QWILT QWISIS !

Crisis......that is !

I finished the Heaven's Gate quilt and excitedly took a few photos before throwing it into the washer for a quick rinse, and into the dryer for 'crinkling'.

Surprise, surprise.........apparently, I didn't prewash the batiks.......or if I did, it didn't set the color ! First, I noticed that the backside had bleeding around the places where the red and red/violet 'diamonds' were quilted. Then, upon examining the front of the quilt, I found a huge red splotch where a diamond must have lay against that square for a few minutes, just leeching its color out !

I was just noticing that you get the prettier crinkled effect when you actually quilt the thing TO DEATH, such as in stippling or fan quilting. But when I noticed the stains, I forgot all about that !

I've thrown it back into the washer with soap this time, but it looks like the stains are going to be permanent. I guess they got set when I dried it the first time. Oh, well.......back into the dryer she goes, and I'll greet her with the unconditional love she deserves, no matter how she looks when she emerges !

My Blogger's Quilt Festival Entry......well, mine and a few friends !

Come, have a look at my Fall Blogger's Quilt Festival Entry. I'm off to

find yours ! Click on the link at the top left of my blog for an entire list of entries.

My best thought was to share with all of you online friends a quilt that was helped along by my "in-person" quilting gals !

Many years ago, in a medium sized town, called Shawnee, Oklahoma, there existed a very young quilt guild . Into this guild came ladies of all shapes and sizes, ages and hair color, eager to get to know each other, but frustrated at trying to remember so many names and faces. One thoughtful member hit upon the idea of meeting in each other's home once a month to get to know each other while delivering a block of choice to that month's blessed recipient. At the previous month's regular guild meeting, the chosen quilter would hand out copies of the pattern for her choice of block, along with instruction on what her chosen color scheme would be. Then, on "party night", we'd meet in their home with the finished blocks and refreshments, or, oft-times a few members would bring the fabrics and sewing machine to make the blocks right there on the spot with support from the whole gang !

Well, let me tell you that this was THE MOST FUN way to learn new faces and names, and I was blessed to be honored TWICE, as we kept this tradition going for years.

On my second go 'round, I chose this block, called "Calico Country", from a book by Judy Martin, because I love the look of the spools made from scraps, and our guild's name was "The Spinning Spools". I just requested scraps as my colors, and had the ladies sign the blocks in the lower left-hand corner.

I chose this setting for the blocks, as it allowed me to trim the individual blocks and build them up to a consistent size. I quilted it many years later, and, now that I have moved away, it is a gentle reminder of some wonderful friendships that sustained me through a lonely time away from family. Quilters do that you know.........they fill in the gaps with the batting of understanding, and keep you warm with layers of friendship.

Edit : I just read of a wonderful quilter, donating hours of her time and energy to Project Linus. She has plans to start a machine-quilting business and would appreciate our checking out her site soon. As an added incentive, she's offering an online giveaway......be sure to check out her blog at http://quiltsoflove.blogspot.com/2009/10/bloggers-quilt-festival.html

Edit II: Added bonus for late lookers

Click on the photo of the geese quilt for the story on my flickr page.

A forgotten BLANKIE

I don't call this one a quilt, because I tied it with yarn, rather than quilt it. I wanted to finish it while the kids were here, and I just couldn't find time to hand-quilt it. (I really don't like how my machine-quilting comes out, so I didn't even try that.) But here's a photo of it as a top, and later in the basting frame, where I stretched it out to tie. You may recall when I pieced this one back in Shawnee, before moving back to Tennessee.

You can see Zoe trying to help me trim up the strings before finishing, and you can also see the comforter underneath where a neighborhood dog took a nap and the kids played while I tied the blankie.

I also finished Elyssa's quilt today. Here's the best shot of it I could get for now, fresh out of the dryer. I guess it doesn't look alot different from the other photos, but if you look closely, you will see that I bound it with the pink print from the back of the quilt. Some people would argue that I could have just wrapped it around to the front of the quilt, rather than cut a separate binding, but #1. I didn't want the hand-stitching on the front side, and #2. You need to quilt along that sort of binding or it doesn't look right. I know because that's how I bound the edges of the puzzle quilt in the photos above (although I didn't take the time to quilt around the edges.....it's tied, remember !) I'll try to get a nice shot of this quilt with the baby when I give her mama the quilt.

A month late............

........hey, that's not so bad, this summer ! The challenge was to make a baby quilt from the package of fabric Wanda sent me. I received it on May 20th, and was supposed to be finished in 30 days. Well that was up on June 20th and the kids arrived on June 21st. I had dedicated a little time to preparing for them, so I'm late. But I'M DONE !

I managed to squeeze in a few minutes at the sewing machine, to sew on the bindings, so I could sit and stitch while the kids played.

In fact today was pretty productive over all..........I got clothes bought at the second-hand store, for the kids, and got them washed and on the line. Then the jeep got its bath, leading to the kids playing in the wading pool. Supper's over, the binding's done, and pictures are made with the new memory card in the camera. Not a bad day at all. The place is a wreck, but I decided today that that's not that important. God willing, it'll be clean for a long time after the kids are gone back home !

Donation quilt finished !

I know I have a dozen baby quilts to make, but I wanted to fiinish something for the Church. The last few days have been very productive.

When I first came back here, I found myself with hours and hours on my hands with nothing to keep those hands busy, so I called around and found a lady at the Church that was purchasing some inexpensive hand-pieced tops to have quilted for keeping on hand to give away. (Wow, was that the longest run-on sentence, or what ?)

Anyway, she let me pick one to quilt, and I chose this one. Unfortunately, none of them were really candidates for lengthy, time-consuming hand-quilting........I mean, that wasn't the point of this project anyway. So, I machine-quilted this one on my Singer stand-up, cabinet model sewing machine......

you know the one !

And, I hand-quilted around the center square of each nine-patch block. I even sewed the binding on entirely by machine, and am happy to be able to deliver it to her this coming Sunday, Lord willing.

Cherry Baby quilt is finished.

Here's the first baby quilt finished, and I have lots of inspiration from flickr to make more.

I'm not even bemoaning the local fabric store anymore, as today I discovered a 'backroom' there with discount pricing and flannels. I even found a 90-inch wide cheater's cloth ($2.00 per yard,.........can you believe it?

God put that there today just for me to stumble across.......Thank you, sweet Heavenly Father !) just perfect for the back of this quilt top that I'm going to quilt for

our Church (to have on hand for when a need arises) .

I may machine-quilt it, I don't know..........the quality of the hand-piecing is very poor, so I don't really want to spend alot of time hand-quilting something that'll probably see a lot of daily use. I even bought one of the rolled up polyester batts.......the price of $4.60 was too good to resist after checking online for my precious Cotton Classic.

And, lastly, here's a shot of my empty basting frame.......yeh, I forgot to take the shot

until after I had already removed the basted quilt

from it. But atleast you can see that I'm back to doing my thing, basting in the yard ! Man, did I wish for a quilting buddy to help speed me along with the job, as the neighbor, to whom this section of the yard officially belongs, kept circling me with his riding mower.

Please note that the ads that I'm allowing on my blog actually reflect my blog posts most of the time. (current ad for One LIfe to LIve, not included !) I appreciate the fact that your clicking on them means that I have a little bit of income added to my account. Not that I would ever ask anyone to click on them, but it's all I can do not to click on them myself ! The subjects are grabbing my attention !