Hello bloggers, I'm back!

Yep, I'm still here! Life has been pretty busy (read WORK) but this week is the beginning of my 3 day weeks and here I am at home on a Tuesday and loving it!

The trash man woke me at 4:30 and I have been up since 5. So I made coffee and caught up with all of you leaving comments here, there and everywhere! I took my walk, did two loads of laundry, cut flowers and weeded, had breakfast and here I am. After this brief post, I'm off to the sewing room to finish that darn baby quilt for Bella Grace and get ready for my quilt class on Friday. We have Karen Eckmeier of "Accidental Landscape" and "Happy Villages" fame coming to our guild to do a "Happy Villages" workshop. I'm looking forward to that.

My ALQS swap partner, Jovita, has received her quilt so I will leave you with a picture of what I sent her.. She is the lover of purples and greens. I don't particularly favor purple but this one struck my fancy so I made two. My quilt top is done but not yet quilted. This is just four blocks and about 23 inches x 23 inches. It's hard to see the border but it is a fabulous strip that I found years ago. The light purple in the center is a Liberty fabric which I received from a very generous blogger in England a year or two ago and I've been waiting for just the right project to cut into it.

Well off to see what can be accomplished today! and just a reminder for you "Project Runway" fans, Season 5 starts tomorrow night!!! I will definitely be tuning in! Well, I hope to be back on Friday with a completed baby quilt among other things! So until then, as Heidi Klum says "auf wedersen" !

Novice Machine Quilter seeks advice

Since the weather was quite uncooperative this weekend with rain off and on all weekend, I decided to load a baby quilt onto my Gracie frame for quilting. I have used this machine frame and my Janome 1600 for a few quilts over the last couple of years but have not used it extensively and I have only done a meander/stipple type stitch on the few quilts that I've done (mostly charity or kiddie quilts since they don't care about some uneven stitching) and this is part of the problem. Every time I decide to use it I have to reread the directions and/or watch the DVD for loading the quilt and threading the machine etc. and that is what I did Friday night when my DH was at a concert with an old college friend.



I finally got the quilt loaded and the machine threaded and decided to just do a meander/stipple on the body and then do a little something (yet to be determined) on the borders and four cornerstones. First problem I had was with the top thread breaking (this I anticipated as my Janome can be a bit finicky) so I changed it out to a different thread and fiddled with the tension and that seemed to work. Overall, it was not too frustrating and I have completed the meander. I have to say that my meander/stipple is pretty good. I think it is more a stipple as the quilting is pretty compact. I'll have to post a picture so you can see it. I think of a meander as more open. The stitches are pretty uniform, there are no crossovers, well maybe a couple, and no crazy angles. I want to use a panto for the borders and blocks. Not sure if I should have done this first or last!! I've never used a panto, well I have but not with the laser attachment for the machine which I got for Christmas and have yet to take out of the box and I'd like to give that a go this time around.

I have promised myself that once this quilt is done I will immediately load another so that I can get better at this and more comfortable. I do have another quilt with backing and batting all set to go!



So I thought that I would post a few questions to see if any of the more experienced machine/long arm/midarm quilters out there might have some advice or tips to share.

Here are just a few thoughts/questions.. but feel free to lay your wisdom and experience on me!

1. THREAD - Do you have a favorite?? I have some Superior which I have used but it's not as fine as I would like it to be. On this quilt, I used Metzler, since I had it and I was happy with it once the tension issue was ironed out.



2. Should I do the borders or the body first?? Do you start from the center and work out or go edge to edge?? I did edge to edge which seemed to work fine. Should I be basting my quilt first? The few times I have done it I haven't basted



3. Since my Janome only has a 9 inch (?) opening I am limited in the area I can quilt, I am planning on doing the top and bottom border and the corner stones then taking the quilt off and reloading so I can go the length of the side borders. Does that make sense? I'm not sure since I've never done it. My plan is to get more quilting under my belt and then decide on a possible upgrade on a machine, maybe a midarm with a larger opening like an HQ Sixteen.



4. PANTOS - any suggestions such as some easy ones out there for purchase. are straight lined easier than loopy??



I have to say I enjoyed doing the quilting on the frame and would like to become semi proficient at it. I certainly don't think I'd ever take in someone else's quilts since I have many tops that need to be quilted and would like to do them myself. I know that a big part of it is PRACTICE!



