Lots of Tops.

I have been busy lately sewing when I should really be quilting, but I feel like sewing so that's what I've been doing.

This morning after milking it finally felt like there was no wind so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to take some photos in a good light.

This is what I took with me out to the clothes line.
A basket full of tops.

First of all is my version of the Thread Head quilt along I told you about in last post. The top is finished and as you can see I had to really stretch the golden brown fabric to make it last for the bprders. Lol. It measures 74 x 56 inches.


There was some light breeze, but I managed to get photos of all the tops, here is a mystery from a yahoo group called Threads_Of_Friendship. The quilt is called the Friendship quilt and I did it after the mystery was revealed. I used 2 3/4" strips instead of 2 1/2" as I have a lot of them stored since doing mysteries from Iowa Star Quilts. I also only sewed the last strips around every other block to use them as sahsings. It became very dark so after I put a 2 3/4" inner border with the same fabric as in the corner stones I compensated by putting a much bigger, lighter outer border. It measures 76 x 59 inches. Bigger than I meant to make it, but that's how it wanted to be.


Then come some tops I'm making for my free motion practice/charity. They are made out of panels cut from curtains and lots of scraps that I've been sewing together in twos for years. These smaller tops measure 40 1/2" x 33 1/2". Here the only difference is the outer borders. The left is from a quilt fabric, the right is from a curtain bought at Good Will.


The difference here is the thin inner border, well, aside from the panels being mirrored. Wow, that's a word. Lol. The outer fabric is very old from my Granny Bubba. It's rather coarse and only measured 33" wide. I've taken it out many times for use, but it never felt right until now. I got this really nice feeling when I laid the fabric next to the half sewed top. I guess Bubba amma is happy too.


The last of the smaller ones has a border made of old curtains, bought some time ago at Good Will. Lovely fabric shop, Good Will. LOL.


This top measures 51 x 40 inches and the border (which I will also use as backing) is from a duvet cover bought at.... you guessed it, Good Will.


And in the end comes a girly quilt that I have still not finished quilting. I was quilting it when my Janome 6600 started complaining about not having had a check up in the four years I've had it. I've got the Janome back home now, running ever so smoothly, just haven't felt like quilting. That will hopefully change in the near future. This quilt measures 46" x 39". I'm not sure what I was thinking when I made the top and bottom border so much thinner. Now that I think about it I seem to remember not having enough of the fabric. Plan ahead, plan ahead.... measure fabric, measure top.... (see first top at the top of post) LOL.


That's it for now.

Sunna.

Flying geese, quilting and quilt along.

I have tried many different techniques to make Flying Geese or the other unit (like when making the Poinsettia block) and have not been happy with any of them. Gradually I found out my own way to make the Geese and although I try new techniques when I come up on them I always go back to my way, that can be described as cut before sewing. I like using my 6" ruler with the yellow line from corner to corner best.


But sometimes it gets lost in the clutter in my sewing room and then I use my triangle ruler. Those are the Poinsettia units, as you can see, not the Flying Geese. I can't find the pics. I have, where I took photo of every step. This is the last step, a white square placed on top of the unit and then cut in the right direction, If you cut in the other direction you end up with a FG.


I have finished quilting the birthday quilt for hubby, just straight lines, but I like it.


Here is the back, I've been waiting for my Janome's to come home from the service they had so I could sew the binding on. Well the machines are home, but I've been busy doing some happy sewing instead of the obligation ones. (And believe me, binding feels like a obligation). That quilt is over a year late so it doesn't matter if it waits a little longer. Lol.


This is what most of my time has been spent on, the Thread Head Quilt Along. It began last October, but I only learned of it recently and started on it last Friday. I've made seven of the eighteen blocks that will be in the quilt and five of the alternate blocks. I'm only making one of each block instead of two as most others are making. If all goes as planned I'll have made the blocks by the end of the week. The eighteenth block was posted last week so I'm not that far behind. I'm using solid white as a background in all the blocks.

I scanned the blocks and as they are 9 1/2" they didn't quite fit in the scanner so there are corners missing on two sides. And the colors are not quite true, but I'll post a photo (taken outside) when the top is done and then the colors should be more true.

Block # 7.

