Grandma's garden quilt. Or I am learning how to hand piece hexagons!

Well everyone says hand piecing is soooo relaxing. Not so much. Today I looked up on you tube how to hand piece and found out my stitches need to be much smaller. Another skill like knitting that I should have started when I was younger! Grrrrr! I bought the die from AccuQuilt to cut out the hexies and wow it really helped production. Wish the stitching went as well. My stitches are terrible so far. I think that by the time I get finished with this quilt top I will have learned how to make pretty stitches. Here are a couple pictures. One of a pile of hexies ready to sew and one of a partially complete flower. I hope you see the pictures on a phone and not on a large computer screen. No need to amplify my beginning efforts!!!!

Denise's 50th birthday quilt!

I finished Dee's quilt and I love it. It is another of Marge Gordon's patterns from my retreat last October. The darn thing came out a little small but should work for a lap or back of the couch. The quilt presented a quilting challenge for me. One of the intersections of the blocks the was repeated many times had eight fabrics coming together. I was concerned with my needle breaking or slipping off the bump etc... I came up with another option and I think it works well. Instead of corner to corner stitching I moved over one strip on each side. When I did this in each direction the result was a design that mimicked the other blocks I this top that already form a small square in each of their centers. Not sure how it will show up but here is the picture. P.S. Dee will love these colors!!!

Tiffany's quilt

I didn't post the picture for Tiffany's quilt as she hadn't received it yet. Now she has so I can post the picture. This is the third quilt I did in this pattern. Marge Gordon designed the pattern and it is called Janet's Quilt. The pattern is very fun and goes together quickly. Must be why I have made three! I need to work on my Christmas Block of the Month blocks and I need to finish Dee's 50th birthday quilt! Hmmmmm! Lots of choices of projects! I will post all three of the quilts I did in Janet's quilt pattern. Only Tiffany's has been quilted and finished!

Viking Diamond Deluxe Sewing Machine!

I am back in business. Well sewing again anyway! After going thru a string of Ruby sewing machines that had a problem with tension I upgraded to a Diamond and now I am in love! It is hard to explain how trying to adjust to a new machine, especially one with problems, has been challenging to my quilting! I pieced a new quilt with it last weekend and quilted it yesterday. It did all I asked and I am sure I will love learning all the cool things I can do with it!

Last week I finished a quilt on my Ruby machine and even though the stitch quality is terrible I love how the quilt turned out! I think my DIL will like it. I have several tops ready to quilt and can't wait to get to them. This machine has a longer distance between the needle and the machine, all the better for quilting bulky quilts!

I did a couple quick projects to practice on my machine I made two Bronco mug rugs just to see the stitch quality-score! I made a machine cover that I hope to embroider one of these days. Well I will include a couple pictures of these projects.