Working on various things

Before I sent the table topper off last week I took a picture of the back with the label on it. Small projects like this one are really fun to quilt on the Juki and I have some larger projects lined up already that I'm planing on quilting soon. My main problem is that I'm making the quilting process more complicated than it has to be, because I want to find the "perfect" pattern for each block. Well, with several sampler block quilt tops that is taking me quite some time and I've come to the conclusion that I just need to learn to relax and just go for it. lol The one's that are causing me problems are my quilts anyway, so who really cares how I quilt them, other than me? ;o)

I didn't want the quilt police to get me for not having equal quilting on the entire surface, so I added some echo quilting around the heart center I worked on the other day. Since I wanted the heart motif to remain more dominant I echo quilted it using plain white thread.
Right now I'm in the mood to just get things FINISHED, so I think I'll just sew a "flip" backing on without a zipper and no binding around the pillow. OK, I know there must be some formal and correct term for my pillow method, but I can't think of it right now, so if you're wondering what I'm talking about, I'll try to briefly describe it. I'll lay two overlapping pieces of fabric with right side down on the right side of the "top" (the two back pieces will have finished edges), then sew around the entire thing and just turn the whole thing right side out and voila, finished pillow case! :o)
I'll try to get that done today and if so, I'll post a picture later.

Here's yet another American Hero top that Michelle is helping me work on - a simple Rail Fence top. While I do all the cutting and ironing, Michelle sews the strips for the rail fence together.Then I piece the center and put the borders on. I just got done putting the top together and will try to go out to buy some batting and backing for it next week to finish the quilt.
Michelle started working on more Rail Fence strips, but I thought we should try another layout. So I was tracing, fusing and button hole stitching some heart blocks and the result so far is below. Michelle still has a few more strips to sew to make the top larger, but so far I really like it. The border is going to be similar again to the top above if I have enough fabric.

Sewing kit etc.

This is a little mesh bag I made for Aaron to keep his sewing utensils and a yard of fabric in. Next week they'll start on a basic sewing class at school and everything he needs for that fits nicely in his bag, so no digging in his backpack for lost items.

This is another piece I created on my Juki last week. The heart measures 13"x 13 1/3". The picture doesn't show it very well, but it's stitched in a burgundy King Tut thread. Since I used a scrap of Warm & White for the batting I'm debating if I should add some more quilting around the heart or not, before turning this one into a pillow, so for now I'll let it "age" a little bit before making my final decision. :o)

Table topper

Here is a picture of a table topper I'm making for a member of WASIQ. To me she represents all of the soldiers that have been sent to war areas. We know the names of those fallen and we get to know some names of those injured, but how many come home with mental scars, like flashbacks, post traumatic stress disorders and the like that nobody seems to want to talk about or acknowledge?

This table topper will not take any of the images and experiences away that our soldiers go through, but we need to let all of our service people know that we care about them, regardless of political orientation.

One finished / one to go

Remember the stippled heart I was working on the other day? Well, it's a pillow now and sitting on my bed. :o)
Then I got playing some more with the fabric I bought last week and used my Marti Michell Kaleido ruler to make the pinwheel blocks (12"). The center is all sewn together already, but this morning I cut out the red inner border and outside border. I might have a chance to work more on that later - after DH comes home for lunch and before the kids come home from school.
BTW, this is my official quilt tester. lol Right now it's too bright for him while sleeping, so he's covering his eyes. hehe

Our poor car!

This is what happened to our poor car after the Renaissance Festival. We just made it out of the parking for a few minutes when the traffic density increased. So we had to slow down till we came to a stop (due to an accident ahead of us and the left lane traffic having to make a turn to go the opposite direction on the 60). DH said something to the effect as to "hold on" and I'm thinking, we're clear ahead, when we got rammed from the back. Our KIA looks really good in comparison to how the Honda Accord, that slammed into us, looked. Their front end was dangling and smashed in.
Today we received an appointment for Thursday to have the car looked at by the claims adjuster (I think that's what he's called) and then it hopefully won't take too long to get the repairs done.
With Dh's school after work and the kid's after school schedule, we really need two cars.

OK, to contintue the accident story above. A few minutes, after we were moved off the road and one Highway Patrol officer was taking down statements three more cars crashed a few feet away from us on the left hand lane and one of the cars (well, actually a minivan) ended up in the ditch/ median. With two more patrol cars joining to tend to that accident, you'd think people would FINALLAY slow down, but unfortunately that does not seem the case in AZ. They really could make money here by increasing personell and giving out speeding tickets!!!

Here's something my hubby sent me this morning that fits lol:

HOW TO DRIVE IN PHOENIX, ARIZONA.

