Time Flies When You Are Busy

I really don't know where the time went since I posted last but do know have not had much time to myself.  It is always hectic getting gardens planted, mowing done, cleaning house for Memorial Day company plus am still doing physical therapy for my shoulder once a week and the exercises at home several times a day.

I love having a large yard and multiple flower beds but they do take a lot of work to keep the weeds out and the flowers planted and tended each year.  I am trying to get more perennials and bushes planted each year so I will have less of the planting to do as the years go by. 

Ok, enough of the excuses for not blogging or reading my favorite blogs and on to a more interesting subject.

We had our last quilt guild meeting the third Thursday in May.  It was a great evening starting out with a pot luck supper with so much good food.  The auction was really a lot of fun too.  Since the tickets were so inexpensive there was a lot of good natured fun stuffing some of the bags with many chances to win. 

I was the winner of this quilt top made by one of our guild members.  I love it but want your opinions on what I should do about the one chicken in the upper right.  Her beak doesn't show since it is made of a beige fabric and blends into the background.  How or what should I do to make it show up?  Will quilting do it?  All the beaks are made of the same fabric.

Have not had time to do any sewing or quilting since I finished the Amish quilt so am anxious to do something soon.  I did get to supervise one granddaughter with sewing her 4-H project.  She made a pillowcase and was so proud of the good job she did.  I was really proud of her too as she stuck to it and finished it in one afternoon.

Time for bed now but will try to post more frequently from now on so you don't forget me.

Lynn

Blow The Trumpets, Clash the Cymbals - Nine Patch Friends Is Finished

Finished putting the last stitch into the hanging sleeve so can officially call this quilt finished.  I do like the way it turned out and am looking around my house to see where would be the best place to hang it. 

Here is the back of the quilt.  As you see I had to add a strip of fabric diagonally to make it large enough for the backing.  I described this process of adding a diagonal piece of fabric to widen or lengthen backing on this blog post.

Am glad I am done with the hand work on this quilt as stitching on black fabric is not much fun.  The black just sucks up the light and even with an extra light it can be hard to see at times.  I think tacking the binding down on a quilt is my least favorite part of quilting so am glad to have it done, done, done!

Well - now I can say I used my 25 yards of fabric since August to meet the guild challenge for this year.  Thank goodness that is done!  Already have an idea for what to do next but first I must get the rest of the things ready to take to the guild meeting.  We are having a kind of auction where we all bring an item we no longer want and donate it - everyone buys tickets and drops them into the bag of the item they want to win.  The tickets are cheap - 10 for $1 and everyone gets into the spirit of it.  We also are having a pot luck supper and playing a dice game called Right, Left Center and the items we are trying to win are 2 1/2" strips of fabric.  Our May meeting is always so much fun so am looking forward to it.

Until Later,
Lynn

Machine Quilting Nine Patch Friends

Here is what the quilting looks like on the Nine Patch Friends quilt.  I finished the quilting so now am getting the binding ready to put on.  Will I make my Thursday night deadline?  I am working hard to get it done so check back and find out.

I quilted a spiral in the center of the light squares and petal like shapes around it to make it look somewhat like a flower. 

With the black fabrics, using black thread and the other dark fabrics in the quilt you really can't see the leaf and vine quilting between the flower shapes.  I know it is there though and if you get your nose really, really close you can see it too!

I told you I changed the design I planned for the small border...well here is what I used instead.  The design I had thought I would quilt in this area just didn't work so ripped out what I had started to quilt and then stitched this design instead.

For the outside border I again quilted a flower shape with a spiral in the center of the 9 patch blocks and a leafy vine in the black area.  I think I am quilting pretty good then Whoops, I get a zig or a zag or a jiggle.  I am such a perfectionist that most of the time I would rip those spots out but this time I am trying to ignore them.  In the overall picture of the quilt you don't really see those little oops so maybe I am making progress on my perfectionism (don't even know if that is a word.)

Until Later,
Lynn

Just looked for more black fabric to bind this and wouldn't you know, not enough solid black in the house.  Good thing I have to go to Hastings for physical therapy this morning and can buy some.  I keep telling myself, "I will get this finished," " I will get this finished."

Lynn

Prepping for Quilting

I prepared my quilt sandwich for quilting by basting the layers together and this time I decided to use my safety pins and get it done more quickly.  I did roll the backing and top on boards like I do when I baste quilts with thread.  Almost ran out of pins before I got it done though - not sure where all my pins have gone as I used to have lots more.  Oh, well it is pinned and being quilting as I post this.

Happy Quilting,
Lynn