Lucey is getting ready!

I can hardly stand it! Lucey my new longarm from APQS is almost here! I have her space all ready to go. I am trying to catch up all the other parts of the house so when she gets here I don't feel pulled in every direction. I made Logi, our dog a small quilt yesterday. Felt good to just mess with something. I've pulled together three quilts to work on at my quilt retreat in three weeks. Well it is Easter this week and I have a few things to get finished up so I better to it!

Let's try this again!

I'm not sure I can keep up but I will give this another try. Since the last time I wrote we have moved back down to VA. As of this morning I have ordered an APQS Lucey longarm machine. It looks like in about two weeks she should arrive. I am so excited. My goal is to get good enough to quilt for the people at Quilts of Valor. Let's see how this goes!

New donation quilt!

Well, newly completed in any case! I made the top many years ago for myself. At the time I didn't know how to quilt it and put it aside for later. To send out a quilt for someone else to quilt when it was just for me seem a bit extravagant. Fast forward to now and I have learned how to quilt my own quilts. I was speaking to my sister about a fundraising need and remembered my old quilt top. Yes I still love it but it seemed like maybe this is what I was saving it for. The fabrics are from Moda by Three Sisters and soooooo pretty. My skill in piecing this top could have bed a bit better but I hope it is successful as a fun raising quilt anyway! Here is a picture!

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.