It's Mine! All Mine!!!

Remember a while back when I posted this picture?  

Well, between customer quilts and quilting retreats and just down right "I'm taking some time for myself" I finally got the quilt done!

It's Mine!  All Mine!  

The fabrics are Kaffe Fassett Shot Cottons, both stripes and solids.  I fell in love with them the first time I saw them.

The quilt is X-Effect from his book "Shots and Stripes".  I have enough fabric left over I'll be making another one!

The thing about his shot cottons ... Magic Sizing becomes your best friend.  It is so light that I felt I needed a bit of stabilizer on it.  Plus I was working with all those bias edges ... but a spritz of Magic Sizing and everything stayed in place. 

I used a wool batting in this one just because I wanted to see first hand how wool behaves, both during quilting and during wear.  It was dreamy!  The quilt is light in weight but I'm betting it's going to be super cozy.  

Love Love Love this quilt!!

I found this Kaffe in New York while on retreat there.  There's a shop out in the woods that is basically a 3 or 4 room barn and the bolts of fabric are just up to the ceiling in all rooms.  

First trip there last year and I was so overwhelmed I had to leave the building.  I'm not claustraphobic but there was just too too much fabric to deal with.  This year I had a list which is the way to go.  I needed backings and I got backings.  And this shop has just about every fabric you have seen in the last 5 or 8 years.  Seriously ...

So ...











Here's some pics of quilts that have gone home recently.  

 This is the cutest Santa panel I've seen in a long time.  And look at those feet ... "Quilt with Feet" ... hmmm ... 

I quilted a star and curls on this.  

 This has such a sweet story.  Cathy and husband have 'adopted' a school and in talking with the principal it came about that the school will be using a book about quilting in their reading program.  So Cathy and husband are donating this quilt - which follows the book - to the school at Christmas.  I love this quilt!

 I call this one Monkey Business.  Cutest kids quilt in America!  I used monkeys in the quilting.  Great quilt!

And this quilt is just too sweet ... pinks and purples for a little baby girl.  The piecer did an excellent job and it was a pleasure quilting this one.

Let's just pretend that September was yesterday ...

I've been blogging in my head for a couple of weeks now ... trying to figure out how to span an empty space of 4 months.  Do I try to catch up and fill in with everything that has happened?  Crikey!  No way!  Too much has happened and there is no chance in H-E-DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS that I can stay focused enough to fill you in.  Shoot, I can barely relate what has happened in the past hour ...

Ok, so here's the plan.  Let's just pretend that yesterday was September and that today just happens to be the Day After September ... or some day that resembles the Day After September.

So here's a picture for you.  I worked my fingers to the bone quilting customer quilts right before Christmas and then gave myself permission to spend some time on doing some sewing/piecing for me.  So I love mystery quilts ... I've had some good ones and some OH MY GOD WHAT WAS I THINKING ones ... but I fell into the Bonnie K. Hunter Easy Street mystery right at Thanksgiving and I have had a ball with it.  This pic is of the top without borders.  I plan to add a 2" black border and then a wider something-something border.  Sounds like I need a trip to a quilt store, doesn't it?  And I have a plan for the backing, but that's for later.  How fun can this be????

The famous Ms. Hunter used Lime Green, Turquoise, and Purple in her quilt.  Well, I came across a tangerine piece of fabric that had fushia (or is it magenta?) and a blue-green in it and I went for those colors.  I love the black/white pieces.   So tomorrow I'll see if I can find an outer border piece.  Any suggestions?

And today I finished up this wall-hanging for Patsy Ruth.  It is so beautiful.  The colors are so soft but the way she put them together makes a statement.

This is BEFORE Santa arrived ...

This is AFTER Santa arrived:

Oh oh oh!!!!  Can you see the white wire baskets to the right and to the left of Patsy's wall-hanging?   I added the two pics above, the BEFORE and the AFTER.  I am a brave soul, aren't I?  Santa bought me these beautiful storage units for Christmas!  I've given up the jewelry-as-a-present thing ... now I want (and dare I say NEED) things that make my quilting life productive!  And these units are just too great.  Everything is put up ... most of my fabric (at least fabric in this room) is folded, measured, and put in its proper place.  I finally know what it means to feel a 'lightness of being'.  When I walk into this room, I automatically relax knowing that I can work without stress, worrying about the mess that litters my area.  It's all GOOD!

Cutest Little Caddy in America!

Look what I did yesterday!  Isn't it the cutest little iron caddy in America?!


