Oh Baby!

I made a mistake. A serious mistake. I composed a list of gift quilts that I intended to give that I have not yet finished. Let us just say that it is a very long list. Apparently I know a lot of people who had babies.

I am in a hotel this week and have some time to sew in the evening. I overpacked terribly, but one of the projects I brought was a 8 year old bag of quilt blocks. I sashed them, sewed them into rows, and added borders.

This will make a nice baby quilt for someone. When I go to Patchwork Plus tomorrow, I will buy a backing for this. It will be completely ready to quilt when I get home.

One step closer to crossing a quilt from my gift quilt list!

Another productive evening

I am staying in another hotel this week, this time in Virginia. I will be teaching 11 classes at Patchwork Plus in Dayton, Virginia. Stop on by if you are in the area!

I got a little bit of sewing done tonight in my hotel room this evening:

I bought this kit several years ago and finished the top tonight. I will quilt it this winter and hopefully have it done in time for Mom's birthday. She definitely needs another tablerunner.

An exciting Friday night in New Hampshire

Last night, my foot pedal broke on my sewing machine. I have used this poor sewing machine for years and it owes me nothing more, but I packed a lot of sewing and now no machine. Nashua Sew and Vac to the rescue! Ruthie hooked me up with a new foot pedal and I'm back in business!

Look at what my new foot pedal accomplished tonight:

I finished a wedding quilt top for my sweet Alexis. She has been known to read my blog, so no photo. Sorry.

Another project started:



These are parts of a tablerunner from a kit I bought at least five years ago. Since I already have Mom's Christmas present (yay me for being early!), this may be for her birthday in the spring. I'm not afraid of a photo here: Mom doesn't go online... ever.

That's it for me tonight. Time for bed.

To help you dream quilty dreams, this is the carpet in my hotel hallway:

Wouldn't that make a great quilt?

It's always rainy in New Hampshire?

Yesterday afternoon, I drove to new Hampshire. I was last here in August, during Hurricane Irene. The heavy rains yesterday made it look as if I had never left!

Since it wasn't fit for man nor beast outdoors, I hunkered down in my hotel room last night to sew. I brought along a bag of well-aged quilt blocks (circa 2000). They are now pieced into a quilt center.

I'll find some border fabric the next time I'm home.

If you are near New Hampshire today, come visit me at Nashua Sew and Vac. I am teaching two classes there today.

Quilt Therapy

Do you ever have a day when you need to hide in the sewing room and just make something? I had one of those days this week.

I decided to try and thread paint the applique design from this quilt:

I grabbed some thread:

The threads are Accent, Konfetti and Tutti, all from WonderFil.

I sat down at my sweet Sweet Sixteen (my new sewing machine) and tensioned it to run multiple threads:



(I took the time to get it just right.)

I started filling in the shapes:



Suddenly, a flower appeared!



A short time later, the thread painting was complete:



Next it needed to be quilted:



(Now you know my secret: I watch Law & Order dvds on my laptop while machine quilting.)

The inner circle was quilted:



I added some simple quilting in the border and bound it:



This 14-inch square quilt was finished at the end of a day of quilt therapy.

I felt much better!

Design Wall Monday

I've just returned from a tour of North America:

• Quilting With Machines in Huron, OH (teaching 4 classes)
• Machine Quilters Exposition in Portland, OR (working for Handi Quilter)
• Central Sewing in Edmonton, AB (teaching 10 classes)
• International Quilt Festival

I loved being in all those different places and meeting all of the quilters, but I also couldn't wait to get home and start quilting something!

Last summer, I designed and made this quilt. The fabric is Blue Skies from Paintbrush Studios.

This quilt (and I) will be on Quilt It! on QNNtv.com in January. The quilt is currently touring Europe and Asia with WonderFil Threads.

I wanted to see what that same applique design would look like done in redwork (or green-work).

I stitched this from the back side of the fabric using a triple-stitch on my sewing machine. It's a little ragged, but it was fun to just play! Has anyone else done redwork on their sewing machine? Any tips to keep it smoother?

Head on over to Judy's blog to see how everyone else is doing.