Faceted Jewels Completed!!

After more hours than I care to count I am finished with the quilting.

I quilted in the ditch around most of the quilt.

The only thing that didn't get ditch stitching was the smaller geese triangles.

Then I did freehand feathers, loops, and swirls.

The first time I ever saw this quilt was on Thelma's Cupcakes N Daisies blog and Instantly fell in love with it.

I have since seen this patterned also called "Eye Fooler" by Quail Valley Quilts.

It is my new favorite quilt.

So it was a little hard for me to put it in a box and mail it off to Asheville, NC.

It will hang in the 30th Annual Asheville Quilt Show September 28-30, 2012.

I'll go visit it on the Saturday though and I will get to take it back home with me on Sunday.

This makes finish #15 for the year.

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Cats and Deadlines

There I was, making good quilting progress on my Faceted Jewels quilt when along came Jasper.

He plopped himself right on top of my quilt and rested his head on the side of the machine.  

What is up with this crazy cat.  Doesn't he know I am on a deadline...

Or perhaps he knew I had been at the machine for a couple hours and that I needed a break.

Yeah, I think that was it.

Cats are smart like that.

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Tish's Crane and Fish Quilt

I finished Tish's quilt the other day and gave it to her during our quilt guild meeting on Thursday. 

She loved it and I do too!!  She wanted this one custom quilted and asked for a few specifications.

She wanted gold thread.
She wanted a crane quilted at the top.
She wanted bubbles quilted at the bottom.

I took it outside to take photos of it like I normally do for my quilts, but I couldn't get the quilting to show up like I wanted.  This is a photo of the crane outside.

At first I was intimidated by Tish's request of a crane.
 She said if I couldn't do it don't worry about it.
 But she had given me a challenge and I wasn't about to give up on it. 

This is the inside photo. The blue fabric color is not  depicted right in this photo, but you can see more of the gold thread.

I'll admit I spent more time staring at this quilt than quilting it.  I was worried about not being able to draw with thread what I saw in my mind.  Finally with the deadline looming I quit worrying and just did it.  I started out with the anticipation of ripping lots of threads, but it turned out great the first time! Probably from all my practice on those small fabric postcards. I have made hundreds of tiny thread painted images, this time I just had to increased the size. So I suppose the old adage is true, "practice makes perfect" - well maybe not perfect, but pretty darn good.  :)

At the bottom I added a fish to go with the bubbles Tish wanted.  

It is hard to see the quilting here, I traced around all the images of the panel in gold thread.
When Tish said she wanted gold thread my first thought was,"Oy Vey!" 

I had worked with gold thread before and it wasn't pretty. I don't even want to repeat what was coming out of my mouth.  This time around though I decided to use a better quality (more expensive) thread hoping it would improve my results.  I bought a 1000 yard spool of Sulky gold metallic. It was priced at $16, but I had a 50% off coupon!  Yay! Love those JoAnns coupons.

I also opted for a Top Stitch needle instead of a metallic or regular 90/14. The better thread combined with the top stitch needle made quilting with gold metallic thread a breeze. I can't wait to have another project that needs gold thread.  It is so beautiful in this project.

Full view inside on the design board.

I never knew my design board could hold up a completed finished quilt all by itself!!
I love my board even more!!

I really love this fish!!

Close up of the tail.

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AYOS - Dimestore

Finished with plenty of hours to spare.
I was actually done before dinner last night. 

Once the sashing was cut to size and the blocks were sewn the rest went together super fast!

It is always fun to see how everyone else interprets the pattern each month.
You can see the parade of Dimestore quilts on Sinta's and Sherri's blogs.

Of course Sheen had to test out the top.
It is Cat approved.

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Start of Dimestore

I will definitely be coming in just under the wire for this month's Schnibble project.  With summer vacations and school starting, for the kids and me, there hasn't been much time for sewing this month. I did take time to cut my fabric for my Dimestore Schnibble yesterday and today I spent most of the morning sewing blocks together. 

I am adding an extra row to make my top a rectangle.

 I wanted to use this red and blue flower print for the background, but I didn't have a charm pack that matched for the sashing.  So instead of going to my scrap bin and pulling out a bunch of different fabrics to match, I decided to take the easy route and make all the sashing the same.  I have sewn them into strips and will cut them to the right size.  So this ended up being a color cordinated quilt instead of a scrappy one.  I hope it turns out good.  I don't have any distractions later on this evening, so tonight I will be at the sewing machine finishing this top. It will be ready just in time for the parade tomorrow.

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Faceted Jewels Basted

 Last night, with the help of Sheen yet again, I basted my Faceted Jewels Quilt.

I drew out my quilting design last night too.
But I will have to wait till this weekend to start the quilting.
First I need to work on a quilt for Tish and finish up my top for AYOS.

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Back to a Schedule and Mondo Bags

Well, Summer is finally over.  We spent the last week of summer in the mountains of NC camping, tubing down Deep Creek, and visiting with family.  We camped from Sunday to Thursday. There were a total of 32 family and friends at the campsite.  A few went to spend the night in a nearby cabin but they hung out with us during the day.  It was a blast!

