Becky's quilt obsession

Close-ups of the embroidered star blocks: The embroidery and hand coloring was done by my friend JoAnne several years ago. They were cut 7.5”, so DGD sewed coping strips of black on each one to bring them to 8.5” cut. I then added star points from various Halloween fabric / scraps. DGD picked these out. The top center green with skeletons glows in the dark. The 4 other blocks were cut from a panel I bought up in Nebraska when visiting with Diane Harris. I added coping strips to bring them up to the odd size needed to fill in the sides. The spider webs with spiders that look like M&Ms filled in the top and bottom rows. I hate losing star points, so I added a small outer border cut on the straight of grain. This helps so much when long-arm quilting to keep things square. This was the first time I successfully tried continuous curved quilting for the star points. I bought some HandiQuilter melon templates and they had an arc that I managed to make work with some consistency on...

DGD’s Halloween quilt is finished. Her mom held it up for a picture tonight. She will take it home tomorrow after coming here to Trick or Treat. I will hang it in my entry as a backdrop for handing out candy to the few visitors we have. She showed it off to her class (2nd grade) yesterday at the end of their party. They all loved the feel of Minkee on the back. JoAnne Glass did the machine embroideries that fill the center of the star blocks. They were colored after stitching. Quilted with several different Superior threads, Thermore batting and Minkee backing. Ruler work and freehand quilting. Happy Quilting, Becky

After a year of mainly working on items for my Quilt Guild’s boutique and traveling I’m finally beginning to play a bit on quilting again. I just returned from AQS in Chattanooga so have regained some enthusiasm that I had lost with all the family illnesses and deaths. DGD#2 was sick last Wednesday and I picked her up from school and took her to the Nurse Practitioner. She had to have a breathing treatment and she hates them. She did well, so as a treat we stopped at the nearby quilt shop. As we went in I confirmed her request for 2 fat quarters. Just inside the shop they had this marvelous Halloween quilt made from the skeleton panel. I thought we should have a panel and some striped fabric. Jessica wanted some purple “bones” fabric. When I took them up to check out, Jessica explained that she needed another fat quarter as the two pieces I had weren’t hers. They get you every time! We came home and immediately “had” to pull the Halloween basket and start auditioning fabrics. We ...

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...

Most of the past week was spent taking my fledgling quilter to the Happiest Place on Earth. Disneyland was all decked out for Halloween. We spent time there, at California Adventure, and a short time at the beach while visiting with one of DH’s college friends. They've kept their friendship intact all these years.   I did put the borders on the Halloween Medallion wall hanging, so it can go on Black Bart this week. I hope to try out my new Cobblestone board from Circle Lord. I’ll try to bind the pink quilt this week, as well. We have DGD#2 most of the week so her mother can attend a seminar away from home. She likes being outside, so I hope to plant my tulip bulbs this week as well as pull weeds and trim back overgrown roses. The Knock-out Roses loved the heat, and we watered, so they grew very well! Happy Quilting, Becky

Winding Ways quilts – I just love them. Nancy MacDonald has such an easy way to do these, including the Medallion Set for this Halloween quilt. I cut out two when I made the first one, and now am just getting around to making the second one for the second DGK house. I was getting into a drawer for something, and the bag was just there. Good timing for a Halloween quilt. The skeletons on the green and the faces on the pumpkins glow in the dark if you “charge” them with some bright light for a few minutes. They glow under black light as well. I quilted a green spiderweb over the finished one – I hope I can do that again. I went to the AQS show in Des Moines last week. There are such wonderful quilters out there. The friend I went with commented that we may have started long-arm quilting too late in life to do such beautiful work. She may be right. Happy Quilting, Becky

I've been quilting on on the long-arm the last few days, but took time today - and the last few evenings - to work on this UFO. I cut two of these out last summer (2007) when I was cutting out some other Winding Ways blocks. I put them in a drawer, and only remembered them in late October. I saw them in the drawer a few days ago, and decided I should probably work on them if I wanted them for this Halloween. It's now a flimsy, and I think I will have time tomorrow to quilt it. I had planned on using circles to quilt this, but this quilt doesn't have the overlapping visual circles that you often see with Winding Ways. This is the Medallion quilt setting from Nancy Elliott MacDonald's book Winding Ways Quilts (I love the matching templates), so I need to figure another way to quilt it. I'm open to any suggestions!!! I've been working on quilting Chinese Coins Quilts of Valor, and have 3 ready for binding. I'm attending the AQS show in Des Moines, Iowa next w...