Red or White?

These are the twenty Pineapple Blossom blocks I pieced for my daughter's volunteer wedding planner/coordinator.  I was curious as to whether I would like them sashed the way the pattern said or differently. 

Here they are sashed the way the pattern dictates...

Here they are with red where the red bricks intersect...

I think I'm liking the original pattern.  What about you?

This will be a throw (nearly twin-bed size).  Hope she likes it.

Winter Warm for Emily

I've been a busy bee the past couple of days.  These fusible applique quilts go together so quickly.  The original name for this pattern is Winter Warm.  Those were the words that were supposed to be at the bottom of the quilt.  The friend that made mine substituted my last name, which I found enchanting.

Here is Emily and Steve's quilt top...soon to be hand quilted by me.

Isn't that snowman A. D. O. R. A. B. L. E.???

Pumpkin Fields for Emily

I've been working on a few of Emily's requested quilts.  The top picture below is Pumpkin fields.  The only difference between the top and bottom pictures is the light and the blanket stitch is done around the pumpkins and their stems in the second picture.

I will be hand quilting this.  Diagonal lines with cream thread in the rectangle behind the pumpkin.  Down the center of each "log" with dark brown thread.

Next Up...Pumpkin Fields

Took a road trip this past weekend.  It was not a comfortable ride for me.  You can see my knees pressing into the seat in front of me in this pic of my lap (I was hand appliqueing some This Mother's Heart blocks while I rode)...

I finished hand-sewing the binding of Emily's Colorado Star down.  That was my one sewing goal for the trip.

On Saturday night I presented the recipients with the Zigzag Stars and Cotton Seeds quilts mentioned in earlier posts.  They were both well received.

My next project for Emily is a small quilt called Pumpkin Fields.  I have one on my Web Shots page.  Don't have a pic on the computer any more.  You should be able to see it here though...

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2605171360047493039zZLemt

Off to start tracing that Trans Web...

~Mama Joan

Colorado Stars Quilted

  

Here is the Colorado Star runner quilted with the binding sewn onto the front. 

Here is a close-up of the quilting.  I did loops around the outside of the stars, and micro-meandering around the inner star.  Quilting that way really makes the unquilted areas puff up...I like it!

This is the back.  You can see where the "wreath" of micro meandering forms a pretty design, even on the back.  The combination of fluourescent lights and flash make this fabric look a really strange color...like tomato soup.  It's a dark burgundy in real life.

Making a 3-1/2 hour one-way trip tomorrow, and I hope to hand-sew the binding down then.  If not, then on the way home!

I received the pattern for another quilt Emily asked me to make her in the mail earlier this week, so that one will be next.

~Mama Joan

Eet Eez Feeneeshed!

That's my title with an Italian accent.  But, truly, it.  is.  finished.

I deliver the Zigzag Stars this weekend.  I am so glad to have it done...labeled and all.

Here is the whole thing and then a couple close-ups.  It's about 80" square.  I added one row.  The original pattern was closer to a "normal" throw size.  This is big enough for a double bed.

~Mama Joan

Easier Quilting Today

I am about halfway finished with quilting the "zigzags".  This is going so much better than the micro stippling.  But I think that will be worth it!

Not fantastic pictures, but here's something to look at.



First Pass Completed

I am hoping it's because it's new to me, but my back is killing me.  I wanted to get finished all the way across the quilt so I could unroll it and work on it more tomorrow and Saturday.  If I left it rolled, it would be very wrinkled.  I had to keep rolling the quilt back and forth to reach where I wanted to quilt.  That is not ideal for a number of reasons.  I am very pleased with the micro stippling, however.  You can see it in a close up in the top picture.  It makes the center 16-patch and the star points pop out.

The bottom picture is the quilt still pinned on the leader at the top and bottom of the quilt frame.  My original dream was to quilt a long feather in each zigzag.  I could do that on my domestic machine, but I'm wondering if the backache would be worth it.  It's too wide to do on the frame.  I will sleep on it.  Might end up just doing loops or large meandering.  Time will tell.

