Friendship Star Table Runner

I first saw this pattern on Sew We Quilt.  It was by guest blogger Shell May of The Raspberry Rabbits.  I book marked the post because I wanted to make it.  Time passed and I figured it would probably never get made becuase I just have too many other projects.  But then Shell reposted the tutorial on her blog the other day and I thought, I really like this and I am going to make this now.  So I picked out some Christmasy fabrics and got started.  It went together pretty fast and I was finishing up the hand stitching on the binding Friday morning.  I will have to wait a couple months before I can put it out though.  Right now my Halloween Table Runner is on my coffee table.  But Christmas will be here in a blink of an eye for sure!

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Bird House Quilt

My newest finish was a quit top created by one of my guild members who recently passed away.  Her family received four tops of hers that they wanted to have completed and this was one of them, the Bargello I previously posted about was another and I have two more waiting their turn under the machine.

 You can see the quilting a little better from the back side.  The fabric is all one color, so the difference in color must be some shading coming from the window.

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October Guild Block

My guild has started up their Block of the Month Program again.  They started it in August so this is the third month they have had it.  I missed the August block, and forgot to take a photo of my September block, but I remembered to get a quick shot of my October block this morning before I left for the meeting.

The theme for October was any block pattern as long as you used Black, Orange, and One other color.

I picked purple for my other color.  Below are all the blocks that were turned in.  

Unfortunately they didn't pick my name in the drawing so I didn't get to take all these beauties home.
But it was still fun to see all the different blocks, and I can't wait to see what the winner does with them.

Purple Quilt Finished

My cat finally got off my purple quilt and I was able to finish it up.  :)

Actually I quilted a little bit on it every day over the past two weeks.  I have spent most of my craft time quilting for others lately, but I always make sure to set aside a few minutes each day (sometimes only 15) to work on something of my own.  Thanks to those spurts of time set aside I now have a finish of my own.

I wasn't sure what to put in the big purple border squares so I decided to go with feathers.  

You can never go wrong with feathers right?

In the purple diamonds between the nine patches I tried one of Leah Day's Free Motion Designs called Feathered Hearts.  You can see them pretty good from the back of the quilt.  They are a little more dense than the rest of the quilt, but they were fun to do and great practice.

I have a couple more client quilts and a Citizen Sam quilt waiting there turn on the machine so I will better back to those.    

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FQQA #1

Here is my first block for the Fat Quarter Quilt Along.  

Now I have to wait a whole week to find out the next pattern... oh the anticipation...

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A Bargello

I finished the quilting on another client quilt over the weekend.

 It was about to rain when I took these first two photos, so I moved to the front porch.

My quilt holder wasn't home, so I had to use the railing.

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Cross Stitch Update - Feline Love

Progress is still being made on my little cross stitch project.  

Not as much as in the beginning, but things are still moving along quite nicely.  

Current Stitches

Stitches since last update.

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Last of the Le Petites

For this last month of the Le Petite Challenge we were allowed to choose any Schnibble pattern we wanted for the Le Petite Challenge.  I chose one of the new ones titled "Spot".  I decided I needed a new Christmas quilt.  So I bought the Countdown to Christmas fabric by moda and made the Larger version of "Spot"  I am really loving the touch of black thrown in with the Christmas colors.  I want to get some yardage of the black polk-a-dot fabric for the binding.  Or maybe the Green polk-a dot fabric. Or perhaps the black and red strip like the Starry Eyed quilt found at moda bake shop.  I really like that quilt.  I am contemplating getting more Countdown to Christmas just to make that one.  :)

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I can't believe a whole year has gone by since I joined up to make all these small projects.
I participated each month and got 8 out of the 12 quilted.
2 are basted waiting their turn under the machine, 2 are still tops.
Below are all the quilts I made for this challenge.

Paginni A Schnibbles Pattern ~~~~~	Butter Churn pattern by This and That ~~~~~	Prairie Point Christmas Moda Bake Shop ~~~~~
Mon Ami A Schnibbles Pattern ~~~~~	Sweet Spot A Schnibbles Pattern ~~~~~	Endless Summer A Schnibbles Pattern ~~~~~
Brocante A Schnibbles Pattern ~~~~~	Candy Bar Pinwheels Moda Bake Shop ~~~~~	Ric Rac A Schnibbles Pattern ~~~~~
George A Schnibbles Pattern	Honey Comb A Schnibbles Pattern	Spot  A Schnibbles Pattern

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Finito!

