last post for 2011

This is the last post of 2011.

I would have done a year in review, but I haven't blogged about my quilting for a year, AND I recently got a new laptop, so some older pictures are on the old computer and newer ones are here, so well... I got lazy, and I'm not doing a year in review- but it's been A LOT!

Here's the orca part 7 done

the units were fun and ODD, mine were wide enough but about 1/8" too short, don't know what happened. I'm still not LOVING the blues in there, not enough contrast....

this is also part of clue 7

THIS die and mat came in the mail the other day, woo hoo!

Today I got a few goodies from the blog hop, this one was actually from a BDSI, boxing day sew in- on my anniversary... a fun panel and a little trick book.

THIS one was from the blog hop, for some reason I though they would be 5" squares, I saw these and they are so cute and tiny :-) would make a cute doll blanket.

just another thing for the LIST... :-)

These fabrics came today from connecting threads. This whole pile for $58 is AWESOME

the black is for the color block swap  and the rest are for a baby quilt I mentioned it all here

someone commented on one of my blog posts, that she wanted more PEANUT pics :-)

so here's a few.

This is HIS couch, do you see the dark on the arm rest? that's all embedded slobber!! EWWW, I gave up cleaning it a long time ago, it's nasty.... LOL

doesn't he just look un-loved and neglected??

Work in progress list for 2012

#1 welcome to the hive- top done and ready to quilt

#2 lotus quilt- top done just missing applique pieces

#3 blue flower table runner- top done and ready to quilt

#4 pumpkin star pillow- just needs to be stuffed and sewn together

#5 red mini star table topper- top done and ready to quilt

#6 Bunny table runner- top done and ready to quilt

#7 Connecting threads KIT fabrics- don't know what to do with them yet

#8 giraffe wall hanging - still working on needleturn applique, mommy giraffe almost done

#9 pineapple black and blue quilt- making blocks as LEADERS and ENDERS

#10 Blue star quilt- lots of blocks done

#11 Pine tree BOM- not even started yet

#12 Next Stitch STAR- design made, fabrics not ordered yet

#13 snowmen table runner- working on embroidery every night

#14 Elenar Burns star Go! die- pieces cut for a scrappy look- may scrap this whole project

#15 aqua owl- applique ironed on, need to stitch around and sew together

# 16 geese in a ring- DONE!

# 17Bonnie Hunter ORCA mystery - done with clue #7

# 18 Little twister blue- on the shelf, starting base top is done, some blocks cut and sewn

#19 green, red, yellow flower quilt- top done, just taking forever removing the papers

# 20 small trees- no plan for these yet

# 21 spring swap blocks- got plans but no background fabrics ordered yet

# 22Making memories embroidered panel- needs to be made into a cute wall hanging

# 23 black, red white asian quilt- blocks done

# 24 color block swap- blocks are done and fabrics here

 # 25 fall leaf blocks swap- lots of blocks, ideas, but no plan yet

# 26 Baby gingham dog boy quilt- fabrics here and ready

Happy New Years! see you NEXT year :-)

EQ7 fun english ivy

So, I'm sitting here this morning playing in EQ7 again :-)

I've mentioned before that I ofen take quilt magazines and copy the layouts into EQ7, then I can change the layout, change the designs and colors etc.

Here's one called english ivy from love of quilting jan 2011, page 77 (I put this in the NOTES of the layout in EQ) I noted that the borders were intricate etc, but I didn't copy that.

Anyways, a VERY traditional layout.

here's a close up of the block

so I clicked on WORK ON BLOCK button at the top and removed the little triangles on the leaves and also instead of having triangles at the top I made it simpler and made this little "bar" at the top.

Odd and fun looking, don't you think?

I love blue, so I changed the colors and put it back in the layout.

hmm, still kind of "boring"

What if I change the quilt layout to a horizontal layout.

(QUILT, new quilt. horizontal)

I did a 6 x 8 block layout.

Then I added the blocks and flipped the blocks so 4 go together.

what a cool look, you can get lost in that!

to not be so lost, I clicke the spraycan and held down ALT and selected a different light and dark blue and colored the opposite parts.

would this be a cool scrappy quilt?

what if I added sashing to this? more order in it! and more traditional looking.

how about a pop of color? now that's kind of interesting...

then I figured, why not color the whole thing like a flower

I changed the colors slightly on every other one to make it pop more.

Now I'm not liking the boxy look of the red. hmm

back to adding sashing, maybe in black and then I colored the cornerstones a different color to match what was near it, and a nice red border!

So scroll back to the top and see how a traditional layout from a magazine can turn into this!!

Here's another example.

this is called Elizabeth's garden, from love of quilting, june 2010 page 80

it's CUTE and I colored it in pastels. Can't remember if it was pastels or not in the magazine, sometimes I try to stick close to the colors, other times I do whatever other colors I feel like that day, just to change things up :-)

So here I wasn't liking the boxes in the layout- maybe it was a focus fabric? I don't know

I first changed the layout to a 4 x 5 block layout and then copied the blocks with the nine patch into all the blocks.

I also created a sashing block, here it was 9" block with a 1" sashing, so in WORK ON BLOCK,

I created a block that was 1 x 9 and made little block from 4-6", each 1".

so 3" blank, then 3" with 1" blocks(3 times) and then 3" blank.

When you add the block to the sketchbook it makes it square, kind of weird...

anyways, I added that and rotated the ones on the sides to match up right and colored everything to match up.

