Bait and Switch ????

So - - I was planning to enter This quilt in the World Quilt Festival New England, coming up soon...

Remember - this one...  it's been on a bit of a traveling jaunt to quilt shows... (I know you're sick of seeing it, but here goes one more time)

 So, I started the entry process, and paid my entry fee...  and then planned to go back later and enter the quilt photos.  Well, when I did, I saw that this particular quilt did not meet the minimum size for that show - - well, duh, I should have read the instructions...

So a couple of days later a very nice lady from the Mancuso office wrote me and asked why I didn't complete my entry and I explained the issue to her - - she confirmed that World Quilt Festival just doesn't have a category for small-medium wall quilts... but she hoped I would enter something else... How nice that was of her...   Cool.

But I didn't think I had anything worthy...  but finally decided to enter my Pineapple quilt , made from a Bonnie Hunter pattern she calls Pineapple Crazy.  I named it "Impossible !"  because it took forever, but it didn't make hardly a dent in my scrap piles !

So I sent this photo, and a close up of detail................... and.........................
IT GOT JURIED IN !!!!

Oh so fun...  I'm just tickled........... thank goodness it has a hanging sleeve already on it - so I have only to put on a label and pack it up for the journey !

I love quilting - every day it gives back such joy and comfort... and it keeps me out of the bars and off the street !!!!

Happy Quilting !

Kathleen

What's in That Bag ????

Oh my, my, my.... 

Tonight I was cleaning in my sewing room - there are all these bins in there with who knows what in them - partly finished quilts, four patches, patterns, they didn't start out organized, so it just whatever got put in, and then the top got put on...

and I spied this plastic bag...........

hmmm - that looks familiar.... but it's been several years... let's take a peek.

 oh, a red and green applique..........oh I remember making this...................

oh goodness - it is ALMOST finished..................    I made this in New York - it was a block of the month pattern.  I don't remember the name of the designer - but I will find it and then I will post again.     I packed this up before we moved from NY to California, and it has been in that box ever since. 

Well - let's see what to do next... when I first looked at it , I thought it was ready to sandwich - but on closer inspection, I'm missing a few leaves in the right hand corner - and there are a couple of spots in that sawtooth border that I never liked - so I shall try to do something about that... and those red flowers in the outside border never for their yellow centers for some unknown reason... so it seems I have a bit of work left to do before I can sandwich this - and then I really want to hand quilt it - I do, I do... 

But it is nice to have found it again... far too pretty to be in a plastic bag !!

Happy quilting to you,

Kate

Such a Fun Quilty Sunday !!

It's a great quilty Sunday - a little cool, just enough for socks... 

and so many quilty projects to choose from - I can just wander around and find a different project waiting for me to play!

Remember this ?  A lovely Madeira table runner...  I am stitching away...  gradually it is starting to look like it will look...  and I finally got a good photo for color... 

 See how the underlayment fabric looks poofy through the cutwork?  That will all be sewn down... 

  Lots more to do on that one !!!!  And I have decided to add some beading after all the stitching is done.


But - I can only work on this detail stuff for so long and then I need to power sew and I yearn for bright color...this little charity quilt filled both needs - the center fabric is African fabric that someone brought back from a medical mission in Africa - and donated it for us to make quilts that will go on another medical mission - too fun !  Don't you love these Caribbean colors?  I do.

 And I finally got this quilt photographed - those are 5 inch pineapples, made from a Bonnie Hunter pattern . . it was really really fun !

 And, being quilted, one of the several tops that is a result of my manic war on scraps lately -  I am just making scrap sections, like these 16 patch units, and then finding places to put them in quilts later - fun, fun!  Like seeing a history of all my sewing laid out before me !

Well, nothing is getting done sitting here, now, is it !!!!

Thanks for reading my quilty ramblings...

Kate

DH's Adventures in the Bernina Store

HA HA MY FRIENDS - this is a great story !!

A couple of posts ago, I showed you the photos of my new 'toy' - a Bernina Nova 900, made in 1980s... well, it's fairly uncommon, and is just, well CUTE, CUTE, CUTE....

