Another Charity Quilt

At our bee meeting last week, Carolyn gave me the top she had completed from one of my friend Marcia's UFO's from her mother's sewing room.  Today I got it quilted on the longarm.  This is going to be a Quilt on Wheels project, to be given to a resident of a rest home by the Capital Quilters Guild.

The blue border fabric was pulled from a box of donated fabric.  It matches perfectly!  I wasn't sure about using it, because it is obviously a polyester.  I was pleasantly surprised that it quilted beautifully, and feels very silky!  The back is the same blue solid fabric.  I hope it won't be slipping off someone's lap when it goes to the rest home!

Since the patchwork was all linear and angular, I did a soft freehand feather meander.  I had Misty Jade thread already loaded from my last project, and two extra bobbins of thread.  I think it looks nice on this quilt.

Here is the quilt from the back.  I love the textured, lacy look

Now I will give it back to Carolyn for her to do the binding.  Nothing like tag-team quilting!

Just got back from picking up my car after over $600 in repairs.   I noticed the air conditioner was not working on one of the very warm days we have had recently, so I got that fixed.  They noticed something else wrong with the axle while they were underneath the car, which I suspect could be from the rear-end accident I was in last year.  Probably no way to get the guy's insurance to pay for it at this late date.  Love my car, hate paying for car repairs!

Charity Quilt

Here is a little charity quilt that I just finished for Capital Quilters Guild of Raleigh.  It is for the Quilts on Wheels project, which provides lap quilts for residents of rest homes.  I do not know the piecer- they dropped the top off at the guild, and I picked it up to do the quilting.

This one reminds me of the colors and fabrics of Provence, France.  I took my quilting inspiration from the blue sashing/border  fabric.  It features loopy circles.

Here is a pinwheel section of the quilt.

The backing is a blue and white checked homespun.

I also finished another quilt for a customer, which I will share next time.  In fact, this charity quilt was a warm-up for it, since I had not used the Gammill in a week.  It helps to get in the groove!



Two Little Quilts

The weather was beautiful this weekend...it got up in the high seventies today!  I did manage to get two tops quilted.

The first is a charity quilt that I picked up to do for the Quilts on Wheels charity of the Capital Quilters Guild of Raleigh.  It is a cheater cloth Crazy Quilt with one border added.  I decided to do another panto on it, "Feathers All Over."

The thread broke constantly and I did not like the look of the quilting as much as my own free-motion quilting.  This will probably be my last panto.

The next one is the first of five quilts that my customer Teresa brought to me.  It is a baby quilt with an adorable sea creatures theme fabric.   I just quilted ocean waves in a bright pear green thread.

I sketched some of these funny jellyfish and critters to possibly use in some future quilting.

The backing has the same blue fabric.

I will be leaving for Boone, NC in the morning to spend a few days with my dad.  He was recently in the hospital with congestive heart failure.  In fact, he went in the day before we left for Hawaii.  My brother and his wife from Florida have come up for a few days, so we are going to enjoy a nice visit together.  Two of my other brothers (I have five) also live in Boone, so I am really looking forward to my trip.

Some Finished Projects- and Animals of Hawaii

I have slowly  been getting back into quilting gear after my vacation in Hawaii.  Here are some projects to show you.

First up is a charity quilt that I quilted for the Capital Quilters' Guild of Raleigh.  It will be a wheelchair quilt.  The maker took a piece of what we call "cheater cloth,"  because it looks like patchwork but is just a print.  She added a narrow plaid inner border and two outer borders.  When quilted, it is difficult to tell that it is not actually pieced and appliqued. 

I used a good blender thread in a khaki color called Baguette by Signature.  This is free-motion quilting with a few bunches of cherries here and there.

The backing is a pale blue solid, but this is one of the ones that I had to extend with a strip of my own fabric to make it large enough to mount on the long-arm machine.

Today I finished a quilt that I thought I had almost finished before I left for Hawaii.  It was made by Tonya May, a blogger who I met at the Carolina Longarm Quilt Show back in September.  I picked up her quilt top in North Wilkesboro at a grocery store parking lot! 

Tonya loves turtles, and this cute quilt has pieced turtles.  The head is pointed to the right corner.  Can you see it?

I had fun stitching the shells with various designs.

Here are the borders.

The backing is a turquoise polka-dot print. The thread is a Signature cotton in a new yellow-green shade called "Bamboo."

This quilt was really fun to work on!  I'll get it back to Tonya on our next trip to the mountains in a week or so.

On the subject of turtles, we actually were swimming with sea turtles or "honu" in Hawaii.  The resort has a "lagoon" with real sea water and sea creatures.  The water was so clear that you could see the fish without a snorkel.  Did not like seeing the eels swimming around, but was thrilled to swim along with sea turtles.  When we visited a black sand beach, there was one lying near the waves, not moving.  Charlie thought it was dead or dying, but I found a sign that said the turtles would come out of the Pacific to "rest" on the beaches.

