Learning Something New

Hi everyone !!!!

Boy, I have been just quilting along on some really big projects, and I needed a breath of fresh air and fun...  so I went off and took a class and learned something new !

The class was at a little LQS in Lafayette CA named The Cotton Patch.   The class was on making impressionistic landscapes ...  I chose a scene showing the lighthouse at Ocracoke Island, in North Carolina...  and here's my little quilt...

I still need to put a blinding on it...  it was lots of fun...  taught by Denise Oyama Miller, a California quilter.  I don't think I will become world famous from this type of quilting!

and now back to my linen quilting...  I am soaking two beautiful linens I just bought on eBay - oh my they are gorgeous - but the soaking water is nasty !!!

Happy Sunday Quilting,

Kate

Thread Sucker is All Stitched !!!!

I know, I know, it really is a terrible thing to call something this beautiful by the name Thread Sucker...  but, that's just what it seems to want to go by...

I finished the stitching this morning.
Yahoo

Yippee

Hooray

Thank Goodness

What's next, you ask?  Why, she is taking a nice bath! 

Allow me to digress with a couple of words about marking pens... 

I use the blue washout pens -   you can see some of the blue lines above, pre-wash. 

the trick with the blue washout pens is 1) don't iron the marks;  2) don't put it in the sun with the marks;  and 3)  COMPLETELY IMMERSE to remove...  sometimes I spray the quilt with water to remove the marks as I am going along - it makes it look nicer...  BUT - a complete immersion is essential to totally remove the blue marks... 

The Frixion pens?  Oh, they mark so nice and precise - I love them... but I sometimes ship my quilts off to shows, and those marks will return in the cold belly of an airplane... so I don't use them - maybe for a little class sample that I know will never fly anywhere... otherwise, no. 

Well, I better go check on Thread Sucker and see how her bath is going...

Next will come squaring, trimming, binding... and maybe beading... we will see.    And a proper name for a proper quilt. 

Happy Sunday, everyone.

Kate

Design Wall Monday

Good morning, everyone... 

Over the past few months, my design wall has very gradually grown a set of blocks for Sue Garman's pattern,  "Sarah's Revival"...

Oh these have been such fun!  I have more than a few left to go, though!!

The small blocks?  Just some little blocks for a baby quilt in the making... 

Happy Monday to all !!

Kate

Summer Summer Summertime !

Ahh, blessed first day of summer............  The Quilting Professor survived the final week of long, hot, long, hot, and long and hot commencement exercises, and now begins the blessed summertime!

Because I work in administration, I work all summer, except for some vacation weeks...  BUT, it's at an easier pace, and there are no night programs or weekend recruitment fairs to take up my spare time, which is wonderful.  

So, I shall sew, and sew, and sew, and sew !!!!

More work on the "thread-sucking " quilt.  I 'm still looking for a more glorious name!

And, today, lots of cleaning and scrap sorting... DH helped - sorted out two clothes hampers full of stuff we laughingly called "resources"....  scraps, fat quarters, orphan blocks - how on earth did all this get all mixed up?  

Mystic helped:

These are MY scraps!  Go get your own... 

 

Happy Sunday, and happy summer to everyone!

Basket Full of Posies...............

Good morning everyone, on a fine Thursday morning... 

I took a look at my quilty life this morning, and thought 'ugh', mostly same old/same old... a little bit of progress here, a little bit of progress there...

So, I have decided to take you on a tour of my quilty garage...  In CA, with our near-perfect weather, a garage is like an extra, livable room - so we never put cars in there - instead , its full of - guess what?  quilt stuff !!!! 

So, I thought I would take you on a tour of my quilty baskets... As you know, I do a lot of charity quilting for the Wrap-A Smile project, working with other quilters in an online Yahoo Group named Sunshine Quilters.  Some of them send me tops for quilting, which I enjoy...

But I am NOT a linear person - getting out a top, quilting it, binding it, all at once, is just NOT for me.  I love having dozens of projects going, so on any day I can pick up a color that pleases me, or a task that pleases me...  and eventually, finished quilts emerge, like this:

 Basket no. 1 is where the tops are admitted when they arrive, usually by mail.  I try to put the newest ones on the bottom, but eventually I just paw through them looking for something to fit a piece of backing or batting that is handy, so they end up rather disorganized.  But I know the piecers are waiting to see their quilts finished, so I try not to let things get lost in there forever!

 

 

Look at all that great color - it is so much fun to pull those tops out and enjoy their fabulous happy beauty!

Next comes pin-basting.  No, I don't have a long-arm.  I have a sit-down machine (a George), so I still pin-baste, but I do NOT crawl on the floor... I use two six foot tables... here is a quilt that will next be basted (after a bit of pressing)

Do you know these clips?  They are picnic table clips, sold at any camping or outdoor store, or on amazon.  They spring to the right size, to fit any table... perfect slips for laying out backing... 

Voila!

After pinning, I fold the quilt inside, so only the backing shows.  Then it becomes a big secret.  When I pick one up to quilt, I have no idea what it looks like - and I get surprised again !  Fun! 

(been quilting a lot lately, not a big pile here, need to pin-baste some more this weekend)

Basket 2:  Quilted, but not trimmed or squared up.

Basket 3:  Trimmed, needs binding

Unidentified mess - and hey, Monopoly!

Completed quilts all sealed up in a plastic bag, after having been washed.












Allow me to close with a couple of quilts I just finished.  The tops came from a friend, named Moira.  Great little quilts that will now go somewhere in this world with Rotary-sponsored medical teams who do facial disfigurement surgery that changes children's lives.  A big job for little quilts ... 

I'm home from work today with a little bit of flu...  maybe I can sneak in some quilting time !!!! 

Take care everyone,

Kate






















































 

Sarah's Hands2Help Project Grand Finale

Good morning, and Happy Sunday -

Like a lot of other quilty bloggers, I am writing in celebration of Sarah's "Hands2Help" project...

if somehow you missed it, you should go read about it on her blog, which you can get to HERE.

Lots of people made lots of great comfort quilts for great charities.

I made two, and if you read my blog, you saw them before, but hey, here goes:

This is a really fun, simple pattern, just made from logs and squares.  All cut fabric pieces come from scraps.   Fun, fun to put together, and so easy.

And this is a classic Chinese coins.  I seem to have taken this photo before I finished turning the binding under , but I assure you it was done before it went in the mail! 

I sent my quilts to Emily at Happy Chemo... I sent her two last year, too... What a great cause she collects for - I love helping her help others.

So now there's the big linkup at Sarah's blog - and lots of great PRIZES - so many generous folk...  the real prize is helping someone, but hey, getting something in the mail is fun, too. 

In other news...  the cutest Fur-Babies...named Winston and Wyatt (but we called them Stop and Go, for their red and green colors... were adopted into their Forever Homes today...

 

Boo boo I miss having them here - but am happy they have gone to a great family who I know will give them a great life.   The house was a lot quieter this evening - not so much laughter...  Take care, little darlins...  Glad we got to know you for a bit..

Kate