Thursday, February 28, 2013

Itchin' To Be Stitchin'

Tomorrow, I'm going to a quilt retreat with some of my friends from our quilt club.  The shirts we ordered from Two Chicks Designs say it all:


Danville, IL, here we come!

I have several projects packed to go.  I don't think there will be enough time to finish all of them!

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Thursday, February 21, 2013

Hi to all of those following "It's All About Me".

Here is the schedule for today:

Friday, February 22

A Little Bit of Lorene
Life In The Scrapatch
Boston Bits
I Love Wool
Patchouli Moon Studio
As Sweet As Peaches
Just Quilt It
Grandmama's Stories
The Slow Quilter
Robin at That Other Blog
Scrapbook-ChickADoodle

Thanks to Madame Samm and Marlene for organizing this blog hop for us.  I always learn something new when I participate and always get great ideas.  So far, I have seen many great projects--quilters are so creative!

 We were given a really cute pattern by Amy Bradley called "I'm a Little Biased."  I haven't done much sewing on the bias, sew this was a real challenge for me.  I needed to make our quilt lady look a little more like me, sew I changed her hair, added a few buttons and some scissors around her neck, and changed her glasses.  She was lots of fun to work with.  I love the little smile (smirk) that Amy gave to her.




I decided to make a large quilting bag to carry my projects back and forth to Quilt Club and to retreats.  I wanted to choose fabrics from my stash, but I don't like to work with stripes and didn't have many.  Fortunately, we were going through fabric at church for our women's fellowship group to make quilts for charity.  I found some cute stripes among the fabric.


  I used bias fabric for the block, but reverted back to cutting along the grain for the border, sides, and straps--otherwise I would still be working!  I machine quilted the border on the diagonal to give more of a biased look.   The picture above looks pink, but the picture below is the actual color.


I also thought this would be a good time to try out some of the stitches on the machine I recently bought, so I found a nice "scissors" pattern and used it on the binding and on the straps.  I put a pocket on the inside and practiced my FMQ--no one will see it, so it was a good place to practice. (Although it turned out pretty well.)


Well, now it is off to finish up my Nancy Drew project!  Thanks for coming by to see my project.  Be sure to visit the other quilters sharing their lovely ladies today!  And,


Remember to hop over to Sew We Quilt to visit Madame Samm and see her top picks of the day.





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Sunday, February 17, 2013


IMarlene is our resident cheerleader


This week starts a new blog hop:  "It's All About Me".  Please check out some of these great projects. I can't wait to see what all of these great quilters will do with this lovely lady.  After all, "It's All About Me"!  I have met sew many talented quilters on blog hops.  They have given me great ideas, and I always learn something new when I participate.  Marlene will be our cheerleader, and I bet she has something special planned for her project, too!  The schedule is below, and please, leave a comment when you stop by to visit each of these sites!



Tuesday, February 19



Wednesday, February 20



Thursday, February 21



Friday, February 22



Monday, February 25




Tuesday, February 26



Wednesday, February 27



Thursday, February 28




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More on Lighting

Oh, I forgot to mention, there is a give-away through tomorrow at http://quiltoo.blogspot.com for this light.  Just go to the site to enter through tomorrow.
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Lighting

I just read a blog post about a great light for your machine made by Ecolux Lighting.  It looks like it makes an amazing difference, but I'm not ready to pay that much for extra lights.  My Janome 7700 is lit up pretty well, but if you have lighting problems, you might take a look.
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Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Julia's Birthday

My granddaughter, Julia, is turning 11.  Happy birthday, Julia!  She loves owls, so I made her an owl wall hanging for her room.  How many 11-year-old girls do you know who can't think of anything they want for their birthdays?   Well, Julia is one, and she is very special.

Here is a photo of the owl wall hanging I made for her.



It looked really nice hanging on my living room wall.  I may have to make another one when I have time.  I machine appliqued the owl, oak limb, and acorns.  I shaded in the bars on its wings using a brown colored pencil.  I stepped out on a limb (pun intended!) and machine quilted this project, around the objects, then used FMQ to try and show the movement of the owl's wings.  I'll share a couple more pictures that are closer so that you can see the detail:




This was the first time I used my Janome 7700 to make a quilt label for the back, and I was very pleased with the outcome.


The applique pattern was taken from a Ryan McKenna pattern.  I simplified by using one fabric for the back and leaving out the baby owls and a squirrel.  I was really pleased when I finished, and I mailed it to my granddaughter.  I hope you like it, Julia!

Thanks for stopping by!
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Wednesday, January 16, 2013

In My Words Giveaway

Congratulations to Agnes from DachsiesWithMoxieMama.  You have won the giveaway!  I will be sending 2 flowery fat quarters your way when I get your address. This has been a great blog hop with lots of inspiring words and beautiful projects.  I'm proud to be part of this quilting community.  Good-bye until the next hop!
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