quilts

Spiked Pinwheels

6 Comments / Custom Quilting, free motion quilting, Innova, Long Arm Quilting, quilt, quilting, quilts, Sew BitterSweet Designs Patterns, Spike / By

Hello! I am still alive, I promise. I’ve been working on my Master’s degree the last 8 months and have not had much time for quilting. That being said, I still do have patterns coming out! My latest one, called Spiked Pinwheels, is in Issue 21 of Modern Quilts Unlimited!

This quilt is a monochromatic design made in American Made Brand solids, which are so awesome to work with! It’s a new take on the classic pinwheel design using half rectangle triangles. I quilted this beauty on Spike with double batting, so it is thick and luxurious.

So the next time you are at the bookstore make sure you pick up Issue 21, some of my favorite designers are in this issue, including Vicki of Orchid Owl Quilts.

Keep on quilting and I will keep on studying!

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Grounded!

38 Comments / quilts / By

Last week my friend Krista grounded me and then when I explained to Shanna why I was grounded, she heartily agreed with Krista! Ahhhhh!

Let me explain…I’ve been quilting for 12 years come this summer (it is easy for me to keep track, my first quilt was for my niece and she turns 12 in September) and I have NEVER put a label on a quilt. I know. Shock, Gasp, Faint!  I just haven’t taken the time. You are probably going to be even more appalled when I tell you that I was a history major in college, so yes preserving the past is very important to me and before I got pregnant with Anne I was going to school for my master’s in education and substitute teaching in schools. You would think someone like me would label everything, but I haven’t. I’m just always so excited to get to the finish that I don’t take the time.

What is my sentence? I am grounded to my room with no TV for 3 hours per unlabeled quilt. Here’s the thing I’m not exactly sure how many quilts that is, it is easily over 30. I am, however, allowed a computer and internet access, but I am not allowed to buy fabric. That is my punishment!

I am happy to report that last week I joined those labeling fanatics and have done my first label. It is on a quilt for my mom and it is using her method. I will have a tutorial up for it later this week, by Friday for sure.

So tell me…am I the only one who is horrible about labeling and would rather just finish the quilt?

Linking up to Let’s Get Acquainted

 

Waiting for light

8 Comments / Hand Quilting, quilts / By

Last night I worked for almost 2 hours on my star wall hanging that I am hand quilting for my moms Mother’s Day gift. I am paying the price this morning. Was going to take pictures, but let’s face it, the lighting at 9 pm at night is not ideal for any photo taking!

The lighting is still not that great, I tried flash but it just washed out the stitching. What you may not be able to see is the stitching in the center square and the stitching in the blue star points. That’s ok, I know it is there. If we ever have another sunny day I will try to take a picture outside. I am going to take tonight off from stitch because I way overdid it last night.

Here is a sneak peak at a secret project that I started working on last night.

This is the color palette for my next original quilt design. I started working on my test blocks yesterday and while I love how my first block turned out, I think I need to make a few tweaks to make it more manageable and easier to explain. Do you like the colors?

That’s all for me today! I will be taking it easy on my hands for the next few days…they are screaming at me today and advil isn’t helping…yet.

Oh yeah, and did you notice that I have disappeared from Google Friend Connect?!? Well I did, in fact one of my buddies only re-found me yesterday! The best ways to keep up with me are listed in my sidebar – Facebook and Twitter are where I hang out the most.

Weekend Update and other stuff…

8 Comments / Charity, quilt blocks, quilts / By

This weekend my parents flew in for a quick visit. They had a couple of reasons to visit: they wanted to come to an appointment with Anne and I, Sew Expo was this weekend and my hubby’s birthday was on Saturday. We had a very full weekend.

Starting with Friday, our appointment went off without a hitch, in fact (and I know I’m being cryptic, sorry), it was the best appointment we have had for this particular issue in a year and worthy of celebration.

Saturday my mom and I spent the whole day together. We sent to Sew Expo and well…what to say. I had a really good time, but mostly because I was with my mom. I really enjoyed going to the Superior Threads booth and meeting the whole team. I also met a fellow blogger, Jenny, from Sew Kind of Wonderful and bought her new tool the Quick Curve Ruler.  Believe it or not…the only other things I bought were some clover binding clips and 2 fat quarters. I had a budget of $100 and spent $20 (my mom split the cost of the clips). That night we went out for a lovely dinner for my hubby.

On Sunday I got quilty after my parents left for the airport.

I got the quilting done on my Sister-In-Law’s baby gift

This quilt is called Zig Zag Zoom, I bought it as a kit 3 years ago and I am finally finishing it up. I bought the kit from Always Quilting Online – which is a store where I grew up in San Mateo, CA.

Here is a close-up of the quilting. I did straight line quilting using my 1/4″ foot.

Hoping to get the binding on it before Friday so I can link up to Quilter in The Gap’s Friday Finish party.

Today I made the blocks for Trust Circle of Do.Good Stitches.

This month we were given the tutorial from SewMamaSew Modern Block of the Month for January. We were asked to use white as a base color and then bold solids. What do you think?

Over at Quilting Gallery (run by the wonderful Michele), Pat Sloan is hosting the Learning Center and last week Pat asked me if I could write a short piece answering the question “What is a Pieced Quilt?” Today’s post is all about Quilting Types and Styles – and you can read what I came up with!

There is lots of time left to enter to win a free subscription to Ole Frog Eyes, go check out my review and enter to win!

Holy Buckets Batman, I was long winded today! What are you up to? Any finishes on your horizon?

 

Monkeying Around

6 Comments / monkey business quilt, quilt, quilting, quilts / By

The past few days I have been monkeying around in my sewing room working on my last “official” Christmas present and I am delighted to say that it is DONE!

Here is a wide shot of the entire quilt – this is minutes after I finished sewing it – no ironing or washing yet. You may notice that there is no binding on this quilt – I decided to do the quick turn method because I did flannel on the back and quilting cotton on the front.  It was nice not having to bind a quilt for once!

This is the first quilt that I did Free Motion Quilting on my new Horizon machine. I did swirlies around the nine patches and each of the large 12″ blocks I just did a random meandering. I wanted to play around as much as possible in each block to really get a feel for it. Here is a picture of my favorite square – I am pretty pleased with how it turned out – but I know I have a lot more to learn when it comes to FMQ!

Quilt Stats:

Measures: 60 x 60 inches

Front Fabrics: 5 Funky Monkeys by Erin Michaels for Moda & cooridnating solids

Backing Fabric – flannel monkey & banana print from JoAnn’s

Quilting – Free Motion Quilting

Thread – Bottom Line by Superior Threads

This is one of my original designs 🙂

My nephew just turned 1 and I think he is going to love this. I have made baby quilts for all three of my nieces and nephews. My newest niece is 9 and I just bought fabric to make her a quilt for her birthday. I want her to feel special and included and I can’t think of any better way than to make sure she has a quilt just like her brother’s and sister.

Happy Wednesday!

NOTE: Don’t forget, I am one of the bloggers who is going to lose Google Friend Connect in March 2012, please take a moment and follow me via Bloglovin’, Facebook, RSS or networked blogs.  You are important to me and I want to be able to stay in contact with you!  Check my side bar for all the best ways to stay in touch!

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