Today has been more productive then I could have ever imagined. I have pieced together the majority of the front panel. The owls came out way better than I would have ever thought they could. I took a real picture off the internet, copied it onto fabric paper, peeled off the back and after cutting it out attached it to the quilt. I then took fabric paint and enhanced the trees and owls with black and brown markers. The ferns at the bottom are just messy cut and fussy cut then laid on top of each other. I will need to add more leaves to the trees and I may add a moon, but I am three weeks ahead of what I thought I would be today. What an incredible productive day!!!
So here’s where I’ve been…. My sewing machine broke and it’s taken me a month to replace it. I was out of town last week and when I got back late Monday night my new Brother 9000 was waiting for me. I was almost done with the second quilt, all I had to do was finish the edges so I have completed the second quilt and I’m on my way to the third (only a month behind).
I love the new machine. The last one I had was 20 years old and only did about 5 stitches. This one does 120, plus monogramming! Its’ so quiet and runs so smoothly. But I have to say farewell to my old one in a kind way… It sewed 20 years of children’s clothes, curtains, decorations and even reupholstered a couch….twice!!! I’ve decided not to get rid of it but just store it away for now and maybe someday try to have it fixed. It was a good friend for a long time…insert tear here… :0) I went today and purchased the fabric to start the third quilt (The owl quilt) I originally was going to hand dye most of the fabrics but with my time crunch I’m in now I decided to just buy the fabric as close to what I need as possible. I got very lucky and found some at Joann’s and some at the local quilting shop. The wood fabrics didn’t come out in the pictures as vibrant and high quality as they are in person but you will get the idea. I quickly sketched out the idea for the front panel and took a picture. Not the best drawing I have ever done but I did it in less than 2 min. (so no judging on the art!!) :0) I’ve posted pictures of the finished shoe and purse quilt, the new sewing machine and the new stuff for quilt three so take a look and let me know what you think. Back on track!!!!! I completed all the hand quilting this weekend and will be finishing the binding this week. I’m a few days behind schedule but not too bad for two quilts in four months. I am so excited to start the next one because it will be my first attempt at an art quilt. Owls and trees and dyed background fabrics! Too fun!! I’ll post pictures this weekend of the finished shoe and purse quilt and post the outline for the next one.
I want to thank all the people who have sent me emails from all over the world giving me encouragement and drive to keep going. April was a tuff month because of all the activities going on every weekend that didn’t leave much time for the project. You guys have really kept me driven to stay on track!! Thank you!! So the first weekend of April was Easter (lots going on) the second weekend of April we were in New Orleans (not at home) the third weekend of April was My 13 year olds Confirmation (lots going on). I have exactly 7 days left to finish this quilt and I am only 1/3 of the way through the quilting. I need to basically finish one block a night this week and the edges over this next weekend to stay on track. I need to leave the last week of April to prep for the next quilt or it will be a domino effect and I will continue to lag behind.
I’ve had great fun this month but it’s time to get serious about finishing this one and move on to the next one. I was able to shoot some pictures this weekend of the girls in the blue bonnets (very small window to get that done in) these will be used in another Christmas project for them and for our parents. Can I do it??? YES I CAN! UGH!! :0) I love this new quilt. I’m so happy with the way it came out. I’m not done with the back panel yet so I wasn’t able to pin the layers together this weekend so I’m a little behind on my schedule.
I’m traveling this week so I need to get the layers together Monday night and rolled on to the stand so I can start stitching them together this coming weekend. It will be very hard to stay on target with everything going on this month. I have Easter, three trips and my daughter’s confirmation. Wish me luck!! Check out the pictures. On saturday me, my sister and my daughter went to the Dallas Quilt show. I took a lot of pictures but had too many favorites to post them all. I've posted just a few that I was amazed at the details and artistic ability of the people who made them. I can’t wait to go to another show. We spent several hours and there and didn't even cover half of the building.
I finished all of the shoe blocks when I got back from the show. I cut out all of the purses and will put them together next Saturday. This quilt is going a lot faster than the last one. I’ve missed a couple of weeks post, I’m so sorry!!! It’s been very busy and I got side tracked by life. :0)
I finished my first quilt!!! (Insert cheers and applause) I’m very happy with the way it turned out. It’s not perfect by anyone’s standards but it’s the first… and its finished…That’s an accomplishment in and of its self! I know she will love it and keep it forever and that was the goal. I didn’t take a picture of the finished quilt but I will soon. I did start the second quilt. I completely changed the theme and colors. This one is for my 8 ½ year old. Originally I wanted to do a red, white and pink quilt with flowers and hearts and XOXOX on it. She announced very loudly that her favorite color was blue not red or pink so I decided to do a quilt with high heels and purses. When I showed her a color wheel and asked her to pick out the colors she liked, she picked teal, orange and yellow (ok…. So she may need some art lessons! :0) I actually looked for a printed material to use that may have all three colors in them but guess what…nothing! I went back to her again and this time we went on line and I showed her different sets of fabric and she picked a chocolate with pick/hot pick combo. It is fantastic! I started the process of making templates for the shoes. I took pictures of shoes, blew them up in Photoshop, blacked out the print and deleted the background. Walla, shoe templates (See pictures on picture page) So far I have them cut out and pressed over around the edges. This Saturday is the quilt show here in Dallas So I’m taking my baby sister and we are making a day of it. I’m not sure I will get a lot done this weekend. I also need to paint three canvases for my Nephew. We do a lot of trade-off work for each other and I’m behind on his pay backs. I’ll post pictures of the paintings when I’ve finished them. Check out the photo page for the new quilt. So I go last week to get my hair cut and low and behold there is a real life professional quilter sitting next to me! I felt like I was meeting a rock star!! I know corny…
She has a couple of quilts in the (March) Dallas quilt show so I’m going to go check it out. It will be the first quilt show I’ve ever been to. I’m very excited!! Update on the 1st quilt. I’m in my final days to complete the first one. I have removed it from the hand quilting stand and will be finishing the binding on the machine. I have soooo moved past this one mentally and can’t wait to start buying the fabric for the next one. I love the design process. I must have a good 12 quilts floating in my head. Also I’ve been reading so much and watching so many how too videos that I think each one I do will be better then the next. My poor daughter that will receive the first one, I’ll have to make her another one someday to make up for this one! :0) This was a long week with lots of reasons not to sew. I think I’m going to have to change over from hand quilting to machine quilting to make sure I can finish all four quilts. I will make sure every one of them have some part that is hand quilted but in the interest of time I can’t hand stitch every one of them. I’m ready to finish this one so I can start the next one. I’m going to hand dye my own fabric for the next one so I’ve been watching a lot of “how-to” videos. I can’t wait to try it!
We got more snow in 24 hours here in Dallas then we have ever had. It was so pretty. I took some pictures that will make great landscape quilts if I can ever get to that point. I added the pictures on the picture page. I didn’t have time to paint the quilt stand so I just sanded it and put it up. I love it! My fingers are killing me but I really like how easy the stand is making the hand quilting process (check out the picture page). I put the stand behind my couch in the game room. I cover it when the girls are around or when I’m not working on it so they can’t see what I’m working on. I can work while they sit in front of me and watch TV. It’s great!
I’m having an issue with the batting coming through the material with each stitch and I’m not sure how to keep that from happening; any suggestions would be helpful. I’ve been going to book stores and going on line looking at different types of quilts and I’ve re designed the other three quilts I’m going to do. I’ll get more into the new designs as I get closer to the time I start them. |