Saturday, February 27, 2010

I finished the monster quilt




I finally finished June's monster quilt. It's not really a monster, it's a beauty! I love her choice of fabrics and the backing is especially wonderful. Most quilters end up using wide backing because it is so much easier than seaming yardage for a back. June used some ombre fabric and sewed it together for the backing - it is really stunning! The gradation does not photograph very well, it looks even better in person.

Now I get a day off from quilting to do my taxes - oh joy!




Wednesday, February 24, 2010

I am 4 Quilts

Last night was a meeting of the other guild I belong to, Emma Creek Quilt Guild. It is a small guild that meets every month in Hesston. We had our game night and guild Challenge. The Challenge was "I am 4 Quilts" and had to include a four-patch, four shades of one color of fabric and embellishments. At first I was uninspired but then decided to go overboard on the "4" aspect. My quilt had 4 flowers, 4 frames around the center, 4 bugs and 4 embellishments. My favorite part though, was the name: Fourplay.

It's always interesting, and amazing to see how different and creative the entries are! Here is one from my friend Sherry.




This is Virginia's, all hand quilted and hand embroidered.






This one by Deane won Viewer's Choice:




Mine won Best Quilting:



Annette won Best Use of Embellishment. Her quilt had the cutest little rotary cutter with stacked buttons for blades.




I'm almost done with June's Monster Quilt. I'll post pictures if I ever reach the end of it.


Friday, February 19, 2010

Still plowing

I'm still plowing my way through June's monster quilt. I hope to have it done in a day or two and will post pictures. Stitch in the ditch takes forever but I think it will be worth it.


Peter and I read in the local paper about an unusual white form of Red Tailed Hawk that had been sighted in Wichita. We kept driving by the area and finally were rewarded with a view of the white hawk. It was VERY shy and kept flying away from us as I tried to get a picture. This is the best I could do:




Thursday, February 11, 2010

This and that

My guild, Prairie Quilt Guild, had a meeting on Tuesday and the speaker was Susan Stewart. I have really been looking forward to her program after seeing her quilts in Houston and Paducah. Since she lives in Kansas she was able to drive to Wichita and bring lots of quilts with her. She brought most of her show quilts and it was a treat to see them up close. She does amazing things with her embroidery machine, she makes stand alone lace with lots of thread and stabilizer and has an article coming out in Quilter's Newsletter about that. She also quilts beautifully with her home sewing machine. It's no wonder she has won many awards for her quilts! Here are a few pictures from our meeting.







The edging on the borders of this quilt is her embroidery machine made lace.





At the guild meeting I talked to Tamara, who does the most amazing crochet. I absolutely flunk knitting and crochet, but I love to see what other people can do. Tamara had these cute little sweaters or jackets, I wish they fit me! She made one to fit a teddy bear and will be posting it on her blog - http://www.crochetsoiree.com/site_blog/5/.




I finished a cute applique snowman quilt for Sheila. This is probably the fourth one of these I have quilted, but it is a cute pattern, and it has been over a year since I did the last one so I enjoyed quilting it again. I hate doing the same thing over and over again so it is a challenge to come up with new ideas. I'm just starting on a really amazing quilt for June - it's the most incredible pieced quilt with both Mariner's compass and Pickle dish blocks. She said it has over 4000 pieces in it! I'm starting on the Stitch in the Ditch tomorrow, the SID alone may take days!





Saturday, February 6, 2010

A visitation from St. Greg of the Appliances

St. Greg the appliance man made a special trip today, a Saturday, to drive out to our studio and install the repaired heater unit. He knew it was making things hard for me to work and that if he didn't do it today, he wouldn't be able to get out here until the middle of next week. I would say he deserves canonization! It's amazing how much warmer it is than with the space heaters.


I finished a quilt for Connie using the space heaters for warmth. She used her collection of beautiful Japanese taupe fabrics - it's a simple pattern but really shows off the fabric well. She wanted quilting that wouldn't distract from the fabric. Here are a couple of pictures, too bad the color is a bit off.






Today my longarm quilting friend Siriporn and I visited Cathy, owner of a brand-new Gammill Classic Plus. Cathy is feeling exactly the way I did when my machine was first delivered - overwhelmed. As someone who is basically mechanically inept, I had a terrible time learning how to load the quilt and handle that big machine. She just wanted some pointers and hand-holding. Siriporn is a very experienced quilter and had lots of good ideas and advice. Here they are playing with the machine.





Cathy named her machine Ruby Grace. (She confessed that she names everything, her washing machine and dryer, her dishwasher etc.) Siriporn says she doesn't call her machine anything except when it misbehaves, then she calls her Bitch. Oh my! If you could see Siriporn's quilts you would know that her machine behaves very well.

Yesterday was Peter and my fifteenth anniversary. You might think that makes me somewhere in my thirties, but no, I didn't get married until I was 40! We had a nice dinner, I pulled out the family silver and lit candles. Elsie joined the celebration too.



Wednesday, February 3, 2010

The heat comes on

So yesterday Peter and I spent hours looking for the !@#$%% manual for the heating unit. We looked through every piece of paper in the house and studio at least three times. We looked behind drawers, behind and underneath furniture. We uncovered many lost things, but not the warranty or manual. Greg, the appliance guy showed up yesterday afternoon to pick up the heating/cooling unit and said he thought there probably wouldn't be a problem since the date the stupid thing was manufactured is on it and it falls under five years. He said he will have to order parts and it may take another week at the least to get them in. In the meantime, we bought two ceramic space heaters that have been doing their thing. They have the heat up from forty degrees to close to seventy so I can now work in the studio again. But I am now behind schedule so will have to keep my nose to the grindstone for the next few weeks.



It was fun having some time off. I got things done around the house and we had a chance to go see Avatar - in 3D of course! It was cool.. Here is a picture of Lily on the sewing machine which explains why no cats are allowed in the studio!