Splendid Sampler

Like about a million people on Facebook I have decided to join Pat Sloan's year long Splendid Sampler. (I finally started hiding the posts because people were getting crazy with comments and posts)
I have a selection of French General fat eighths I bought several years ago. I added a couple background fabrics to the mix.

 Surprisingly, I have the first two blocks completed!

As an aside, I am very frustrated right now. I had to delete Live Writer from my laptop and now I can't reinstall it.  I am writing this on the blogger app which is NO fun! Limited fonts, no photo options and editing is tough! And I hate that my signature has a white background.

Oh well...things could be worse...
 

The February Project

I have been working on the red quilt and the going is s  l  o  w…

I had originally planned to quilt in a variegated gray and I had even tested the thread on a sample of all the fabrics but when I started quilting the quilt –even just outlining the blocks, I did not like it.  I decided to go with red instead. There is a row with a lot of white so I think I will use the gray there. It is beginning to grow on me but I now wish I had thought to use the mono filament polyester thread.

Grid quilting the blocks took me two days.  The quilt is bulky and heavy.  I was able to keep the quilt rolled while doing that part but quilting the individual blocks is another story.

I pulled out my table and set up my ironing board on the left.  There is lots of turning and adjusting to do so I spend a lot of time getting up and pulling the quilt through the machine.  After a bit, my arms are tired so I have to take a break.  I keep thinking of the riddle, How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time…

In the evenings, I also do my knitting.  I have a couple of projects I am working on but this one is the most exciting:

It is a baby blanket for Lauren and Jeff’s baby! Yay!

The blue is a provisional cast-on and this is what the blanket will look like (I hope!):

I haven’t picked out a quilt pattern yet but I have until July. 
I can’t wait!
Diane

February Project

I have been trying to use what I have, finish what I have started and appreciate what I have. And I have lots of gorgeous fabric and an abundance of tools and supplies!

That being said,  I did complete my January goals, although I did not post about it.  A few years ago while visiting with Mimi we went to a quilt shop in Virginia Beach. A stunning quilt was hanging; unfortunately the shop was out of the pattern. Two weeks later, the pattern showed up in the mail. That is how Mimi was. She knew I loved it and she found the pattern for me.

This is the quilt:

The pattern is Woodland Star.  The fabrics are all batiks. The quilt was about half done when I pulled it out last month-no appliqué was done and only the star points were done. (I guess it was less than half done...)

Of course, I had fabric left over so I even made another top.  I will use it for my Learn to Quilt class:

My February project will be a quilt I started last summer.  We got a line of fabric in at the shop that begged to go home with me.  Then I found this pattern:

And I came up with this:

(Note rare CNY winter sun coming through the window)

I put a border on and as you can see it is a good sized quilt. In fact it's too big to put on my long arm. So I will be using my Bernina to quilt lots of straight lines. It is pin basted and all ready to go!

By the way, I am posting from my IPad. I am not sure how this will look on the blog but this is where my pictures are.

Do you have any goals this month? Let me know and I will cheer you on!

Kindergarten!

Leonard started school yesterday!

Since he won’t be taking the bus in the a.m., there are no pictures of him getting on the bus. Today will be his first day getting off the bus.  Mom and Dad are doing well, although the first day of school is very long for them. I assured Adrienne that the day will get much shorter!

His backpack lights up…

I remember when Adrienne started school... 

Time flies!

Diane

Saturday Sewing…

…did not got as planned.  I cleaned and oiled my machine as I do before I start a quilt and started having problems immediately.  Of course it took me 2 1/2 hours to figure out that my needle was not in correctly.  Grrr. Of course it was my own fault.  After that I completed just one row and cleaned up.

I am also working on this project.  I changed it up a little and here are some of my blocks:

I got the rows sewn together today and I hope to get the top together…this Saturday!

Diane

How to Make an Ironing Board: Easy Sewing tutorial with Rob Appell of Ma...

 

On The Frame- 8/6/15

This is a quilt that Mimi made.  John will probably be coming up for the State Fair at the end of the month so I am trying to get a few quilts ready for him.  I quilted another in July; I just need to get the binding on it.  Pictures later.
Mimi and I had very different tastes (except for our Civil War repro obsession) but we always liked each other’s quilts. 

Connie (at  Mission Rose) helped me pick out the fabric for the back (a nice medium pink) and the binding (medium grey).  Feminine and masculine at the same time! (Oh dear…is that sexist?)

I am using the same panto I use a lot for my quilts.  It goes quickly and looks nice when finished.  Not sure if I will use grey or white thread.  I need to pick up a batt tomorrow and then Saturday I can start quilting!

Have a good weekend!
Diane