I can breath again!

I finished Carolyn's quilt today and I can breath again!!  This is a pretty old quilt and was a joy to quilt it.  I'm sure whoever pieced would be happy!  The binding went fairly well..I had to cut it on the bias and there was no way I was able to attach it while it was on my longarm, so I attached it with my sewing machine and ironed over then to the back and stitched in the ditch on the top.  It was tricky doing those inside corners.  But am pleased with how it turned out.  Carolyn will be here soon to pick it up.  Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Pillowcases

..well I'm finally on my last quilt for customer Christmas quilts, but last night I had to stop quilting for a couple of hours and pull out this fabric I got, to make my kids some pillowcases for Christmas Eve.  My girls have been bugging me for quite some time to make these.  So I secretly made these right in front of them...oh they can be so clueless sometimes!  I'm glad I got them done.  I still have a few hours left on the double wedding ring quilt.  And I'll let you know how the binding go's for that.  I plan on putting it on while it is on my machine.  Then machine stitching it.  Okay...got to go work on it!!

Melissa's quilt

 

I wanted to show off my friends quilt!  She made this for her mom for Christmas, isn't it lovely!  I had a hard time letting this one go.  It is one of about 20 I have quilted since December 1st.  Let's just say I may have over booked my self just a little this time.  I have about 8 more to go!   But like any business there is it's peak time of year and slow time of year.  And right now is definitely my peak time of year!  I'm grateful for my longarm business and also that my Gammil has been a work horse and very reliable.  I'm also grateful for all the wonderful quilters I am privileged to quilt for! 

 

A little inspiration!

 

My friend Pam did up these cute little mug rugs!  She is constantly inspiring me again...and again... and again!  Check out her blog she has more pictures of how she did this up.

Some Kind Of Wonderful

 

Okay....I'll tell you why this is the most awesome movie ever!!  I'm probably dating myself, but this is the ultimate chick flick ever made.  This movie has the best kissing scene ever known to be on a movie!  Hence the name of my blog.....SEW KIND OF WONDERFUL.

...and another reason why this movie means a lot to me is not only is it my favorite movie, but it is my 3 sisters favorite movie also.  They live in Texas, Florida and Utah.  And I'm up here in Washington.  Way too far away from each other!  I love them and the connections that keep us together even though we are so far apart!

...did a bit if organizing yesterday

Better get back to quilting.....

 

 

Absolutely... can't live without!

 Absolutely... I can't live without my scissors!  I know silly post...but it's the start of my quilt like mad right before Christmas rush.   I wear my scissors all day everyday and If I miss place them I can't do anything!  And that's the truth.  These scissors are my 2nd pair.  I couldn't tell you what happened to my first pair...(kiddos).  If you want, check out my other blog.  I'll be posting pic's of my customer's quilts as I get them done.  I am dying to make a couple of Christmas runners and new stockings but they will have to wait....and so will this blog,  just for a couple of weeks, until I can get caught up.  Do you have a sewing notion you absolutely... can't live with out?  

Love those sales!

Picked up these beautiful solids the last couple of days!  The tan is the French General line and the yellow, orange and green is Kona.  Oh and the jelly roll was not marked but loved it! And better yet all on sale!

Kids are itching to get Christmas out today!  So better get to it...

Baby Whitney's quilt

Fi

Finished baby Whitney's quilt today!  It turned out a little different than my original plan.  My original plan was to do a simple strip quilt.  Well... when I was all done sewing my strips together I had about a 45" x 80" parallel rectangle quilt.  Actually it looked more like a crooked rug.  So a little improvising was much needed!  And this is what I came up with.  Thank goodness it turned out!  I love admitting my mistakes and don't we all make them.

I ended up using the brown strips for the binding that I had taken out for the quilt and used white flannel for the back and 100% cotton for the batting.  Oh and a quilt that inspired me to do the straight line quilting is one that Andie did up.  Thanks Andie!  I think it worked great for this quilt.

Julie and I have been friends since 2nd grade.  Whitney is her third girl.  I'm excited for her.  She and I live too far away from each other!  Just want to let her know I love her and cherish all our memories we've had together!

Baby quilt in progress

...going to quickly squeeze in this baby quilt for my best friend.  She had a baby girl last week!  I've had a Gypsy Rose Jelly Roll for a while now and took out the browns and creams and thought I would strip piece them with solid white.  My friend Pam did up a cute little quilt this way.  Thanks Pam for giving me the idea!  

My boys playing in the first snowfall this year!  

Oh... the possibilities!

decisions...

decisions...

decisions...

A couple of antique quilts

My friend Marley is a professional antique finder!   A while back she gave me this old all wool hand embroidered quilt top!

Marley doesn't quilt and didn't know what to do with this and when she gave it to me I could tell that she really liked it, but again she didn't know what to do with it.  And it is gorgeous.  It smelled pretty bad and all the outer blocks were stained.  I washed it and ended up taking off all those stained blocks and then I bought some dark gray wool to fill in those triangles.

I used wool batting and an organic cotton for the backing fabric.  The pattern I used is a Baptist Fan pattern.  Very traditional pattern I thought would look good for this quilt. 

You can see that someone put a lot of work in to this quilt!  Okay back to Marley.  I have had the opportunity to work with Marley at Church together and think she is amazing!  The Young Women in our Church did a huge fundraiser garage sale and we couldn't have done it with out Marley's professional help!  So that is when I pulled this quilt out and fixed it up and gave it back to Marley.  It felt so good to see her reaction when she took it out of the gift bag!!!!  She was pretty surprised!  And she now has it at the end of her bed. 

