Category: Quilts

Christmas Presents

I can finally post about the Christmas presents I made this year!  Unfortunately I am missing a picture of the table runner I made my mom, I’ll have to get one next time I’m over their house.  I had bought a charm pack years ago (don’t even remember how long ago it was) when we were shopping and the colors were perfect for her living room.  It sat here for a long time because I couldn’t decide what pattern to use.  I was going to use my small tumbler die to make it, but I wasn’t going to have enough charms to make it big enough and of course it is now discontinued.  Once I found out the dimensions of her table (thanks to a call to dad) I designed it in EQ to be 9 squares across and 4 rows.  I just needed a little extra on the sides.  After a few web searches I found a shop in Ohio that had yardage of one of the fabrics in the pack.  I ordered enough to use for the pieces on the front, the backing and the binding.  It only took me a couple of days to get it all done and she loves it.

Kimmie's Quilt

I decided I needed to finish the tumbler quilt for Kimmie for Christmas.  I had bought 2 of the coordinating fabrics on ebay in 2010 and put the borders on, it just needed to be quilted.  The plan was to do it on the frame, but I have a problem with tension on the back that I just didn’t have time to figure out so I used the frame to pin it and then quilted it on my machine in my office.  Took me a couple of days to get it quilted, thank goodness for grandparents taking Alex!  It allowed me to spend more time working on it. Got the binding sewed on by hand in just 2 days, even took it to my parents to work on it when my great aunt came to town.  Kimmie loves it and was super excited when she opened it.  She’s only been waiting for 2 years to get it!  I forgot to get a picture before I wrapped it or when she opened it, but she posted one on Facebook that I grabbed until I can take a better one.

I started working on some cross stitch pictures for my cousins twins, but I was running out of time and really needed to get the quilt done so I decided to put those on hold and finish them for the twins birthdays in June.

Angela's Xmas Present 2012

 

I did make a present for our friend Angela that has a bakery in Wisconsin.  I saw the pattern in the 123 Stitch ad and just had to get it.  It only took me 13 days to finish it back in September, mostly working on it at night after Alex went to bed.  It is almost all backstitch and went really fast.  She loved it, I’m not sure if she’s hanging it at home or at the bakery.

Stitch a Long

I’ve decided to join a Stitch a Long that Terry is doing using this pattern from the Moda Bake Shop.  I have so many 2.5″ squares already cut that it’ll be easy to pull out what I need.  Alex and I stopped at Joann’s last night and I picked up 4 yards of Kona Black for the background (I can use it on other projects if I bought too much!).  I will only need to cut the long strips with the rotary cutter, I can get the black 2.5″ squares with my Accuquilt Go.  I’m really loving the die that cuts 9 2.5″ squares at once!  Comes in very handy for lots of projects!  I’ll be back later, I have lots of other things to update you on!

Contest – Please vote

I did it again, I entered a quilt in Quilting Gallery’s weekly contest.  This week is memory quilts and I’ve submitted Peepaw’s Quilt.  In 2009 my mother-in-law gave my husband a bag full of buttons and medals from her father’s Marine uniforms (he was in the service during WWII.)  So, I printed pictures of Peepaw and then attached the buttons and pins in the alternate squares.  It hangs in my husbands office so he can see it everyday.  Please head over to Quilting Gallery and vote for Peepaw’s Quilt!!

New Quilt/Learnings

Well, I’ve been busy this week!  I posted on Monday that I started a new quilt, it’s now done!  Here’s my question though, does it need another border?  It’s about 36″ x 36″ and I’m only planning on using it as a quilt in the car, for Alex or if we go on a picnic or something.  I won’t be quilting it until I get my new stencils – and I don’t know when that will be since my order says Pending on the site!  It went together very quickly and I love that I used fabrics from the stash, NOTHING new was bought!

I’ve been thinking about my next hexagon quilt this week and I think I’ve got it designed the way I want it.  The example I found on PaperPieces.com has the diamonds vertically, but I think I like them on their sides.  None of the colors in the EQ version match what I’m actually going to use, since I’ll be pulling from the 2.5″ square bin to make all the diamonds.  I think I’ll do all the diamonds and then put them together with the white, or at least I’ll see how far I get with the hexi papers I already have printed out!  I’ve figured I need 59 full diamonds and 12  half diamonds and this one will finish at 79″ x 85″.  Huge for me!  I just checked sizes and it looks like that might be large enough to fit our king size bed!  I’d have to put big enough borders to hang down the sides, although I might put it on the bed in the guest room.  It’ll be awhile before it’s finished, so I guess it doesn’t matter right now!

