Arcadia Stars

I finally put the binding on this small one. It is made with 2 charm packs called Arcadia and the stars are Kona Snow. I pieced it at retreat early March and quilted it 2 weekends ago. On October 18 I posted a picture of it and asked about the binding. I had 2 to choose from.

Everyone who commented,  including me liked this one better. It does not match exactly, but it does look really good. It is still waiting for a label.

Fall Decorating with Quilts

I was just sitting here using my laptop  this morning when I thought," Boy, I have a few fall quilts. Why not take some pictures to put on my blog." The first one is a Thimbleberries pattern. 

I think I made it 2 years ago.

The center of this quilt in my kitchen is from the book Baltimore Country Cousins by Susan McKelvey.  Susan is in one of my guilds. There is a picture of a quilt I made (not this one) in that book. I think I made this top about 2007 and quilted it in 2009.

Fall is my favorite time of year and typically I have always loved fall colors. 

Although, now I am liking brighter stuff.

I made this quilt on the table last year. It is made with a cake stand I purchased at a local quilt show in the summer of 2009. I was fortunate to find fabric in the same line on the Internet. The great part was that it was on sale since it was the previous year's fabric. I put the entire top together on one Friday night. I knew when I was making it that it needed something between the center and the orange border but I did not have other fabric with me and I wanted to finish that night.

I was not happy with it so I added the rick-rack. I sewed the rick-rack down as I was quilting. That was just what it needed and I love it. Who doesn't live rick-rack?

The other thing I did not like at first were the solids in the cake stand. But, once again, now I love them because the quilting really shows in them.

I always have a quilt hanging beside the fireplace to snuggle under if someone gets a bit chilly. This is one of the first quilts I quilted on the longarm. It was done in 2004.

Customer's Quilt

Today I finished up this quilt. It belongs to Peggy. 

Do you remember this quilt from the beginning of the month? Jean brought it back to me because I missed something. I missed one side on the black inner most border. It is difficult to see black thread on black fabric. It only took about 12 minutes to pin the quilt on and finish it up. I was so embarrassed. I hate that she had to return it to me.

Earlier this week I worked on some of my stuff. On Tuesday I had a bee called Retreat Bee. At this bee we take our sewing machines and sew all day from 9:30 to 3 or 3:30. I got a lot done but I did not take pictures. Maybe I will take some tomorrow.

Starting a New One

I have decided that for Christmas I am going to make my husband a quilt. One time earlier this year he made a comment that I never made him a quilt. Actually I did make him a wall hanging that is on his office wall at work, but I have never made one especially for him to cover up with. So, I want to make him one that is special for him. Since my thing is the longarm quilting the quilt will have plain blocks and a large border to highlight the quilting. 

I have spent quite a bit of time contemplating this quilt. I ordered quilting patterns for the blocks in the spring. He is a hunter so the quilting patterns are deer, elk, moose, etc. I bought the fabric in June on a trip to Lancaster. So, I have had months to consider what this quilt will look like.

I have decided to keep the piecing simple. I want the quilting to be the main event. The quilt is going to be a 9-patch with alternating plain blocks with sashing and cornerstones. It is just going to be a throw so the center is fairly small because the border we be about 10 inches to accommodate the quilting. 

In the pictures is all of my sketching and figuring out the quilt top and the fabric cutting. I usually do this on graph paper but when I decided to work on this quilt this is the paper I had with me.

Here are some blocks I was initially considering ,but I decided to go with the 9-patch.

The Cows Came Home

Yesterday our steers came. It sure looks good to have something out in the pasture again. We haven't had horses since 2004. We love to eat beef, and with all the stuff they inject in the animals now (hormones and who knows what else) we thought this would be a healthier way to go. Plus we had the empty pasture.

My 13 year-old daughter named them. she said since we are going to eat them she wanted to come up with names she did not like. She knew immediately she wanted to name one Alex. She is a Pittsburgh Penguins fan and hates the Washington Capitals and Alex Ovechkin (I do not know how to spell that). The other one was a bit more difficult to name. She finally came up with Stan. At Wyldlife camp this summer there was a silly skit at lunch each day. One of the guys would always say to Stan, "I'll kill ya Stan."

Here is Alex looking at you. 

Oh, What a Beautiful Day

On Friday night I worked on the quilt on the cover of this book. Everything I am using in that quilt is from my stash. I will get a picture of it up later this week.

Yesterday my family and I spent the entire day sitting out side watching my daughter play lacrosse. It was the most beautiful Autumn day.

In this picture you can see the ball going in the goal. Yes, I actually got a picture of her scoring!

Scrapping Along

I have decided to do the "Sew Scraps Along" with Jodi over at Pleasant Home. 

I have the tab on my sidebar. I got 8 blocks done yesterday.

She had suggested to use only certain colors. So, I sorted through my scraps.

The orange is going to be my centers.

Love that orange!!!

I decided to go with green, purple, brown and orange. I think the orange will only be used in the centers. Some of these scraps are pretty old. It is about time I used them.

Blue Work by the Seashore

I quilted this one yesterday. It belongs to Alice. 

Last night I had trouble sleeping. I have been awake since 2am, but I did not get up until about 3:40. I was quilting before 4am. I finished an entire quilt this morning before anyone else was awake.

Today I have Art Bee. I am thinking about trying to grab a quick nap before I go. I really feel beat.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

My Monday was spent quilting for the Hospice Festival of Trees. This is a table runner/wall hanging made by the 7-Sisters Quilt guild.

 A close up of the holly leaf in the green border.

 When we were making this on Friday night everyone was saying they want one. I think the plan is that next Friday we are going to work on them. I intend to make the entire quilt that this part came out of. I will let you know after Friday what book this came out of.

 This quilt was made by one of the bees of the Bayside Quilters for the Festival of Trees. I think it was the Needle Turners Bee. All of the applique on this quilt is needle turned and done by hand.

I just love this block. Of course it is the Candy block!

What should I bind it with?

 On Friday night at the 7-Sisters Quilt Guild this is what we did.  This is a table runner/wall hanging for the Hospice Festival of Trees. I will be quilting it, hopefully some time this week.

On Sunday I quilted one of my own. It is made with 2 charm packs. The stars are Kona Snow. I originally thought I would bind it with the snow but I don't really like that. Since it was charm packs I do not have matching fabric for binding. Here are 2 fabrics I am trying to decide between. The brown on the left or the blueish on the right. What do you think?

Wedding Quilt

Both of these quilt belong to Colette. I quilt a lot of quilts for her. This particular pattern is here standard wedding quilt. She really knows a lot of newly married couples. Over the last few years I have quilted many quilts like this for her.

This is also Colette's. It is going to a little lady named Emma.

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Cooking With Character

There was no school on Thursday or Friday so my daughter had 2 friends over.

They wanted to bake something and decided on snicker doodles. Then the bright idea came to do a cooking show. The name of their show is Cooking With Character. These kids are hilarious. They want me to put it on YouTube but I haven't had time yet. 

I quilted this earlier in the week but I haven't posted in a while. Really, where did this week go? This is Pat's quilt. I returned it to her on Wednesday at the Bayside Quilters Guild meeting.