Tension Woes

Sometimes, the tension decides to go wacky on my machine.  Here is what I am dealing with:

See all the eyelashes?  I am adjusting, trying different threads, nothing is working!  I am going to lose my mind soon.  Ah well, I think by walking away, and taking a break will help more than anything.  Sometimes, it's the best thing. 
Happy quilting,
Marianne

So many quilt tops, so little time.

How long is too long for a quilt top to sit around waiting to be quilted, and then used?  I decided to go through my stack of quilt tops, and a few were surprising to me.
Take this one for example:

I made this one when we were still in New Mexico, and I was getting ready to move with the kids to Florida.  That was 14 years ago this June.  I think this quilt deserves to be quilted, don't you?  I saw the the picture on the cover of Quilt Magazine, and had to make it.  The petals are all three-dimensional, and I hand dyed the blue background fabric.  Even though my tastes have changed significantly since then, it will be quilted sometime this year, I swear it!

Then, there were more tops:

The Scrappy Double Wedding Ring. 

Another string pieced top (I do love doing these, they use up a lot of small pieces of fabric). 

What's really sad is I really don't remember making this quilt top.  I remember all the fabrics, just not the making of the top.  Does this mean my memory is going? 

This top is a compilation of blocks I won from the guild I used to belong to.  I love all the wild colors! 

A rose quilt top I made to make my daughter's heirloom quilt.  All of my kids get one, the boys already have theirs.  

I unearthed this one, all hand pieced and hand appliqued.  Yet another one that I don't remember making.  

The previous mystery quilt of Bonnie Hunter's.  Roll, Roll, cotton boll.  

I saw a picture of this quilt in a magazine, and had to make it.  It's just squares and triangles.  My mom has laid claim to it, no clue when it'll be quilted. 

And, finally, the most recent top.  I finished all but putting on the final binding yesterday.  Gotta love Miss Bonnie's patterns!









So, there are all but a couple of my tops waiting patiently to be quilted.  The others need repair, etc.  I challenge other quilters out there to pull out their old tops and show them off!  Dig them out of the closets, bottom of the drawer, etc.  I showed mine, now show me yours. :)

Been awhile.

I just realized last night that it had been at least 2-3 weeks since I last blogged! Sorry about that, it's just been crazy with school, and gearing up for finals, etc.  I only have 2 more class days, and then the final, and I am done.  All I have left to do will be a 40 hours week externship, and working on weekends.  Yep, for about a month, probably nothing will be heard from me.  In the immortal words of my instructor,"Prepare to have no life for a month". But time goes by quickly, too quickly sometimes, and I'll be back with more pictures of projects before I know it. In the meanwhile, here is a little something I have been working on, courtesy of Bonnie Hunter.  It's the spiderweb pattern, and I love it:                                                                      

I went ahead and used some scrappy reds instead of all one red. 

My nice stack of blocks. 

working on another block piece. Only 5 more block to go!

I am already planning my next project, and I haven't even finished with this one yet! I think my quilting mojo is back! I found a tutorial for a great Dresden plate that is strip pieced!  I can't wait to do it, another way to use up small scraps!
Oh, before I finish up, let me present:

BCC Medical Assistant Program graduates of Spring 2012!

Happy Quilting,
Marianne

Happy Dance!

It's done, it's done!  Yippee, after lots of stops and starts, quilt is done!

I love it! It was Bonnie Hunter's last mystery quilt , and I used a ton of scraps for it.  I can't believe I finally finished it! 

Here is the back of it, I used ugh fabric that I couldn't figure out what else to do with.  We all have some of that, don't we?










I'll tell ya though, this quilt was a pain towards the end. I was using this light gray thread to quilt it, I then ran out, and had to use a different thread brand for the bobbin thread ( I had enough for the top), and my tension went crazy! I was constantly breaking thread, but I was persistent, I only had 1 row left to go, I was not going to quit! So, I finally got it done, and I think I danced around the house, I was so happy!
On a second note, I took the machine off the frame, took off it's cover and it was ugly inside.  No loose threads or anything like that, but lots of lint.  Lots and lots of lint.  I used my little hand vac, and cleaned it out.  Mental note- after a quilt or two, I need to make sure I clean it out thoroughly.  I am very guilty of not doing that very often.  Now, I just need to run the machine, and make sure I have the tension fixed.  I would love to get another quilt on the frame soon.  Just not sure which one though, I have a whole stack. :).
Ah well, off to working with tension. 
Happy quilting,
Marianne