Longarm Tuesday

Since I had something new to post on Design Wall Monday, I moved the longarm photos to Tuesday this week.

For my daughter's friend's brother's baby. Got that?

Does that batting look green? It should... it's Quilter's Dream Green batting made from recycled soda bottles (or pop bottles, depending up on where you live).

Design Wall Monday

I actually have something new on my design wall this week:



The lime green and black pieces are for a bag that my daughter-in-love and I are making together. The pink half-square triangles are for a quilt I'm thinking about designing. The scrappy squares are from a pattern called Ruffles.

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

Friday finish -- Kristin's quilt

My niece graduated from high school a year ago and I finally finished her quilt. She loves blue and puple. Is this blue and purple enough?

Yes, this is yet another quilt made from my pre-cut 5-inch squares.

I've been blogged!

This winter I designed a wholecloth quilt using the Handi Quilter Pro-Stitcher. Now Erica from Erica's Craft and Sewing Center made one, too! The photo of her quilt is about half-way down the page.

Here's my quilt:



I used Fairy Frost fabric. It looks fabulous in person but it sure is tough to photograph!

Design Wall Monday

My design wall remains the same, so I'm once again substituting photos of what is on my longarms.

This is a for a friend:



This is for a friend, too:



Let's play "Date that fabric" with the bottom photo. Any guesses? How about "Name that fabric line"?

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

I've been blogged!

I had a great surprise earlier this week when I learned that I had won a give-away from Cupcakes and Daisies!

Friday finish -- Jason's quilt

My oldest nephew graduated from high school this year. For long-time readers, I'm certain this quilt looks familiar. I made four in the same pattern and colors last year:



The backing was also donated by my dear quilty friend:

If you look closely at the binding, it is machine sewn. I'm getting better at that with each quilt!

Design Wall Monday

My design wall looks the same as last week, so I decided to show you photos of what is on my longarms. (Yes, I have two. Well, three actually.)



This Fig Tree quilt is a gift for a relative. I'm having so much fun quilting it. It's going to be hard to give this one away!



This wedding quilt is a sample for the designer. I ADORE THIS QUILT!!!

Get the pattern or the kit.

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

Friday finish -- a pair of aprons

I'm in love..... with an apron pattern. I think I'm about to wear out my Lilly pattern!

Look! See!

Here are two more:

One was for a dear friend who spends plenty of time in her kitchen: she is the mother of eight children. The other is for a bride-to-be. She begged me to make her one for her wedding shower. Happy to oblige!

Back Porch Tuesday?

I strongly dislike summer. My central air conditioning hasn't worked in the 9 summers we've owned this house, and it's not even close to the top of our house To-Do list. I bought a window unit for my office/studio and camp out in there during the worst parts of summer. The past ten days have been awful. I don't think we've been below 90-degrees, and we had a run of four or five days between 97- and 102-degrees. It was, in a word, yukky.

I tend to wake with the sun and sometimes that means I have several loads of laundry hanging on the line by 6am. Yesterday morning was one of those days. As I was hanging clothes, I noticed a nocturnal companion:



My shoe is in the bottom of the photo for scale. I adore luna moths, and this was close enough to make my day!

Design Wall Monday

My daughter-in-love has been bitten by the quilting bug ever since her first sewing adventure. We're now making quilted handbags from the cover of Quilts and More, Spring 2010.

We raided my black and white 5-inch squares and picked contrasting fabric from my stash (mine = pea green polka dot, Gretchen's = turquoise). We layered the pieces and quilted them on regular sewing machines. My daughter-in-love QUILTED HER OWN PIECE!

She keeps her pieces with her, but mine are on my design wall:

When we get more sewing time, I'll post photos of both finished handbags.

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

Friday Finish -- Bill's quilt

When I said that I had cut thousands of 5-inch squares from my scraps, you may have been tempted to think I was exaggerating. I promise you that I was not.

Here is more proof:



The quilt is 66x66 inches square. The front was made from scrap 5-inch squares. The backing was donated by a friend. The kind of friend who says, "Please take this awful fabric out of my sewing room so I don't ever have to think about it again." In case you think that the fabric doesn't match the front of the quilt, let me asssure you that it matches the recipient perfectly. He's a relative who had some extensive surgery earlier this week. I hope this brightens his day just a little.

May you have a speedy recovery, Bill!

Friday finish -- fun with scraps

This quilt is in need of a home:

I made it out of my overflowing 1-1/2 inch strip bucket. It's 60x72-inches.

