Awesome Hourglass quilt...

I just don't usually get to quilt one of these....zillions of little hourglass blocks.  The quilt measured about 76" x 93".  I quilted some allover freehand swirls....

I had to take a tuck, which isn't a big deal to a longarmer so I don't want anyone to be shocked if your longarmer ever has to do this...sometimes, if the center a quilt is densely pieced, and the border isn't, you can get some flaring while quilting.  It tends to worsen as the quilter travels down the quilt and then the issue becomes serious at the bottom....it happens, no big deal.  All I did was make a little pleat and tuck some of the border fabric under itself.  The pleat actually goes up into the red part....Then, using matching thread, I sew it closed so it looks like a natural seam.  I used two different colored threads on this one....dark brown and the red/pink color.  I managed to tuck a little over an inch or so....Bear in mind I had tried everything else...easing it in, spritzing and steaming, etc....this was my last resort!

Then I quilted right over it...tada!  Doesn't it look like a seam??  And now everything is rockstar perfect, right??  I measured at the bottom and with the tuck it ended up being 93".  Then, when I was done, I measured the top border at it was also 93" so I'm sure it was squared up right...Anyhow, I hope the owner is happy with the fix...

It was a lovely quilt and I can't believe how many little hourglass units there were!  Amazing....
Anyhow, off to do school work....Happy Quilting to you all!

An oldie but goodie...

I needed to change out the quilt in the living room and I pulled out this batik wonky log cabin from years ago...I think I made this the summer of 2005.  It is a Buggy Barn pattern.  Those ladies were way ahead of the times...

I loved the bright, saturated colors of the batiks.  I know that they aren't "modern" but I'm still a sucker for a nice hot pink batik!

It was quilted with this wild, trilobal variegated thread that was all the rage that year...It appears that I've always liked swirls....

Anyhow, during my cleaning recently I rediscovered my batiks.  I also bought a few more on the St. George shop hop (Scrap Apple has an amazing batik section) so you can expect to see something involving batiks this year!  Maybe a merge of a modern pattern with some crazy batiks??  Who knows....

I'm going to a sew-in today at a LQS...should be fun (not sure of what to work on).  Also, I realized how many UFOs I have in my sewing room and I decided that I don't give a $%&! about it...I know I'm supposed to feel some urge to finish everything, but I just don't.  I don't have a lot of free time and when I do I plan on working on whatever tickles my fancy at that very moment.  Maybe it is a new project, a charity quilt, or something that has been on the back burner.  Who knows??  But I'm done feeling guilty about all the random half-finished junk I have in my closet.  Why worry about it, right??  See, I'm feeling better about it already...

Well, I've got to go do the school work I avoided all weekend.  Happy Quilting!

Spring Cleaning...

Wow...my sewing room was a hot mess!  So I let Rebecca's OCD work in my favor and we cleaned it up last night.  I can now see the floor and the cutting table....

I haven't seen the hutch in forever....I wonder where she hid all the crap that was on it???

She assembled some cubicle shelving and I started folding....

Pre-cuts....linen....

Kona solids, larger amounts of fabric for backings, my text fabrics...These backings are mostly all for WIPs...I have a lot of those!

Then it was nap time for me and Buddy.....

Today I need to do some longarming and finish up a few small projects.  I will post a tutorial on the Kaffe color wheel mini quilt soon, I promise!  Happy Quilting!

St. George or Bust Shop Hop!

Yesterday I went on a Shop Hop with 11 other LVMQG members.  We took 3 cars a made a day of shopping in St. George, a small town about 100 miles away in southern Utah.  There were actually 8 shops to visit, if you include the longarm shop.  Amazing for such a small town.

There were lots of great shops but our two favorites were Scrap Apple...beautiful store, lots of batiks and modern fabrics, great service!  A+++

Check out the Clover Patch in Santa Clara (an adjoining town)....bolts from top to bottom!!  Older lines mixed with new lines and nothing priced over $7.99 per yard!  A non-stop treasure hunt....This is only part of it...a rockin' good time!!!

We left St. George around 5:30 pm and headed back to Las Vegas.  Here is a shot of the back of the Jeep--full of junk food and fabric treasures!

I think it was an awesome day!  Good friends, good food and lots of shopping.  What could be better??

Damn, these butterflies...

are sooo....very addicting.  As everyone knows, I'm very behind the time line in terms of what the cool kids are doing.  I work, have a family and a needy chihuahua and just don't get as much done as I'd like.  But I saw these butterfly blocks and I had to give it a try...

I have a few ideas for these...mostly stolen from   inspired by the Flickr group Butterfly Spool Quilt Blocks.  They are so awesome!  Now I know everybody wants the wings to match, but hey, why???  Scrappy rocks!  Rainbow butterflies....awesome!

Sadly, I must grade some quizzes now so no sewing tonight.  Hopefully you get to do something crafty!