I was playing with EQ today while Alex played and hubby was busy on his laptop and learned some new things.  I didn’t realize that you could create a quilt layout from a block!  Here’s the caveat though, the block can only have horizontal and vertical lines – no diagonals or it won’t work. I also figured out how to break blocks apart in Word so that you can show how to make a block, that’s cool!  I did find something I’m disappointed in though, I created the new hexagon quilt in EQ on my mac (using software called VirtualBox to run windows) and created it in a new project.  I can move blocks, layouts (uncolored), photos, fabrics into another project but not colored quilts!  I wanted to move the new quilt into my hexagon project, that sucker took a long time to color in!  Oh well, maybe in the next version?

Well, I’m off to start working on the new hexagon quilt, I think I’ll print out some more papers, I think I’ll need them!

It’s done!!!

Well, I finished galaga last night, practically falling asleep as I took the final stitches.  It looks pretty good, just need to decide what kind of frame to get for it and give it a quick wash.  Started it on May 19th and finished June 24th, just over a month to do, with some breaks when I decided to finish up the hexagon quilt.  Now I need to decide what the next cross stitch project is going to be, I’m thinking maybe of finishing up my Love Is flowers.  I already know what kind of frame that is going in, I think it’ll fit in a long frame with 3 4×6″ spots in the matting.  I don’t think it took me long to do the other 2, so this might be off my list pretty quick.

As I was putting away all the equinox fabric last week I found a plastic bag with a zipper that was full of scraps.  All kinds of odds and ends from previous projects.  I spent a day and ironed everything and got it cut into the 2.5″ squares so it’s ready to use.  I also found the remainder of the 6″ novelty prints that I bought years ago to do Georgia’s quilt.  So yesterday I decided I wanted to make an I spy quilt for Alex.  Designed it up and started working on it.  The 4 patches all use my 2.5″ squares and they are all put together.  I have the center sitting on the cutting table waiting to be sewn together.  I still have to iron all the 4 patches for the border, but that won’t take long.  I’m hoping to get most of this put together this afternoon while Alex naps.  It’s not that big of a quilt, 36″ x 36″, so it should quilt fairly quickly.  I want to put it on the frame and meander – maybe take an afternoon to quilt? We’ll have to see.

Dear Jane Update

Just a quick note, I did finish that block this evening while watching the Cavs/Heat game. Good news, another block done, bad news the Cavs lost by a small margin. *sigh* Up to 77 blocks completed! Making progress, just another 92 and the center will be complete.

H-6: Applique

SeamedUP

I haven’t had any more time to sew, but I figured I’d post about the new quilting site that’s coming. It’s going to be a bit like Ravelry for knitters in that everything is in one place! Fabric, patterns, projects, etc. I’ve only seen screenshots and I know they are working to resolve some issues they’ve been having, but I can’t wait to see this site in action! Oh wait! DUH! Helps if I give you the link right? You can get the story of SeamedUP here at their blog, but the site is at SeamedUP. I have a block in the sidebar if you want to contribute to the cause to defray the startup costs.

Can’t wait!!

Latest Finishes

I know I haven’t been around in awhile, but I’ve been VERY busy getting things ready for my son’s arrival. I haven’t even had time to work on my Dear Jane quilt – although that could also be due to the carpal tunnel!

I’ve added another finish to the PhD Challenge for the quild, I finally got the Sudoku quilt quilted and bound. The best part of this quilt is that it is the first quilt I completed on my quilting frame with a pantograph! I haven’t been able to work on any others on the frame, even though I have many I could do because my belly is a little to large to get close to the frame! They’ll have to wait until after this little one is born!

Sudoku Quilt

I also managed to complete the Shower Quilt and a Wallhanging that allows me to put pictures in it. There’s lots of room left on the Shower Quilt to allow others to sign it once he’s born, but it looks pretty good in his bedroom.

I doubt I’ll be around much in the next few weeks, we’ll see what I can get done before he’s born (I’m not counting on it being very much!)