I Spy quilt almost done

I worked on the I Spy quilt between volunteering at the art museum and working in the yard. First the quilt. I had a lot of trouble with my thread breaking and this really slowed me down. I finally figured out after I was almost done that I think my tension was too tight. Oh well, I got the quilting done and sewed on the binding. I have one side of the binding almost hand sewn on.


Saturday night was the wine auction. THe proceeds go to the educational programs at the museum. The museum will pay for gas for the bus and a substitute teacher to help schools bring their students to the museum. The CEO said they were the first art museum in the country to do this. The center pieces were dramatic! Here is one of them on one of the silent auction tables.


My job was to check people in as they arrive and help spot bids at the live auction. Here is what was left of somebody's dessert. There was a chocolate cup filled with whipped cream and different pureed fruit in the little paint wells. I don't know what else they had to eat, but there was lots of wine! Tickets were $250.00 if you were a member and the place was packed!


I tried to do some weeding early Sunday morning (about 6:15 am), but the ground is like concrete! We have not had much rain at all. I did get the maddox out and dug a trench for my canna. I watered the trench first and then threw the rizomes in, covered them with dirt, and watered them in again. I threw a little fertilizer in too since I am getting these in a couple of weeks late. I am going to have to figure out a plan of some sort to deal with the weeds in the other beds. I weed wacked the yard in the evening, but I was too hot to mow. The yard looked better just with the weed wacking so I wasn't that concerned with the mowing. Here is one of the canna that had already started growing in the bucket it had been stored in since November. My sister-in-law had come over and dug up these for me after I came home from the hospital, I couldn't dig them up after I had surgery.


I took a picture of this same sprout this morning before I went to work to see if it had grown yet. I guess I was expecting a lot, but then it finally had a drink of water after all these months!

I Spy progress

I managed to get almost 25% of the I Spy quilt quilted last evening. I like the pale yellow thread against the border. It also works with the light and dark patches.


This weekend's plans include finishing the I Spy quilt, weeding, and mowing the grass. Without much rain, the grass has not grown much, but the weeds have gone nuts! I must get my canna planted too. I was concerned that some of these colder night would be too cold for them, but I think we are over that. I will have to keep them watered, but I am anxious to see them again in the front flower bed and showing off those purple and green leaves.

Have a great weekend!

15th finish of 2012

Well, let me say it is essentially finished. I need to keep two corners not done so I can use this quilt for demonstration purposes at the next MQG meeting on June 27th so the quilt is 99% complete. I now have to go an update my May 17th to do list and the May 30th list.






My next quilt to finish is the I Spy quilt. I have the machine threaded, the quilt layed out and ready for me to start on it after work today.

The border is quilted!

I didn't think I would get the white border on the green quilt done last evening, but I did - Yeah! I fee motion meandered the border using Fine line in the bobbin and Essential by Connecting Threads in white for the front of the quilt. I do not have a longarm, I do all my quilting on my Pfaff 1475 which I would not trade for the world! I don't mark any of my quilting - it is just what comes from me moving the quilt under the needle. I don't do a lot of different patterns and I have never spent the time to even try to master feathers, but what I do seems to work for the quilts I make.


I know I still need to publish my post on how I do my binding - I haven't forgotten. I have the post half done and have not had the time to finish it. I promise I will try to get it done soon!

Green quilt from leftovers

I finished quilting the center green part using a lime green cotton thread - don't know the brand - on the front and in the bobbin. I am going to try and get the borders quilted tonight. Here is a shot of the quiting and one of the back.




Thanks for the nice compliments on the giant zig zag quilt. I will add it to my stash of baby quilts. I still have another chunk of zig zag that I cut off from the orginal top that will have to make into a top one of these days.

14th finish of 2012 and lots of pin basting

Here is another finish for this year. It turned out 37.5" x 46.5" and I call it giant zig zag. I used Kona snow and Jane Sassaman's Prairie Gothic for the front and the back is a chunk I cut off of the quilt. When I made this top is was out of proportion so I decided just to cut it down to a baby quilt size. I used backing I had in my scrap pile to add to the chunk for the back. I quilted it with King Tut Linen and Fine Line for the bobbin in off white. The batting is Warm & Natural. So this is one quilt completed on my May 30 to do list.







I worked on pin basting three more quilts. The one I am using for the family Xmas quilt and I cut out the binding too.


Allison's I spy quilt is pin basted and I cut out binding that matched the border fabric. For the backing I used a piece of scrap backing and a row of extra I spy block to connect the backing together.


For this green quilt I added the white Kona borders which I found in my scrap Kona pile. The center was leftover pieces from a block party quilt. For the back I again dove into my scrap backing pile. I also added a piece of green on the back which I will show once I get it quilted. This is the next one I am quilting. It won't be completely done until after the June 27th MQG meeting becasue I am going to use it for my binding demo. I found the binding already cut out and pressed in the closet! I also pieced together two pieces of my batting scraps and used that for the batting for this quilt. This quilt is turing out to be made of almost all odds and ends!


So over all I used up 2 1/2 yards of wide backing fabric that I had in my backing scrap pile. The pile still doesn't look any smaller.

I am meeting the owner of the Sunbonnet Sue quilt for lunch today so I can pass it off to her. I sure hopes she likes it.

Ready for the weekend

This week has flown by! I spent some time last evening cutting quilt backing and batting to match up to some of the quilts on the list I posted on May 30th.

I should have bought more quilt backing when I worked at Miller's last month. What was I thinking? I cut the last of the wide backing I had purchased by the bolt for two of the quilts above. SO now it is time to get creative with the backs. Remember the stack of backing scraps I had left after the last bunch of baby quilts I finished?

Well this stack is going to be pieced together for the backing for the rest of the quilts. After all it is just sitting there and it will be great getting these pieces used up in a positive way. I will try a keep a rough estimate of how much I use up and post a picture of what I have left after I get all the backs assembled.

I noticed that the robin's nest had fallen off the deck support. Here is the underside of the deck.

The nest was upside down on the ground.

I had to flip the next over hoping that there were no dead baby birds and thankfully they were none!

Right now I am full of energy and excitement to get this weekend underway. I have some stuff going on I can't tell you about yet. If things don't work out I will be highly disappointed, but not devastated. There is always another opportunity out there. In the meantime all this anticipation has kicked my productivity and enthuasiam into high gear!

Have a great weekend!