The house quilt has come back

My dad died a few weeks ago after falling back in early December and then getting the flu and pneumonia. He was 92 and in poor health for a long time. So we have been cleaning out the house and I have taken back all of the quilts I made my mom including the house quilt that I made for her 80th birthday. It will get hung on the wall in my sewing room.

I spent several months making this quilt. Seems so strange to get it back.

I also got back this miniature double wedding ring quilt that I made for their 50th wedding anniversary.












I will have to take some photos of a large bear that I made my mom. You will be impressed!

Thanks for reading.
Chris

More progress

The top is pieced and the appliqué in the center is fused and stitched. I still have to fuse down the appliqué in the border and stitch it.

Boy I hate patterns that do not get things right. I realized after I marked where the vines and leaves go in the border the person that wrote the pattern did not have things centered. So I had to shift things a little when I positioned the pieces. Love how the pieces stick in place with Steam a seam so you can put it on a design wall to see how things look and the pieces do not fall off.

 

 

Do you see anything that looks weird in the border? Just thought I’d ask before I fuse things down.I noticed that she did not create borders that are perfectly symmetrical.  I am not going to change that.

While working on this I decided that I am going to machine quilt this. Too many seams to deal with for hand quilting. I have an Hawaiian quilt that I can work on while living with my MIL. I hate to admit how long ago I started it! I am only 1/4 of the way done with the appliqué so that should keep me busy for a while. I will have to remember how to do needle turn appliqué.

Thought I would post some pictures of my sewing room. The photos are going counterclockwise around the room. I think I will miss this room a bit when we move. However, I think my new room is a little bigger.

  

Thanks for reading.

Chris

Yes, I am Still Alive!

Seems I am having a hard time finding time to blog these days.  The semester is in full swing and keeping me busy.  I have not even been doing any quilting....so I guess that does not leave me a whole lot to talk about.

Mostly I have been focusing on losing weight and getting healthy.  Since mid June I have lost 20 pounds.  People usually ask me what my "secret" is.  My answer to that is, "just a lot of hard work!"  I have been exercising like crazy and seriously watching what I eat.  I belong to a free online weight loss site called Spark People.  It is absolutely great.  You can track your exercise and your food consumption as well as join groups and get tons of support and inspiration.

At any rate I have been forced to buy new clothes since mine are getting way too big.  So that has been a lot of fun.  Tomorrow we are going to a anniversary party for my BIL and SIL.  I will be giving them my "California Dreaming" mini landscape quilt.  It was made based on a photo my daughter took of a stream on their property last Christmas.  I hope they like it...although I am sure they will.

This is the quilt I am talking about…

The main part of the quilt is only the size of a sheet of paper so many of the pieces are very small.  In the future I will keep my landscape quilts larger than this.

I still have to sew a sleeve on the back of the quilt and add a label to it.  I guess I will do that today while we are being bashed by the Nor'easter that is hitting the Atlantic coast.  At least I will have plenty to talk about on Monday in my Meteorology class!

Chris

New Miniature Quilt Finished

I am still working my way through my sewing closest and trying to use up things that are in there.  I had this kit for a miniature quilt that I completed this morning.  The size of the quilt is 16 inches by 16 inches with the size of the half square triangle blocks being 2 inches square. 

 

It now resides with my antique bear and dogs.  I have placed it on my dresser and they are happily sitting on it. You can’t tell that some of the blocks are crooked using the quilt in this way instead of hanging it on the wall. I love my antique bear.  I think he is from the 30’s or 40’s. The Halloween planter is from my MIL.  She bought it when my husband was born in 1955 because his birthday is near Halloween.

Chris

“California Dreaming” Done

Well I am continuing to work on my UFO list. I am hand quilting my Scotland the Brave quit and that is going well. I finished my mini landscape. This is based on a photo that my daughter took last Christmas.

The size of this mini landscape is 9.5 inches by 7 inches (not including borders). I machine quilted/thread painted it. Now I just have to figure out if I am keeping it or giving it away. I might give it to my BIL since the stream is on his property and he is recovering from lymphoma.

