Becky's quilt obsession

JoAnne’s beautiful feathered star from a Judy Niemeyer pattern. It glows!! I’m still working on secret scrap squad projects, so no post from me. I will be finished with scrap squad in January, so I promise more blogging next year. Happy Quilting, Becky

Gorgeous quilt alert!! Please go on over to Quilty Pleasures blog to read about Gina’s fall quilt of stars. It is so beautiful. Take time to admire the quilting as shown on the back. Oh, I wish I could do as well. Maybe when I grow up (says the old lady of the scrap squad). Oh, my, until I just looked at the thumbnail I didn’t realize how careful she was with color placement. Look at the great secondary diamonds. Way to go, Gina. Happy Quilting, Becky

I’ve been so busy, today I’m just veg'ing. After our Quilt show I went to the AQS show in Des Moines. I came home on Friday and the following Tuesday I was the substitute speaker at my local quilt guild.  In order to show quilts that I’ve made, I spent the weekend traveling to my son’s, my stepson’s, my nephew’s and my friends’ homes to pick up quilts I’d made and given them so I could show them at guild. I also did a lot of washing of quilts that weekend. I have allergy problems with pet dander so needed to get rid of it. Also, the first big quilt I made had been vomited on, and my DDIL couldn’t get the smell out. I soaked it overnight in the “Recipe for Stink Removal”, then had to wash it in Synthrapol as the burgundy fabric I used nearly 20 years ago still bleeds. I took 8 laundry baskets of quilts (thank you DH for carrying so much stuff) because I make large quilts for beds. After Guild was finished and DH was off to Nevada, I started a labor of love. A dear niece had such

I was in charge of the small quilts. They all sold, and made over $1000 for the Shriners’ Hospital Fund, our chosen charity for this year. These next pictures are ones I took of just a few of the quilts. We had over 100 quilts in the show. There are some winners in here, I suspect, but they won’t be announced until tomorrow’s guild meeting. The opportunity quilt winner will be drawn as well. There were many more beautiful quilts there. The stage was full on ones made from Kansas City Star patterns. The Hawaiian one is all hand done, quilting and everything. We have some outstanding quilters in our guild. Happy Quilting, Becky

My Glacier Star is finished, ready for this weekend’s quilt show. It’s hanging in the living room now until taking it down on Thursday to turn in as I don’t want any wrinkles. Never again will I try a black Susie’s Magic Binding on black background fabric. I really have a hard time seeing black now, even in the daytime. I used DH’s visor magnifier to sew the corners closed. Enough talking –here are some pictures – a little dark so you can see Angela Walters’s wonderful quilting. Happy Quilting, Becky

I’m working on the Scrap Squad project, making a comfort quilt for a niece, binding my Glacier Star for the quilt show, setting up the small quilt data base, pricing, and hanging the small quilts for next week, came down with a crappy virus . . . so sometimes you just need to play a  little bit. I bought this set of 2-1/2” squares, the polka dots and the Halloween words in Nebraska. I sewed the squares together one night, cut out the twister pieces the next night, then quilted it the next. You wind up with a LOT or seam allowances that don’t want to stay flat, so I quilted it in the ditch with some opaline Madeira Thread I bought years ago on my first Paducah AQS trip. I changed to the black with sparkles color of the same thread to outline the words, connecting them with straight lines trying to resemble spider webs. This pattern works best with lots of contrast between blocks. Using the pre-cuts, I didn’t have much contrast as there are way too many mediums. I was trying to kee

JoAnne finished the top of her king-size Glacier star. She took the snowflake pattern and made additional blocks to surround the queen Glacier Star. She replaced the usual center with one of the dark snowflake blocks. This is for her oldest son and his family – if she can bear to part with it after quilting. Becky

It’s so great being a member of this year’s Scrap Squad for Quiltmaker magazine. Last Friday, my baby quilt rendition of Western Waltz was posted on the Quilty pleasures blog. Today, they are kicking off a campaign for the new magazine of quilts made from the 100 Blocks series. I’m enjoying watching the videos of the editors giving instructions and ideas about some of the blocks included in the new issue. Head on over there and leave a comment to be included in the drawing for 25 free issues of the magazine. Happy Quilting, Becky

Glacier Star is drying in the dining room – there’s no room to walk when the Styrofoam boards are up. It started as 93 x 93 prior to quilting, now it is about 87”. It has both a wool and cotton batting, and I put it in the washer for a hand wash cycle to rinse out the glue stick and to wet it thoroughly. DH and I pulled and measured and pulled some more, and I finally had to say “enough”. I will measure today after it is dry, and begin the process of trimming, stabilizing the edge and then binding the monstrosity. I would like to take it to guild next week; it will hang in the guild quilt show later in September. It was quilted by Angela Walters . She put in an enormous amount of extremely gorgeous quilting. Here are some teaser photos for you. after it is bound I’ll take some “glamour shots”. On my design wall is the beginning of my next Scrap Squad project. I’m finally cutting into the pieces of Rowan fabrics I’ve been gathering for a couple of years. I’ve been rearranging them

My latest scrap squad project will be posted Friday. I pulled some really old fabrics from when the local quilt store was first open (now deceased). When I was finished with the top, I sewed all the leftovers into the backing. I first sewed all the scraps together, but there were not enough of them to make much. I cut apart the remaining panel, and used strips of scraps and such to bring them up to about 16”. I then joined them with fabrics I had pulled but not used on the front, and made it big enough for a backing. I love what happened with the triangles! I was a bit worried about  how it would quilt, but it just wasn’t a problem. Here’s the back – you can see the front on Friday on the Quilty Pleasures blog . Right now the link will take to you the wonderful Christmas quilt made from the same pattern. The top bulk is the hanging sleeve, just pinned on. Happy Quilting, Becky

Our final train trip this time was in Leadville, CO, one of the highest places to live. I didn’t have as much trouble breathing here, I think I was becoming acclimated. Our train ride included an area that had a forest fire last year, and erosion. I was amazed at the tenacity of the trees even when their roots we so exposed. I loved the wild flowers as well. The old freight station was appropriately labeled with a quilt block! Leadville has a really old Opera House that we visited, but it still needs a lot of reclamation work. There is an antique mall in a very old Hardware Store that is intriguing. It still has all the old drawers, shelves and ladders that were part of every hardware store ages ago. The only quilt store in Leadville is a vintage store. There’s no place to buy the latest fabrics there. This store – I forgot to take a picture – had old quilt tops, fabrics, embroidery, thimbles, sewing items – the list goes on and on. DH found something there and I bought a silver thi