New Handi Quilter Frame!

Well this week has been incredibly busy for me....One concert, one play, busy, busy get ready for Christmas.  I have thoroughly enjoyed it but wow, I need some snuggle with the kiddos, watch movies and hibernate time!....

At the beginning of the week a wonderful lady named Nancy, from my local Quilt Guild, gifted me with an original Handi-Quilter frame.  Her only stipulation, to pass it on to someone who will utilize it if I should ever want to upgrade, or if I am simply not using it.  It was the absolute best Christmas present anyone could have given me!

The quilt in front of the machine is my practice sandwich and I decided the dogs should have it, so on the binding goes.

The quilting is not nearly as pretty as I would like, it's uneven and choppy, but practice should help.  I recently learned that speed is your friend on this frame, so I upped my speed after this and things are looking better.

After my practice sandwich was done I put a Christmas Log Cabin I had been wanting to finish on the frame.

Every available moment this week, I have spent quilting,  and I love it!!!!  

Unfortunately, because I have been so involved with my new toy,  I have done very little on the Bonnie Hunter Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt, http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2014/12/grand-illusion-part-4.html,  however;  I did manage to finish 40 of the blocks for the week 3 clue.

I think, so far, this is my favorite clue.  Today was the release day for clue number 4 though, so I have some serious catch up to do!

Quilting Room Clean Up Time!

This morning I woke up excited about the next clue to the Grand Illusion Mystery, I promised myself I would get started, however; this is what I saw!

 I'm pretty sure a bomb went off in my room!  Every available surface is covered in something!

Well for months I have been fighting my lack of space and two huge tables that take up the whole room.... so I decided to rearrange a bit, clean, and put AWAY fabric.

 I can see I have some rearranging of the shelves to do.....looking mighty untidy.

Well still not perfect, but I'm pretty sure I can comfortably quilt now.  

Grand Illusion, Part 2!

Once again, first thing on Friday, after the kids were off to school, I grabbed my cup of coffee and went on Facebook to see if Bonnie Hunter had posted the new clue for week 2!

I followed her link http://quiltville.blogspot.com/p/grand-illusion-mystery.html, printed the clue and got started!

This week Bonnie gave us three options for making Double Diamond Units.  The first and second involved templates.  I have had experience in the past with templates and they are not my first option just because I don't enjoy them, though they can be very precise.  When using small scraps sometimes they are the best option.

I decided to do her third option with a bit of modification.  I used the Easy Angle Ruler to cut my fabric instead of cutting squares, simply because I am low on black fabric.

Here is a picture of the Easy Angle Ruler, (which comes in different sizes):

and here is a shot of how I cut my strips to save on fabric.

Here are some completed units.  I have 43 done at this time, hopefully I will have time this week to finish.

And this is just fun!

If you would like to see others progress just follow this link: http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2014/12/mystery-monday-link-up-part-2.html

Enjoy!

Small Blog Meeting

I am new to blogging and the whole blog world, although I love to read different blogs and I think the Internet has a wealth of people with awesome information in it. Recently I was pointed toward Lily's Quilts by my friend Shelly at Shellsaquiltin.   Lily's Quilts has a monthly blogmeet where we can share what we are doing and meet others and their blogs.

 If you have a small blog and want to meet up just grab her badge, submit your info, write a quick post, and hop on to some other small blogs.... I'm hoping to learn more about this blogging community and visit some small blogs that are just as wonderful as the large blogs, they just don't have as many followers yet.

The Grand Illusion Mystery part 1

The Grand Illusion Mystery started last Friday and as all us quilters who love Bonnie Hunter gleefully rubbed out hands together, we received our first clue amidst giggles and much hurrah. If anyone is interested you can still participate in her mystery if you choose, the link is:  http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2014/12/mystery-monday-link-up-part-1.html 

Last year I did Bonnie Hunters Celtic Solstice mystery quilt and learned so much!  I just loved it!  So this year I jumped right in!

Last year I opted to buy fabric for the mystery quilt simply because I did not have those colors available in stash.  This year, same situation, I do not have pinks or turquoise...so instead of buying fabric I went in my stash and came up with this combo:

For this clue we needed to make 280 half square triangles from our turquoise and pinks (in my case, red and blues).  We would have 80 left over after making 100 Broken Dishes Units.  Bonnie Hunter has fantastic instructions for using the Easy Angle Ruler, however; mine just never came out "perfect" enough for me.

I finally utilized this paper piecing template that can be found for free online at:  

http://quiltingandwhatnot.ca/Half-Square-Triangle.html

This saved me heartache!  The units came out almost perfect.

Now this is a Mystery quilt, so I have no idea how these units will play together in the end but it sure was fun playing with them.!

Just finished Child/baby Christmas Quilts

I just finished the binding on two of my Christmas quilts.  Neither is in baby or child fabric but both measure as squares roughly 43 x43 inches (one is a bit bigger:  43 3/4 x 43 inches).  The first one is the Christmas quilt with feathers I showed on my prior post:

The second I chose to free-motion loops throughout.

My 8 year old daughter, Izzy, has decided the Bear made a very good model, though next time she would like to pick the stuffed animal to use.

Feather Quilting on a Modern Christmas Quilt

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Well, I have to say quilting late at night used to be easier for me.

 I really wanted to get the binding done on a modern Christmas quilt I recently pieced and quilted...but alas after trying to sew a straight seam and realizing I would have to pull the seam ripper out I gave up on that endeavor and took a few pictures instead:

The pattern is a Disappearing Nine Patch.  It’s the first time I have done this pattern but it was fun!  I chose to stick with the two fabrics in the body of the quilt simply because the Christmas print is so busy.

It took me a couple of weeks though to decide how I wanted to quilt this....and it was only through a wonderful Craftsy class,  Free-Motion Quilting with Feathers with Angela Walters, that I received inspiration.  I have always wanted to free-motion quilt feathers and was just never able to get the motion down.  Within 45 minutes in this class I was ready to take what I had learned, combine it with some other designs I was already comfortable with, and attempt it on this quilt.

  They are certainly not perfect feathers but I am tickled pink.  I am already thinking of the next time I am going to use feathers in a quilt and how I can incorporate other designs to show them off.

Start of an Etsy Shop

Well I did it!  I have been thinking about starting an Etsy shop for some time, however; I was always a bit intimidated.  I only have three items to sell, though I have three more in the works.  It was definitely an all day process and I know I have a ton to learn but it was so much fun too!  I really enjoyed taking the quilts pictures which is a little shocking to me!  My new Etsy shop is:  Sarasquiltingcorner and here are some pictures of my items.

I'm not sure why it rotated a couple of my pictures?? Hm.  I guess I am going to have to research this problem, not now though.  Right now is time for my afternoon cup of coffee.