Three Signs You're A Hoarder...

According to TLC, there are several signs that a person is a hoarder...

Hoarding is defined by three primary traits: the obsessive collection of objects that seem useless to almost everyone else, the inability to get rid of any of them and a resulting state of distress or peril.

Wow...maybe I'm hoarding a bit too much these days!  Ack...Anyhow, I'm still cleaning out  up the sewing room and I came across some other fun items...






Precuts:  Marmalade (I won it in the Bonnie and Camille Challenge), Vintage Modern and a Fat Quarter stack of Gypsy Girl...










Then I found some sale fabric that coordinates with the Mr. Claus layer cake I already purchases.  50% off Christmas fabric...how could I pass it up??


















Then, the latest problem...text fabrics.  This isn't even all of them.  There are still more coming in the mail from the nether regions of the internet...Those are one yard cuts....really??  OMG...

Anyhow, I'm done shopping.  It is now officially time to start stash busting.  Expect to see some cool stuff real soon...hopefully!

Blogger side note:  I was having trouble uploading pics to blogger so upgraded to Google Chrome and it is so much faster to load stuff...and it seems to work better.  I didn't think there would be that much of a difference from Internet Explorer, but there is....FWIW.

Ev's last quilt...

It was a panel quilt for a little girl in her family.  She wanted me to do something better than a panto or overall so I tried to fill in the blanks with what I thought it needed.  This definitely isn't my strong suit but here it is...

Wind in the sky?  Wavy rainbow, changed threads for every color...and my ribbons in the red border are really getting better....

And water/waves....more ribbons.  I did them from all four directions and didn't have to rotate the quilt.  That's a first...Just loops in the outside border since it all blended in....you wouldn't be able to see it.  I guess I could have done piano keys or something linear, but that would involve me working with rulers and I haven't tried that yet with my new machine.

Anyhow, that was the last of my customer quilts so I'm free to work on my own stuff.  I'm going sewing today with Sharon and I've got a new project to work on.  Why I don't finish something I'm already 90% done with is beyond me, but whatever....right??  Happy quilting to you...

What happened yesterday...

I got a lot done...let's just say that much.  First, I made 3 blocks for Patty's Block Swap...The Friendship Star with black background and red Asian prints for the stars....

Then I panto'd a quilt for Ev...Happy Times Panto...

Then I thought I'd tackle cleaning the sewing room.  Let me also show some fabrics I purchased during my online shopping rampage...all the junk on the ironing board and the floor...and some more stuff off on the table.  And some precuts....OMFG....See, Sharon, a hot mess!

I had the FQ of this Dena Designs Snow Flower fabric (from lastyear), but I bought the backing online for like $2.50/yd.  How could I NOT buy it?

Then I bought this Basic Grey Jelly Roll on sale at Quiltique...then the backing fabric went on sale the day after Christmas so I had to buy that as well...all. of. it.

 

Now this is an interesting pile of Darjeeling that I bought FQ of last year, but then found the backing fabric on sale for $2.30/yd.  Wow...why not?

What is this??  The selvage said Secret Garden....hmmm...got the FQ for $1.50 each at Quiltique then the backing fabric for $5.00/yd.  What a deal, right?

 

This is some sort of Riley Blake FQ stack that came from Green Fairy Quilts.  Frankly, I don't even remember buying this, but it is cool so I probably did...

 

Layer cake of Noteworthy....cute.....

 

Oh my...and I'm probably not even halfway through the pile.  I'll share more later this week.  But if you see me at the LQS buying anything, kick me in the ass, please....

 

Happy Quilting!

Destiny....

I'm so excited for 2013!  I think this year I will really get some stuff done....here are my plans!

1.  Sew more, online shop less....use some stash fabric
2.  Grow out my hair to see what color it really is....haven't seen it since 1983!
3.  Write some original patterns and tutorials and blog more
4.  Do what I want and enjoy what I do...
5.  Try not to piss off so many people....OK, try to ignore people who piss me off
6.  Appreciate the fun times with my family and dog...

I would add the trite ones like "eat healthy" and "lose weight" but hopefully those changes will just come with time...Anyhow, I hope you all have some plans for the new year that will make you happy!  Enjoy yourself!  Happy Quilting...

2012 Rocked! 2013??

I decided to make one of those collages of things I made during 2012.  I only included things I finished so that meant a lot of cute stuff didn't make the cut...LOL.  I used Picmonkey, which I upgraded last night...

Maybellene Quilt--first pattern!

Pantone Orange Challenge LVMQG

Secret Quilter gifts for the retreat

Rainbow scrappy challenge from the Feb retrest

Ryan's Binary Code Quilt

Swoon Wall Quilt made from sheets

Mom's Quilt From Hell

Kaffe Color Wheel

Supernova Wall Quilt

 

What a great year!  I can't wait for 2013....Happy New Year!

 

I ♥ Sewing!