Becky's quilt obsession

I thought I was ready to pack up the Quilts of Valor that I finished last week, but then realized I didn't have pillowcases for them. I used some donated fabric, and made 4 pillowcases. They are all the same, and I don't know if I like it that way or not, but I'm not making more tonight! We spent Thursday and Friday taking the long arm machine and portions of the table up to Nolting in Iowa. They "fine tuned" the machine, and we traded parts to make our table a true 24" table. DH doesn't have time to reassemble it for a few days, so I am trying to be patient waiting, and waiting, and waiting. He thinks he will be able to do it Tuesday. I really need to finish some things for Christmas, so I hope everything goes together well. We kept all the 14' pieces here and traded out the rest, but DH will have to do some milling on some of the parts to make everything fit. He is able to do all that, but it does take time. We visited the Pine Needle quilt...

We've loaded the Nolting (long arm) machine and parts to the table for our trip to Hiawatha, IA tomorrow. The Nolting needs a new chip in the stitch regulator, and Nolting is graciously making up table parts to turn the 30" table back into a 24" table to match our machine, a 24" Pro. It will be so wonderful to work from the back side and actually be able to reach across the quilt! We bought the machine from a dealer who was no longer representing Nolting several years ago, and we were not told that the table and the head didn't match. When we ordered the Circle Lord and it didn't fit is when we found out that is was a different size. We are Newbies at this. I'm washing up the four quilts of valor so we can mail them on the way out of town tomorrow. I will be glad to send them on their way and have that task marked off my list. I'm sure after we reassemble the Nolting I will want to be down there until about Christmas time. VBG. Happy quilting...

I've finished up some of the RWB Chinese Coins quilts from HeartStrings donations. I think I've posted pictures of the tops before, but these are finally ALL finished!! The top left one is a Disappearing 9-patch that I pieced at Retreat in February. I quilted it with meandering stars and loops. The lower left one is the first Funky Caterpillars from the RWB coins. I quilted it with the swirls giant template from Circle Lord. The top right one is a string-X. I really enjoyed making it from sets of 4 CC strips. I call it the "Soldier quilt" I quilted freehand stars and loops on it as well. The lower right one is also a String-X, but with sashing. This is the first time I tried quilting spirals with the Circle Lord frame so I could center the swirls in each block. While I like its appearance well enough, I didn't like all the starts and stops - then going back and burying all the ends. I think I need to do a few more with this template and see if I can figure ...

Today I finished up the 4th of the Quilts of Valor that I'm doing for Heartstrings. They need labels, pictures, pillowcases, and washing, then they will be sent to Alycia for her goal of 400 quilts by June. I thought it was appropriate to work on them today in honor of our Veterans. It seems a small thing to say thank you as compared to the sacrifices they make and made for our country. It's too grey of day here for pictures, so hope to post some tomorrow. Tonight I will be sewing on labels. I did finish up the Coke cushions for the soda fountain. I used up the rest of the strips I had piping on by making two pillows - a round one and a square one. I only need to carry them downstairs and attach them. I only have a few scraps of the fabric left, so I can finally say that the sewist is finished, and quilting can resume. My Bernina was a casualty in the making of these cushions - the needle struck the zipper foot, and now the machine goes clunk, clunk. DH says it needs to go t...

Ghosts and goblins have shown up for Halloween! Two bolts of cotton batting were delivered yesterday, and they are sitting in the entry, waiting for me to haul them down the street to the quilting machine. I decided they would make good ghosts, so cut out some scrap eyes, pinned them to sheets, and the "ghosts" held the candy. We don't have many Trick or Treaters, but I still enjoy the few that come. It was the first T or T for the DGD#2, who is two, and she seemed to enjoy it. She spent yesterday and part of today being sick at Gma's, so she only went to a few houses with her cousins. I doubt she will be allowed to try any of her candy. I hung the two Halloween quilts on the photo backdrop holder, lowered so little people could see it. I really don't like how you can see into half the house from the front door, so the quilts fixed that problem. I actually finished the Medallion Winding Ways quilt. I quilted it with a lime green spiderweb. My DH wa...

This is our guest room / soda fountain / photo studio / crews' quarters, and a place for my husband to house some of his antiques. About 6 months before he moved from California (3 years ago), he found out he liked woodworking. He built this room, minus the sheetrock and silestone. I did a lot of "holding", a lot of cleaning of the antique stove, the tile work, and part of the finishing of woodwork. The only thing of mine in the room is the rocking chair (the little red one is his). You can see into the bathroom / darkroom. To the right just out of the picture is one of the entrances into the railroad room, and then there is a Murphy bed he built. We move the table and chairs, and guests have a place to sleep. If you're into railroads, here is a link to DH's Website. http://www.sandcrr.com/ What does this have to do with hating sewing? I'm a quilter, not a "sewist"! You may have noticed the Coke theme. We didn't have to buy all that stuff, DH a...

Last Tuesday I drove to Des Moines to attend the AQS -American Quilters Society - show there. I just came home last night. One of the instructors was Joen Wolfrom, and I have always wanted to take a color class from her. My wish was granted. I actually took 2 classes with her, one was on landscapes, and the second was a log cabin class, but much of the class was spent on color theory. I've tried multiple times to put luminosity and luster (light and reflected light) in my quilts, without much success. I think I understand it a bit better now. AQS was very clear that personal pictures of the quilts in the exhibits should NOT be posted on the web. I think it is okay to post these pictures of our class in progress on landscapes. This was the first project. We were learning how to put distance, as well as luminosity, in a landscape. Mine is the middle one in the top row, with the crooked peninsula. I can't seem to glue straight. It was so interesting to see them up on the wall, and...