Chris

All the leaves are brown and the sky is gray. I’ve been for a walk on a winters day. I’d be safe and warm if I was in LA. California Dreaming on such a winter day…

Log Cabin

Looking at this log cabin quilt, how big would you say that it is?

The actual size of this quilt is only 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches. Each log cabin block is one half inch square and has 9 pieces in it. This quilt is part of a somewhat larger quilt that I made of the inside of a quilt shop. I saw a photo of this quilt in Miniature Quilt Magazine and used Electric Quilt to design it out.

My daughter fell in love with the photo of the quilt and I made it for her for Christmas 2000. It now hangs on the wall of my sewing room since she no longer wants it in her room which is mainly an Asian theme.

Here is the entire quilt shop. The quilt is 13 inches wide. The other quilts are very small as well, The log cabin is hung on the wall with snaps and the others hang over a quilt rack made from fabric stiffened with interfacing

Chris

Land of My Heart Forever…

Well… I got the “Scotland the Brave” quilt basted this morning and ready to hand quilt.  Should be interesting to see how hand quilting goes after not doing it for a decade. 

 

 

I used EQ6 to design the quilting stencil that will fill the white blocks. I will mark the quilt as I go along.  The chains will be quilted diagonally through the squares.  The center block of the piper (that is my hubby) will be cross hatched quilted around the piper.

I bought the Mountain Mist White Rose Cotton batting that was recommended on my small quilt yahoo group.  I’ll let you know how it is to quilt….guess I should have tried out a piece before I put it in the quilt!  I will start quilting it tonight.

Chris

More Projects Done…a very productive weekend!

Project
22 Maple Leaf Blocks	Done
Square Dance Quilt Top	Done
Secret Sister for February	Done
Challenge for Small Quilt Group	Done
Challenge for Learning FA
4 landscape postcards	Working on
2 postcards for exchange	Working on
Quilt “Scotland the Brave” quilt

I am beginning to see the “light at the end of the tunnel.” I can’t believe how much progress I have made with my project list.

The challenge for the Small Quilt Talk yahoo group was to make a small quilt from beginning to end in one day. Obviously it had to be a simple design so I picked a 4 patch on point. I just used some “repro” fabric scraps that were in my stash and I completed the quilt today. I am guessing that it took about 6 hours. The size of the quilt is 10 inches by 14 inches and is machine quilted. I guess I could have made something larger and more elaborate, but since I have never done a challenge like this I was not sure how much I could get done in one day.

Here are some photos of the quilt. The second photo shows where I am going to display it with some of my cloth dolls and my antique girl scout tin on the bottom of my quilt rack.

Chris

Husband Loved His "Scotland the Brave" Quilt Top

Well another Christmas has come and gone. It always amazes me how the preparation for Christmas goes on for weeks and weeks and how quickly the actual day passes. My daughter loves her Nikon D40 which was pretty much her only gift. She has been taking photos like crazy. Now we have to figure out what kind of case to get her for it. If you have a SLR and have a camera case that you love let me know about it....thanks!

My husband had very few ideas for gifts for himself this year so we had to come up with a few on our own. We got him spicy candy. One was chocolate covered toffee with cayenne pepper in it and the other was caramels with habanero peppers in them. Yes, we do eat really spicy food in our house. We also bought him a stone mold to make shortbread which is one of his favorite cookies. I did finish the quilt top and he loved it. He even figured out that the silhouette of the bagpiper was him. After looking at it for about 1 minute he asked, "Is that me in the middle of the quilt?" I thought for sure that he had seen the quilt before Christmas since I had it hanging on the design wall in my sewing room. He claims that he did not even peak at it while it was hanging there. That is so much better than what I would be able to do. As a kid I used to sneak into my parent's closet and find all of the presents. I am not as bad as an adult, but I am still tempted to sneak a peak!

What did I get? I got my wonderful Sew Perfect Sewing Table. I have been using it for a few weeks already. I also got a wonderful book called "Creative Quilting: The Journal Quilt Project". My daughter bought me the DVD for the "Nightmare Before Christmas"....I guess to get my ornament idea for next year! (My daughter loved the Mayor ornament that I made for her this year.) I also got some people for my New England Village set up. My MIL bought me a bendable bright light that I attached to my machine today.

