Amazing Fabrics

I just have to show these fabrics - love each and every one and cant wait to quilt one or 2 and bling with crystals.


Again my awesome talented sil Donna Kallner - http://donnakallnerfiberart.com/ hand dyed these fabrics

What is eve better they are not stiff and waxy feeling like the Batiks are. Soft supple almost silk feeling.

Can you tell I'm in love - I just want to look and feel them for a while.

Eventually I will make the panels I need for display and in hopes of selling her fabrics for her and gather additional interest in my quilting skills.

If, However, you are interested in purchasing fabrics now - you certainly can - more can be made as needed and requested.

Thanks Donna for making these beautiful fabrics.


http://donnakallnerfiberart.com/

Spring Is Coming!!!!

No I wont post pictures of flowers (not yet heheheheheh), but I can tell you I have seen the first of spring flowers popping up.

Which lifts my spirits tremendously.  Winter seems to want to hang on forever and forever.  Soon, very soon, I'm sure we will be out in our yard digging, scratching breaking my back and loving it.

But until then......

Quilting is always top priority around here - at least when Gus isn't here being top priority.

Loving this "Lattice" quilt from one of my customers - I used free motion swirls and Twisted thread from Superior.   First opportunity Ive had to use the Grey Twisted - it looks fantastic on this quilt.

Hard to believe, but tomorrow is Easter and the family is coming for dinner.  So I will be up early to start the cooking and baking - no I'm not doing any tonight.   Tonight I'm taking it easy and leave it all for the mad dash tomorrow morning.   Way too much fun rushing to get everything done in time.

I work better under pressure!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Look oh look what came in mail today.

Hand dyed fabrics from my SIL Donna Kallner - wait until you see what I do with a few of these

Yes Another Scrappy

Yesterday Gus stayed home with daddy and Kylee so I made it a Sew Day For Me.

I have current project I could be finishing and even quilting.  Instead I decided to play with my many scraps.

Normally I sew for a few hours and that's it for the day.  Not yesterday, I spent the entire day in my room making the biggest mess possible.

Now imagine all of these came from neatly folded sorted baggies.  Ugh it took me hours to put them into baggies and will take hours to put them back in.

From this mess came:

12 blocks done, now that I know how it will work, might just finish as is with a border and use for lap quilt.

Someday I plan on using these block patterns to make a full quilt, but with 2 colors such as black and white or black and red or some other 2 color combo.

Just wanted to see how the half square triangles and quarter triangles would look in the center of a somewhat  log cabin look.

No more playtime for me, at least for a little while.

Gus is napping and I should be  ........ Yawn .......

Sweet Baby Quilt

Ah sometimes its so nice to load a small easy quilt to do in a matter of a few hours.

After piecing the backing - loaded on frame and quilted it all by 10am this morning.

Easy Peezy!!! Free motion loops flowers and leaves.

Just in time - Gus just got here for the day.  He is playing with Grandpa, while I go and make the bed, clean up and get dressed.

LOL we have taught Gus how to growl I can here him growling at grandpa,

Timing Isnt Everyting But It Helps

After completing the last quilt once, Lizzie was retimed - I loaded another quilt for same customer.

Happily quilting along and Poof - Lizzie decided she didn't want to quilt anymore.  Are You Kidding ME!

Called repair, did some testing of what could the problem be - determined I needed a new Y cable that attaches to my 2 encoders.  Lucky for me Wayne was able to go and pick me up a new one from repair.

I reattached the cable and poof - still not working.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME Again!

Called repair, love my repair man he is my favorite man in the whole world, next to Wayne of course.
He took His TIME to come to my house to fix my problem.  I had attached the Y cable incorrectly - easy fix and up and running.  All in good TIME managed to do a few rows of the quilt before my little Gus came.

Started the quilt on Friday in hopes of having it completed by Friday night - Nope not happening  this is customized and it takes much more TIME than just an edge to edge. - so Maybe Saturday - and yes did manage to get it finished Saturday evening but still having to quilt the 4 pillows that came with it, I knew there was not enough TIME to get them done too.

In between Kylee and Gus came for the weekend.  Kylee sewed, helped me with Gus and cleaning and cooking - I did get the quilt done.  Between Wayne, Kylee and myself Gus had a pretty darn nice weekend with much love, playing, feeding and napping. He was one happy little guy all weekend.

Sunday there was enough TIME TO load and started the pillows - while in the afternoon some of the girls came by and helped me rip out stitching on the quilt I told you about.  We have appx 12 or more hours of ripping and then square it up and requilt.

Yesterday was cleaning day - so no TIME there to do any quilting.  Early to bed 8pm - Uh did I say I was exhausted!!

Ta Da - finished!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  All in good TIME

Well not really in good TIME  - but I'm happy it is finally finished and I can call customer and load another quilt.

Oh and by the way Kylee did manage to finish her quilt. Now that is hanging and ready for Gma to quilt.

Sensory Wall Hanging #3

Third and final sensory wall hanging.


This time I made up small quilt blocks with velcro on the back and velcro spots on the backing so that patient(s) can move the pieces around.

A person could spend a few hours just moving the pieces around in different positions.

I hope Alicia will let me know if the patients do like working with them and they do their job as intended.

Things Are Looking UP

Took Lizzie to the LA Dr this morning, 30 min later and she is all better.   Just needed to be timed.

Rushed home put her back on the frame and in between taking care of Gus managed to finish customer quilt.

Its so scrappy and so beautiful - hundreds of tiny strips in this one.

Gus has been running a temp all day because of shots and teething, so I cancelled my night out to Guild.   He is more important than a meeting.  I didn't think Gpa and Ky could really deal with how fussy he was.