Hm... Block # 6 seems to be lost in space somewhere.

Blocks # 5.

Block # 4.

Block # 3.

Block # 2.

Block # 1.

Alternate block.

It has been great fun making thees blocks, but the reason for the Flying Geese talk in the beginning is because of the new (to me) technique that Joanne of Thread Tales uses. And I'm simply not good at it so I ended up "doing it my way".

I've also made lots of tops in January and February for kids, that will be given to charity when they are done. I'm using them as a practice pieces for my free motion quilting so there is a bit of selfishness in there somewhere. Lol. Will post photos later.

Sunna.

Big Quilts

I took on a task for a friend of mine, to thread baste a big top she had made to give her daughter. When the basting was done I agreed to machine quilt it too. I wisely did not measure it before quilting it, if I had I would have given up before I began. Here it is laid out on my bed, it was to big to take outside to my laundry lines for a photo. The day was a bit overcast so the photos are rather dark, which is not so bad cause it makes the quilting not show as well as if the day had been bright.


This is certainly not my best work, but I simply had trouble handling the bulk of the quilt while free motion quilting it and my Janome 6600 with it's 9" throat space got pretty annoyed there at the end. It's working still, but it's long overdue for a checkup. So, I need to figure out how to get it across country to the repair man. This morning I suddenly remembered that I saved the box the machine was in when I bought it (at least four years ago). Sometimes I do get things right. I should be able to send my Janome safely with a truck company, but I think I'll buy an insurance all the same, just in case. I really, really like that machine.

I took this photo standing on the steps you can see in the first photo, it's hopefully dark enough. LOL. The computer I usually make these posts on shows photos very dark, I'll have to check this post on my laptop to see if the quilting shows. Oh, well, it is what it is. Anyway, the quilt is beautiful, I absolutely love some of the fabrics used in it.


That's all for now.

Sunna.

PS. Forgot to mention how big this quilt is..... I had no help when I measured it, but it's ca. 90" x 100" For me that is humongous and a bit scary because I have two tops in progress that are of similar size. Sigh. Not good, not good at all.

Solstice.

Today was cloudy with snowing on and off and it was little lighter than twilight at two pm. so there was no trace of sun for me to photograph. I don't think there would have been any sun shining on the mountain anyway. When I was in next town well over a week ago I noticed that the sun shone on just the highest top of the mountains there.

Today there are 33 - 34 days until the sun shines on my home again, that is if the weather permits. It's traditional to bake sunny pancakes on the day we see the sun (it actually shines on us) I was going to make a post about it last January and had actually taken photos to go with it. Maybe I'll remember to do it when the day comes this time.

I thought a photo of our Christmas tree would be better than nothing. This was taken in 2008 and there are lights on the tree, they just don't show on the photo. I really would like to own a better camera.



We have a normal winter weather at the moment, but they say it will get warm again in a few days, until then it's storms and such.

Today I and hubby gave up, sigh, we went on facebook. Yikes. What a time thief.

Sunna.

Road to Heaven

I have one more finish and I'm feeling good. It's a Christmas present and has started it's journey to the new owner. This is one more mystery from Cynthie at Iowastarquilts named Road to Heaven and I added a 2" border to make it a bit bigger.

It was dark when I finished sewing down the binding with help from my mom who came for a visit and as she was leaving the next morning while it would still be dark and taking it with her I took a photo with all the lights on in my bedroom. It was not enough, lol.


I don't have the patience to sit and draw patterns on paper so I usually just jump right in and quilt on my machine. I'm getting better at some patterns and for this quilt I chose flowers, leafs and something that turned out to be sort of feathers. I think. At least sometimes. Click on the photos to enlarge them if you want to see more details.


It's faaar from perfect, but I see progress and I'm content. And that is a good feeling.



I'll tell you after Christmas who's the new owner.

Sunna.

The Sun.

I know this is a bit of an over kill, three posts in one day, but I forgot this photo that I wanted to show you. I took it at 1.30 pm. today when I was photographing the Christmas Light quilt. This is how far down the mountain side the sun shines today. If we have a clear sky on December 21. (Solstice) I'll try to remember to take a photo, to show you how far the sun rays reach then.