But got tired of the pastels, tried some warm batiks! a totally different look!

what about teal and yellow?

Again if anyone wants any of these files, let me know I'll be happy to email them to you.

Also , please comment if you want to see more of these EQ ideas, more in detail or just ideas? do you want more step by step directions?

happy new year!



I'm a guest blogger

Jump over and see here

at sew we quilt!

I'm a guest blogger and made a tutorial for these cute owl pot holders

You should be able to WHIP these up before tomorrow night for New years!

geese in a ring blocks are all done

I didn't think it was fair to just show 2 blocks of the geese in a ring.

So today I finished the other 5- started them last night.

(7 total)

here's the pile all done before being trimmed and papers removed

here's 6 done, when I removed the papers on the 7th one, I saw a hole, the fabric was too small on one spot, so I had to rip several steps out and put it aside for a while

green geese

rainbow

yellow/ red/ blue - I think the note was ANY, so this is what I picked. I have to look again at the paper work.

a tan version, I think that was ANY as well

pink, green, yellow.

orange and turqouise.

here's the 7th one made

almost the same, but the top left quardrant, the upper reddish orange was my OOPSIE and I had to use a different fabric.

I'm also doing a LINK UP here

hope you'll jump over and take a look.

I think I'll start to list the progress on my projects and how I get them done:

More about them here

welcome to the hive- top done and ready to quilt

lotus quilt- top done just missing applique pieces

blue flower table runner- top done and ready to quilt

pumpkin star pillow- just needs to be stuffed and sewn together

red mini star table topper- top done and ready to quilt

Bunny table runner- top done and ready to quilt

Connecting threads KIT fabrics- don't know what to do with them yet

giraffe wall hanging - still working on needleturn applique, mommy giraffe almost done

pineapple black and blue quilt- making blocks as LEADERS and ENDERS

Blue star quilt- lots of blocks done

Pine tree BOM- not even started yet

Next Stitch STAR- design made, fabrics not ordered yet

snowmen table runner- working on embroidery every night

Elenar Burns star Go! die- pieces cut for  a scrappy look- may scrap this whole project

aqua owl- applique ironed on, need to stitch around and sew together

geese in a ring- DONE!

Bonnie Hunter ORCA mystery - waiting for clue #7, otherwise up to date

Little twister blue- on the shelf, starting base top is done, some blocks cut and sewn

green, red, yellow flower quilt- top done, just taking forever removing the papers

small trees- no plan for these yet

spring swap blocks- got plans but no background fabrics ordered yet

Making memories embroidered panel- needs to be made into a cute wall hanging

black, red white asian quilt- blocks done

color block swap- blocks are here and fabrics ordered for sashing and border

fall leaf blocks swap- lots of blocks, ideas, but no plan yet

WOW, that's 25 things, better go back to sewing some more upstairs!

Plus I have fabrics ordered for a baby quilt...

Anyone know a good html to add these with percentage bars on the side of my blog?



loading a quilt on the summit frame and more

For some reason I felt like sharing pics of my long arm setup and frame.

My machine is called voyager 17, and then a summit frame, both from hinterberg (now Nolting)

both are AWESOME, and compared to others they are really affordable.

here's a link to their website.

so I finally got around to loading a customer's quilt on the frame today.

First I pin on the backing to the top roller and the take up bar/ rear roller

then I moved up the batting roller, the summit frame has these notches on the sides to rest the roller while you pin it on.

I then take up the roller for the top, but just temporarily place it in the 2nd notch, because I move the batting bar back down in it's spot, then move the top roller back to notch #1.

All parts of the quilt, I mark the middle with a pin and the leaders on the rollers already have marks for the half way point, that's my starting point to pin.

then I pin left and right, I bought this pin cushion at JoAnn's a while back and attached an elasic thru it so I wear it as a bracelet, when I go left I wear it on my left and hold the quilt parts with my left and pin with my right, then on the right side I switch

The two bottom rollers have the PLUGS removed, while I moved the rollers up and down.

after the rollers are back in place, the plugs go back.

Now the 3 parts are on the rollers in the front, batting is at the bottom, then the top, and the backing is on the top roller (underneath everything)

I then pull everything taught, and lay the batting on top of the backing and make it smooth, line up the pin with the marking on the leader for the half way point, it's okay if things don't like up 100%, it happens, I can work with about 1" off from the center, if it's more than that, I may have to look at the pieces again.

I know make sure the rollers are secured.

Then lay the top on top again and line up with the mark, then start pinning thru all the layers

Can you see the pins? the top is about 1" from the rear leader, that helps too if things are a little crooked.

Now everything is set and ready to quilt.

see the pattern in the fabric, I was trying to mimic that.

a little bit hard to see, but quilted these thin branches.

Since I showed the pictures of all my projects I'd LIKE to do, I figured I'd tackle the geese in a ring swap blocks

here's all the fabric piles, ready to go

about half way thru here.

the piles are shrinking!

and this is my leader and enders project :-)

Look what came in the mail today!!

a gift from the blog hop! from Norway.

Here's her link to her blog.

It's in norwegian, but I can sort of read that, danish is very close to norwegian, but a few words are different.

This pin cushion is tiny and CUTE!! I love it

She even added a postcard from her town and a little X where she lives, how cool!

look how small it is!? about 3" but very cute

I'm still surprised at the postage rates over there, I know DK is the same, we really can't complain here in the US.

Lastly wanted to show that I'm not the only one here creating something, my son made this diorama today!