"What I Love about Quilting" - red work quilting girls quilt

Here is the quilt I made last month for our Foothills Annual Quilt Challenge - the theme was "What I am grateful for about Foothills or Quilting".

I decided to use my little red work quilting girl blocks that had been languishing for about 9 years so it's a long-overdue UFO for me too.  I'm happy that they were right for the theme and are now made into a quilt.  The swag borders are pre-printed yardage.  I added hand applique bows at the corners.  It took a lot of calculating to make the pre-printed borders fit along the block edges evenly.  Thankfully trimming the blocks to a smaller size and choosing a good sashing width made it all fit together.

I did custom quilting on this quilt and it seemed to take half-of-forever (a total of about 62 hours).   I love quilting feathers and meandering, but struggle with ruler work, so was glad when that part was finished.  I put in some really long days getting this done on time - not what I want to repeat anytime soon.  We had been having our great grandson here so much, that I didn't think I'd ever be able to get enough time to finish it by the deadline, but it finally got finished.

Getting the marking out turned out to be a challenge.  I used Sewline pencil with pink lead and Bohin colored chalk, the purple.  I thought I had pre-tested them but not good enough I guess.  I'm going to have to be more careful in the future.

I plan to give the back a little bit more attention before I call this quilt completely finished.  It seems that when I was changing thread colors my longarm came unthreaded and I struggled getting it to sew evenly after I re-threaded.  The stitching looks okay on the front but there are some loops around some of the curved feather tips on the back.  I think I'll come up with an applique idea and do some back art to cover those "loopies".  I'll post some pictures when I get the back art finished. 

All in all, I'm pleased with the way it turned out, but I prefer a more leisurely experience when I'm quilting.  It's done though so now I can switch to doing a little bit of handwork - something I really enjoy.  A much slower pace too. 

Here are a few close-ups so you can see the quilting. 

Here's the back art:

 

. . .and a close-up

Sleepy Bear Quilt

I just completed this quilt yesterday.  I call it Sleepy Bear.  I plan to hang it over my gr. grandson, Zahn's, crib.  I had originally thought I'd give it to charity but he was so interested in the stars, the moon, & especially the ties, that I decided I would give it to him instead.

Here's the back....... .  I used muslin, which I often do to save $$$, and then use some of the left over quilt fabric from the front to machine applique something onto the back.

 

The top was made in 2012 - the backing was even finished and ready to go back then.  Then it sat around waiting until I got re-interested in it again.  I'm glad to finally get this UFO (unfinished object) finished.  If I recall correctly, I found the pattern for this little bear in one of my quilt magazines.

Friendship Star Prayer Quilt

Here's the next quilt I've completed - another prayer quilt for the church. 

 

It's a friendship star variation.  I added machine appliqued butterflies in the center of each star.  This is the block I made for the first AZ Retreat I attended - for the block exchange.  I had a few extra blocks, so sewed a few more to add to them, and made them into a quilt.  The top has been languishing all these years. The church will say prayers over it as they tie the final tie on each knot.   I'm glad to finally have it finished and going to someone who it may comfort. 

Little Fishy Prayer Quilt

I'm working on finishing some quilt tops.  I made this blue and yellow-orange quilt top in 2004, and it's sat unquilted, and languishing in my cupboard. 

 

It has flying geese interspersed with fussy cut fish.   I've decided to call it Little Fishy.  It will be donated to the church where our quilting group meets to be used as a prayer quilt.  It's tied and the strings are left long enough that they can say prayers while tying the final knot.  I'm so happy to have it finished!

 

The other day my husband asked me what I was going to do with all of my quilts.  He suggested I try to find homes for some of them now, rather than wait for someone else to decide what to do with them when I pass on.  That was an idea I could get behind, and it's motivating me to finish some of them, and find good homes for them.  Our quilting group donates to both the church and a battered women's shelter.  I've gone through my tops to see what needs to be done to finish a bunch of them and donate them to one of these worthy causes. 

 

The backing is manatees. 

 

This is a quilt label I found on the internet.  I really like it and may use something similar.

 

This is the label I made to use for the prayer quilts - it's adapted from the above.

 

We hope this quilt comforts you, both spiritually and physically. The knots were tied while saying prayers to God.  Any loose knots can be tightened before washing to prevent them from coming out. Even if a knot comes out the prayer will last forever. Lovingly, Spirit of Hope UMC

 

SunBonnet Sue Quilt

More catching up - this should also have been posted in January.

I finally completed the top with the blocks the Foothills gals gave me for serving as President several years ago.  These blocks were so darling and fun to work with.  I decided to place the SunBonnet Sue blocks so they looked like they were following each other.  I posted that here earlier as I was working on it.  Now the borders are on (did you see the mitered corners?) and all it needs is to be quilted.  My goal is to do that for this year's UFO Challenge at Foothills.  I'll keep you posted.