All in all another wonderful Christmas with family....
Chris

Scotland the Brave

It sure is an ugly day in New Jersey. We are having a wintry mix of precipitation as the temperatures hover around freezing. We are enjoying snow, sleet and freezing rain and apparently this is the first of a series of three storms that we are going to have. Today is the first one, the second one is on Sunday, and the third one is on Christmas Eve. Yikes...I am not a winter person. This is the view out of my sewing room window. My daughter is on her way home on the train from Boston today and her boyfriend is going to pick her up at the train station. I will not relax until I am sure she is home safely.

With all my pent up anxiety, I have been working on the bagpiping quilt and I now have the borders on and the letters fused in place. I decided to only use words from the song "Scotland the Brave" across the top and the bottom borders. I used Microsoft Word to create the letters. I picked a font I liked and changed the size to 150. I printed that and traced the letters onto Steam a Seam 2 Lite.

I don't think I will have it quilted in time for Christmas, but at least the top will be done. The next step is to use invisible thread to stitch the letters and the bagpiper down.

Chris

The Pipes, the Pipes are Calling.....

I am now done with finals and I am making some progress on the bagpiper quilt for my husband. I have sewn all the blocks together for the double Irish chain and have cut out the bagpiper silhouette to put in the center block. The silhouette is my husband in NYC for the Saint Patrick's Day Parade. That was his first big parade as a bagpiper. Yes, my husband is tall and thin. I am short and wide. He never struggles with his weight and I have a constant battle with mine.

Now I have to figure out what words to use in the border. His favorite piping song is "Scotland the Brave" so I want to use words from that. I just have to figure out which ones. I have to decide if I am going to go around all 4 borders with words or just the top and bottom border. I was going to do the letters in paper piecing, but they are so small I thought that would drive me crazy even though I have been called the "Queen of paper piecing." I am going to fuse the letters and that will give me a chance of having it done for Christmas.

Chris

Last Roses of Summer

The mini anvil is quilted, bound and washed. I always have such a hard time coming up with a title so I went through my list of songs on my mp3 player and picked this title by one of the Celtic Woman singers you see on PBS during pledge breaks. I love Celtic music so I guess the title is appropriate. Also the quilt has lots of reds and pinks (the last roses) as well as the tans (the beginning of the things drying out as we move from summer into fall). Well.... maybe that is a stretch and I just liked the way it sounded! For once I did not want another boring title.

All I have left to do is to make a sleeve and sew on a label. I think I am going to give it to the girl that cuts and colors my hair. She got married earlier this summer and I have not given her a gift yet. At any rate I have an appointment on Monday so I better get busy finishing up the sleeve and label.
Chris

Mini is Pinned and Ready to Quilt

I looked though my fabric stash and found a fabric for the back of the quilt. I had to sew 2 pieces together to make it large enough. If feels good using up fabrics for the back rather than going out and buying a piece that is big enough. I have some fabrics in my stash that I will probably never use in a quilt top so they have been designated to show up in a quilt back.

I also have a batting stash and managed to find a piece big enough for the mini. Another good thing about minis is that they use up batting left over from bed size quilts. I pinned the mini and it is now ready for machine quilting. I think I am going to mostly quilt in the ditch to make the quilting as simple as possible. So this afternoon I will attach the walking foot and start quilting.
Chris

Mini Top Done

I have been working very hard to get the top done. I have been so busy that I forgot to eat lunch. I guess quilting is a good way to stick to my diet!

I am now going to look through my stash and find a backing fabric. I might pin it tomorrow to get it ready for machine quilting. May as well keep going now that I am on a roll.
Chris

Mini is Sashed and Ready for Borders

I finally got to work on the mini yesterday and this morning. I finished sewing the blocks together and sewed the sashing on. It is back on the design wall and ready for picking out borders.

I am beginning to wonder what title I should give it and who I will give it to. I always have a hard time thinking of a creative title for a quilt. I want to come up with unique titles, but it seems I never can. I remember a colorful quilt I saw at a quilt show once that had the title "Saltwater Taffy." I wish I could come up with ideas like that!
Chris

The Mini Makes It To the Design Wall

The blocks are nearly all pieced. The quilt is now on the design wall so I can decide what color of sashing I will use between the blocks. Initially I was thinking about using the tans like what I have in the blocks, but now I am wondering if black sashing might really set the blocks off. I have cut some sashing pieces out of black to see how they might look.