We spotted another one doing the same thing just below the bridge over the lagoon at the resort.

I was standing in the shallow water, peering through the crystal-clear water at the fish, when a sea turtle went swimming right past me, about two feet away!

In addition to the sea creatures, myna birds and doves at the resort, there were feral cats and, of all things, ferrets at the resort!  The ferrets were imported to Hawaii to keep out snakes, I believe.  We noticed them the first morning from our lanai as they skittered in and out of the shrub borders.  (No pics- they were too fast!)

The feral cats are actually fed by a volunteer group known as "Advocats."  They were all over the resort, and help to keep down the mice.

There are also feral pigs and wild donkeys on the Big Island, but we did not see any.  The wild animal I was most thrilled to spot were the many humpback whales off the coast.  We could look for their spouts and watch them breach while sitting at the resort or sometimes even driving along the coast road.

For a more up-close look at ocean mammals, you could visit the dolphin pool right at the resort.  We had a dolphin encounter in Nassau ten years ago, so we just watched from the sides this time.

More next time!

Whacky Ladies Quilt Bee- More Charity Quilts finished

Last night the Whacky Ladies met at Mary's house.  Several people brought the completed quilts that they started at our Sew-in Day in January.  It is so much fun to see these projects rolling in!

Irene tackled a hand-quilted patchwork Trip Around the World that we found in my friend Marcia's mother's stash.  It was too small to be used as a baby quilt, so she had to figure out how to add quilted borders.  Mary had the perfect fabric to make a border for the front side.

The back has a colorful map, so Irene devised a scrappy border in bright colors.

I think it turned out to be a delightful quilt!  This will be donated to the Capital Quilters' Guild Quilts for Kids programs.  These are donated to neo-natal intensive care nurseries, or sometimes other worthy causes.

Mary finished the frog fabric quilt that she started at the Sew-In.

How cute is that with those fun frogs leaping around?

At the meeting, Kathy brought a bag of fabrics donated by her church members to make charity quilts.  One of the "fabrics" was actually an indigo African dashiki-style shirt.  Mary cut it up and made this fabulous quilt.

I am honored to be part of such a talented and generous group of quilters!

Of Dogs and Quilts

I spent yesterday afternoon upstairs, quilting on my longarm machine.


This is my faithful dog at the bottom of the stairs, waiting for me to come back down and play.

She often lies on one step and has her head on the next.

At least, that's when she's not sneaking a nap on the leather couch.

The little rug by the front door looks just like our last dog, Maggy.  Sometimes Kasey lies right on Maggy.  It makes me smile.

Here is a cute little charity quilt for my guild's Quilts on Wheels program.  They are given to senior citizens in rest homes to serve as lap warmers in the wheelchairs.

I bought the blocks for this quilt on E-bay a long time ago, pieced the blocks together, and there it sat for more than six years.  I brought them to my bee's sew-in day in January, along with the extra fabric that came with the blocks.  Carolyn Ormond added a white inner border and the floral outer border.

The floral print looks like geranium leaves with little blue flower clusters.  I tried to quilt in a design that evokes that shapes in the print.

I used a soft, almost aqua blue thread.  It gave definition to the white background, and blended. right in with the floral print.

I searched my stash to find a backing fabric that would look nice.  I think I hit the jackpot.  It's a dark blue and green abstract floral.

I didn't realize it until I was taking the pictures, but the shapes in the backing fabric are very much like the free-motion quilting designs.  You could use either side of this quilt, and it would look pretty.

So, another UFO is finished (or will be when Carolyn does the binding.)  Now that it is done, I wonder why I never finished this one.  It would make a very cute table topper in my home!    I may be prejudiced, but Quilting Makes the Quilt, doesn't it?  At least it's now ready to use and add warmth, comfort, and hopefully pleasure to somebody's grandmother or grandfather.  And if you have ever visited a rest home, the visitors and staff also enjoy something fresh and pretty.

If you have an old UFO (Un-Finished Object) in your closet, I challenge you to get it out and finish it for Project Linus, one of your guild's charities, a wounded soldier, a charity auction, or even for someone in your family. It's a good feeling!

First Panto Quilt in about Six Years

Okay, so it's back to quilting this week.  Last year I volunteered to quilt a large number of donated quilt tops and backs for the Quilts on Wheels program at Capital Quilters Guild.  I finished thirty!  But the last group of donated tops that I brought home had a problem.  Most of the quilt backings were not large enough to mount the quilt on the longarm.  When you are quilting by hand or by domestic sewing machine, you can get away with the same size or a slightly larger backing.  That won't work when you have to pin the backing to the leaders of a longarm.  I like to have four inches of backing fabric on each side, if possible.


Monday, I spent the afternoon adding eight-inch strips to the bottoms and sides of at least five quilt backings.  None match.  All are now big enough to load up, though!