But any advice would be sewww appreciated.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY

I know I'm a day late, but what else is new??? Actually, I took the photo yesterday and never got to the computer to post it. This is a quilt I made a few years ago. It was for a guild challenge. I was looking for something else in a bin of quilts and found this one! Forgot I had it so I put it up. Our 4th was a quiet and wet one. It has been raining off and on since Friday morning. I have been machine quilting a baby quilt and watching baseball most of the weekend. Alex went to Vermont for the weekend with friends and my DH has gone off to a concert with his college buddy. It's just me, Mr. B and Holly for the rest of the evening. Think I'll try to squeeze my walk in before it starts raining yet again!!

Hope everyone had a safe and relaxing 4th!!

Another Little Quilt Swap and other stuff

How is it possible that I have not posted in 3 weeks??!! I have been quilting which is a good thing but life in general has kept me from the computer. Oh, and my son and hubby, who are always on line!! You have to make an appointment lately to get near the computer!

Well, first off, I have been around blogland visiting and noticed that some of you had posted pics of your gardens. So here are pictures of my humble veggie garden.. I have a lovely yard with a pond and lots of flowers but really never did any vegetable gardening. But with the prices the way they are and the tomato scare, I decided this year to do some container gardening. Here are my lettuce plants in an old tub. I have since eaten this lettuce and planted more!! Doesn't look like much but it was good!!!


The tomato containers are courtesy of my hubby. He had these old speakers (circa 1980) which have been in the closet for about 15 years! He finally decided they were not repairable so I ripped out the guts and used the boxes for my tomatoes.

And the flower box is full of basil. We have eaten a wonderful pesto a couple of times in the past couple of weeks.

And in the midst of my pruning and weeding in the Garden of Eden last week, I somehow sat on an ant hill. Needless to say, they were not happy with my behind on their front porch and I ended up with about 20 bites which swelled up and were soooo itchy! I will spare you the picture. Definitely not pretty!!

And in quilting news, I have finished my ALQS piece and it will go in the mail to my partner tomorrow.. I'm one of those "down to the wire" people. It's a bit larger than the perimeters laid out for the swap, but I couldn't hold myself back and had to add the striped border.. My partner likes purple which is not a color I work with often but I liked this enuf to make one for myself. I hope she likes it!!

With any luck in the next couple of weeks, I will start my 3 day work week. I've been negotiating this with my boss for over a year and we have finally added another paralegal to our firm so I can work a bit less and enjoy life a bit more. Seww keep your fingers crossed! That's it from here in Connecticut. Summer is in full swing and I LOVE SUMMER, so I may be a bit scarce til the cold weather returns, but I am visiting everyone and hope to post some finished projects over the next few weeks. Quilt til you wilt!!

No quilting going on here!

Monday I worked late,

Tuesday was our guild picnic,

and Wednesday,


THIS AMERICAN GIRL HAD A DATE WITH MR. PETTY!

I'm still recuperating from the late night! He didn't come on stage til 9:45. Steve Winwood from Traffic was the opener. I felt like I was 18 again. He and the band still sound great. The average age of the audience was surprisingly mid-20's. It was sort of cool to see Tom cast his spell over a new generation. The audience knew the hits, but the deep cuts were for the Baby Boomers in the crowd! At one point, Tom said he was playing a song from 1979 (Damn the Torpedoes) and I looked at my hubby and said "Half this crowd wasn't even born in 1979!!"

So, summer is really here with my first outdoor concert under my belt. Got my Petty fix for the summer! Next up, Toby Keith, then Tina Turner!

Now back to my regular programmed life.

Surprise package

This enormous box was waiting on my doorstep last week. HMMM...... what could be inside??

