Friday, May 25, 2012

Schnibble Done!!

I absolutely LOVE this month’s Schnibble quilt – “Doc”.  I need to go back and read why Carrie named it that!!??

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I’ve always wanted to make a Card Trick quilt.  It was a fun block to make!  I had to lay each block out next to me at the machine and sew it one part at a time, to make sure I didn’t mess it up!!

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I used Moda’s “Puncuation” collection from American Jane.  I love the letters of the alphabet on the background fabric!!

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I am retiring from teaching on June 26th after 34 years.  So, I’ve been collecting school themed fabric to make some quilts to commemorate my career!! 

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And this little quilt is a perfect start!!  I named it  “Flash Cards”!!  I hope you like it …Yogi does!!

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Soooo, whatcha doin’ this nice long weekend at the beginning of summer??  Any sewing??  LOL!!

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Sunday, May 20, 2012

Bloggers’ Quilt Festival Entry - My Secret Garden Quilt

If you listen really closely, you can hear my dear Bernina sighing in exhaustion and ecstasy!!

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She has really been working hard lately! And what a trooper!! Smile

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I logged over 30 hours thread painting my Secret Garden quilt!!

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I am so happy with how it turned out!

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I love the richness of the batik colors,

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the variety of the flower blooms,

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and the many shapes of the leaves.

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The quilt pattern I used for it is “Location, Location, Location” by Edyta Sitar.  But I did slightly change the arrangement in some places, as well as, adding more flowers, a tree branch at the top and lots of bugs and birds and fairies.

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It was scary as I quilted it, because it was so very densely quilted on the flowers that it poofed out on the background and I thought that it would never quilt out, but it did!

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Then, when all of it was quilted except the border, it again, was so densely quilted, that the border looked like a ruffle!!  YIKES!  Scared me to death!!

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But, I made sure to densely quilt the border, too and amazingly, it did quilt out!!  It is so stiff with thread that it almost stands up by itself!!

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So, my new guest room is finally complete with My Secret Garden Quilt on the wall!!  Woo hoo!!

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After only raising sons with very masculine rooms, my husband says this guest room is too girly!!  LOL!!

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And my garden outside will never look so good, as I have  brown thumb!

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It’s getting close to the end of May…next weekend is already Memorial Day!!  And my May Schnibble quilt is not done!!  YIKES!!  I gotta get cracking on it!!  Where did May go????? And, what have you been working on this month?

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Monday, May 14, 2012

Thread Changes, Galore!

I am about 15 hours into the thread painting/quilting of my fused garden quilt.

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It took me about 6 hours to arrange and fuse the hundreds of little pieces to the batik background.

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I am enjoying the thread painting now, but it is pretty labor intensive.  And all the thread changes are a real pain.

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But the results so far are wonderful!  I am really liking it!  And I’m only about half done.

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But the other half, the top half, is lots of background, so should not take as long, I hope!!

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I have included lots of bugs and snails and some birds and some fairies, too.  This will be a great “I Spy” quilt for little kiddos, someday!!

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So, waddaudink so far??

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Monday, May 7, 2012

Garden Applique' Quilt

I’ve been making over my son’s old room into a guest room.  We got rid of his old twin bed and replaced it with a king bed and I made my first king quilt to put on it.  I hung my Orange Slice quilt on the wall above the bed and my original chartreuse Four Squared quilt is draped over the headboard.

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I have a nice blank wall between the windows in there… which made me remember a garden applique' quilt I started at a guild retreat years ago that would go well in there.

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So, I dug it out and have started building the design… fusing the many pieces on the background… adding more pieces here and there. 

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Once I have it all fused, I’ll layer it with the batting and backing and the fun part can begin!!  I love to thread paint!! Woo hoo!

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And with all those pieces to stitch down and on, Yogi will have lots of time to get some quality snoozing one in the studio!!

So, what are you working on now??

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