Caught up

I have been working on the Just Takes 2 block of the month project and am happy to report that I am caught up.  I had fallen a little behind with the arrival of my machine and all the excitement that it involved, but the 15 outstanding blocks are now done, bringing the total complete to 56.

This has been a very interesting project with everything from applique, paper piecing, traditional piecing and even a little hand piecing!  I still like paper piecing, hate hand applique - so now those are being done by machine, and I have learned to see the value in hand piecing certain kinds of blocks.  The project is designed to be done in red and white, but I am using my hand dyed fabrics samples instead.  There have been instructions to piece blocks together into 2 sections, but I think I will wait on that until the end so that I can arrange the colors in a more pleasing way.  Here are the blocks in the suggested lay out.

My good friend and dyeing partner Kathy is working on the same project, although I'm not sure if she is enjoying it as much as I am.  I wonder how Kathy is making out with her blocks?  You can check in on her at http://tamarackshack.blogspot.ca/ and  while you are there get in on her summer giveaway of some hand dyed fabrics, just like we are using in this quilt.

I also wanted to share the gift I received from my friend Sandra. She when she saw it she had to get it for my new business.  It has found a perfect home in my studio.  Thanks Sandra it was really thoughtful and I love it!

1600 Bali Pop Quilt

I got an email from Bev a couple of weeks ago asking if I was ready to start taking customer quilts.  I was a little scared and a lot excited.  This is her 1600 quilt.  She made it from one bali pop plus a few strips of her border fabric to make it just a little bit bigger.  Bev is a relatively new quilter, but you would never know it if you looked at her quilt top.  It was flat and square and  perfectly pressed- a gift for the new longarmer for sure!

In progress

Done!

 I used Quilters Dream Blend batting, So Fine! thread and the "Come Dance with Me" panto.  I love how the panto looks on this quilt.

And a peak at the back!

Thanks for trusting me with your quilt Bev!

Star Fling

I got this binding on the Star Fling Baby Quilt today. (Another quilt made from the Northcott fat quarters.)  It is great pattern that makes the most out of a fat quarter collection - very little waste.  It is designed by Terry Atkinson and still available for free from P & B Textiles here.  I decided to practice my stitch in the ditch in the border, and combined some ruler and free hand work in the blocks.  The hardest thing was choosing a thread to go with all these wild colors.

 

 And the back.

There has been a lot of other activity in my sewing room.  I bought my girls quilt kits as an end of school present.  They are both eager to try the longarm so I thought it might be a good summer project.  These are the two patterns.  Bella for Kendra who is 11 and Uptown Girl for Kyla who is 14.  I got the kits from Fabriculous, a wonderful store located in Swan River.  The kits have much more "modern" fabric than my normal taste, but my girls were thrilled and I think they may be growing on me a little.

I did help Kendra get her strips cut to size.  (Considering my recent rotary cutting accident, I think we weren't quite ready for her to go there!)  She handled the sewing and pressing and all the machine applique for the flower.  Two borders to add and it is ready for quilting.

Kyla did about half of her cutting and has all of her rows and sashing rows ready to put together.

I think they are going to be in need of another project before the summer is over!

And I just had to show you how my batting storage turned out under my machine thanks to my wonderful husband.  Those rolls looked huge in my kitchen, but seem just fine in their new home.

 

Small Setback

So while I did get started quilting yet another baby quilt I ran into a small set back.  If you look at the bottom of the following picture you can see the red clamp that is holding the backing fabric onto the leader.  You can also see how the quilt top extends past that point!  I ran short of backing fabric.

I had pieced the backing to this quilt using up scraps before I had a longarm. There would have been plenty of fabric if I had pin basted it and quilted it on my Janome.  Now I know how important it is to have about 8-10" extra inches in length for the backing fabric to load it onto the longarm frame.  I knew this information in theory before, but there is nothing like hands on learning!

All was not lost however.  I took the quilt off the frame. Cut off the extra backing fabric that was at the top (you can see it at the bottom in this picture)  and sewed it to the bottom where it was needed. (Hindsight really is 20/20 -  I could have saved myself the trouble by adding a piece of scrap fabric to the top of the backing in the first place to give myself the wiggle room I needed.)  


Now all is well and I can finish the last bit of this quilt.  Hope this is the only lesson I learn on this one!

All the pretty colors

My thread arrived today after what seemed like an eternity.  (It really was just 2 weeks but apparently waiting isn't my strength.)  Isn't it pretty?

Now to decide what to load on the machine next....

Another top

As I am impatiently waiting for my thread order to arrive so I can continue to practice my quilting I took some time to finish piecing another baby quilt top.  The used the "girl" panel and 6 coordinating fat quarter that I had received as a prize from the Quiltmaker 100 Blocks blog tour. I found the bright pink in my stash (part of the Northcott winnings that are kicking around).

 I decided to be really thrifty and piece a scrappy binding from what was leftover.

And since I didn't have thread to quilt anything else, I decided to dye some backings.  Dyeing is not an exact science for me at all, but these turned out exactly how I was hoping they would.

 

Flannel Baby Quilt

Binding is now on my colorful circle baby quilt.  I think that extra little bit of red really helps tie things together.

I found a Ziploc bag with some other squares made from my Northcott winnings.  It didn't take long to get them together into this top.  This was a lovely flannel collection and I was able to make two quilts like this.  I only had to getting backing and binding.  One was given away a few years back.

 I decided to try the Burning Bush panto with King Tut thread on top and bottom line in the bobbin.

The back

 Now someone just needs to have a baby boy so I can give it away!

Here is another flannel baby quilt that came from the Northcott fat quarters.  This was fabric I normally wouldn't have been drawn to, but it turned out very pretty. I quilted this one on my DSM and remember getting lost a lot while I quilted the leaves and flowers.  

And my last bit of excitement came when my first batting order arrived at lunchtime yesterday.  One roll of Quilters Dream Blend and one roll of Quilters Dream Puff.   I have used the blend before, but I am excited to try the Puff.   (If you are need of some batting just give me a call.)  Now my wonderful husband has another job - a storage solution for the batting!