Rainy Days and Quilting Never Bring Me Down

It was a gray and rainy day here today, a good day to stay in and quilt.

I finished the quilting on my  

Chloe Pattern Test Quilt for DayBrook Designs

Those last stitches are always sew sweet!

Katniss was my Quilty Kitty Helper of the Day.

The little kitties were both napping on the quilt on my bed most of the day.

Here is a closeup of the quilting.

I did an edge to edge, hand guided large swirl,

which is my favorite go-to design for free motion quilting.

I never get tired doing this one

as the motion is fluid and relaxing. 

This quilt is off the frame.

The binding is ready.

Tomorrow I will stitch on the binding.

The forecast is for afternoon sun before it turns cloudy and rainy again, 

so it will be the best day to take my quilt outside

for a natural light photo shoot.

Time for sleep tonight.

Sweet Quilty Dreams! 

Quilting Time Two

Quilting Time Two Today ...  

... yielded this mystery  piece. 

Quilting Time Three calls for these pretties.

Time to get a few more quilting stitches in before the midnight hour ...

... and Mystery Piece 3 is quilted.

Sleep is calling me.

Sweet Quilty Dreams! 

My Quilting Adventures ~ The Long and Short of It

I am quilting two projects at the moment.

The photo above is the long of it.

That is, I am doing hand guided quilting on my Amara 20

on this throw size quilt that has been in my queue for a long while.

I am working on feathers and petals , one block at time for this one.

It is a learning endeavor for me. 

This is the short of it.

I am doing straight line stitching on my Janome
(and maybe some free motion foot fun)

on this current WIP table quilt project.

It is not a race to see which I finish first.

It is the journey.

May your quilting journeys all be happy ones. 

A Good Day For a Quilting Adventure

Today I  loaded a quilt onto my long arm frame. 

This is a quilt I made several years ago and it has waited patiently in my closet 

while I saved up for my long arm machine.

Here is The blog hop post for my Beautiful Bird Quilt Top, March 2015

I made a pieced back for this one with left over triangles

and panel squares from the front.

Since I had originally thought I would be quilting this on my Janome,

I did not make the backing large enough for my longarm frame. 

I was wide enough, but I had to add strips to the top and bottom 

to pin it onto my frame.

Although top and back were rolled together in the closet.

both were very wrinkled and needed a good pressing.

Sometimes when I look at a quilt top in my pile in the closet,

I am not as much in love with the fabrics or pattern as I once was.

This is not the case with this quilt ... :-) 

I still love the soft colors and realistic looking birds of these fabrics

and the hour glass setting blocks.

I am seeing free motion feathers in the future of this quilt. 

As always, Maestro has been a very helpful quilty kitty.

It has been a rainy day and night here in my quilty corner.

A good day to stay in and quilt.

Sweet quilty dreams! 

Good Morning, Quilty World!

Good Morning, Coffee ~ Good Morning, Fabric!

Good Morning, Amara ~ Good Morning Quilt!

I finished the quilting on this quilt late last night and took it off the frame

so it would greet me in the morning is all is bright fabric happiness.

Good Morning, Quity Kitty Katniss!

Good Morning, Quilty Kitty Nutmeg!

My quilty kitties are inspecting my work for me.

I think we did a good job with the edge to edge hand guided echo swirl design on this quilt.

Good Morning, Janome ~ Good Morning, Quilty Kitty Maestro! 

Quilty Kitty Maestro is in my sewing chair waiting for me to start our next quilty project.

This fabric is 

Fab-Boo-Lous by Dani Mogstad for Riley Blake Designs

Now what do you think we are making with these pretties?

Good Morning, Quilty World! 

Have a Happy Quilty Day! 

Quilting, Quilting, Quilting ...

I am quilting.

My hubby picked a bright variegated thread for

 For His Bright Variegated Batik Quilt

I picked an easy to do edge to edge, free motion pattern that complimented the fabric. 

Late at night,  I picked a blue swirl 108" wide fabric for the backing and cut and loaded it ...

Oh, No! 

This is wrong.  it should be under the other bar in the back.

Rather than take out all those pins,

I took out the back bar, loosened the backing and set the bar back where it belonged 

on the top of the backing fabric.

That was and easy fix ... :-) 

In the morning I loaded the quilt top,

under Katniss's supervision. 

This large quilt stretches from side to side across the width of my 8 foot frame.

Quilts on my machine will not get bigger than this.

I am liking this motif and the quilting is going well.

I posted this on Facebook with the header,
"Quilting, Quilting, Quilting"
and got the laugh of the day with a comment from my friend
Colette @ What About Rheema?
that this made her think of the "Rawhide" theme song.
"Rolling, Rolling, Rolling"
and now every time I quilt I am going to hear this playing over and over in my head ...



"Rolling, Rolling, Rolling ... Rawhide!"

Lol!  :-) 

Have a happy Sunday! 

Off My Longarm ~ My Quilting Adventures

It is always nice to start the day with a quilt 

off the longarm and getting ready to bind.