I had so much fun putting this together ... and like most worthwhile things, once you do one, you'll want to do another ... and the first one is always the hardest.  So now that I know what I'm doing ... oh my!  Christmas is coming!!  Will one of these be in YOUR Christmas stocking?  LOL! 


I'm just having way too much fun ...


While I was making this, I came to the part about "binding" ... and I'm thinking to myself, Crapola ... I don't want to cut and make binding for this itty-bitty thing ... wait!  I have a box of left over binding.  Maybe there's something in there I can use ... Well, you see that gorgeous pink with white dots binding and the straps?  That was in my left-over binding box!  My craziness for saving bits and pieces is beginning to pay off!  Woo Woo ... now get out there and start your own "Left-over binding" box!  


Oops ... forgot to say ... this pattern is Caddy Pad Jr., by Sisters' Common Thread.  There is a bigger one for regular sized irons.

Can it really be Christmas already?

I've been singing Christmas carols this week!  LOL!  Don't you just love being your own boss and being able to sing as you waltz with your long-arm machine?  Max and I had a great time quilting Joanne's and her friend's two Christmas quilts!  Those quilts are twins ... and being that I have twin daughters (Hi Em!  Hi Liz!)  this task was really a fun task.  


Joanne told me that she and her friend wouldn't mind if the quilts were quilted the same, but I decided (and don't you love that YOU get to make a few decision?) that these two sweet quilts deserved their own individual quilting.  


So on Quilt #1, which is Joann's, I used the Swinging on a Star pantograph.  BTW, working with Patricia Ritter out of Urban Elementz (www.urbanelementz.com) where I get my pantographs is a real joy.  Thanks, Patricia, for answering all my questions and helping me make good quilting decisions!  Ok, so Swinging on a Star was used on Joanne's quilt ... and on her friend's quilt I used Winter Wonderland #1.  On both quilts I used Magna-Glide thread from www.bobbincentral.com.  That Glide thread is so good.  And on these sparkly quilts the sheen of the Glide thread is over-the-moon!   And both quilts look fabulous!  What a great time I had!


Thanks, Joanne, for letting me play with these two sweet quilts.  Good job piecing, both of you.  Makes my job soooooo much easier when the piecing is so good.


So here they are:

Gobble Gobble!

Oh, please ... i can barely move at this point.  I didn't eat a LOT ... not really a whole lot ... just a bit of this and that and some more of that ... I am sooooo full!  

I moved away from the traditional turkey this year and did a roasted chicken with vegetables, but of course had to do the traditional side dishes ... home made cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, gravy, dressing (i have the BEST crock pot dressing recipe!!), corn pudding, sweet potato casserole without those marshmellows thank you ... and the very healthy green beans ... and i haven't even gotten to the pumpkin or pecan pie.  Geez ... you'd think we were never going to cook for the rest of the year.  Why do we do this?  Well, as my husband says, "Because you like to do it!"  OK OK ... I do enjoy the cooking.  I spend so much time quilting that I seldom cook anymore, so when I get a chance I go for the gusto.  Here's wishing all a very thankful Thanksgiving!

I do have several quilts done but I won't post a picture until the customers see them first.  So hang in there ... one is a vintage quilt and I several more of those waiting for me.  These quilts are just so pretty!  And I'm learning that there really isn't anything new (pattern-wise) in piecing, just new ways to do it.

 

Here is my Christmas quilt that I did this fall.  Just in time, right??  And Larry made me a hanger to hang it on our wall.  I love this quilt.  It's Down Winterberry Lane by Whimsicals.  I pieced and quilted it, and did use some metallic threads for the first time.  And Max the Millennium LOVED those metallics!!  

Looky looky looky what I got!

 Oh, my!  I am such a geek!  I got this Kindle Fire for my birthday and it just arrived yesterday ... and already I love it!  We sat and watched an old British 1-hour drama last night.  The picture is absolutely beautiful.  And I'm able to get my e-mail on this ... and I'm able to watch all those quilting you-tubes that are so instructive!  And ... wait for it ... I'm actually able to read all the Icelandic murder mysteries that I love!  I didn't think I would use all those other 'things' other than reading a book, but let me tell you, this is great!  And yes, I will play a game of Angry Birds every now and then!  Love this Fire!

So it's back to work today.  I've missed a couple of days of quilting because life just works that way sometimes.  I took an applique class and really liked it (there's another UFO to add to my stack!).  It's been a very busy week with a lot of running around.  So it's back to Max and getting the quilts that are waiting to be Christmas presents out the door.