Princess Feathers Quilt

Still catching up - this also should have been posted in January.

This is the applique quilt that I was working on as my 4th UFO for the Foothills 2011 UFO Challenge.  I got the top completed in time but not the quilting.  When I picked it back up to work on, after it had been languishing for quite a number of years, I found I still had a couple of blocks to work on, and the border to complete.  That took a little bit longer than I thought so I didn't quite make the deadline for the challenge.  I'm pleased I finished the top by the deadline though (yeah - that's a milestone in itself).  My revised plan is to do the quilting and get it all completed to show for the 2012 UFO Challenge.


This was one of my first applique projects.  The blocks were done by making a freezer paper template, turning the fabric under using spray starch, then appliqueing them down.  I've done a number of applique projects since then, and have learned needle turn applique, so did the border using needle turn applique. 

I just love this quilt - it looks like one my grandmother might have made.

Another UFO Completed - Through the Window Wall Hanging

Catching up - this should have been posted in January too. 

This is the 4th UFO I completed for 2011 during the Foothills' UFO Challenge.  My personal goal was to complete 4 applique quilts and I nearly got there - 3 out of 4.  Though this one isn't an applique quilt, it's finished.  That makes me happy.  Well, any quilt that gets finished makes me happy.  This one uses a fun technique called Through the Window.  It's good to put it into the completed pile.

SunBonnet Sue Blocks

The ladies in my Foothills Quilters group made some darling SunBonnet Sue blocks for me when I was President.  The  blocks have been aging since 2008 and today was the day I finally decided to make them into a quilt.

Here are the blocks set in place with sashing.  Borders are next...........

I based the setting on an antique quilt I fell in love with.  The antique quilt had 44 blocks and mine has 30 so I had to make some changes to make it work.  It still has the feel of the antique quilt even though mine is a bit different.  Tomorrow I hope to work on the borders.  It would make me happy to get the top finished (and maybe even quilted) before our next Foothills meeting so I can show the ladies how the blocks they gave me turned out.

Fragrant Memories Quilt Finished

While we were driving to Colorado, I was able to sew down the binding on my Fragrant Memories Quilt.  I started on this quilt 4 or 5 years ago.  I had the center all finished but still needed to applique the borders and quilt it.  I also stalled a little bit on picking fabric for the final border.  Thankfully, I got input from the ladies in my guild chapter and off I went to the quilt shop with some ideas in mind.  They were so good about helping me there too.  And now, it makes me happy to say, that it's finally finished, and is hanging on the wall by the bay window in our eating nook.   Here is a picture of the quilt and a close-up of the quilting:

Two More Quilts Bound

I got 2 more quilts bound while I was at our mini-quilting retreat on Thursday and Friday.  Now all 7 of the quilts I quilted a couple of weeks ago are bound.  They all need labels and then they're finished.  Happy day!

Two more quilts get binding

I finished putting the binding on two more of the quilts I quilted last week.  Now there are only 2 more left to bind and then I'll feel like I can quilt some more tops.  Here's a picture:

One More Top Quilted - Iris Nine-Patch Pizzaz

Sunday afternoon I loaded another quilt on my longarm and quilted it.  This quilt is my Iris Nine-Patch Pizzaz.  I completed the top in 2006.  I'm excited that there's another UFO on it's way to being done and that I'm still enjoying - and even looking forward to - longarming now that I've started doing pantographs!  I quilted it using Deb's Feathers-Allover Meander pantograph.  Here's a picture of it and a close-up of the quilting:

Binding the Quilts and Binding Tips

Oh the binding!  Now there are six quilts to bind - that's a lot of binding.  I figured if I didn't do it as I went along, I'd get too overwhelmed, so at the end of last week I jumped into the task.  I squared all six of the quilts, cut all the bindings, and sewed the first side down by machine. The sewing down part was quite a task since I'm binding challenged.  Even when I have a perfectly square quilt, I end up with it wavy after I've put on the binding.  I've been asking everyone I know how they put on their bindings hoping I'd stumble across something that would help.  Talk about a happy ending...........I think I finally have it figured out. The things I think made all the difference:

-I took the advice of my friend MaryG (thank you Mary!) and got out my acrylic extended sewing machine table.  Now I have a nice flat surface to work on.  I've been using a plastic machine slanting system and it's been causing too much drag.  I think this change alone made the most difference.

-This is time consuming, but during my remediation period I decided to measure the side of the quilt as I sew each side of the binding on, and make the binding and top measurement the same length.  It was surprising to me how much this has helped.  Even though it takes extra time, I think I'll keep doing it.  I really, really want a nice flat quilt and figure after I've put all of this time, effort, and money into making a quilt, I may as well put in the little bit of extra time to get it right........and to be happy with it when it's all finished.  I know I sure wasn't happy with my quilts when they got wavy due to the binding the way I was doing it previously.
 