I also got the binding made and applied by machine to the little blue baby quilt. Navy blue seemed to work the best.   I have it hemmed about a third of the way around.  That's a chore I can do in front of the TV.  Or maybe at my quilt bee on Thursday night.

So, on Tuesday, I decided to start with a St. Patrick's Day theme top,  which might get delivered to a nursing home in time for the March holiday.  Or given to somebody Irish.  Or just someone who likes the color green.

This top was very nicely pieced.  Sorry I don't know the piecer- many quilters just drop off their finished tops anonymously at the guild meetings.That  narrow little border is a striped fabric.  The shamrock border has little lady bugs.

I had the thing all mounted and ready to begin.  I always do free-motion quilting from the front of the machine.  I put in the needle, brought up the bobbin thread, pushed the "go" button...and nothing happened.

Huh?

The light was on, the single-stitch button on the left worked, but the switch on the right handle must have died or shorted out.

I was beginning to think it might be time to spend the afternoon cleaning the sewing room.

Nah.

On the newer Gammills, it is easy to change a switch.  Pull off the cap, pull out the old switch, plug in the new.

On mine, you have to solder the new switch to the wires.  That's a job for Duh-Hubby. I mean Dear Sweet Husband.

Then, I had the brilliant idea that I could do a pantograph pattern from the back end of the machine.  A quick check showed that both switches worked on the back.

Hmmm...what pantograph to use?  Pantos are large rolls of paper that have quilting patterns you can follow with a stylus.  You can lay out the pattern the whole length of the twelve-foot table.  I have a laser stylus that projects a little red dot on the pattern.

I thought, well, I haven't done one in six years.  It doesn't matter which pattern.  I need the practice!  So, with this leafy green quilt, I pulled out the first one that had leaves in the title.  It's by Linda Taylor, and I remember that I chose it for my friend Cathy Carter's quilt.

What was I thinking?  This pattern requires two passes for each roll.  It takes forever!  Look at all that stitching!  It looks like a lovely texture now that it is done.

When I got ready to start, I realized that I had removed the Style-Laser from the side of the machine years ago.  It is mounted near the thread cone, and I didn't see any need for it to possibly get in the way of my thread path.

Guess what?  I remembered where I put it, but it was in pieces.  I tried to put it back together.  Somehow, something was missing.  I couldn't figure out how to keep the stylus from slipping out.

No problem- about six inches of clear packing tape took care of that problem!

I remembered why I dislike doing pantos.  It's kind of boring, sort of like tracing a line for several hours. And sometimes I get seasick doing a long row on a big quilt. And sometimes the thread breaks, but since the needle is on the other end of the machine, sometimes you don't notice and keep on stitching with no thread.

Also, I have this directionality problem.  A couple times I lost my way on this complicated pattern and double-stitched.  If this was a customer quilt, I would be frogging today.  (Rip-it, rip-it, rip-it out) but for a rest home wheelchair quilt,  I think it will be okay.

The backing is a light green and white stripe, although it looks gray in the photo.  I do like the sculptural look of the quilting.

When I finally got this done, I decided to quilt the little green and blue floral star quilt that Carolyn pieced together at our bee's sew-in day in January.  We are meeting tomorrow night, and it would be nice to have it ready to give back to her.  When I was mounting the quilt from the front of the machine, I forgot about the dead switch, and by habit I pressed the Go button.

It worked! 

What?  Come on! 

 No problem at all.  Maybe the switch is not dead, just loose somewhere.  I crossed my fingers and kept going.  Got 'er done!  This quilt is still on the machine, but it looks real cute.l

I'll take better pictures later.  If my switch decides to work today, I'm going to work on Tonya's quilt this afternoon.  If not, I have plans for my personal mechanic tonight!

A Charity Quilt for a Gentleman...or Not!

Yesterday I finished another Quilt on Wheels to be given to a rest home resident. Carolyn made this top from a kit I made using donated fabric. When I was at the Flower Cottage where the Capital Quilters Guild keeps its boxes of donated fabric, I found lots of homespun plaids and also theme fabric with outdoorsy themes like ducks and wildlife. I thought these would be nice for the male recipients, as a change from all the florals that quilters tend to select.

For this kit, I actually cut the 6.5" squares, 3.5" squares, and borders to be sewn into one-patch and four-patch blocks mixed together randomly.

Here is a close-up of some of the ducks.

But, I also included some "country" themed fabric that also featured some domestic scenes. Here is a great-looking star quilt...and could that be an outhouse by the fence? Usually they are pictured with a half-moon window!

Although they may not have had indoor plumbing, it looks like the lady of the house had a sewing machine!

Since I have ten more charity quilt tops waiting to be quilted, I will be choosing designs that I can do fairly quickly. I have done this leafy meander so many times that it is a favorite pattern of mine, especially for woodsy or manly quilts.

The curvy lines in the quilting design help soften all the squares and rectangles of the quilt design.