What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Remember the Quilt Diva UFO I got quilted earlier this year?  This quilt was designed by the same designer.  It's called Pumpkin Divas.  This was another quilt that we had just as much fun picking out the fabrics as we did making it.  (Look at the 'stars in their eyes' fabric in the glasses.)  Adding the buttons and turning a couple of them into spiders - well that just added to the whimsy of the quilt.  It's been hanging in the shop as a flimsy for quite a while.  I pulled it down off the wall to get it ...

In my quest to finish up more of the UFOs, I grabbed this little guy off the hanger.  He's been hanging out and beckoned to be ready for the holidays.  The name of this pattern is Straddlin Santa by The Wooden Bear.  

There are a lot of quilts hanging in the que that hang there for a long time.  I have it in my head that I want to custom quilt them.  I don't want to tie up the machine for that long because of customer quilts, so they just sit there.  I've always had it in my head that I wanted to custom quilt Eureka.  It told me it wanted lots of feathers.   Momma was in the shop about a month ago and was looking at it.  She thought it would look great in her lake house.  (That's ...

If you Google "Quilt the Seasons", you will see that a LOT of designers have coined a book with this name.  (I know it is hard to come up with something unique, and I get it.)  By far our most popular book was the Quilt the Seasons book by Pat Sloan.  We whipped up samples of a few of the projects to sell the books and sold out of books long before we even thought about getting them quilted.  Sadly, the book is no longer available.  I regret not grabbing one for myself.  :(

I've mentioned this before...we keep ...

I pulled this old ufo out of deep storage to see if I could get the top done in September.  

I have the borders pieced and added to the quilt. I used mostly shirts and strips waiting to be trimmed.  It will wait it's turn for quilting. I found a back and made the binding as well. I really like the barn raising setting for quilts. It adds a fun twist to ordinary blocks.

Bricks in the barnyard is found in Bonnie Hunter's Book- scraps and shirt tails 2 

In an effort to get more of my quilts ...

My late summer obsession has been pulling out all of those accumulated blocks-of-the-month from years past and setting them together. I got a border on this one (L) just this past week. A sweet off-white marbled fabric was special ordered (with fingers crossed) to border up and surround these six year old blocks and rein them in, success(!); it blended perfectly with the background fabric from

My late summer obsession has been pulling out all of those accumulated blocks-of-the-month from years past and setting them together. I got a border on this one (L) just this past week. A sweet off-white marbled fabric was special ordered (with fingers crossed) to border up and surround these six year old blocks and rein them in, success(!); it blended perfectly with the background fabric from

In an effort to make it longer than wider, I added wonky stars to the top and bottom of my ode to Joey quilt, and, now, it is a top. I have a large flannel  wide back for the back and a multicolored binding sewn together. I made this for the rainbow scrap challenge at so scrappy. And, now, it lives in the "to be quilted" closet annex.  I have a 'sleep in your own bed" retreat this weekend. I haven't even decided what I am taking to work on while I am there. I have a Christmas quilt ...

 I thought I would share a few thoughts about borders, and the top I just finished. Borders used to be my kryptonite. I could procrastinate forever adding the borders. Someone, I forget who, shared using the longarm frame to measure borders with the quilt. I hang it over the outer bar and lay the borders on top, making sure I smooth it and not stretch it. My undying gratitude to whomever mentioned that tip. It was especially important during my back issues.

I had to turn a couple squares to get it right

I like to find the middle of ...

I have a finish -bonnie Hunter quilt zuckerwatte from her book string fling. It is a smaller quilt than I thought when I started it. It is about 58 x 70. I started working on this ufo in January at a retreat, I had started at the beginning of January with only string blocks made. I made the string blocks in June 2017. I cut a gazillion  HSTS - (half square triangles)... sewed a bunch together, and made  rows. and blocks. It is really pretty in person.

I used a plain pink sheet for the backing that I had in my ...

 This is as far as I have gotten to a finish with this Bonnie Hunter quilt ufo, that, I started before she printed the pattern. I didn't like her version (xing) from string frenzy, so it was time to decide how to finish it. I have a vintage red fabric, I want for the borders.

cotton candy

I'm linking to:

TGIFF

TGIFF different     here  and here

Whoop Whoop

creations

peacock party

from bolt ...

I added the same blue as the setting triangles to finish the top of floating stars. This is my one monthly goal for April. It needs backing, and, binding, and, a turn on the longarm. Hopefully, this will be another ufo done this month. I am sneaking it in between other people's quilts. If I didn't, I would never have finishes.

I am trying to make 2 easy breezy blocks each morning. It's easier after I cut a lot of squares from scraps. I cut a stack of the background pieces as well. I will work through ...

We are still in the process of remodeling....Hubs finished his bathroom and mine is gutted.  Tile is laid and grouted.  Putting the tile around my tub is next.  Our house hasn't been updated since it was built in the 70s.  EVERY house we have lived in - we have remodeled.  It seems like we just get them finished and we have had to move.  *sigh*  Between job transfers, Pops getting sick, etc. there has always been something.  This little farm is supposed to be our retirement home.  We started with the outside because that was important to us.  Through ...

 I was excited to find a favorite border fabric already in my stash. It is such a favorite that, I immediately made plans to replace the fabric. haha will I ever have less fabric?. I guess I have a thing for polka dots and just this color of pink.

I'm linking to:

TGIFF different     here  and ...

I spent Saturday longarming in the shop.  Truth be told, I couldn't wait to get the quilt that was on the allover machine done so that I could put my Vacation Houses quilt on there.  I had an allover in mind.  I had been eyeing this allover for a while waiting for the 'right' quilt to put it on.  Finally I finished the beast of a quilt, got the customer invoice done and was ready to load my little quilt on there.  I just didn't want it to end up in the UFO pile for you to read ...

 Like everyone else in middle America, we have snow. Our county received 9 inches overnight. It was beautiful and fluffy everywhere. And the prediction is for more over the weekend.

view from the backdoor

toward the garage

hubby making it safe

 With all this crazy weather, we can all dream about vacations right?  We can dream about sitting on the beach with our toes in the sand watching the tide come up just far enough to tickle our feet, then rushing back from whence it came.  We can dream about the smell of suntan lotion or the rays of the sun kissing our skin just enough to give us a golden glow.  We can dream about that drink in our hand with the little umbrella floating off to the side - I'm thinking sweet tea with lemon.  We can dream....

I ...

I had a jelly roll of flannel, that, I have moved from place to place, until, I was tired of it. I decided I would just use the treadle at night to do a baby quilt with it. It wasn't supposed to be an official project. I was just sewing the strips together. But, it was across the couch for awhile, until, I was tired of it. The only way I could put it away, was to get it ready for quilting. geesh

I still am of the opinion that Eleanor Burns (Quilt in a Day) has some of the easiest directions out there.  We've taught a lot of her classes and have had her trunk shows in the shop more than once.  While she does 'waste' some fabric, she makes it easy for a beginner quilter to accomplish intermediate construction.  I've met her at several shows and she is NOTHING like she is on her TV show.  She is the kindest, sweetest person ever, but she doesn't have that 'baby talk' voice in real life that sends my Hubs ...

We had a wind advisory last week, and this, is what we found. This wasn't the part of the tree that we had been worried about splitting. I clean up from retreat and hubby cleans up outside. Four of our dead ash trees in the back blew down as well.

Hubby has been busy trying to clean  the area. We were grateful it didn't fall in the road.

I finished the shine top from this year's rainbow scrap challenge project. This was a great block and easy enough to do, and, it uses a jelly roll or ...