The car with the lights on is hubby's work car, called the "sperm car". He was on his way to some farms to meet a couple of cows that were eagerly waiting for him. Lol.

Sunna.

Marathons and Christmas.

I mentioned in the last post that I've been in a marathon sewing lately. I've been sewing up loads of these things for our rescue team Christmas lotto. These Christmas socks were panels and I and another woman added beads and such to them, I and another woman quilted them and then I offered to finish the socks. It was so dark when this photo was taken you can't see the beading much, but it turned out okay. I would never have thought I would have so much fun doing beading, but I did. Not as much fun as sewing and quilting though.


Then there are the table toppers and runners. I've quilted and put the binding on 10 - 12 of them, I've lost the count. And some of them I also put together from already made blocks. I liked this one best. There are more things I've been making, along with other women and we will have a good load of winnings.


On our guilds sewing day in early October there was a talk about a Christmas quilt show and the members were asked to look through their Christmas things for quilted items. I have given most of mine away so I didn't think much of it, but then later, last Monday to be precise, decided to quilt my Christmas Light top for the show that started yesterday.

Yeah, I know, not the best of ideas, time wise. But I have a good friend that I also mentioned in my earlier post. Mary who lives in Kansas and she does the most beautiful quilting and has given me tips and encouragement to tackle mine. And last week, finally, I was ready to sit down, let go and just quilt. The beginning in the center of the quilt is not so pretty, but I decided to let it stay as is, as a reminder of the journey, so to speak. I got better as it got along and the white border is my favorite. I'm really happy with the quilting on it. The blue and red border are not as good, but by then I had little time and I was also simply tired.


While making this quilt I used a lot of fabrics that didn't play well with others, like the blue and the green f.e.s. (The colors don't show true in the photos, they are more bright in reality) The red for the setting triangles was the only fabric that was remotely Christmassy that I had enough of so it got used. Lol. I also had no fabric that went well as the outer border and decided to use this red, purple and pink fabric my mother gave me a few years back. It made the quilt much to red, but I kind a liked it anyway.


Since I used up difficult fabrics in the top I used lots of left over thread both for the top and the back while quilting. (I had no time to order and wait for thread) The darker under thread shows a bit in some places, but I was determined that I would not let that bother me... and it doesn't. Lol.



I made up the pattern of the mistletoe leafs, but the stars and loops I'd seen somewhere before, don't remember where though.


I see in this photo that the backing shows through the white border, I think that's only because the quilt is hanging on the clothes line. The days are so dark at this time of the year that this is not noticeable when the quilt is lying flat on bed, or when I hold it up inside the house.


I hope you can see what I wrote on the label that I made in haste, I will make a better one later. This quilt was a mystery from Bonnie K. Hunter at Quiltville. It was posted in the Quiltmaker magazine in three steps, starting in the July/August issue. I got the mag in August so the quilt has been over a year in the making. I never got the last issue of the magazine so I finished the top after seeing photos of it at the quiltvillechat on Yahoo.


I usually have no problem deleting photos from my posts (accidentally) but I can't get rid of this one. I guess someone want's you to see all the mistakes I made while quilting the center. Lol. If I'd had more time I would have ripped out lots of seams and also gotten better thread, both for the back and front, but I'm content. It is what it is and I'm learning/practicing.

The backing is a flannel that I bought as a cover for a double sized duvet. It was on a sale and I thought that would make me feel okay to use it. Lol. Not really, the other half of it is not as ugly because there the colors are reversed, the hearts are dark and the background light and I think I'll have no problem using that for a back later.


Now, here come the punch lines. When I finally had the quilt ready, midday Friday, I phoned the lady from our town that was helping put up the show.... and she said: "No thank you, we have much to much of things for the show as is".

That was a big blow to say the least. So I said thank you and good bye, turned of the phone and then sat for a while with the adrenalin still on full steam, from hours of hand sewing the binding down in a race against time.

So what does that teach me. Lol. The quilt has been decorating my bed since Friday and is the first sign of Christmas in our home this year. Which reminds me, it is the first Sunday in advent today and I need to find my advent ring (a direct translation) I bought the candles for it a while ago, just hope I didn't put them in the "good place". I need to find them today, not sometime after Christmas. Lol.

Sunna.