1. "Phoenix" actually consists of Scottsdale, Chandler, Tempe, Mesa, Gilbert, Glendale, and half of the Mexican border.

2. The morning rush hour is from 5:00am to noon. The evening rush hour is from noon to 7:00pm. Friday's rush hour starts on Thursday morning.

3. The minimum acceptable speed on most freeways is 85 mph. On Loop 101, your speed is expected to match the highway number. Anything less is considered "Wussy".

4. Forget the traffic rules you learned elsewhere. Phoenix has its own version of traffic rules. For example, cars/trucks with the loudest muffler go first at a four-way stop; the trucks with the biggest tires go second.

However, East Valley, SUV-driving, cell-phone-talking moms ALWAYS have the right of way.

5. If you actually stop at a yellow light, you will be rear ended.

6. Never honk at anyone. Ever. Seriously. It's an offense that can get you shot.

7. Road construction is permanent in Phoenix. Detour barrels are moved around for your entertainment pleasure during the middle of the night to make the next day's driving a bit more exciting.

8. Watch carefully for road hazards such as drunks, dogs,
barrels, cones, cats, mattresses, shredded tires, rabbits,
vultures, javelinas, roadrunners, and the coyotes feeding
on any of these items.

9. Maricopa Freeway, Papago Freeway and the "I-10" are the same road. SR202 is the same road as The Red Mountain FWY. Dunlap and Olive are the same street too. Jefferson becomes Washington, but they are not the same street. I-17 is also called The Black Canyon Freeway as well as The Veterans Memorial Highway. The SR 51 has recently been renamed to Piestewa Freeway because Squaw Peak Parkway was too easy to pronounce. SR 101 is also the Pima FWY except west of I-17, which is also The Black Canyon FWY, and The Veterans Memorial HWY. Lastly, Thunderbird Rd. becomes Cactus Rd. but, Cactus Rd. doesn't become Thunderbird Rd. because it dead ends at a mountain.

10. If someone actually has their turn signal on, wave them to the
shoulder immediately to let them know it has been "accidentally
activated."

11. If you are in the left lane and only driving 70 in a 55-65 mph zone, you are considered a road hazard and will be "flipped off" accordingly. If you return the flip, you'll be shot.

12. For summer driving, it is advisable to wear potholders on your hands.

Renaissance Festival

Last Saturday we went to the Renaissance Festival, right out of Mesa. We had a good day, enjoying the shows, looking at what the vendors had to offer and looking at all of the visitors who came dressed up for the occasion. Above are just a few of the pictures I had taken during the joust tournaments.

Some good finds

I was thrilled about finding the four fabrics above at WalMart of all places, but the one below really inspired me.

It's probably a fabric that most people have problems envisioning what to do with it, but I thought the heart blocks would make great centers for a pieced block, and that's what I have been doing on and off the last two days using my 3"Marti Michell template set.

And here's the result so far.

It was time intensive to make all of the HST's (Half Square Triangles), so I'm debating if I should just use this as a center and build around it with some of the other fabrics or make pretty much the entire top with the ribbon stars.

To be continued. :o)

The top is finished

of another American Hero quilt. Michelle's ready to help put more blocks together with me, so I need to start cutting up and preparing some fabric for her. She knows who these quilts are for and she's proud to help.

The Flying geese units are easy for her to piece and I don't have to worry about her using an accurate 1/4" all the time, because we're using the Quilt in a Day Flying geese ruler. Since we'll be making quite a few more of the FG units, I'll have to come up with some block variations, so not all tops will look the same. That will also make it more interesting for me to work on them, because I get bored with the same designs easily. lol

Working on American Hero blocks

Michelle was helping me today to work on some more blocks for an American Hero quilt. While I was ironing, cutting and marking the fabric, she did simple straight line sewing on my Pfaff.

As you can see from the picture she was having a lot of fun zipping away and did a really good job. Together we made enough blocks for 2 1/2 quilts - that's when I ran out of the fabric we used. I hope to find some more of it next week when I have to get more fabric for sashing and borders as well.

Love my Juki

The kids (who are on Spring Break this week) keep me quite busy, but I don't let that keep me from having some play time with my quilting projects and Juki to keep my sanity. LOL

One of the things I played around with yesterday was a layout for the batik star blocks and here's my failed layout attempt for the sashing of it.

I think the fabric I am auditioning in the sashing is going to be great for the border of this quilt to pull out all of the colors, but the stars are just too busy to be used in the sashing. So for now I'll let the project "age" a bit till I come up with something I like better.

This evening I used one of my large heart stencils, that I had bought while in Washington three weeks ago, to mark a "practice sandwich" with the Quilt Pounce.

