The Full Quilt

So here it is finally. It's really been done for quite a while. I just haven't taken time out to get it on the blog. My camera is dying and is taking terrible pictures. Maybe it's because I've dropped it one to many times or the fact that the almost 4 year old thinks that it's his camera too! The other day he took it outside to take a picture of the sand pile he made in his sand box.

We're in the process of upgrading to a Canon Powershot, but of course we had to pick the newest in the line and it won't be in the US until April!!! We have the camera bag and the extra batteries, but no camera!! I WANT my camera!! It's hard to take pictures with a crummy camera when you have a new one coming soon. So bare with me!

The Sand Pile

From Drop Box

Suzanne's Quilt

From Drop Box

Sometimes it Takes Forever!

I really enjoy doing custom quilting, and especially on applique quilts. I know it sounds weird and crazy and definitely takes a lot of time to do this detail quilting, but I do enjoy how my quilting adds dimension to the applique and makes the shapes come to life.

This particular quilt was on my machine for almost 6 weeks!!! Not that it took that long to quilt, but my getting to quilt on it was very sporadic. Didn't Suzanne do a loverly job on this quilt? I'll show the finished pics soon.

From Drop Box

Hi! Anyone Out there anymore??

I know I've been away from blogging for a while. So sorry, if anyone out there cares. . . One never knows.

We delivered my Mother-in-law back to her home in Albuquerque the first part of March and I've spent the rest of the time catching up on things around the home front and trying to get caught up on customer quilts etc. . . . I have taken a few pictures during this time, so I'll start by posting those and getting everyone a little bit caught up.

I showed a picture a while back that my MIL was actually sewing! Guess What? She finished 24 blocks before she left. So the girls (my DDs) are going to get them put together with a border and I'll get it quilted and we're going to send it to her. When we were in ABQ, she asked me to get her sewing machine set up and running! WOW. I've got a package ready for her with some strips and foundation squares and hopefully she'll do some sewing on her own. Hopefully her machine will cooperate.

Things don't go as planned. . . .

Yep, I ended up getting the dreaded sore throat! So I was down for the count for the rest of the week and beginning of the next. . . Life just gets all dis-comboobled when mom gets sick and then getting back in to the routine is another dilema.

But I finally got downstairs and back to quilting today. Woo Hoo! All the feathered borders and sashing are done, now I need to go back and quilt the applique areas. Don't be thinking it's done yet, cuz that is the most tedious part of the whole quilt, but hopefully it will be done next week. I'm sure Susan thinks I've fallen off the planet by now.

A cool thing that happened this week. I was checking up on The Quilt Show's Daily Blog yesterday, and was scrolliing down the page to see what I had missed over the weekend. And I found ME! Actually my name. A customer entered her quilt in the Road 2 California Quilt show, and pictures of it ended up on the Daily Blog. Go here and you can see it! Purty Cool! We didn't win a ribbon at the show, but this makes up for that.

Happy Quilting!

Yea! Quilting

So I'm finally quilting on Susan's quilt. However, I had to take the 14 year old to the Dr to get a strep test. It was negative. Bummer No anti-biotics to solve our sore-throat problems.

This ate up some of my precious "pre-school" time for quilting. We dropped off the pre-schooler and headed to the Dr's and thankfully we didn't have to sit there forever. So it only burned up an hour of quilting time. And I've been feathering the beejeebers out of this wonderful needle-turned applique quilt. I can't wait to get it finished and delivered to Susan. She's been waiting a while for this to be done.

Don't you hate when life throws you a curve

OK so it wasn't a BIG major curve, but still the same. Wednesday was going to be the day that I get going on Susan's quilt. I've got the machine all oiled and threaded and ready to go. The curves of the spine of the feather in the border all measured and ready to stitch. So what happens. Tuesday evening right after dinner? I start feeling sick and yucky. I'm up all night long with stomach pains and "stuff"! I won't go into details, it wasn't pretty. By about 2:30 AM I was finally heading to bed thinking I might get to actually sleep. The 3.5 year old has climbed in my side of the bed. I take him back to bed. He returns 15 minutes later. I take him back and get him comfy in his own bed. Now it's after 3.

Well, I spent the day lying around feeling weak and tired and No quilting got done. ARGH!

Still Waiting. . .

Well, the quilt is on and the thread is here, but for some reason that poor quilt is still waiting on the machine for me to get started on it. Starting seems the hardest part. Once I get going, it doesn't take long to finish. I think it has to do with the decisions and what to do here and there, and marking the quilt and oiling the machine and all that is too much for my brain?? I don't know exactly what the reason is. I'm sure some of it has today to do with the fact that I woke up at 4:30 and my brain was pounding inside my skull every time I moved! I took some Advil and thankfully was able to get back to sleep. However, my body could tell I didn't sleep well and I felt sluggish all morning. The good news is I got all my laundry done and that means tomorrow I can focus on the quilt and getting started!!!

I got Grandma Quiltin!!

So you all pretty much know that the mother-in-law is living with us, and she helped sew pajama pants so I decided to try and get her quiltin'.

She made one heartstings style block last night, but I think she's up to making more. Here's her first block ever! OK so I have lots of Thimbleberries leftovers.

From 2009-01

When you come to a stop?

Yesterday, I got three quilts prepped and stitched on the zippers ready to be loaded on the machine. I'm finally getting Susan's quilt on the machine. She gave it to me in Sept/Oct and said it wasn't needed until after the first of the year. So of course, it got delayed until then. Well, now it's on the machine and the beautiful fabric that she picked for the borders doesn't work with any of the thread I have here in the studio. So... I had to order some more thread! And so now, I'm stalled until the thread arrives. What should I do? I thought about unzipping it and putting another quilt on, but that quilt probably won't be finished by the time that the thread gets here and I'll feel like I need to get Susan's quilt back on. So I decided that I get to work/piece on the Happy Ric Rac quilt that I've been working on.

What do you do when you get stopped in your tracks working on a project????

Another quilt for Niquie

My Quiltin' BFF could probably keep me in business by herself with all the quilts she makes. I have a pile of her quilts waiting to be quilted.

From Drop Box

Then she'll throw another quilt my way saying, "Could you get this quilt done for my friend's daughter who is getting married next week, and I made this for her?" So I don't know if I'll ever get caught up on her pile between customers who actually expect their quilts to be finished and the emergency ones that Niquie has me quilt.

This one didn't make getting quilted before the wedding, but she presented the top to the bride at the reception, and I got it quilted 2 weeks later. That's soon enough right?

From Drop Box

The back was a solid black, so I put variegated in the bobbin and it was so fun to see what the backside looked like when I finished.

From Drop Box