-Early last week I happened to stumble across a binding tutorial on QuitersTV.com done by Hollis Turnbow. Here's a link if you're interested - http://www.quilterstv.com/channel/video/264?item=3 . Some things clicked on that for me.  One tip I especially liked was clipping the corners (clip carefully - just through the raw pieces of fabric in the corner not the folded fabric that makes the miter - you can guess how I found that one out).

Over the weekend I got three of the bindings hand sewn to the back of three of my quilts.

Don't they look pretty!  It feels soooooooo good to get these quilts completely finished.

Another quilt quilted

I quilted another of my waiting quilt tops today.  The top was made in 2006 as a mystery quilt by Quiltaholics.  They called it mystery #19.  I think this quilt looks like a variation of a trip around the world layout.  Here's a picture of it and also a close-up. 

This one was quilted with an allover feather meander pantograph.  It took me a very long time to get this one ready and then quilted.  I didn't have enough fabric in the right color for a backing (not much pink or burgundy in my stash), so I spent way too much time trying to figure out how I could do a pieced back.  I'll try very hard not to do that again because the 5 seams I ended up using to piece the back together caused headaches when I was quilting.  I don't think it helped that I used flannel for the backing either.  The bulk of the flannel made the seams very thick.  The longarm would be going along as smooth as could be and then hit one of those seams and practically come to a stop.  Very hard to push.  Thankfully that doesn't show when I look at the quilting.

I had a "oh darn" moment today.  I was cutting batting for this quilt and realized that both this week and last I was cutting batting from my wool roll instead of my 80/20 roll.  I sure wouldn't have used wool batting on my first pantographed quilt if I'd realized what I was doing.  I decided not to use the wool piece I cut for the above quilt and dove into the 80/20 for it instead.  Due to the batting there's quite a different feel and weight to this quilt than the others.  After I get the binding on it, I guess I should try and wash it to see how much it will soften up.

The quilt Carolyn made for me is now quilted

I'm so pleased with how the quilt turned out that my dear friend, CarolynN, made for me.  I quilted this beautiful Shoo Fly quilt using a pantograph with leaves and flowers.  It goes so well with the Thimbleberries fabric in this lovely quilt.  Thanks again Carolyn; I just love this quilt.  I'm happy it's finished.  I think it took me about 2 years to finally get brave enough to try quilting it and only a little over 4 hours to actually do the quilting - I should have just jumped in sooner and gotten it quilted.  Oh well, it's done now and I can bind it and take it up to our mountain home to snuggle with on cool evenings.  Here's a picture of my Shoo Fly quilt and also a close-up of the quilting.

Four Quilts Quilted

A longarm quilter friend, Mary M., came to my house on Friday and helped me figure out how to work with pantographs to do the quilting on my quilts (thank you Mary).  We started with a small quilt.  The quilting just wasn't coming out right.  My machine was so, so stiff.  We tried everything and just couldn't find the problem.  I kept at it but with less than satisfactory curves.  Then right toward the end, with only two rows left to quilt, I noticed that the horizontal channel lock light was on.  That's what was causing the drag and making my shapes all squared up instead of curvy like they were supposed to be.  It's like trying to drive a car with the emergency brake on.  Darn!

I'm so glad my top fabric had a dense print and so did my backing fabric. The quilting detail is hardly noticeable, thank goodness.  I quilted it using a very beautiful pantograph called rambler rose.   I'll have to try using that panto again on another quilt because it's really hard to tell what the pattern looks like on this quilt.  It took me 6 1/2 hours to quilt this small quilt.  It probably took so long because I was having training and we were having problems with the machine too.  Hopefully things will speed up when I become more accustomed to the process.  I made this quilt in 2005 and it's been begging to be quilted ever since then.  Now all that's left is the binding.  Here is a picture of...............the first quilt I quilted using a pantograph...........my mystery quilt (mystery was entitled Opposites Attract on Planet Patchwork.  I used Christmas looking fabric), and a close-up of the quilting, such as it is.

The machine problem was somewhat discouraging but I decided to get right "back on the horse" and loaded another UFO quilt after Mary left on Friday.  This time it worked beautifully and the finished product looks so nice.   I quilted this one using a winding plume panto.  I thought pantos were going to make the quilting process faster but this one took me 5 1/2 hours to quilt.  That's longer than I expected since it's a small quilt, but as I get more experienced and the steps become second nature, maybe the time will speed up some.  Here is the second UFO quilt that I quilted using a pantograph.  It's been awaiting quilting since 2006.  It's a stack & slash sudoku made with Moda's Sentimental Journey fabric line.  Here's also a close-up of the quilting.

