More progress made

Blogger is finally back on line so now I get to post about that metal/hard rock quilt.

I only have a dinner sized plate area to quilt and the borders will be done. I will work on the center and binding tonight and tomorrow. The story behind this quilt is this: I have made many quilts as gift to my brother's bosses - he tours with major rock bands. I helps to keep him in their heads as my brother is independent and does not work for a production company. They way he gets work is thru word of mouth.

Now my 13 year old nephew is one mad guitarist and he is going to open Sunday night at Ripper Ownes' Tap House. Ripper sang with Judas Priest for awhile. Sunday night two member of L.A. Guns are playing and my nephew is opening for them! Fab opportunity! Also, Don Jamieson from "That Metal Show" on VH1 is going to be there. The quilt is for him. With this gift he will alway remember my nephew. My nephew does not know that I am doing this and I know he will be thrilled. He also managed to get me a ticket for the show. My nephew also designed this poster for the show.

I will post a picture of the completed quilt on Monday.

So now you know what I am doing this weekend. Enjoy yours.

Stash builders and the metal quilt

More fabric I bought this past weekend. P & B Textile and since it was in the bargin basement it ended up $4.20 a yard with the 30% off. Good basic tone on tone prints.


Here are a couple odds and ends I picked up at Miller's this past weekend. I have to make a pillowcase out of the turtle fabric for a friend of my sister.


I am now about 70% done with quilting the borders - I did good last evening!

Last minute quilt

I need to make a quilt that has a heavy metal/hard rock vibe to it. I will let you know in a few days who this quilt is going to be given to.

When I was out at Miller's this past weekend I scoured the place for fabric that I thought would work. I snagged this flame fabric when a customer brought it to my cutting counter. I took the 3 yards that were left. I was pretty cool and would add a little color to what was going to be a dark quilt. I also found a guitar fabric with a gray background and black guitars (forgot to take a picture, but you can see it in one of the pictures below - with the wreath design over the guitar it makes the guitar look like the end of the guitar is an ax. Very metal!) I was looking for skull fabric, but the lovely woman that is the assistant manager said in her sweet voice "we don't buy that type of fabric."


I started this quilt Sunday morning about 7:30 a.m. Here is the center. I used the Decolorant product that I bought at the Sewing and Quilting Expo in Cleveland a couple of months ago. It turned out ok, but I think I should have put the product on a little heavier. I used a stencil I had picked up cheap last year for the letters.


I decided to start out with yard long pieces. I took the guitar and flame fabric, layered them (about a 12" wide piece) and double cut them, switched the pieces up and sewed them together. I headed back into my fabric storage room to see if I could find anything else that would fit the theme of this piece. Score! I found some guitars on a black backgound, some fabric with Asian writing, and black sheet music fabric - perfect! I also had planned on using the fabric with words on it that are related to guitars so thank goodness for a stash and collecting music fabric!


All the pieces are layed out so now it was a matter of sewing and fitting them together.


Here is the top finished. It turned out 63.25" x 76.5". I had it done by 1 P.M.


I had this gray music print in my stash that I got off the discount shelf when it was marked down again for just a few dollars a yard - its nice stuff too so I thought it would be a good backing fabric. Since I could not find any skull fabric for the front, I decided to put a strip of my "Quilting Pirates" when I joined the gray backing fabric together. I think it adds an edgyness and humor to the quilt. I had the quilt pin basted by 4 P.M. I then went outside and did 2 hours of yardwork - weed wacked, mowed, and trimmed a tree.



I started quilting on this when I got to the house after work Monday. I got about 30% of the border quilted so far. At this rate I feel positive I will have it done on Saturday. I am quilting it with black thread and will bind it with black.

A Weekend in Charm

I had a lovely time working at Miller's Dry Goods Friday and Saturday. The weather was good - only a couple of short rain showers on Saturday - and lots of shoppers. I picked up a couple more pairs of these gloves which I wear when I free motion machine quilt and I also wear them for working around the house.

I bought 29 yards of Kona snow. Early Friday I found a bolt with 8 yards and one with 5 yards and snached them up since that was all we had. Later the UPS man came with a couple more bolts so I picked up a 16 yard bolt. Let's see how long this lasts.

When cleaning up the remanents I found some backing end cuts that ranged from 1 1/4 to 1/2 yard pieces. They sell this off very cheap and since it is about $13.00 a yard now I when ahead and bought these off cuts. They are good for baby quilts.


Tomorrrow I will post about the quilt I put together Sunday and is ready for quilting.

Update

Nothing exciting - I got a little more done on the aqua improv baby quilt. I was unsure if the blue thread would work with the aqua fabric, but it looks good. I was thinking I would have to buy some thread to match.


I changed out the piece that is hanging behind my desk this morning. This is Stage 13 - Garmin. I have the next few months planned out. Next month I will hang my piece inspired by my favorite sprinter Thor Hushovd and for July, of course, I will hand my Tour de France piece.

Tulips

Since the deer eat at the tulips at my house, I have been picking and enjoying the ones outside the front door at work. The yellow ones are just about done for so I picked a bunch of the red ones. It has been rainy and over cast today so they were not open when I cut them after lunch.

1:50 p.m.


2:20 p.m.


2:50 p.m.

Quilting and bike racing

After work last evening I mowed as it hadn't rained all day. I didn't weed wack - it was very lightly sprinkling. The rain started last night and it is stil coming down this morning. After mowing I worked on quilting the aqua improv quilt while I watched the Tour of Romandie. Congratulations to Cadel Evans for his GC win!