Shaded 9 patch borders finished!

On a roll!! (so unlike me, hehe) Finished the shaded 9 patch quilt top tonight. I am very happy with the outcome. My sweetie helped me pick out the borders this past Saturday and I have to admit, he has a great eye. I wanted his opinion as this was supposed to be a masculine quilt for my son.

It has some very special fabric included in it. It has some of his favorite shirts, pants, and some pieces of fabric that used to belong to his mother. She passed away when he was four from leukemia. I came into his life when he was 5 and have been his lucky mom ever since. She was such an artist. She painted, was crafty, and made dolls. When I found a stash of her fabric she used to make doll clothes, I stuck it back and held on to it all these years. I finally figured out what I wanted to do with it so that he could have it.

Because I wanted to include so many different fabrics, I had to go with a scrappy pattern. I picked the shaded 9 patch because I could use very small bits of a bunch of different items. I would have liked for the contrast to have been more intense, but because some of the fabrics were neither real dark, or real light, the contrast is more muted. Not one of the fabrics has a flower on it, so I have decided to name it, "No Flowers Allowed!"

Happy Quilting!

Cindy

Quilts for kids!

Imagine my suprise when the doorbell rang and it was the UPS guy with the package of material from Downy's Quilts for Kids. I just volunteered on Saturday. So speedy! It is adorable material. If I weren't right in the middle of putting on the borders of the shaded 9 patch I would start it immediately. Here are some pics of the cute fabric! If you would like to volunteer to make a quilt for a sick kid, go here...Downy's Quilts for Kids

If it could go wrong...

Sorry for the lack of posts, but our wireless router went kapoot. Poor DH worked long into the night trying to get us back on the internet. Thank goodness he had kept our old hardwired router. At least one computer is back up and running though our printers are still off line. We have a print server and it is wireless... (For peace in our family we have 2 computers.) He has been working really long hours so there is little time for him to fiddle with them to get them back online.

I did complete the flag top day before yesterday. I mitered the corners of the border. It was my first time ever doing that and boy oh boy was it ever a learning experience. I must have ripped out the first miter 3 times. But as each corner went together I got better at it. By the 4th I did relatively well.

Sorry for the mediocre pictures. I caught a cold and am feeling so foggy headed. I did find the fabric for the backing in my stash. I think it will work out nicely. I love the sheet music with "The Star Spangled Banner" on it. So appropriate!

My local quilt shop, Loving Stitches, is having their bag day sale on Friday and I will buy the batting then for it. I plan on quilting this one myself. It will be my first attempt at quilting on my Bernina. Wish me luck!

Happy Quilting!

Cindy

A productive day.

Woke up this morning feeling like sewing, so decided to put the flag quilt together. It was straightforward and went together without a hitch. It took me about 3.5 hours to sew it, taking a few breaks to stretch. I still need to put the border on, which shouldn't take very long. Somewhere in my stash I have a backing fabric that will be perfect. It is a fabric with sheet music on it with "The Star Spangled Banner". Will try to find that in the morning.

I used the horizontal layout. I really, really like it and wish I had bought more than one kit from Amy. I plan on giving this to my son as a gift when he graduates from Air Force flight school in April.

Then hubby and I went down to Loving Stitches to pick out border fabrics for the shaded 9-patch. We must have pulled 20 bolts looking for something to go with the busy look. We finally settled on a red inner border and a marbled black outer border. I think it will frame the craziness that is the middle, hehe. That is my project for tomorrow during the super bowl.

Had my eyes checked yesterday and had to have new reading glasses. Boy oh boy, did they make a difference sewing today. I hadn't realized how blurry things were until I put the new ones on.

Until tomorrow!

Happy Quilting!

First Quilt Top Finish for 2010!

Well it took me most of yesterday to complete, but it is done! I am very happy with the results. My DH asked me if I had this one earmarked to be given away, and I told him no. So he declared, "This is my quilt!" Who am I to argue, hehe. Here are a few pics of him holding up "his" quilt.It is made with Moda's Three Sisters Chocolat fabric line from 2006, and the Moda University Jacob's Ladder pattern.

Of course the second the quilt top came out, 3 kitties magically appeared and gave it their stamp of approval.

Now it is off to my longarm quilter!

Happy Quilting!

Fabric medicine

Yesterday didn't go well for me.... caught a intestinal bug from somewhere and had a really rough night. So the last thing I felt like doing yesterday was quilt. Instead I bundled up on the couch in a quilt, and felt sorry for myself most of the morning. Started feeling better towards the late afternoon and then the doorbell rang. It was the mail delivery guy with a package for me!

It was a box of fabric I had ordered from Amy Smart, of Diary of a Quilter, when she had her destash "tag" sale. The fabric really is gorgeous! I think she threw in a bunch more than I ordered! Plus I had ordered it Saturday night and it was here yesterday which was quite speedy! Thanks Amy! One of my first projects out of the box will be this quilt fabric kit she had put together.

It set my mind racing and the creative ideas of how to use it started making me feel so much better. Since it was so late in the day, I didn't really have the time or the energy to pull out the Jacob's Ladder quilt top, but I did acomplish this....

Amazing how much healing power fabric has!!!

Quilt Drama

Had grandiose quilting plans for today. Took the puppy down to doggie day care to play with the other dogs so I wouldn't have to worry about about her chewing my sewing machine cords up. (usually I stick her outside while I sew, but it is pouring rain today)

Came back and got out the Jacob's ladder quilt from the depths of the storage armoire. After ironing it I laid the top and the border fabric out to take a look. When I stood back it was soooo busy. So I decided to put an inner border in to break up all the busy-ness.

So after searching my fabric piles that I have in numerous locations (this took an hour), I finally found the fabric left over from the quilt. I settled on one of the tone on tone reds, and then did the math. I was short..... So I called my local quilt shop, Loving Stitches, to see if they still carried it. Alas, no. The fabric line was long gone.

After searching the internet to see if anyone carried it, (another hour gone) I decided to try to find another fabric. Hard to believe in all my piles of fabric I didn't have anything that would work. (another hour-ish gone)

So.... I packed up the top and border fabric and headed out to the quilt shop ( I am so lucky I only live 2 miles away). They are always so nice and helpful. We pulled all kinds of contenders and then I settled on a lightly marbled red that goes well with all the red tones in the quilt. (yep there went another hour!)

I can't go into a quilt shop without coming out with something else in addition to what I went in there for. I got the Schnibbles "Madeline" pattern and ordered the charm packs to make it.

Now after getting back home I find that all my quilting gumpshun has gone. So.... off to surf Quiltblogs.com!~