So, since the machine hasn't been used in perhaps 20 or 30 YEARS, I decided to have my service tech give it a once-over and a serious oiling job -

So - DH took it to the local Bernina dealer today... where he has taken my other 'modern' Berninas many times...

WOW WAS THIS TIME DIFFERENT...

He walked in, and there was a line at the checkout counter, so he sat the cute little case down, with the darling little red handle showing on top...  and in a second - one of the ladies who works there came from the other side of the store...  'what's that?"  she asked...  'that's unusual'....

and that was only the beginning...

Within minutes, every woman in the store was gathered around, ' open it, open' it - how does it open? 

"Where did it come from?"  "Look, it has all its accessories!"   Oh it is soooo cute!

SO DH CAME HOME AND SAID... WELL, IF I EVER NEED TO PICK UP A WOMAN, I'LL JUST TAKE YOUR NEW BERNINA AND GO TO THE REPAIR SHOP - WORKS BETTER THAN A PUPPY !!!!

Too too funny, LOL.

Kate

Good morning !  Oh so sad that it is the last day of the holiday weekend!!!

I made massive progress on my next linen piece - want to see???

 

You can see in this photo the places I have stitched and the ones where I have not - all those poofy pieces will soon (ha) be stitched down...

 

I love this little border of leaves - can't wait til it is stitched and I can remove the blue marker...

 

 

This shot has bad perspective, but you get the idea... just hold tight and the next time I will get a better shot, taken properly from above the quilt.... 

Coffee?  Oh, the coffee is ready - let me go fortify myself for the day... and then I will retreat to the sewing room and see what more progress I can make on this piece today. 

Happy Sunday to everyone.

Kate

My New Toy

This is Miss Bit, writing - to tell you about the box that came today... 

Look, it has a red handle...

 Oh, fun, fun - all this lovely bubble wrap to play in - POP, POP !!!!  It's the Fourth of July Fireworks!!

HMMMM - does it have a secret entrance???  We will slide it and see...

 Oh, look - the case folds out... 

 and then the case comes completely off - and has all these fun feet and bobbins!!

And TA DA - here's the machine !!!!

 

That funny red thing is the foot pedal.  

 



 

 

But , best of all.....

 

is THE BOX !!!!

 

 

 

from the "Quilting Professor" - - well, it seems Miss Kitty Bit has introduced you to my new toy - Bernina 900 machines were manufactured in the early 1980s, and only a modest number were made.  They are basic machines, meant to carry to class or to your summer cottage...  they sew beautifully and are known as little workhorses that last forever... I am so tickled to find one with all the original parts and stuff... feet, bobbins, case, it's just fabulous...

 

 

and most fun of all...

 

the original owner... 

the original instruction book - Julie went through each page, trying each foot, learning each technique, and making careful notes....



 

Well, I tried to search the web for Julie, but I really can't find anything, so who knows what happened to her - but, Julie, I have your baby now, and I will take good care of her...

 

Kate 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A New Start

Oh I do love to start a new piece... 

Especially when I am still finishing the one before... and the two before...

But since all the machine sewing is done on the "ThreadSucker" quilt, I started a new linen piece today - a gorgeous gorgeous table runner.  

So far it is looking like this...

It is mounted on a soft gold Hoffman Radiance fabric that is not near as shiny as it looks in this photo...  the overhead light is reflecting off it....

I have done most of the outside pattern - just a bit more to go...

And now I start sewing down the runner itself, stitching all around the gorgeous embroidery

Oh , this is fun, fun...

and, a little fun was had quilting up this cute cute charity quilt from a top made by a friend... great colors and cute fabrics!

Oh - I see a three day weekend coming, just one more day of work and then a bit of respite to sew and relax.... oh I do love the summertime!


Happy Fourth of July everyone,

Kate  

How's That Again?

Is it just me...................

Or is there something a bit strange about this sign..................................

????????????????????????????????????????????

The sign is on the California coast, near the Point Reyes Lighthouse...

Do you think maybe the Life-Savers weren't very effective.....????? and needed a cemetery, too??????

There just has to be a story behind this...............

Kate