I'm certain the right person will come along and claim this quilt.

Questions answered

So I caught a little bloggy heck *cough*Amy*cough* for not detailing my fabric cutting adventures. Please allow me to clarify.

I try to keep my scraps in order. My style is similar to Bonnie's.

If the fabric is a yard or larger, it gets folded and stored in a bin. If it's smaller than a yard, I cut it into:

10 1/2 inch squares, used for quilt backs and in place of layer cakes:









The 5 inch squares are used for tossed nine patch quilts and in place of charm packs:

The 2 1/2 in strips are used in scrap quits or in place of jelly rolls:

The 2 inch squares are used in scrap quilts:



The 1 1/2 inch strips are used in scrap quilts and in place of honey buns:

I wish I could say that all of my scraps are cut and neatly stored in this manner but they are not. I haven't had many stress-induced cutting sessions lately. For that I'm very grateful.

Design Sofa Monday

I just spent a great week at the Vermont Quilt Festival. The quilts were gorgeous and the people were fantastic. My hotel was nearby and made a perfect sewing room. I brought boxes of five-inch squares and used over 1,000 of them!






Three finished quilt tops and blocks pieced for a fourth.

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

Friday finish -- James' quilt

My son and his wife have been married for a year, but they grew up together. Our families go to church together and we are probably closer than most in-laws.

My daughter-in-love's brother graduated from high school this year. Here's his quilt:



I think this is the 6th in a series. A few years ago my parents had some health problems and you know the old saying, "When the going gets tough, the tough cut fabric?" No? Well, I've made all 6 quilts from the fabric cut that week, and there's still more. And my parents are doing well, too. It's a win-win.

Design Wall Monday

Fortunately for me, my quilt holder was home studying for a final. I made him take a study break so I could show you this:



I finished piecing this top for Quilts of Valor. The design wall is currently empty, but I'm sure I'll remedy that soon.


I am journaling while I'm making this Quilt of Valor so I can send the journal to the wounded soldier. It makes the whole process more personal for me as the quilter and hopefully for the recipient as well.


I'll show more photos as I get this quilted, bound, labelled, and in a pillowcase.

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

Friday finish -- Veggie Totes

Yesterday, my daughter-in-love and I went to the Quilt Basket and made To Market To Market tote bags. For the last few weeks, I've been agonizing about which vegetable to pick for my tote bag. Eventually I chose broccoli and my daughter-in-love chose carrots.

Sue taught the class and we learned so much!

Isobel chose eggplants for her bag:

Our family belongs to a you-pick CSA. Today the bags went to the farm and carried home swiss chard, kale, bok choy, strawberries, black currants, and peas!

Guess what's for dinner?

Design Wall Monday

I pulled a bunch of Americana colored strips out of my bucket of 2-1/2 inch strips.
Jaybird Quilts has a tutorial on making a hexagon quilt. I pieced up a bunch of hexagons that will become a Quilt of Valor when they grow up.

Sunday Stash Report

Fabric in this week: 13 yards (backing fabric + a bolt of cream)
Fabric in this year: 22.5 yards
Fabric used this week: 9.75 yards
Fabric used this year: 136.5 yards

STASH BUSTED: 114 yards

This is the first time my total has gone down. Hopefully I can reverse this before it becomes a trend.

Friday finish -- Nikki's quilt

My apologies! It's been about 5 weeks since my blog has seen any action. I've seen plenty of action, though. I've been in 14 different states since I last posted. When I wasn't travelling, sleep somehow seemed more important than blogging. Again, my apologies!

Back to quilting:

This afternoon, a lovely young lady is getting married. I finished her quilt six entire hours before the wedding.



It's another split-nine-patch in 30+ shades of cream.

I will not be at the wedding, however, since I will once again be..... on the road. Off to pack!

How I Spent My Summer Vacation (money)

I love spring! This winter we had a flood, a terrible snowstorm, an even worse ice/snowstorm, and another flood. This was in addition to a regular New York winter. We took some damage to a car and lost a bunch of trees. The ice storm damaged the remaining trees so badly that we'll have many more falling for the rest of the year. At the front of our property, part of a very large tree fell onto the road last month. The remaining part of the tree was split and was just waiting to fall.

We made the very exciting decision to have the tree taken down. Who needs a summer vacation anyway?

