Sigh of Relief

Today I turned over Teresa's five quilts to her.  I was very glad to finish the one with the fans.  Here is how it turned out.  It is a pretty quilt.

There is a lot of quilting in this one.  Working with those fan blades was not easy.  My thread broke often, and it was hard to not catch the quarter-inch of fan that protruded at the end.

In addition to that, I got to the bottom and had a LOT of fullness to deal with.  This sometimes happens due to having a lot of bias triangles, or the borders being sewn on without measuring first.  Sometimes it's just that at the bottom of the quilt, there is nowhere else for any extra fabric to go.  Usually I can put in lots of curvy quilting at the bottom and that takes care of it.  This time it left big puckers.

I ripped out all the stitching near the puffy area.  I tried hand-basting to see if it would flatten out. 

Not a chance!  So I decided to put in a controlled pleat or two.  First I pinned, then hand-basted the pleats or darts.

I quilted a lot over the fold, and then stitched the pleat by hand with thin thread.

All fixed!  I told Teresa about this on the phone, but when she picked up the quilt, she did not notice anything wrong with the border.

It looks fine to me!

I don't think I ever showed a picture of the whole Thimbleberries quilt.  Well, here is half at a time.  I would not mind keeping this one!

I have been cautiously trying out new activities, like walking the dog around the neighborhood, and getting back on my Wii Fit.  Today I went back to the hospital for my blood test, and it was at the low range of normal.  I don't have to go back for a week, and if it is okay then, I will be dismissed from the anti-coagulant clinic and returned to my doctor's care.  I did not even wear my ankle brace when I went out today.  The compression stocking seems to stabilize the ankle pretty well.  Things are looking up!

Big Project finished before the Beach Trip

Here is Kathy's Thimbleberries Garden quilt on the long-arm machine.  It has patchwork block mixed with a faux-applique floral print block, and of course lots of borders.  This will be a raffle quilt for the Hope Lutheran Church in Wake Forest.  Kathy wanted an overall design, so I did floral motifs and leaves.

Since I was doing free-motion quilting, it was possible to try to add design elements in strategic places even though this was an edge-to-edge. In the faux-applique blocks, I echoed around the leaves and flowers without starting or stopping.  I think it looks pretty good!

The backing is actually a warm tan color, but this photo shows the quilting from the back side.

Now it is off on vacation for a week!  Bryson and the kids came up Thursday evening, and he is going to a wedding this morning while we head to the beach.  He will meet us there as well as our other kids, Dave and Emily, and three other houses full of other Turners and McBrayers.  All Charlie's brothers and two of my brothers and lots of nieces and nephews and grands.  Fun!  I'm taking the laptop, so maybe will send a few updates during the week.

Baby quilt and Quilt Tops from the Bee

We had a great bee meeting last night at Irene's house. Lots of good show-and-tell...I was not the only one sewing during the snow days!

Here is our hostess, Irene, with a fabulous stars quilt that was from a Bernina Saturday Sampler. The stars really pop on the blue background.

Kathy had us drooling over this Thimbleberries quilt top. The materials were donated to Kathy's church, and she is making it into a raffle quilt. She asked me if I would quilt it for them. I will indeed!
Here is a little quilt for a baby boy who will turn two on Sunday. His grandmother made this little monkey/jungle theme quilt for him. Isn't it cute?

I quilted a sort of fern frond meander all over in yellow thread.

The back is a vibrant jungle animal print. Very fun to do on a dreary day like today!

This customer is the same one who made the adorable scalloped-border quilts for her little granddaughters last summer. Lucky grandchildren!