Dream Tree

 I am easily swayed. haha

I saw this pic in the American Patchwork and Quilting magazine, issue August 2015.

Isn't that cute?

And I thought...oh, that would use up a lot of stash. I've been working on using up all my fabrics.

Well, let me tell you...I spent days and days tracing and cutting and fusing hundreds and hundreds of little leaves and flowers and such.

And then....days and days cutting and piecing 4 patches and hour glass blocks and HSTs.

But, I persisted....remember....use that fabric up.

And...I got this.

If the pic looks weird...I'll confess....once I got it hung, I realized I had hung it sideways. No way was I taking it down and rehanging. haha  So, the pic just got turned. That's why you see the hangers on the left and the floor on the right. hahahahahaha

I don't believe I looked at the size of this before I started. haha  It is monster, king size HUGE...100" x 104". I hope it fits on my frame.

Once I got the inside piece fused down, I went ahead and quilted just that middle white part. I wanted to get those pieces sewn down so they stayed down. The middle part will be extra fluffy once I quilt the whole thing.

Once I got blocks put together, and pieces fused on, I stitched a few large stitches over every fused piece. I have trouble with my fusibles...they tend to come up and I sometimes lose pieces. As you can see, some of these are already coming loose. As I quilt it, it won't be a problem to pull out the thread that is holding the piece down as I get to it to quilt it. I knew wrestling this monster top would cause some of them to come loose.

I didn't have bias tape, so i just sewed some green fabric into 'vines'. works for me. I love those little birds.

This quilt used a LOT of smaller fabric pieces. But it sure was tiring making all those blocks.

 

 

I plan on keeping this one for me. I will quilt it once I get Brenda's #5 off my frame. 

I don't even have a king size bed...only queen. haha   it hangs way over the sides. 

Embroidery projects I am working on

 Well, my embroidery machine made some old man strange noises and died a sudden death. 

Hopefully, it will come back from the shop soon. I miss her.

In the meantime, so as not to go into withdrawal, I dug out the backup embroidery machine.

Trouble is, it only can make 4" or 5" blocks.

Oh well, at least it's something.

so,...

I made more monkeys. I started these a few years ago....when the good machine was once again in the shop. haha

Now i have 17 of 20 finished.  The other 3 might get done before the machine comes back.

The green and blue fabric blocks are something I had left over from another abandoned project, so I decided to use them up.

 

 

 

And, I opened an email from Sweet Pea and they had crazy quilt designs on sale. You know how I love crazy quilt designs.

So, I am making some 5" blocks....and using up some purple fabric and thread. When the other machine comes back, I will make some 10" blocks to go with these. There will be many more 5" blocks. There are only 12 designs, so there will be duplicates. So far, I have 7 finished.

 

I also succumbed to George Sicliano's ads on Facebook for his Designing Logs.

These are 5" and 5 x 10"

I am using up some black and white scraps for these....with a bit of red.

It will be a long term project....in between other things.

One 5" block had 45 pieces...haha    

Has anyone tried his designs? They are paper pieced.

 

 

 

 

So, that is what I've been up to these days.

Oh, and working on quilting Brenda's quilt #5....that is slow going. I have to talk to myself and make myself quilt. haha

The embroidery machine has a stronger pull.

Kimberbell Halloween quilt top

 This is just the top....not quilted yet. I got most of it finished a couple years ago, then let it sit.

I finally put my big girl panties on and got the border on it and finished up a couple things and now it is ready for quilting.

That Broomhilda's Bakery sign is not attached. they put a button on it. If I quilt this, I will probably just quilt it down. 

There are all kinds of blocks. I used the Kimberbell fabrics called for.

Today's menu hangs from a button.  The eyeballs in the 'glass' jar are behind vinyl. The spider on the pie is 3D

Several things are in vinyl jars. I think that spider is supposed to hang from a web...oops, forgot that.

The flower is 3D along with the top of the shoe.

This was just too much fun to do.

This shoe has glitter. The Bone Appetit sign is only pinned on.

Love that cupcake. haha

Broom is 3D

This was a lot of fun. I am not really a Halloween person, but couldn't resist this one. 

If anyone would like to purchase it, give me a holler. Maybe you know a Halloween lover.

Brenda's #4....Blue and white borders

 How about a quilt with a center square about 12".....and then a zillion borders. hahahaha  well, 13, but felt like a zillion.

It was rather interesting to quilt. I tried to do something different for each different fabric. Sometimes I forgot. oops!

I did all of the rows going across and then turned it to do all the other borders going the other way. I had a bit of an issue by the time i got to the bottom. I think i needed to baste those sides a bit as I went. oh, well, done is good. haha   Hope Brenda forgives me.

Quilt started out at 76 x 82 but lost 4 inches each way by the time i was finished. That seems a bit much to me.

I did some ghost quilting of blocks

Wavy lines in the fishy rows....straight lines in the flower rows

Some SID in the 9 patches and CC in the pinwheels. A bit of crosshatching.

I didn't SID all the rows....perhaps I should have. Some flowers and feathers and swirls

The back is kind of cool, I think.

It seems like a lot going on from the back....but a lot of the quilting doesn't show on the front.

The back was a darker blue...the camera washed it out. Wonder why cameras do that?

It's a pretty cool quilt....I like it.

Top thread was Glide Hawaiian Blue and bobbin was So Fine Navy

Took me about a month to quilt it. .... about an hour a day....most days.