The strings in the picture of the whole quilt are indeed strings.  Let me explain...I could only quilt the top square and two next triangles down in one pass, then I rolled the quilt forward and did the two side squares on point of each block and the 4 triangles above and below it.  When I did that section, I could go from one block to the next because they touch.  When I did the top and bottom sections, I would have had to clip the thread and move over.  I just tacked the thread then moved over--will trim the threads off after it's finished. 

Top and bottom borders are quilted.  I am going to unpin and then repin the quilt after turning it 90 degrees to do what are now the side borders.

Off to clean the kitchen and fold some laundry.  Where is my fairy godmother?

~Mama Joan

Wish I Had Better News

I have been working away on machine quilting the ZigZag stars quilt from a couple posts back.  I wish it was going better.  I have a Sweet Sixteen HandiQuilter.  There is just not enough room to make the quilting work.  The stars on this quilt are HUGE, and I have to keep rolling the quilt back and forth to get to where I need to quilt. 

Here are a few pictures of my work so far.  The "half octopuses" below are hideous, but not enough to rip out and do over.

I am keeping at it, in spite of the hilarity!!  I am micro stippling in the cream areas of all the big stars.  That is so much harder than I thought.  It seems like the machine does not slide on the rails of the frame as easily as it should.  But this type of quilting does make the stars pop out.

Upward and onward...or at least finished some time!

~Mama Joan

Part B of The Gift

This is a 23" square wall hanging I'm nearly finished binding.  It's called Cotton Seeds.  My SIL let one of my daughters live at her house for about 9 months a couple years ago.  I made her the quilt below as a thank you.  If you read my other blog you might remember it...the pattern name is Another Mosaic...

I double sewed the "flipped" corner to make a triangle on the end and used the little HSTs to make the above wall hanging.  I was making it for myself, but as I perused all the many quilted wall hangings I have, and the fact that I will see my SIL next week in person, I decided to part with it.

~Mama Joan

Second Post Today!

I nearly mistakenly put this on my regular blog, www.shelbystitcher.blogspot.com...

That would have been a mistake.  I have had this pieced for a while, but I am machine quilting it today.  It is actually loaded on the Little Gracie already.  I have had a hectic morning and need to calm down.  Ahhh...

We are having a combined cousin camp/grandaddy's birthday weekend next weekend.  I hope to get this quilted, bound, washed, and dried before we leave a week from tomorrow AM.  I just put a one-piece 6-1/2" border on this and called it done.  It measures 80" square. 

Cousin camp is when my husband's father gets all his children and their "cousins" together (aka his grandchildren) for a retreat.  We live in 3 different states, but have managed to do this yearly for the past 5 or so years.

There is one more secret project in the works, nearly finished, in fact.  I want to get a good bit of the quilting done on this first.  When I take a break, I'll take pics and do a post on the second secret project for next weekend.

Christmas 2012 Quilt

This is a long-term project I'm making for my sister for Christmas.  I asked her a while ago what colors/patterns/fabrics she liked and she told me this very quilt.  So I cut some pieces to have beside my machine for a leader/ender project.  There are 30 of the blocks with stars as shown above...only 3 have 9-patch centers--the rest have one solid 3-1/2" square piece.  These finish at 6" square.

But I interrupted this quilt to make my daughter's wedding planner a quilt as a thank you.  I want something that doesn't have a TON of piecing but looks like I put some time into it.  Know what I mean?  I am going back and forth between two right now.  I want it controlled scrappy with red as the main color.  Black and cream as the others.  Stay tuned!

Project for Sister

Although I HAVE a huge family with 8 children, I only have one sister.  More quilts for her, right?

I don't have a picture yet, but I started cutting out a quilt for my her last night.  The pattern is called Army Stars and is on the cover of Quilt Sampler magazine (fall/winter 2010). 

I had taken a nap before supper and then could not sleep at bed time.  So I went down to the sewing room and decluttered my sewing table and cut up lots of the scraps into pieces for this quilt. 

Recently I had asked my sister (who lives 12 hours away) what she liked in a quilt.  She told me various block features, colors, patterns, etc.  Then she summed it up by saying that the cover quilt was all of them in one quilt.  She told me to check it out next time I was at a store that sold them.  Unbeknownst to her, I had already purchased the magazine.  The Quilt Samplers have so many wonderful inspirational pictures.

Will get a picture of the pattern on here soon.

~Joan