I used some variegated Superior thread, Machingers (great machine quilting gloves that I've also gotten free with my Juki purchase) and my new Juki of course. :o)

After I did the outline I thought it looked a bit boring, so I added some stippling around the heart.

And then filled the center.
Now I just need to decide on a fabric to use as a backing and binding to turn this into a pillow. Don't want this block to go to waste and I love pillows! This one's going to be about 14".

BTW, the table runner I was working on the other day is finished, but it looks a bit rumpled in the picture, because I have just taken it out of the dryer. Once it's flattened I think it looks good on my grandmother's old Singer cabinet with my kids' pictures.

Bored? Who?

Not me, that's for sure!

I'm having fun playing around with my Juki.

Today I was able to finish swapping out the rest of the shaded 4-patch blocks for a small swap that I am hosting and completed piecing the top below with blocks that I've made and some from the exchange. I love the scrappy look of it. Right now it measures 49"x72" and I'm tempted to make more blocks to add to the sides.


Next I dug out a small table runner. The red and white blocks were made a while ago (I think about 2-3 years) when a swap of those blocks was going on. Since I never finished enough blocks to participate (the 3 blocks are it! lol), I had to come up with a way to use them, so after I had some of the blue fabric left from a quilt I had pieced, I used the rest to create an on-point setting of the table runner.

This block is pretty blah! And didn't inspire me for the longest time how to quilt it.

Till I found this 8" stencil (the blocks are 9")

As you can see from the back side, the dark setting triangles were stipple quilted.

On the front I used variegated (r/w/b) King Tut thread.

I'll try to find some fabric for the binding after I'm done straightening out my sewing corner and then I hope to get the binding made and stitched on the front by machine tomorrow to have it prepared to take with my to DS's Kung Fu to stitch the back on by hand there. Once I finish it, I'll post a picture.

more things I'm working on

The batik star blocks were mainly from a monthly BOM, but since I lost one of the blocks, I had to make a replacement block up for that and another one was sewn together differently (don't ask me why lol), so a second block had to be replaced. With all of the blocks done now, I have to come up with how I want the sashing and borders to pull everything together. I'll be using my EQ5 software to do so.

After having some cut out Tumbling block pieces laying around for several months now, I decided it was time to at least put this small center together. When inspiration hits me, I'll decide how I'll proceed to incorporate this into a probably twin size top, so be on the look-out for future posts. ;o)

Last, but not least, I've been playing around with my shaded 4-patch blocks that I've been hosting a swap with. Of the three projects posted here, this one is most likely the first one to be turned into a finished quilt. I probably won't add a border beyond this and for the quilting I'll most likely just stipple quilt it.

FP class round-up

The Flower power class has come to an end and I was only able to complete the little tulip wall hanging, which my daughter claimed, so it's hanging in her room.

The other UDA project I worked on is this little thistle piece. The thread painting is really addictive and I'm sure I'll try more projects with that. As you can see this is still just the center, but as time allows I'll turn this into a small wall hanging as well.

My visit in Washington

Boy, it's been a while since I've last posted and the time just seems to fly!

So I'll try to compress the happenings of the last weeks and will try to break it up into several posts to not write a novel. lol

Sooooo, in the picture below you see (from left to right) Robin, Molly and myself.

For the annual Sew & Stitchery Expo in Puyallup, WA, I was invited by Molly to stay at her house. Robin and I flew in Wednesday evening and Thursday and Friday the three of us spent in seminars and, as time allowed, browsed the many, many vendors. The seminars were great (although some were a bit different from what we imagined) and we even got to take a picture with Marti Michell!!!

Marti recognized me from when we were selecting fabric at Parkland Parish for one of her classes I was teaching there and I thought that was neat, because she sees hundreds of faces during expo.

With Expo drawing to a close for us on Friday and having been done with our seminars I was finally able to make my BIG purchase! After comparing prices on Thursday and Friday, I decided that the Juki TL-98Q was the perfect fit for me for the price and the features I was looking for. Best thing was that I didn't have to lug the machine on the plane with me, because they offered FREE shipping and handling and NO tax. On top of that I got a $300 shopping spree at Superior Threads! So who could beat that? So below you can see my new "baby" that arrived at my home at super speed and my thread selection.

Saturday we went quilt shop hopping with Molly's friend Judi (who was driving) and Becca, who belongs to WASIQ (an internet quilt group, Molly, Robin and I belong to). The picture below was taken at The Quilted Rose in Orting, WA.

Below are some of the purchases from Expo and our shop hop:

The stencils were picked up at Bayside quilting in Olympia, WA, a longarmer's paradise.

So as you can see, we had a lot of fun and some very productive days. :o)