Becky's quilt obsession

This is the finished product of the red, white, and blue Chinese Coins project. This is the last one I pieced, and the last quilted. I used Circle Lord Baptist Fan templates to quilt it, and put Hobbs 80/20 Batting in it. The pillowcase has a matching cuff on it made from the last few of this group of coins. The backing shown below is some decorator 100% cotton that should look nice if someone doesn't like the front. This is the last funky caterpillar, along with its pillowcase made from the same fabric as the backing. Both quilts will go to Alycia for her Quilt of Valor project whenever I can remember where her address is located. I was so glad to finally have some finishes. I am so easily distracted that I start half a dozen projects, and then berate myself for not finishing them. I've started on two sets of blocks from a fellow HeartStringer that I want to set and finish for the Quilt Relief of Nashville. Their devastating flood did not receive much media coverage because ...

Bonnie asked me to post some pictures of my Leadergrips. Here they are. The above picture is of the leadergrip dowel inserted into the casing I've sewn on the new leaders. You may note that I have straight stitching until about the last 5 inches, and then it is wobbly. That's because the Nolting machine doesn't reach to the end of the leaders, so you have to loosen them and "fudge" to finish the casing. This works fine. This second picture shows the leadergrips in place (I took these pictures when removing a quilt). It doesn't always work out exact like it did in the picture. For a 12' table, I have 3 lengths of the plastic things, 2"starters, 6 mid-size and 6 long ones. I left extra space at the top when loading this backing so I could just turn the backing of outing flannel over for the binding of this polyester double-knit "quilt". This project is for me to practice line dancing on something that doesn't matter. I bought the quilt of...

Today I finished up quilting the last of my tops made from HeartStrings Red, White and Blue Chinese Coins. With all the straight lines and squares in the top, I decided to borrow Baptist Fan templates for the Circle Lord, and use those. I like how it softens the quilt. I used a decorator 100% cotton sateen on the back. I even took time to match up the pattern when I seamed the backing. This way it is more reversible. This one will be traveling to Alycia's QOV project whenever I finish the binding on it and on the Funky Caterpillar one. This was supposed to be the end of Chinese Coins for me; I had given the rest of them to another piecer at the HeartStrings Nebraska Sew-in who was making them into QsOV from that area. However, when I was cleaning the quilt room, I found a box that had some more that Susan had brought over with a lot of other fabric and blocks. I'm not sure if I will sew these up, but there are people in my guild that will be happy to work on them to donate lo...

Balancing Rock, Garden of the Gods, near (or in) Colorado Springs (above and below). Soda fountain in Fair Play - buildings c1890s. Red Rock canyon, looking up to amphitheater. What do these pictures have in common? They are all in Colorado. We had a good time seeing different areas of the state. I had only been on I-70 or US40 or 50 on previous trips. It was a drive-thru state on the way to California. This time we were off the interstates. We followed several old train routes through the state, finding road beds, roundhouses, mines, and quilt shops! We rode the loop narrow gauge railroad, but were unable to ride the one through the Gorge because of forest fires. I found out that breathing and moving (at the same time) at 9,000 feet and above is difficult. I loved the moment we drove over the crest of mountains and saw South Park. I had no idea there was that much area in Colorado that wasn't mountains. We were in a cauldera when we visited Cripple Creek and Victor, old gold min...