Serving Our Country

Another one quilted. not even sure i should count it......it is really small....27x36.....took about 20 minutes to quilt. hahaha    but, hey, one more out of the cabinet.

I couldn't find the date when i pieced this together....but it's been a couple of years at least. 

These were blocks from my Aunt Sophie stash. a couple of times i tried to put them in the thrift store box to donate....but couldn't do it. i'm glad i put it together.

I just did a simple wavy line across....kind of like a flag waving.

And look at the back.....that's the reason i had to keep them. fronts and backs. 

I believe i shall donate it to the local Veterans Home and put a label on it with names of my dad, son, and husband and which service they were in. 

It's kind of cute.

Cabin Cats #2

Back in 2011....my friend, Mary, had a huge fabric sale. i bought several bolts of the Cabin Cats line. and started making quilts. i made 6 or 7 of them. and still have some fabric left.

This one is #2.....Take 5 pattern.  started March 15, 2011.  Finished today, October 26, 2014.

Here is the back....using up more of that fabric.

I've used some of these pics in other quilts, too.

Another UFO busted.  feels good.

My greatest challenge ever

In the interest of cleaning up the studio and finishing up things.....i have given myself my greatest challenge EVER.  

There are 90 quilt tops .... of mine....awaiting quilting. this cabinet is packed....and piled on the top.

Then i started using this cabinet.

This basket holds a dozen Aunt Sophie quilts that i fully intend to quilt....even though a few of them are butt ugly. hahaha

And there are 30 UFOs in various stages of doneness.

And 12 sets of machine embroidery blocks that need to be set into a top and quilted.

And another 6 or 8 quilts that i am actively working on.

There are about 60 weeks between now and December 31, 2015.  the plan is to finish all this mess.

I realize that might not ALL happen......but i am going to give it the old college try. i have pulled out all the tops that have a backing already made and ready to go. i finished Chubby Bellies today and loaded the next one for tomorrow. 

I will do a few easy, small ones to get the ball rolling. then work on a larger, custom top. and just keep going until they are finished.

I am DETERMINED to clear this stuff out of my studio.   sigh!!!    

I pieced all this year without a thought to quilting. so, now is the time to play catch up. during the day will be quilting time.....evening at the house will be spent on finishing up piecing those UFOs.  

By the end of 2015 i might need a straight jacket......and then again.....i might just be super proud of myself for getting all this done.

Pray for me!

hahaha

Chubby Bellies

This is a small quilt that i finished up today. it is a machine embroidery applique design. it was started on July 23, 2013......i got the blocks all finished and the top put together. and it has sat in the cabinet .... until today....when it got quilted and a binding put on it. i think it marinated enough. only sat waiting about a year and a half....not bad considering some quilts have been in that cabinet for about 4 years.

I used a bright yellow...almost gold...thread on top....a pale yellow on the back.

SID around animals and blocks and a simple meander in the block background. 

Stitched around inside animal enough to hold it together.

Wavy lines in border.

Back was a lime green.

Here's a close up. binding was a pale green stripe.

Easy peasy and done in a few hours. 

On to the next one.

Laurie's Dresser Scarves quilt

It's ok to take 7 weeks to quilt a top....isn't it?  haha  that is how long it took me to do this quilt. it was labor intensive. i didn't work on it every day....and some days only an hour or two. but in the last 3 days i made the final push to get it finished. this baby is heavy. it took 22 bobbins worth of thread.

It belongs to my friend, Laurie. she saved dresser scarves and sewed them onto a piece of white fabric to make her quilt. i had to think on this one for a while. it was intimidating at first. 

This middle part looks like it was a table topper. it was already quilted.... so there is more thickness in the middle.

Where i put in those cables there are about a million French Knots. i finally quilt trying to go between where i thought they should be and just quilted the cables....and ignored the dots because some of them are not in line.

I went around all those embroidered flowers and vines and leaves.

There were 2 of most of the dresser scarves but i didn't quilt them alike.  here you see the side border....i did piano keys on the side borders.....in a random fashion.

Where there was a lot of white space sometime i put in a circle or oval and quilted something different inside of it.

There are lots and lots of feathers....different kinds and different sizes.

There is some cross hatching.....and some curved cross hatching.

Some swirls and some pebbles. you can see some of the bottom border here. i did the bottom and top border with large molar feathers....with an echo...and a spine in each feather.

Different quilting in each scarf.

This scarf had a crocheted dress for the lady. i quilted it down some.

A close up of the center of that scarf. design from Irena Bluhm's books.

Another lovebird scarf...with feathers. you can see more of the bottom border.

An oval design

A wavy double wide cross hatch. can you see the ghost butterflies?

Lots of feathers

A flowery fill

Some curved cross hatching

Random spaced piano key border and part of the top border.

Lots of pebbles and some rays

Another oval filled with feathers

Another Irena Bluhm design.....one of my favorites

A close up of that circle with the star. still has some purple marker that hasn't faded out yet...but it will.

More curved cross hatching, pebbles and feathers.

Feathers and hearts

Another butterfly scarf

And, if you like to see the back.....i think the back is the winner on this quilt.

Middle of the back

Bottom of the back.

Now you see why it took 22 bobbins of thread. and so many hours.  Glide thread, white, for the top; Bottom Line, white, for the bobbins. 

Although it took a long time.....it stretched my imagination to come up with some designs. taking it for show and tell tomorrow for class. i hope Laurie likes it....i'm sure she will. she always does. and she gives me free reign to do whatever i like.

It's not too early for Christmas....is it?

Some one posted a thing on Facebook about a new-to-me machine embroidery shop.  well, i can't resist that.  so, i had to go and take a look.    oooohhhh....i see lots that i like.

But i just tried one thing to see how they turn out.  i got the Christmas Crazy Quilt set #1.....it is applique.

So far, i have stitched 2 blocks. I like applique blocks because you can use up scraps.

And i used some fabric that i no longer wanted to use for the foundation. since it all gets covered up with applique it doesn't matter what you use.

These are pretty cool, i think. there are 20 blocks. these are the 8" size. there are also 4", 5" and 6".

There is another Christmas Crazy Quilt set, too. i'll get that one next and i can add those blocks to these and make a larger quilt.  there is also a Halloween set that looks awesome. not all the blocks are out yet to get the whole set. but you can buy individual blocks if you don't want the whole set.

Go check them out.    www.mollymine.com