Looking for my motivation

We are home from Florida and it's time for me to get back to doing what I love to do.  The only problem is that I don't seem to have much motivation.  I got used to do little or nothing all winter and now that I have access to all of my toys - it's time to get back to work.  

I did take my sewing machine with me and I did take a few projects to work on and I did have a beautiful place to work but.........it seems that I was sharing my space with any number of little anole lizards on any given day. 

Those of you who know me that it is a true act of strength to share my space with a lizard!  I KNOW that they don't bite and I KNOW that they are good 'cause they eat bugs and I KNOW, etc.  I still don't want to share my space with them.  

I decided that I should probably get back to quilting by putting on of my many quilt tops on the frame and get it quilted and bound.  I selected a pretty little pink top that I made from a Moda layer cake and a pattern from "10-Minute Blocks".  It turned out pretty cute and I am ready to load the next quilt top!

Hugz and Kisses

Done, Done, Done!

Great Aunt Laura's Double Wedding Ring Quilt is done! Done, done, done! Whew - what a learning experience that was. I'm not too sure that I'm ready to quilt another one of those for awhile! I would like to think that both Aunt Laura and my Grandma McPhee are looking down from heaven, proud of me for finishing a quilt that they started in c. 1931!

I must admit to being a bit paralyzed by this thing. I have had in the back of my mind for months now that I shouldn't put any thing else on the quilting frame until I finished it. Then, after finishing, I really had to work on the binding instead of working on some of the other projects that are in the works. I was determined NOT to allow this to become a UFO - sitting on a shelf or stuffed in a drawer, half done! Now - done and quite pretty to boot!

Double Wedding Ring Quilt - all done except binding

I have been working off and on, on my Great Aunt Laura's Double Wedding Ring quilt since summer. I posted a number of pictures a few months ago as I started work on quilting this top. As far as we know, this top was completed by my Grandma's sister in about 1931. The top has been stored in my Aunt Marg's sewing from since the early 50's.

The fact that the top was stored for more than 60 years definitely made for some challenges in keeping the quilt square. The other challenge - the biggest challenge - was that I do not, at this time in my quilting life, have the skills necessary to do this beauty justice.

Knowing that when I started this quilt, I decided that 1) I was not skilled enough to do a custom quilting job; 2) I most likely will NEVER have the skills necessary to custom quilt a double-wedding ring quilt and 3) if I put it in a bag and put it away, it was going to sit for ANOTHER generation as just a top. I really think Aunt Laura would want me to finish this quilt, even if I could only do a less than wonderful job.

So, I finished it..... I know, it's not finished until it has a binding and a label. But, I have never done a binding with a scalloped edge. I know that I am going to need to make about a mile of bias binding and from there... ? - I need to do some research and see what I need to do. Here are some pictures of the quilt before I tackle the binding.

My quilt guild, The Silk City Quilters, held their annual quilt show today. We had so much fun! It's a lot of work setting up a quilt show, but many hands make lighter work. Each of the visitors that came to our show was given a ballot to vote for their favorite quilt. We as a guild, had also been given a challenge to make something black, white and one other color. There were quilts, tote bags, wall hangings and even pictures. Visitors also voted for their favorite challenge quilt.

Judy Rowley won the first place viewer's choice with her quilt made primarily of fabric selvedges. It is indeed awesome! I know for a fact that Judy's selvedge quilt also took a blue ribbon at our county fair this year!


Second place was ME! What fun! I entered my Springtime Magic (spring green) my purple, teal and white Shakespeare in the Park and a t-shirt quilt. I also did a Queen size quilt for the black, white and one other color challenge.




Tina won the challenge with her amazing fabric picture. (Yes, this is all fabric).


We also showed the quilts that we have made for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. This year's theme was Dr. Seuss Cat In The Hat. We all started out with the same fabric panel and built our quilts from there. These quilts will all be auctioned off at a community tea with the proceeds going to pay for books for Dolly Parton's program.





Also on display were some of the 160+ pillowcases that we have made to be donated to the local RAVE house (domestic violence center for women and children), the wheelchair quilts and bags for the local nursing homes and the quilt we make as a group to be raffled for the benefit of the Silk City Museum.

T-shirt quilt or t-shirt tent

(Sorry the picture on the bed is sideways.) This is positively the largest t-shirt quilt I have ever done. My shoulders will need several recovery days! It was, however a labor of love as the t-shirt collection belonged to my son-in-law. One Christmas present is done! If you see him, don't tell him that these pictures are here!

It looks as though this is just about the largest quilt that I can do on my HQ16 frame! I do have to admit that the quilt was placed on the frame sideways so that I only had to deal with the seam in the backing on one pass instead of making the adjustments for every pass.

Most of the time, when I make t-shirt quilts I use the method taught by Andrea at Too Cool T-Shirt Quilts . I highly recommend that you purchase her book if you are interested in making a quilt from t-shirts. I love the fact that you do not use any stabilizer on the backs of the shirts, so the quilt stays soft.

template problem solved by local glass shop

I finally decided that I had to have some rulers that would help me to accurately quilt the arcs on Great Aunt Laura's Double Wedding Ring quilt. Not knowing if I would ever be quilting another
double wedding ring quilt, I hesitated about purchasing specialty long arm rulers to the tune of $70.00! So, off to the local hardware we went. Warren at Gilroy's GotIt in Ionia is a Saint! He has cut a number of cutting templates for me from plexiglass, but once he heard what I was trying to do, wasn't sure that plexiglass was going to be thick enough to keep my hopping foot from jumping the ruler and thus throwing my machine timing off.

So, he sent me on to Bert's Glass for a piece of Lexan Polycarbonate. This stuff is amazing, it is about 1/4 inch thick and perfect for a quilting ruler. I had used my AccuQuilt GO! cutter to cut a perfect double wedding ring arc and melon from a piece of cardstock. I took these cardstock shapes and my $6.00 piece of Lexan back to Warren at the hardware store. Warren was able to perfectly cut my shapes out of the Lexan and YIOLA! A perfectly shaped and sized arc and melon shape to use as rulers. A big plus? Warren said "no charge".

I am so happy with my local guys for helping me out. Now I'm going to be able to put that huge double wedding ring back on the frame and finish it.

Here is a picture that shows the cardstock shapes that I cut out with my AccuQuilt GO! and the double wedding ring die along side the pieces of Lexan that "Warren the hardware guy" cut for me.

3 little nap quilts for 3 little boys

I needed to hurry and get that double wedding ring quilt off the frame so that I could get busy making "rest quilts" for my three little grandsons to take to kindergarten/pre-school. Picking the fabric was pretty easy. Big trucks for Braden, trains; specifically Thomas the Train for Alex and Buzz Lightyear for Avery. A marathon sewing session over the last few days netted these three little quilt tops. Tomorrow I will quilt and get started on the binding. I know that they are in a hurry to get these little quilts to take to school, so I need to keep working on them.


(I can hardly wait for Avery to figure out that his name is embroidered in GLOW IN THE DARK thread).