In this photo, half of the tree is already down. As we are hauling all of that wood up the mountain to our wood pile, we're playing the "guess how many cords of wood it is" game. We figured we've hauled up 2 cords already and the log pile on the street doesn't look any smaller yet!

And as you can see, tree removal is a spectator sport in my neighborhood.

It was an honor

It was an honor to make this quilt (the first one, specifically) with my friend Kim. She pieced it; I quilted it. Why was it an honor to quilt a quilt? It's something I do every day after all. Well, this quilt was made for Quilts of Valor to be given to a wounded serviceman/servicewoman.

When I went to MQX, I dropped off a stack of quilts to the Quilts of Valor booth and ran off to work. The next day (or the day after that?) someone from Quilts of Valor let me know that this specific quilt was given away. Patrick, a young serviceman, is being shipped home for surgery and the Governor of Rhode Island presented this quilt to his mother!

I actually got to meet mom (Debbi). We hugged and she told me about Patrick and we all ended up crying like fools.

Want to share in this honor? Check out Quilts of Valor and see how you can help.

We have a WINNER!

Thanks to everyone who commented for a chance to win Beyond the Lines: Quilting Designs for Hand, Machine, and Longarm Quilting.

Karen is the winner!

I used the random number generator and was going to paste a photo of it on my blog but apparently that technology is just out of my reach. Please trust that I was honest.

If you would like to purchase the book, it can be ordered online from the Quilt Basket.

Sunday Stash Report

Fabric in this week: 4 yards (backing fabric)
Fabric in this year: 9.5 yards
Fabric used this week: 9.75 yards
Fabric used this year: 126.75 yards

STASH BUSTED: 117.25 yards

Head on over to Judy's blog to see how everyone else is doing.
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Don't forget about my give-away!

Friday finish -- Michael & Jackie

My husband's baby cousin is getting married next week. This boy was about 2 years old when I came into the family, but since my own son is now 23 I suppose Michael has had some time to grow up a bit since then.

I haven't met his bride yet, so I chose neutral fabrics for the wedding quilt:





I had all of the fabrics in my stash except for the backing. The backing fabric was yummy and perfect (and on sale!). I'll make my true confession for Sunday's Stash Report.

Sorry for the oddly-lit photos. I finished the quilt last night and took the photos this morning before the sun had time to fully rise. I have to leave for work soon!
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Don't forget about my give-away!

Words to Live by...

Written on top of a radiator at the Rhode Island Convention Center:



Passers-by thought I was weird for taking a picture of a radiator. At least I wasn't the one who wrote it!

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Don't forget about my give-away!

Time for a Give-away!

This week my blog-meter registered 50,000 hits. That feels like a milestone to be celebrated. I think it's time for a give-away!

How about a drawing for a copy of my book?



It's called Beyond the Lines: Quilting Designs for Hand, Machine, and Longarm Quilting.

The give-away rules are:

• Leave a comment letting me know that you'd like to be entered in the drawing.
• Open to United States residents only.
• Comments close Monday, April 26, 2010 at noon EDT.

Good luck!

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In case you wondered, that definitely is a Hello Kitty bandage on my finger in the photo. Why a Hello Kitty bandage? Because I was out of Shrek bandages, of course.

I've been blogged!

Bonnie and I met up at MQX, and she insisted on taking my photo. In my defense, it was after 10pm and I'd been working in the classroom since 7:30 am. I had just changed out of my work clothes and was in my casual jeans, hoodie, and pony tail.

Check out Bonnie's blog.

Design Wall Monday

I'm home from MQX and working on my new quilt along.



I am using a bunch of patriotic fabrics from my stash so I can donate this quilt to Quilts of Valor.

My first attempt didn't go so well:



I used a 4-inch triangle template, but it wasn't an equilateral triangle. I switched over to my regular ruler and used the 60-degree line. It worked like a charm!

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

Sunday Stash Report

Fabric in this week: 0 yards
Fabric in this year: 5.5 yards
Fabric used this week: 9.75 yards
Fabric used this year: 117.0 yards

STASH BUSTED: 111.50 yards

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

Friday Finish -- John's quilt

My daughter is friends with triplets so I got to make three graduation quilts.

One for Katie.

One for Mikey.

And one for John:



John likes purple. A lot.


Last year my daughter asked for 10 graduation quilts, and this is number ten. I am done!!!

Quilts of Valor

What she said.

I've been blogged!

Debbie, owner of Quilting Possibilities in Forked River, NJ, posted about her Handi Quilter training in Connecticut last week.

Check it out.