I have finished the quilting on my guild mate's king size quilt.   She mentioned to me that she wanted straight line quilting similar to that which is on the cover of the book "Nearly Insane" by Liz Lois. 

  

 I love all the different blocks in this quilt and all the different colors.  It is a fun quilt to look at.

It is also very heavy.  It has wool batting and heavy flannel on the back.

This will be a great bed quilt for winter.

After quilting this biggie, you'd think I would take a break, but nope
I already have another quilt on the machine.   :)

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Quilting A King

A lot of people ask me how I quilt a king size quilt on my home machine, so I thought I would show you all.  This photo was taken near the center of the king size quilt I am currently working on.  I push the whole thing through as I go.  Sometimes it is a tight fit, but I can always maneuver it enough to get a smooth quilting section near the needle.  There is really only a small section that is super tight and as you quilt there is less and less going under the machine so each row gets easier.  In these tight sections, I find that I spend more time shifting the quilt around instead of quilting.  But if you go slow and shift to get a smooth quilting surface then you won't have any puckers on the back.  Another important thing to remember is to have somewhere for the left side of the quilt to sit.  Otherwise it hangs and the weight of it pulls the needle and either breaks it or curves the stitching.  I quilt next to my computer desk and use it as an overflow to catch large quilts such as this one.

Ok, break time is over for me.  I better get back to quilting.
I have this one scheduled to be completed by the end of the week.

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Next on The Machine

This top was made by another guild mate of mine. It's a biggie.  

I basted it last week. Quilting on it starts today. 

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Baby Panel

I quilted this panel for a guild mate of mine.  I had a good time playing around with this one.  My favorite is the lamb.  I love to rub my hands over him and feel the texture.

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Fat Quarter Stars Quilt Along

I am participating in the Fat Quarter Stars Quilt Along and have picked out my 16 fat quarters.

Block instructions start on the 27 and will be announced every other Tuesday.

Hopefully I can keep on track with this one.  :)

I had a hard time getting this photo without cat legs in the picture.

Below you can see why.

The curtains pulled up and a nice pile of fabric were too hard for Sheen to resist.

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3 Quilts Basted

This weekend I didn't have my internet connection.  I was busy for most of the weekend, so I didn't miss it for  much of the day, but in the evening when I read the quilting blogs, play games, and catch up on my shows I really started going through withdrawals.  After staring at my monitor for about and hour willing the internet to work, I decided I better do something else.  I have a nice to do list of quilt related items that need to get done, and one would think this was the perfect time to get those done, but instead I decided to do work on quilts not even on the list. They don't have deadlines and they aren't for other people,  I pulled three tops from my UFO pile and decided it was time to play with them for awhile.  I was going to baste all the quilts on the pile, there are 4 more, but I remembered I needed to save my pins for a customer quilt that I need to work on this week.  So I stopped at three.

The first was my Le Petite project from last November - Butter Churn Shcnibbles.  I used Christmas fabrics for mine and displayed it during the holidays last year just as a top.  This year I want it to be a finished quilt when I put it on the coffee table.

Next was my Brocante top, which was also part of the Le Petite project.  I picked this one to baste because it fit perfect with a leftover piece of batting I had.

The last one I basted was my two tone purple quilt.  I started this quilt at the end of 2009 and finished the top in the summer of 2010.  

After basting, I started quilting the purple one.  I was on a roll and making great progress till I had to get up and help one of the kids with something.  When I came back, Jasper had decided I needed a longer break and took up residence right on my quilt.

I left him to his nap.

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Spot

I spent what little time I had this week for crafting working on my Le Petite for this month.  September is the last month in this year long program and we were able to pick out any shnibbles pattern we wanted.

I picked one the the newest Schnibbles called "Spot".  I am using the Moda Countdown to Christmas charm squares by Sweetwater.

I have a few more red and white strips to cut out and then I can sew up the rest of the spot blocks.

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Feline Love Update

I had a few 30 min trips to town this week and two trips to the beach. Since I wasn't driving I worked on my Feline Love cross stitch.  I also had two dentist appointments for the kids this week and that gave me even more time to work on it.  With all that waiting, I got quite a bit done.

This Weeks Progress

Last Week

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