Rocked him for over and hour just to let him get some rest put a cool washcloth on his head.  Finally gave him to Wayne to hold and let him sleep on Gpa's big belly

He took an hour and 45min nap before supper and awoke to be the happy smiling little guy we know so well.

Now he is playing in his jumpy chair with his sister KY

Full Moon or Mercury Rising??

I don't know what is going on but I'm having no luck at all with quilting this week.

First - I'm doing the quilting on a quilt and find it is no where near square - it was so out of square that it became impossible for me to continue.  At first I thought I could " quilt that out" method and make it look good.  Nope no way - the only solution - take out all the stitching - yes all of the stitching on 3/4 of quilt the size of 96x120.    I have some very helpful quilters that have come over and are helping with the unstitching.

So far there are about 18 hours of unstitching being done.  Another possible 18 to go.  Then the quilt has to have the borders removed - squared up and reattach borders.

I have never had to do this with any quilt I have done, either for myself or customer.  Never should I have attempted to make this one right.  Should have stopped - even before I started and called to have quilt picked up and squared up.  LESSON LEARNED  - Don't assume the quilt is square when you load it on the frame.  - Measure it on all sides and down the middle to be certain it is square or at least close to square so as not to have this wonky problem.

Second,  a customer brought me a quilt to do and it was going ever so smoothly, perfectly square lying flat as a crushed bug on the frame - having approximately 1/2 hour of more quilting to do and .......................
my machine kicked out a rats nest like you wouldn't believe.  So not a big deal, clean out the rats nest, clean out the bobbin area - re thread and proceed Right?

Wrong - now the needle wont pull up the bobbin thread.  Which means the machine is out of time.  Again, no problem.  I know how to re time.  At least I have in the past.  Spent 2 hours trying to re time it and it just cant be done, at least not by me.  Which means I have to contact my repair man - take the machine to Janesville and have it timed.  Leaving me with an unfinished quilt on my frame.  Fingers crossed, he can either, fix immediately or give me a loaner until mine is fixed.

Inside my machine front view  - this is where the timing needs to be done

Just a little bit to go and it would have been done

Tomorrow is cleaning day, so I cant even get Lizzie to repair man.  Tuesday, if all goes well I can deliver her and possibly finish this Tuesday night or early Wed morning.

Like I said keep fingers crossed!!!!

Up With The Birds

Well if there were many birds to be up with anyway.

Worked on and managed to make another sensory wall hanging:

Made with flannel backing and felt pieces I cut out.  Some of the pieces are sewn down and permanent, while some are loose and attached with ribbons so they will remain with the wall hanging, but a patient(s) can move the pieces around.    

Kylee has taken over my design wall with her quilt she is working on so I had to pin it over the top of her quilt to get a picture.

After completion of this, there was still time this morning to work on yet another project.

Added borders and quilted baby quilt for "Alicia" she is a new grandma, baby girl Amelia Mae Folk. 7lbs 13oz.  Cute little girl.  Gus is like 3 x her size right now.

Playing with free motion feathers.

So What Time Is It????

Went to bed at 9pm - awoke at 3:30 according to my bedside clock.

But really its 4:30am because of the DAYLIGHT savings time.  Daylight where?????

Laid there for about 20 minutes and justified getting up because of all the things I want to get accomplished this morning.

Started a customer quilt yesterday and finished in the wee early hours this morning.

I'm in love with this quilt!!!!!! - The quilter is donating this to Quilts of Valor - I quilted it with free motion loops and stars.


Also this morning ..................

Sensory Wall Hanging for patients with dementia - this was made for patients at St Elizabeth Manor in Footville.  I'm going to be making a couple more wall hangings for them.

It will be mounted on a wooden backing and framed and hung at the Manor.

This wall hanging is meant to be touched and fiddled with.  Zippers, buckles, fringe lace etc. all with the purpose of letting the patient(s) touch and feel and fiddle.


There will be another one made up of different quilt blocks appx 4x4", they will attached loosely with velcro and ribbon so the patient(s) can move the blocks around without walking off with them.

For now I better get myself going.  Little housework and then off to shop and play with Sarah/Ky and Gus.

A Neighbors Surprise

Sometime ago Diane brought me a plastic bag with completed blocks and pieces from her Aunt Evelyn , who lives in California.

Diane tells me her aunt had many UFO's in her attic and after a detailed search she brought some home with her.

She gave me this bag and told me to keep it and make something from it.  There was a pattern included, but I didn't  want to make the pattern, so instead I took the blocks that were finished and arranged them in a "Raise The Roof" pattern.

In 2 days I had this top completed - ready for the quilting.

Once I have it quilted I will give it to our neighbor across the street (Diane's brother).  I think he might enjoy getting a quilt from his aunt in CA.

Plus he and Candy are such good neighbors, he even helps plow out the driveway sometimes when we have really heavy snow.  We really appreciate all the help.

Pinwheels and Embroidery

The quilt I just quilted for a customer is the softest of colors with embroidery running down each side of the quilt.

This is a special quilt as the woman that pieced all the pinwheels and did the embroidery has passed.  Her friend finished this quilt for her family.

I quilted using free motion leaves and white thread.   

Often I get a quilt that just makes me happy to do.  This is one of them.  Even though I enjoy all of my quilts from customers there are a few that just stand out.

The pastels with white background and the beautiful hand embroidery made this an absolute joy to quilt and the bonus its a treasure from a mom who is no longer with her family.

From Old Capri Pants

Find all the fun funky Capri pants you can cut them up and make this:

Yes the fabrics in the 9 patch are from really crazy Capri pants and so is the inner border.

Customer made this for her sister from her sisters Capri's.  Talk about wild Capri's.

With a front like this you just have to have a wild back.

I don't know about you but this quilt just makes me smile.

No special quilting, just free motion looping edge to edge.