Simply Marvelous

We had a beautiful drive over to Elm Creek and struck gold in the baby quilt department. I'll be making this pattern...

With these fabrics...

Baby cottons for the top and flannel for the backing

Since it's a girl quilt we needed to be not so blue. While I was waiting for Jim to shower before we left I did get three squares marked on the Quilt-Along top...

Starting the marking

Jim is working on the yard today and I'll be starting on Marty. Iilas quilt is probably going to take the better part of this week; it's pretty labor intensive but certainly well worth it. 

Happy 36th Birthday to Ben!

Well, my middle kiddo is on his last mid-30's birthday. I can't believe it! The time goes so darn quick!

As well as having a customer come yesterday and getting two tops set onto Bernie and DW, I worked on this piece...

Jim is working in the kitchen this morning (making a cake and Salsa) and I've gotten some admin stuff done from last Saturday's pick-the-donated-quilt project. I had to fiddle with Jim's phone to get some of the pics transferred and mess with his Cloud backup.

I started to work on our memory book from Alaska, hence the delving into Jims phone, and then got side tracked so that is still in the planning phases.

Meanwhile, I'm heading to the studio. I didn't clean it last night like I usually do on Friday afternoons so I should probably start there. Or not. I want to work some more on the Tilda blocks since I obligated myself to attend a retreat with the Hale group in October. If the blocks are done I can set them on the design wall and get them put together easier.

I also have a few other things to work on. This Tula Butterfly for one...

This one is going to take a while! Or not?

This is a queen-sized quilt meaning it will probably be donated. Do I want to take the time to custom quilt it or just do an E2E with meandering butterflies all over? I'm torn. I made this specifically to do some custom in it, but I have to watch my time. I'm not getting any younger and that's going to be a lot of work.

While I was digging this one out I found three others in the tote that frankly, aren't going to make the cut. They were even too ugly to donate so they are now in the trash. Yep, I threw away three quilt tops. 

Well, that day isn't getting any younger (nor is Ben now) so off I go. 

No Small Project Sunday

Mom is somewhere in Colorado taking a vacation. We are responsible for taking care of her plants, both inside and out, while she is gone. We had to head to town for some bathroom (and other) items anyway, so we dropped by her place to take care of this new 10-day chore. 

From the cut-off's of the Lumberjack, I have double sewn the half square triangles to make another smaller quilt (rather than wasting this very soft flannel). Here's what I've got on the design wall from them so far...

What to do in that border?

I think I'll utilize the remaining green colors for a different green on each side. I haven't made a baby quilt for the new grandson yet and I guess this will be his. It's not very "baby-ish" in looks, but it will be extremely soft for him to snuggle on/under. 

Raging storms last night north of us but we just received the tail end of of it all. Wow! did the rain ever come down around 1:00 this morning. Sounded like I was in the shower.

Pictures for Reference

I used to make extensive notes about the top portion of each quilt I was working on. Then I got a smart phone. Instead of written notes, I have the picture(s) to refer to when I get to the bottom portion of the quilt. This border quilt is a perfect example. I did some snowflakes in the corners and will need to refer to which kind I put in above for the bottom ones below.

See the snowflake in the upper left corner behind the bar?

This quilt I've been working on for Monica is a beautiful flannel. Not like the cheap junk you get at a big box store, but the beautifully woven and soft as butter flannels you only find in a quilt/finer fabric shop. The texture from the quilting is coming out wonderfully!

But there's a downside to any flannel. It's a cat hair/thread/batting magnet. I clean the section off I'm going to be quilting and before I'm done with that row, there are more little friends that have attached themselves somehow. 

I'll hopefully finish this piece today. I'm doing all the border/block quilting first. I'll go back and reroll to do the center section since I'm using invisible thread in it. Invisible thread in the long arm requires a lot of tension adjusting. And there are buttons I will need to sew around as well that were already attached. 

A few Accomplishments

This was an absolutely fun quilt to do.

All Snuggly and Warm

The customer just wanted an all over, large swirl put into this flannel piece. The flannels were so rich and a dream to handle it was obvious they didn't come from one of those discount stores. 

Then the one I've been anticipating for a few months was put on the frame Friday. I became so engrossed in quilting it and had so much fun adding to it's already stunning nature, that the whole top was completed after nine hours. 100% custom work, with DW assisting on a bit of it, and it looked absolutely lovely when I pulled it off late Friday night. 

A 17-year project coming to a close.

I have recently learned that the quilt is actually coming back to me because in the waning light, and the nearly 100% matching thread hiding in the velvet, I missed one side of my feather when quilting the piece. Ummm...Oops. Well at least that proves I am human, and will get it to rights tomorrow quickly enough. In the meantime, I hope to snag a few more pics of it and can share more of what the amazing woman who worked on this put into it since the Friday night pics were not coming out well at all.

I've also learned that this piece will be traveling to a few shows. As it should. It's just breathtaking and my feeble attempt at capturing its beauty doesn't do it justice. Of course, taking pics at night on a dark backgrounded quilt doesn't help either. So more on this project by Wednesday.