 We came home Sunday just in time to start school the next day.

 It was early morning and only two of us were awake when I took this photo.

There were two more tents that you can't see. 

We had a great camp site right next to the creek.

We tubed three days in a row. What a great way to end the summer!

When my family left on Thursday we headed to Asheville to visit my husband's brother.  We had a good time driving around the mountainside in his Mule, looking for deer, and enjoying nature.

There was an awesome view from the top of one of hills.  It was cloudy when I took the picture, but usually you can see all the humps of the mountains on the skyline.

I haven't done much of any sewing since I got back, but I did do some before I left. My mom watched my dogs for me while we were gone and when I dropped them off I also wanted to drop off a Mondo bag for her and my sister, who came with us. I finished them up the day before we all left for NC.

I even personalized them on the inside handles.

I used Batik Strips from Connecting threads to make these two bags.  I bought two different color ways and still have enough squares to make another bag.

I have made three bags total. Here they are all together.  The Mondo bag on the right is the one I made for myself a couple weeks ago. 

Now it is time for me to get back into my regular school year schedule.

I sure will miss the lazy, fun days of summer.

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Guild Block of the Month - August

This is the block I turned in for my Guild's August block of the month.
To my surprise my name was drawn and I got to take home all the blocks!!

I started sewing them together like a regular string quilt, but then I thought some black sashing would bring out the black novelty fabrics in the center of each one. So I got my stitch ripper out, took apart the six I had sewn together, and came up with this.

I made an extra wide border with the intention of doing something spiffy in there, either with quilting or applique.  After staring at it a bit an idea hit me, so I cut up some green fabric strips and proceeded to make some vines.

I ended up making a lot of vine, way more than I think I will need, but I was having a good time with my new bias tape maker.

I glue basted the center vine on last night and laid out a few scrap triangles to get a feel for what it will look like. I think triangle flower petals will match perfect with the triangle sting blocks.

I have six mini triangles ready for hand applique, only 138 to go.  

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Busy Quilting

 I have been busy at the machine.  I quilted three of the four quilts I previously basted. This is the first one.  It was made by a guild mate of mine and she is going to donate it to one of our local charities. 

The pattern is a Disappearing Nine Patch.

I did an all over swirl for the quilting. 

And it is a two sided quilt!  This panel with wide borders is the perfect backing for this one.

The other two quilts I quilted are still waiting to be trimmed so I can attach the binding, but I got distracted with another project so they are patiently waiting.  I won all the blocks at my August Guild meeting and I was excited to start putting them together as a top.  I have to take one more good picture and I will show what I did with them tomorrow.  

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An Afternoon of Basting

 I spent the afternoon basting quilts.
Of course I had some help from Sheen.
At least this time he wanted to play with my basting tool instead of biting at the pins.

Click here and scroll down to see more links with Pets On Quilts.

I got four tops basted then ran out of pins.  These four are on the top of my "to quilt" list. One is a charity quilt made by Tish and the others are three of the shirt quilts I have been working on. I contemplated going out and buying more pins so I could baste the last shirt quilt, but I figured I could just quilt these and get my pins back.  A good incentive to get busy with the quilting.

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July AYOS - Jacks Top Complete

Finished just in time for the AYOS parade tomorrow.  Phew!
I made it a little bigger than the picture on the pattern.  I like them big enough to cover your legs while on the couch, but not big enough to swallow the whole couch.  I made my version 5 blocks across and 7 down.  

I used four charm packs of Tapestry by Fig Tree Quilts. It wasn't quite enough to finish off the border though, so I added a wee bit of their older Patisserie line for the extra pieces I needed. Both fabric lines have the same colors in them so they blended together perfectly.

I am going to put this near the top of my list to get quilted.  I just need to find a good backing fabric for it.  I already know who I want to send it too so I am excited to finish it up.

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Jacks in Progress

I made some good progress on my Jacks Schnibble quilt over the weekend.
I should have all the rows sewn up by tonight and then I can start on the scrappy border.
My next post should be a completed top just in time for the AYOS parade.

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Cutting For Jacks

When Sinta and Sherri announced we could pick any Schnibble pattern for AYOS this month I knew exactly which one I was going to make - Jacks.  I even had the pattern in my hands on the 1st of the month.  But here I am, less than a week till the parade and I am just starting my Schnibble. My delay was trying to figure out which fabric I wanted to use.  That always seems to be the hold up for me. I am worried if I pick the wrong fabrics I will ruin the quilt. Or I think I want to save some of my nicer fabric for a different project, but I don't have any "different" projects in mind. Sometimes I think I can't cut into a fabric because it hasn't sat on the shelf long enough for me to admire it. 

 Well, I finally told myself I was being ridiculous and picked up my newest charm packs, Tapestry by moda, and cut them up.  I was worried for nothing.  They are going to be great for this pattern and this can be the "different" project I have been waiting for. And when I am done, the fabric can sit on my shelf as a new quilt while I decide who I want to gift it to.  :)

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