That's not the end of it....she stopped by my house one day and brought this to me!

How lovely is this!  All hand quilted old feed sack material!  This quilt had a pretty beat up small blue border I ended up removing.  And I will put the binding right on the edge.  I think it's fine with out a border.  My sister Sherilyn will be so Jealous when she sees this.  She loves, loves, loves feed sack material!  And I love antiques so this was a true treasure!  Thanks so much Marley!!!

My very first quilt

Today I am posting a picture of my very first quilt.  About 8 years ago I was visiting my sister in Heber, Utah and made my very first quilt.  I will never forget that day!  My sister Helen and I went through her fabric stash, picked out colors and decided how to put the runner together.  Then after I put it together I stitched in the ditch with invisible thread.  And then Helen taught me how to put the binding on.  Well as you can see in the picture it was very well used!  We had it on our coffee table for quite some time.  And I didn't notice how stained it was till I took this picture.  Looks like my kids or my husband spilled something on it!  Anyway it is hanging up in my little quilt studio...actually an unfinished basement on the otherside of my house with 6 ft. ceilings.  But it fit's my 14 foot quilting table!  ....I'm getting off subject,  I just wanted to thank my sister for all the knowledge she shared with me through my quilting journey.  I'm lucky to have someone to call on when I have a quilting question or have to figure out how to put binding on a double wedding ring quilt!!!  I'm trying to get her to post more on her blog and last night she posted something cute!  Check it out.....http://robinstarquilting.blogspot.com/

Oohh....those wavy borders!

So no photos today, but another subject I think is really important!  How to apply a border or borders to a quilt.  

For years I use to sew my borders on to my quilt by starting on the top and sewing down to the edge of the quilt and then just cutting off the remaining.  

Then I became a longarm quilter and found out that by doing that can possibly create some wonky quilts and wavy borders.  I have directions on my Website on how to add borders to a quilt, but wanted to share them here too.

Directions for applying borders:

• Determine the length of the quilt border by averaging the two or three center measurements of the quilt body.
• Cut two borders that length and pin them to opposite sides of the quilt.  Match the ends and centers, then gently ease in any fullness.
• Pin, sew, and press
• Repeat for the top and bottom borders.

We longarmers come across this often when quilting for others.  I think that some quilters are just unaware of how to apply borders and how it affects the squareness of the quilt and the difficulty it can be to quilt it.

It really is a simple thing that can make such a huge difference.  Thanks for taking the time to read this.  If you have any comments on the subject feel free to share...


Thanks

Innocent Crush

Oh yes!  I got the Innocent Crush fever!

This stack of 1/2 yard cuts arrived at my front door this morning and I have big plans for this fabric!  Meanwhile I have many customers quilts to finish up before Christmas.  And my mom's quilts and my quilts which I have not started yet to give as Christmas presents!  I'll be posting pictures of them as I get them done here and over at my other blog.  My plans for Innocent Crush will have to wait.

Fall Blogger's Quilt Festival 2010

So I waited till the last minute to enter a quilt for the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  Better late than never.  And thanks to Amy for making this happen!  This quilt pattern is called Maisies Daisies by Buggy Barn.  And the fabric used is called Iced Mocha, also by Buggy Barn.  I made this quilt to potentially teach a class on how to put together buggy barn quilts.  I have done a few now and they are really fun and fat quarter friendly.  Now I can only imagine how it would look using the fun new retro fabrics....some day.

  ...a little something about me...I like to go in quilt shops and pick out fabric, carry it around, feel it in my hands,  admire it, and after about 10 minutes, I put it back.  It's almost like buying it, but not.  If that makes sense.  It's a quick fix for me!  Just don't tell the quilt shops!

Pre-wash or Not?

That always seems to be part of conversation among us quilters.  Pre-wash or not? Sometimes I wonder why I pre-wash, especially after having to iron a mess like this.   Probably the biggest reason why I pre-wash is this:  I use to not pre-wash but after becoming a longarm quilter I found that my quilting design would get lost in the quilt after it had been washed because of all the shrinkage.    I do like that look sometimes, depending on the quilt.  But most the time I want to see the quilting.  Oh and better tension on my longarm  quilting machine and that's why I pre-wash.  

What about you?  Would love to know if you pre-wash or not and why?

Donation Quilt

So I found out today my quilt was auctioned off for $167.00.   Yea!!

Donation Quilt

Well I messed up.  I remembered today that I committed to Donate a quilt for the Scout Auction tomorrow.  Well I knew I could never get one done and quilted by 5:30 today, so I pulled this one out of my "quilts I have finished and never did anything with them" pile.   

 I pieced and quilted this quilt a while back and put it in my old chest.  And there it sat all alone needing a home that will use it and snuggle under it!  Thank goodness for those quilts you never know what to do with.  This one sure came in handy today!  Whoo...

New Bed Frame!

Yes, I have posted yet another picture of my quilt, but this time it is on my bed with a new bed frame!  
I have waited 15 years to get a bed frame and I'm so excited!  I would check Craigslist periodically and finally came across this one.  It pays to be patient sometimes.

Now I have to be patient for a new bigger bedroom..

Dream On Layer Cake

As hard as you try, sometimes you can't resist!

This fabric reminds me of when I was a little girl.  I love it!

Maisie's Daisies Quilt

This quilt is a Buggy Barn quilt.  I made it for a shop sample this summer.

I have done a few Buggy Barn quilts and they are fun to put together.  The idea is to stack all your fat quarters and cut them at the same time,  then sew each piece in a particular order.

 

I also had fun quilting it!