Th is pretty lap quilt pattern is 

Poppy Lane Pattern by Down Grapevine Lane

For this quilt I did an edge to edge free style flower

that I am calling "Open Heart." 

I saw this idea on a FB quilting group done perfectly by an experienced longarm quilter.

My quilting is far from perfect but I am still learning my way as I go along on

 My Quilting Adventures.



Poppy Lane Quilt Started Here

Hope to have this quilt bound and done by tomorrow. 

Happy Quilting! 

Ready, Set, Quilt

Ready to quilt.

Nutmeg is supervising.

Katniss is sleeping.

Where is Maestro? 

Maestro says, " I am right here, Mommy.

checking  the batting roll.

Let's quilt!" 

Have a happy quilty day.  

Just Keep Sewing

Kinship Quilt Progress ~ Day 13

I am really happy with this quilt in the making.

It is one of the few quilty things I have been able to accomplish this week.

Life has been happening.

One of my adult children was in the hospital for several days.

It proved not to be a life threat.

Nonetheless, as a mother, it was very upsetting.

Enough said.

Thanks to all who have seen hugs and prayers.

So getting this one block a day done has been an accomplishment for me.

This is my first 12 blocks with the fabric I am thinking to use as sashing for ...

... the "Plaid" setting 

as shown here:

 Kinship Fusion FPP Pattern by Gnome Angel

In the end I may choose to design my own setting.

Lots of time to think about that. 

87 days to be exact.

Here is today's block.

I really love these 

Curio by Betsy Olmsted for Windham Fabrics

One day earlier this week I could not sew a straight 1/4" seam

on a 6.5" unit piece.

Some of this may be my vision issues.

My eyes are always worse in the summer and humidity

even though I use prescription drops several times a day

I see my eye surgeon next month

although eye surgery is not in my plans this summer.

I have to see him every few months.

So I am falling behind in my other projects and commitments,

including the quilt on my longarm,

I loaded my 

Pineapple Rain Quilt

onto my long arm frame.

I am trying something new ... the top is loaded sideways

into the frame.

It took me awhile to decide how I wanted to quilt it

and how to achieve this.

The top and backing was ready two weeks ago. 

I am averaging only one quilt per month on my long arm so far.

I tell myself that if this trend continues

that I will have 12 quilts by the the end of my first year 

that otherwise would not have likely been quilted.

Just Keep Sewing ~ One Stitch at a Time 

I look for the positive in all things.

May your weekend be positively lovely.

Sunny and a good day for a backyard barbecue here.

:-) 

Long-Armed and Ready to Load

My quilty kitties and I have had a good quilty day.

The backing is pieced.

Top and Backing are pressed.



 My Pineapple Rain Quilt

is ready to be loaded for quilting tomorrow.

It has been a very warm day here.

Summer has found the northeast.

I hope the window fans cool down the house tonight.

Time for bed, Kitties.

Sweet quilty dreams, everyone!

I Like Thursday Post # 17 ~ Summer Is Here

Summer has burst into bloom in my quilty corner.

We have been doing a lot of yard work.

I put summer flowers in my new window boxes and moved my pansy boxes

to cooler shadier places.

You can see them peeking out around my birdbath in this photo

of the new garden gate we are putting up across the end of our driveway. 

I bought the gate and trellis units online and there was one small issue.

The center fleur-de-lis was a little bit bent.

When I called the company to ask what could be done about this, 

they said they did not have replacement parts 

and really did not want the whole thing back

so they gave me a big discount for keeping this one.

My hubby was able to fix it as you can see in the larger photo.

I have always wanted a garden gate.   

Now I have one.

I am picturing a climbing rose on one side and some english ivy growing up the other.

More photos later.  

Still more planting to do and, of course, the never ending

weeding, watering, mowing and trimming.

We are spending a lot more time in our screenhouse

and enjoying the yard during our work breaks.

The perennials in the front are starting to bloom, too.

The lavender and  coreopsis have taken over this front section,

but I love the way they spread and bloom all summer.

They are also hardy and survive the road salt of winter.

My poppies are still blooming and my cone flowers have buds.

Things are looking bright and colorful inside, too.

The quilting is finally done on my

  Blueberry Park Fat 8th Fruitcake Quilt

It measures about 68" by 78."

I am pretty happy with how my attempts at hand guided free form quilting is looking.

So my second quilt is off my longarm.

That means I am now averaging one quilt per month.
That is two more than I likely would have completed
without the long arm. 

It was very hot in my sunny room when I finished this quilting 

so I went outside to do the evening watering ... 

and then relax on my yard swing and watch the last light of the day slowly depart.

The I went back inside where I am getting my next quilt ready for the frame.

It will be my 

Pinkerville Pineapple Quilt

My full post for this

 Fat Quarter Shop Pineapple Day Quiltalong 

will be up later this morning

and will be included on their blog post.

Quilting this quilt will be my next quilting  adventure.

Today is Thursday so I will be visiting the

I Like Thursday Bloggers @ Not Afraid of Color

and see how their gardens are growing.

Have a Happy Thursday!