Mr. B is my homeland security, checking for anything suspicious. Once he was done with his inspection, I opened it up to find what Amy (Calico Cat) calls UFOs. If only my UFOs were this complete!!! One is a beautiful flimsy in pinks and greens, the other is already sandwiched and partly tied with cute little white buttons. I absolutely love the fabrics and the design. They remind me of several Amy has made from " The Modern Quilt". I have the book and have yet to make one. I've already told Calico Cat that these are in the queue to be finished. In fact, they have bumped several of my own to the back of the line. In addition, Amy sent me a pile of books to peruse for more inspiration. Thanks so much, Dandylion~~

Once the box was empty, Mr. B spent a good amount of time IN the box. He loves a good box and apparently, according to Amy, this had been RB's box. I think they both knew that as much sniffing and smelling was done.
I saw this little group of fabric on a fellow quilter's blog and immediately knew I had to make a quilt for my new little great-niece, Isabella. I emailed Dawn and she told me the name of the fabric line., Baby Bella by Marcus (how perfect!!!). I was lucky to find some online and ordered it. I have already got the blocks done and the rows together. I ran short (what else is new!??) on the brown dot for the borders so I have to reorder. But once that arrives, it will be done and quilted. I'll share photos of the flimsy later this week.I was very productive this weekend, despite the 90 degree weather, but short of time right now~Photos of this weekend's projects tomorrow~ HAPPY MONDAY!!!!

Monday musings

I spent most of this weekend doing errands, cleaning, and gardening but did find some time on Sunday to work on my Round Robin. I was given the 12 inch center medallion and the first round is to add a border with points. I knew what I wanted to do, thanks to Anne at Quilting Bebbs. In fact, I emailed her to ask if it was ok to copy her and she was very gracious! I had saved the picture she had on her blog from her Spring RR because I absolutely loved it. Seww, I just had to execute it. I pulled out my Thangles and made my 1/2 square triangles and then had to attack the flying geese units. I hate the maths of quilting but pulled out a trusty old book and figured out the numbers. BUT, unfortunately, forgot the seam allowance for the points, which I didn't realize until the borders were ON and I was adding the little outer border. That's when ( to use a Massachusetts expression), "light dawned on Marblehead"! Doh! Well, at least I was consistent and all four points were chopped off. I still think it is effective. Thanks Anne for your super border idea. I just love it!

I know I have praised the internet in the past for linking all of us quilters together but I didn't realize how much so until yesterday when I was working on this border and I started thinking about some of the people who have touched my life..

First, from Anne in England, I got a great border idea!

From Debra in Texas, I got a link from her blog for a Youtube presentation by Sharon Schamer for executing the perfect binding. And I mean perfect! you have to check it out! Just go on Youtube and put in Sharon's name. I emailed Debra after I watched it and told her it was the best thing I had seen on the internet in a loonnng time.

From Life is a Stitch's Nancy, I am finishing a super mystery quilt. (and I swore after my first one, remember Mystery Quilt from Hell, I would never do another).

From England and France, I received my beautiful postcards from Christine, Annette, Brigitte, Jennifer and Cindy, which brighten my day every month. And it goes beyond quilting....

Vicki's (field trips in Fiber) birdie updates...

Pictures from the proms, the new babies, the dogs and cats...

I chat now and again with Libby in California, Joanne at Rocking on the Porch, Patti (go Mariners!) Amy at the Calico Cat and not just about quilting but about life,kids,family, music, and baseball.

Woww! I'm getting a little teary here. Well that's my Monday Musings! Thanks to all of you out there who have touched my life... and it all started with quilting.

May Flowers

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Despite being a long weekend, it was not long enough to get everything done. However, I did get my summer quilt bound and on the bed. I still have to make the shams. These pictures are my postcards for the May theme- Art Deco Flowers which will go out in the mail today. These are made from wool felt and I used my Baby Lock Embellisher! Loads of fun! I really need to pull it out more often and start playing around with it!


I spent time in the garden and planted my tomatoes, lettuce and basil in containers. I still need to relocate a few things and put my soaker hoses in a couple of the flower beds but there is only so much time in a day.

My next quilting project is my Round Robin due on June 10th and the ALQS quilt swap organized by Kate North. I also hope to get my new valances done this weekend!OHHH,
a quilter's work is never done!

In non-quilting news, I became a Great Auntie this weekend. My nephew and his wife who were married last June just welcomed Isabella Grace into our family on Sunday. I guess that honeymoon was a great one! She looks just like her dad did when he was born. Well, enjoy the rest of this short week!

Hump Day Giveaway #3

It's Wednesday again and sewww I have a couple of patterns to give away. I received these as raffle prizes and they are really not my style. I'm really having fun sharing some of the things that were just hanging around the sewing room! Just let me know if you are interested and I will draw a name on Friday morning.

Zig Zag is 9 inch finished blocks and the quilt finishes 52 x 64.



