for when you're on a galloping horse going by it at a high speed... LOL... but I'm happy with my second attempt of feathers. I think my brain is starting to get it because it was much easier to form the feathers, made them smaller, and going around corners were not as difficult.

Quilts Found at the Dump and Summer Breeze

ROTFLOL... sorry, that just tickled my bones after I finished typing the title... there's something funny to me about the dump and summer breeze being in the same sentence. ;o)

Anyway, I like to share this amazing true story of the 7 quilts found at the dump at Penny's blog! Click here for the story, but before you go, lest you forget to come back because you're amazed by the story, please read about my Summer Breeze.

I loaded another quilt top that I made last summer, Summer Breeze, onto Dolly for a second "real" quilting. Thanks to the help of Mrs. Goodneedle, this was a breeze (couldn't help myself - :oD) to load unlike the CC quilt.

But before quilting on it, I went out to the garage and borrowed John's well used whiteboard. First, I practiced some loopy flowers, loopy butterflies, echo flowers, and spirals.... nothing was working though.

Then a lightbulb went on... since the quilt is called Summer Breeze, I should do something that looks like wind. This is what I came up with... does it look breezy?

I finished quilting it yesterday. I did an all over breezy design in the middle part and my first feather out in the borders. This was a great practice quilt... so I'm not going to show any close up photo. ;P

This and That

Well... so much for my plans to sew on National Quilting Day. I didn't make it to my sewing corner once yesterday. Fortunately, I did get to play with Dolly in the morning.First, I practiced free-hand loops and stars and love how it turned out. Then, unfortunately, my attempt at baptist fans turned out miserably. I used a stencil and drew the arcs onto the muslin and tried to stitch by following the lines. Well, for the life of me, whether I moved fast or slow, I could not stay on the lines and get those nice smooth arcs.... Guessed I need to practice a lot lot lot LOT more. :c]

Sorry the photo is a bit washed out. This is following a panto... again, there's room for lots of improvements.

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And for today, while John took the kids out for some shoppings - Best Buy, Toys R Us, and Guitar Center (I opted out on this shopping trip... hee hee), I finished the March blocks on Pinwheels and Posies.


So that are two things crossed off my list. Now, I need to tackle those Dear Jane blocks... tomorrow Anina will start a new block. Yikes! I better get my rear in gear.

HELLLLOOOO DOLLY!!

It's here! It's here!

I am soooo tickled pink that my new toy is here.

My HQ16 arrived last week, and Richard from Quilter's Cocoon, LQS, was here on Tuesday to set it up. He was here all morning working on it, making sure everything set up just right. He also gave me a lot of tips on how to play with Dolly.

Hannah (DD#2) came up with that name. We used to have a fluffy gray cat named, Dolly, for many years. She was a spunky, playful, and spirited feline. A friend from our old old neighborhood gave Dolly to Amanda (DD#1) when Amanda was about five years old. Since then, we moved a couple more times, and Dolly, of course, came along with us, took charged of her new enviroments each time.

She was getting old when we moved to this new house six years ago. Back then, the land was still developing with wild life cohabitated along with us. We had seen rabbits, roadrunners, and even coyotes roamed the streets at night. We tried to keep our Dolly inside with us, but being that she loved the outdoors more than being inside, it was hard to keep her in. For most part, we kept her indoor because of the fact that there were a lot of missing cat signs posted in the neighborhood. We knew what happened to those cats and didn't want our cats to suffer the same fate. We did tried our best to keep the cat in, but.... one night, after almost a year of being here, we called for our Dolly to come in and there was no Dolly. I hated to think what might have happened to her....

Wow, I really went off-tracked here, but we still missed our Dolly the feline friend now and then. So it is good to have another Dolly in the house.

This photo shows my first time playing with Dolly. Looks like Dolly (the machine) and I will have a lot of fun times together in the future.

IT'S A YESSS!!!

I can't believe that I forgot to write a post about this! I must have been more sick than I thought. LOL For those of you who have been following my blog might remembered the post "I want, I want" around Valentine's Day.

Well, I did popped the question on Valentine, and just as I predicted, John didn't said NO but didn't said yes either. His answered was that we need to get our tax done first. So everyday, I tried to persuade him a little bit more by giving him tibbits of what I can do with it. BTW, for those of you thinking what the HECK is she talking about, it's the HQ16 longarm machine that I wanted. I even mentioned that March is a special month for us (it's our anniversary), ... sneaky aren't I?! *LOL*... and I don't asked for anything... MUCH! lol

Well, we got our tax done last week right before I got sick and still not a complete yes from him. I think I closed the deal when one day he came home from work and saw me pretty much passed out on the couch from being sick. I had to let the dogs outside that afternoon and couldn't make it back upstairs to bed. What a SIGHT I must have been because when I was finally awaken, he asked if I had ordered the machine. I mustered a "no" and he said to go on right ahead. I think he felt sorry for me; even the kids commented the next day that they were glad that I was LOOKING and feeling better. LOL Of course, I made sure I got myself down to the shop to place my order. ;-)

I got a confirmation from Handi Quilter that they shipped the machine out yesterday. It will be here Friday or Monday the lastest. Yeah! I have to call the shop to see what day they coming out to set up and training, and what to name my machine...

Oh ... the photo on top is our "baby" Suki ... she loves to be held and cuddle. Isn't she adorable?

I Want, I Want, I WANT....

a HQ16 QUILTING MACHINE! (Can you hear me whining) LOL

This is a record for me ... two posts in the same day.

Last Friday, I stopped by Quilter's Cocoon (LQS) to look for quilts wash/soap ... can't remember what's it called? ... that helps stop the bleeding of the dyes while you wash your quilts. I really needed something because I was in a hurry and did not prewashed the fabrics for James' Pinwheels.

Well, the shop does not carry the product, but what I found out was that they are a rep for HQ16 now. They had been at training for the last few weeks and just got the machine in. After talking with the owner, Pagan, she invited me back this week to try out the machine.

Sooooo.... I stopped in today and tried it out. I spent about 45mins. on it and loved it! I tried the Tin Lizzie at Road to CA last month... wasn't really impress with it. (am no expert or anything) but I think the HQ16 is way better. However, ouch... the price tag sure hurts; it's NOT cheap!

Since tomorrow is Valentine's Day, I will pop the question to John. tee hee Hey, gotta give the gal credits for tryin'! Afterall, it is Valentines. At least, he won't said NO too quickly. lol

BTW, Pagan gave me a couple tips with the washing: 1) use 1 cup of vinegar with the washing water 2) use Shout color catcher sheet. I tried the sheet; it worked great!