Of course I will have to figure out what border fabric to use. I wonder if I should turn this into a Christmas wall hanging and use some green for the sashing instead of the black. Lots of decisions to make. Maybe all I will do today is finish sewing the blocks and leave the decisions for another day!
Chris

Working on a New Mini

I felt like I needed to take a break from working on some of my landscape quilts so I decided to make a mini quilt. The quilt that I started making yesterday is a design by Kathleen Tracy, the moderator of the Small Quilt Talk yahoo group that I belong to. Kathy is the author of American Doll Quilts, Prairie Children and Their Quilts, and a third book, Remembering Adelia, being published early next year. This block is called an Anvil block and is the October challenge for the group. Her website is http://www.countrylanequilts.com/.

At first I wasn't going to make the quilt since I am so busy with school stuff, but I found some left over squares from a previous quilt that I made so I decided to give it a shot. I am moving along fairly quickly with the quilt and I am ready to start putting the blocks together. It feels good to use up these left over squares.

Yesterday I made the half square triangle block units and today I have worked on sewing those together in pairs. I also make the 4 patch block for the centers of each block. The overall size of the anvil block is 4 inches so that makes each block that makes up the quilt only 1 inch square. Well back to the sewing machine!

Chris

More Mini Quilts

I think I will continue with the topic of miniature quilts started in my last post. What I really like about making mini quilts is that they are a small project and don't require the commitment that a large quilt does. That does not mean that they are easy and can be made in very little time at all. Small quilts can be more challenging than large quilts due to the tiny pieces and can take a considerable amount of time to make. This mini quilt was made from a kit that I bought at a quilt show. I think it was the Lancaster, PA show in about 2003. It was one of the first quilts I made on my new Janome 6500 in 2004.

I liked the antique reproduction fabrics in the quilt as well as its scrappy look. The blocks are 4 inch blocks, which makes some of the pieces fairly small. I made these blocks by using accurate cutting and accurate piecing. When making blocks this small you need to be really accurate. Being off by 1/8 inch in a 12 inch block may not be too bad, but being off by that much in a 4 inch block can be a disaster. It was really easy to be accurate when sewing with my new machine and the 1/4 inch foot that came with it. I also learned to slow down when sewing to try too be more accurate.

My favorite book on the topic of making miniature quilts is called Small Scale Quilt Making by Sally Collins. Her quilts are totally amazing. You can see her quilts on her website at http://www.sallycollins.org/ Be prepared to be blown away by her quilts. If you saw a photo of one of her quilts and no one told you it was a miniature quilt you would think that it was a full size quilt. Her choice of colors and fabrics is great, too. Sally usually hand quilts her miniatures. I usually machine quilt mine. In fact, mini quilts are good to learn how to machine quilt on since they are not too difficult to move around. This is much easier than moving a large quilt around.

Chris

Crazy About Mini Quilts (or just plain crazy?)

For about 5 years I was really into making miniature quilts. A lot of the quilts were made for teacher gifts while my daughter was in elementary school. Most of these I made using paper piecing techniques. I used to say that I was the queen of paper piecing since I did so many. Probably the most challenging of these quilts I made for my daughter for Christmas in 2000. She saw a photo of the quilt in Miniature Quilt Magazine and fell in love with it. I designed it with Electric Quilt software. We named it "Kelsey's Quilt Shop."

The overall size of the quilt is 12 inches by 12 inches. The log cabin quilt that is hanging on the wall of the shop is only 2 1/2 inches by 4 1/2 inches and has 24 log cabin blocks in it. Each block is about 1/2 square and has 9 pieces. My daughter grew up and her tastes changed. The quilt now hangs in my sewing room.

I have gotten away from making mini quilts, but think I think I might be motivated to get started again. I recently joined a yahoo group called Small Quilt Talk. The group focuses on making small quilts. Some of the beautiful quilts I have seen on this site has been very inspiring and have me excited to make some more small quilts.

Chris