The Bear quilt is actually two quilts. The one shown is blue work blocks and there is also a wall hanging quilt included that is 19 x 28 inches>

It's been really hard getting anything quilty done lately!! Last night I finished Step # 4 of my Mystery Quilt. Tonight I am determined to get the binding cut and ready to be put on my Summer quilt. Here are a couple of pictures as promised!

This quilt is soo big it's hard to get a good picture. here is a close up of the quilting. I think it looks fabulous. I also have fabric to make a couple of shams.

With the long weekend coming, I have BIG plans! Here's the list:

1. put the binding on my Summer quilt and make the shams

2. make my May postcards

3. finish a couple of Nellie's birds (I'm still working on them!)

4. make a purse for me ( I just got some awesome Michael Miller fabric)

5. make my new valances

6. work on my round robin (it's due 6/10)!

Of course, some yard work will need to be done also but sewing is really primary for me this weekend.

If I don't get back here before the weekend, everyone enjoy!

The Graduate

We had a wonderful weekend in Vermont. Although the forecast called for showers, Saturday and Sunday were beautiful sunny days! The graduation went off without a hitch. It wasn't too crowded as there were only 200 graduates in Alex's class. We were surprised when they announced that Alex had graduated Cum Laude. He now has a B.S. in Ski Resort Management with a minor in Marketing. Here are some pictures!

The proud parents and the Graduate

Nana (my Mom, can you see the resemblance??) and Alex

Alex and Bob's parents

We all stayed at a lovely B&B and had a nice dinner at a local restaurant.

We got back late Sunday nite and Alex is now firmly ensconced in our guest room for the summer. He returned to work today after a week of partying with his friends. He is planning on working and saving his money to head out to Colorado, Utah or Northern California in the fall to work at one of the ski resorts.

I got my quilt back from the longarmer and it is fabulous!! I am soooo pleased. The binding still needs to be put on but I hope to get to that this weekend. I will try to have pics for you tomorrow for Hump Day Giveaway.

By the way, last week's winner was Elaine Moore! Your books will be going out in the mail in the next couple of days!

Hump Day Giveaway - Piece by Piece

Here it is Wednesday again! This week will probably not result in much quilting. On Monday I spent a bit of time downloading some podcasts to my new little Nano. I have a sampling of five different podcasts, including Alex Anderson to preview. I spent a bit of time piecing the remaining 4 patches and cutting the remainder of my nickel squares for the next step of my mystery quilt while I listened to Alex Anderson talk about her trip to Paducah.


Last night I was at my guild meeting. I don't know how it happened but when I finally left the meeting I had promised to make friendship blocks for July, log cabin blocks for a charity quilt for the local Lupus organization, signed up for a class with Karen Eckmeier ( she is doing the Happy Villages workshop), promised to buy paper plates and napkins for our picnic in June plus make a salad and I became co-chair of the Program committee. Whewww~ Although this was supposed to be my "year off" ( I've been secretary for 2 years, then VP for 2 years), I just couldn't let the other gal try to handle it alone. The upside is I can pick the programs and classes that I LIKE ! Yipee!!



The rest of the week will be spent getting ready to head to Vermont for graduation on Sunday morning! My inlaws are driving up with us and we will be leaving early Saturday morning, having our graduation dinner on Saturday night at a lovely local restaurant and staying overnight. I still have to locate some appropriate clothes for Alex to wear under his cap and gown. When I mentioned it, he had a blank look so that meant he didn't have anything decent or he was planning on going Nekkid! He's already headed back to school to tie up loose ends, give his final presentation and clean out his apartment so I am in charge of wardrobe.



Sewww, here is the giveaway for this week! Lately(since I started my Mystery Quilt) I've been more conscious of the fact that quilts go together piece by piece. I know, pretty deep huh?? So with that in mind, I am offering this little book on paper pieced quilt labels. I'll also be including some preprinted paper foundations for star blocks and flower blocks that I found. If you are a paper piecer, leave me a comment and a way to reach you by email and I'll draw a name Friday morning!


I shouldn't say that there was NO quilting completed (just not by me personally)since I did get a call from Butch the longarmer and my summer quilt is done!! I'll call tomorrow and make arrangements to pick it up! I'll have pictures next week. If I don't get back before next week, have a wonderful weekend and try to do something quilty!