Yesterday (Saturday) I loaded and quilted another quilt and it looks pretty too.   It's the Faded Memories Opposites Attract quilt that I posted last week on my blog as a UFO top I had just finished.  I quilted it using a camillias pantograph.  It looks quite a bit better quilted than it did in that previous picture, doesn't it?  This one took me 8 hours to quilt - probably because it's larger and the pattern on the pantograph is denser.  Sure like how the pantograph looks and there's something about making all those curves that makes my mind feel good. My feet, not so much. lol.

Just before bed last night, I loaded a fourth UFO quilt and finished it today.   I made the top in 2006 and quilted it using a feather meandering pantograph today - it's a nice flowing pantograph pattern, isn't it?  It took me almost 7 hours to quilt this large quilt.  That's a little bit faster than the last one, maybe I'm getting the hang of this.  It's made with the Moda's Rhubarb & Ginger fabric line.  Here's also a close-up picture.

I still need to square up all of these quilts - then put on the binding.  I'm going to have quite a few bindings to do now, aren't I?  I guess I'm set for awhile with handwork to do while watching TV.

Faded Memories Quilt - Top Finished

I just finished this Faded Memories quilt top this evening.  The pieced blocks were finished in 2006 and then sat in UFO status until now.  They are blocks that were made following a 2005 mystery quilt weekend by Planet Patchwork called Opposites Attract.  This is the 5th quilt I made using that mystery pattern.  On this quilt I set the blocks on-point and added alternating floral blocks.  The original mystery used only the pieced blocks - when set together side by side using high contrast fabrics (as directed during the mystery), they are a real eye bender.  Over the last 2 days I set the blocks on-point and added borders so now the top is finished:

Here are pictures of the other 4 quilts. 

This first one is in the layout of the mystery weekend - more of an eye bender.  My sister wanted a pink and blue quilt so I made this one for her in 2006 using the same fabrics as above by Moda called Faded Memories:

Here is another one I completed in 2006.  On this one you can really see why I call it an eye bender.  I originally made this one for my mother; she wanted a pink & blue quilt too, but this one turned out looking blue & yellow instead, so I made her a different quilt instead.  I got to keep this one myself.

This next quilt is one I made for my dear friend Laura.  It's set on-point like the first one above.  This one turned out especially nice and fits Laura to a tee.  You see, I was fabric shopping with Laura one day, and she was pointing at the various fabrics she liked, and that would look good in her house.  Later I went back to the store, and bought several fabrics in the line she liked, and made her a quilt.  I gave it to her for her Birthday in 2006 as a top and quilted it for her in 2007.

The last of the 5 quilts in this pattern uses low contrast fabrics that kind of blend together.  The eye bender effect is not nearly as pronounced in this quilt.  It is a Chruistmas Opposites Attract.  It's the one I actually made during the Mystery Quilt weekend.  This one is still a UFO; it's not quilted yet.

Sunflowers Quilt - Top Finished

This year I hope to concentrate part of my energy on finishing UFOs........both tops that are in various stages of completion and doing the quilting on numerous tops that are finished.

Last week I finished a quilt top I call Sunflowers.  It's been aging for a few years and just needed the mitered borders.  The needle-turn applique was done when we took a road trip to see my brother in 2007.

Round Robin Quilt - "Happy Hearts"

I'm so excited with my round robin quilt and also excited that I finished quilting it last week.  It will be on display at the upcoming Arizona Quilters Guild Quilt Show. Here is a picture of my quilt; I call it "Happy Hearts":

I made the center block and then my friends in the applique group I belong to made the other rounds (rounds in order made by JoyZ, PattyW, ElaineC, JoniL, & PamF).  I quilted it with feathers in various places, McTavishing, plus meander and pebble fill.  Though I haven't quite mastered quilting on my longarm yet, the overall effect is okay, and I'm pleased with it.  The pictures I took of the quilting don't show it very well but here are a couple of the shots anyway.

When I get the quilt back home I need to figure out how to take clearer pictures so that the quilting will show up better.

I can't wait to see all of the round robins finished (5 others besides mine).  We'll have them all hanging together at the quilt show.  We didn't enter them to be judged; they'll just be for display only.

I feel badly that I was supposed to quilt all of these quilts as my part of the round robin and then got intimidated by the beauty of these quilts and was afraid I'd ruin them after just quilting my first one for Patty.  I ended up asking the other ladies if I could quilt a different quilt for them and let someone with more quilting experience and expertise quilt these lovely quilts.  Thankfully they were agreeable.  One even got an award winning quilter to quilt hers.  I can't wait to see how it and the others turned out after the quilting was completed.